Karzai appoints defense minister

12/24/2001

By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer

Hamid Karzai AP/Marco Di Lauro

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's new leader quickly went to work trying to heal the country's deep divisions, naming a prominent warlord as deputy defense minister Monday in an effort to unite the country's often-feuding factions.

Premier Hamid Karzai appointed Rashid Dostum, bringing one of the new Afghan government's early critics into his administration. Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek who controls the largest northern city, Mazar-e-Sharif, had been angry because the key ministries of defense, foreign affairs and the interior all went to an ethnic Tajik group from the Panjshir valley.

``I have just signed the letter naming him deputy minister of defense,'' Karzai said. ``It is the first step toward a national army.''

Cabinet meeting AP

Dostum, 47, was a key partner in the anti-Taliban northern alliance, made up of mostly Afghanistan's ethnic and religious minorities, including Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and Shiite Muslims. But he also has a long history of bad blood with many northern alliance commanders.

Meanwhile, an Afghan commander said his fighters had searched nearly all the caves in Tora Bora, a major al-Qaida stronghold in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan from which an offensive drove hundreds of fighters belonging to Osama bin Laden's terror network.

Afghan fighters, helped by U.S. special forces are digging out the last few caves, which were collapsed by U.S. bombing, said Mohammed Zaman, the defense chief for Nangarhar province. He said there was no need for more U.S. troops to help in the search.

``We have searched all the caves and we have found a lot of documents, computers and radios. There was also a large amount of ammunition,'' said Kalan Mir, a senior front-line commander.

The U.S. military has been looking for information in the caves that might help in the search for bin Laden and his lieutenants.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported Monday that U.S. forces had captured a leading figure from the former ruling Taliban movement.

Abdul Haq Wasiq, deputy chief of the Taliban's intelligence department, was captured by U.S. helicopters that swooped into the area where he was hiding around Maqaur, southwest of Kabul. There was no independent confirmation of the report.

Dostum, the new deputy defense minister, has his own large army of well-trained fighters who fought side-by-side with U.S. Special Forces troops in taking Mazar-e-Sharif last month, the first major Taliban city to fall under the pressure of relentless American airstrikes.

A whisky-drinking former general in the communist Afghan army with a persistent reputation for ruthlessness, Dostum fought alongside Soviet troops who occupied Afghanistan throughout the 1980s. He later defected from the government army and joined the Afghan guerrillas.

He will work under Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, who is from the northern alliance and said Monday that international peacekeepers were welcome in Afghanistan for no longer than six months.

Karzai, who has made security a top priority, quickly countered by saying the foreign troops will stay ``as long as we need them, six months as a minimum.''

Their presence ``is a commitment to peace in Afghanistan, to stability in Afghanistan, and once that is accomplished they will go,'' Karzai said.

The first contingent of British Royal Marines already is patrolling government buildings. The British-led force is expected to number 3,000 to 5,000 — including 1,200 troops pledged by Germany and 1,500 by Britain.

The inauguration of Karzai and his Cabinet on Saturday was a tranquil transfer of power after decades of violence.

Many Afghans have said they strongly supported international peacekeepers assigned to protect the government.

``We don't care if soldiers from everywhere in the world come to Afghanistan to bring peace. We just don't want Afghan soldiers right now,'' said Mohammed Nawab, a former commander during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

``We have had enough of war. We need to unify, but we need time,'' said Shah Mahmood, a farmer who came from the southeastern province of Ghazni to congratulate Karzai.

Also Monday, a powerful tribal leader said that a convoy hit by deadly U.S. airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan on Friday included Taliban and al-Qaida members — not just local officials traveling to the government inauguration, as some witnesses have asserted.

Amanullah Zardran, a top leader in eastern Paktia province, home to one of the more significant former al-Qaida bases, said fellow tribesmen who witnessed the attack briefed him. About 350 al-Qaida members remain in the area, Zadran said.

The Pentagon insists the caravan contained Taliban leaders. But on Sunday, a survivor told The Associated Press the group carried only tribal leaders invited to the inauguration. From his hospital bed in Peshawar, Pakistan, Haji Yaqub Khan, 65, said the airstrikes were unprovoked.