Afghanistan ruled by warlords who use men and guns to keep territory

12/01/2001

By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan - After 23 years of relentless conflict, real power in this country rests in the hands of warlords - men with private armies whose authority is established by guns and money.

In Germany, the United Nations is trying to persuade Afghan representatives to agree on a political structure to run this war-ravaged country.

While the diplomats talk, however, the warlords are already dividing the country into fiefdoms based in large measure on the simple Afghan principle of rule by the gun.

One Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said ethnic Pashtun warlords rule a vast part of this poor Central Asian country, from Kunar in the northeast to Helmand in the south.

Many of them still maintain ties to the former Taliban rulers, who were primarily ethnic Pashtuns. Elsewhere, ethnic minorities rule.

In the north, where ethnic Uzbeks dominate, Gen. Rashid Dostum, a member of the northern alliance, is imposing his control over the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

A 47-year-old, whisky-drinking former general in the communist army, Dostum has a reputation for ruthlessness. His men rarely speak out of turn and stories of Dostum's ruthlessness - some apocryphal - abound. The stories tell of men whose heads have been chopped off and their wives sold to strangers.

He has his own militia, many hand-picked from his native Jowzjan province.

In western Herat, Ismail Khan holds sway. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Khan's guerrillas dominated the area. Khan later became a key northern alliance commander despite being at odds with the coalition's military chief Ahmed Shah Massood, who was killed by two Arab suicide bombers on Sept. 9, just two days before the deadly terrorist assaults on the United States.

The 54-year-old Khan hasn't waited for the United Nations, other Afghans or the Americans to decide on the future political makeup of Afghanistan.

This week, Khan consolidated his grip on Herat by holding his own election for mayor. Instead of allowing everyone to vote, Khan designated about 700 men to make the choice.

They chose Muhammad Rafiq Mojaddadi, a diplomat in Iran in the 1980s and more recently a member of a Taliban-appointed Herat city council.

In eastern Nangarhar province, Haji Abdul Qadir has emerged as the main powerbroker in the strategic area along the Pakistani border thanks mostly to his association with Younus Khalis, a former mujahedeen commander with close ties to both the Taliban and militant Arab followers of Osama bin Laden.

The 82-year-old Khalis still commands considerable authority, and most of the armed groups around the provincial capital Jalalabad are loyal to him. Nangarhar is Afghanistan's second largest producer of opium, the raw material used to make heroin.

During Qadir's last term in power, Nangarhar was awash in poppy fields. His lieutenant, Haji Zeman, moved to Dijon, France during the five years of Taliban rule. Qadir has business interests in Germany.

Qadir's control extends only several miles around the capital of Jalalabad. Near Sarobi, just 30 miles east of Jalalabad, Qadir's writ ends. There another warlord named Isatullah has power. Loosely aligned with the northern alliance, Isatullah had been a Taliban commander until the militia abandoned Kabul on Nov. 13.

In southern Kandahar, old warlords are returning to the political stage as Taliban power wanes.

Gul Agha, the former governor of Kandahar before the Taliban, is leading anti-Taliban troops toward Kandahar. A member of a powerful southern Kandahar tribe, Gul Agha's men set up roadblocks during his last term in power stopping international aid convoys and ordinary vehicles and extorting fees to let them pass.

The lawlessness of Kandahar gave birth to the Taliban movement, which is headquartered in the southern city. And with the end of the Taliban, highway robbers are back in business, controlling many of the main roads out of the cities.

Buses and taxis plying the roads report relentless robberies.

Abdul Ghani, a mini bus driver who regularly makes the 270-mile trip from Kabul to southern Kandahar said "the road is full of bandits."

He has been stopped half a dozen times on the road.

"Now we have to hide even our shoes from the bandits," said Ghani.