More powers for Dostum (Afghanistan)

BBC News ^ | May 22, 2003 | BBC News

[FairOpinion]

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has appointed the powerful northern commander, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, as his special advisor on security and military affairs. The decree announcing the move says General Dostum has been appointed to improve the security situation in the north - which has been beset by factional fighting.

General Dostum, who is also deputy defence minister, will help with the demilitarisation of factional armies.

Correspondents say the appointment can be seen as an attempt to enhance the authority of the central government in the north.

The move follows a crisis meeting in Kabul on Tuesday when Mr Karzai threatened to dissolve the government if the provincial leaders did not agree to hand over their customs revenue to the Kabul authorities.

[FairOpinion]

Dostum is very pro-American.

Interestingly enough, the Washington Post did a hatchet job on him, presenting this as a "demotion" for Dostum, Reuters quotes some of Karzai's advisors that this is indeed a promotion, not demotion.

If the Washington Post hates the guy, you know he is a good guy.

Here is the link to the WP article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28469-2003May22.html

And the link to the Reuters one: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL287026.htm

He has been appointed adviser to the president in military and security affairs. He has to be in Kabul like other advisers."

Hewadmal brushed aside suggestions that the move was intended to weaken Dostum. "Contrary to what people may think, he has been promoted," he said.

[Yaron]

Dostum is an evil murderous bastard. In any normal country he would be in prison. Still he's the lesser of two evils.

[FairOpinion]

Actually Dostum is a very interesting character. I don't think he is any more murderous than other war lords in Afghanistan, and much less murderous than the Taliban were. While the Taliban was making everyone miserable in Afghanistan, Dostum ran Mazare-i-Sharif, and there girls could go to school, learn and work and the place was pretty normal. He rules with an iron hand, but in that place, if he didn't, he couldn't keep order, as we are finding out, that in those places only very strict measures work.

Even now, when everyone is wringing their hands, he destroyed the poppy fields, a man of action.

Also, without him, we would have had a much more serious problem in getting rid of the Taliban.

Dostum got bad press, because he didn't coddle the "poor" captured Al Qaeda and Taliban.

[TigerLikesRooster]

RE #3

Mr. Dostum and his Uzbek militia fought with Soviets against American backed rebels. After Soviets were defeated, he went into exile in Uzbekistan, only to be called out again, when Taliban ran amok and Northen Alliance was pushed against the wall. Now he is on the American side, enjoying spoils of the victory.

His group can be a useful balance against ever-sour Pashtuns. But one should not be too complacent to him. As somebody in this thread said, he is just the lesser of two evils.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Yaron]

You're right. He certainly didn't coddle the captured Taliban (or any Pashtun for that matter). He simply murdered them in shipping containers.

[FairOpinion]

"He certainly didn't coddle the captured Taliban (or any Pashtun for that matter). He simply murdered them in shipping containers. "
--

And you have a problem with that?

[Yaron]

Glad to see you have such faith in their judgement. You obviously have no problem with Mr dostrum. Perhaps you would like a chap as your reprasentative?

[FairOpinion]

You have to understand that that is a very different culture.

I do think that Dostum is exactly the kind of person who is intelligent, savvy, pro-West and ruthless enough as to be the person who could unite Afghanistan, whip into shape and bring it into the 21st century. He demonstrated that in Mazar-i-Shariff.

And one of the problems in Afghanistan is not that too many Taliban have been killed, but that not enough.