Dostum appointed deputy minister
KABUL: New Premier Hamid Karzai quickly went to work trying to heal Afghanistan’s deep divisions, naming a key warlord as deputy defence minister yesterday in an apparent compromise to unite the country’s often-feuding factions.The appointment of Rashid Dostum brings into the interim government one of its early critics. Dostum, an Uzbek who controls northern Afghanistan’s largest city of Mazar-e-Sharif, had been angry because three key ministries – defence, foreign affairs and interior – went to the minority Tajik group from the Panjshir valley.
“I have just signed the latter naming him deputy minister of defence,” Karzai said. “It is the first step towards a national army.”
Dostum 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.
He has his own large army of well-trained fighters, who fought side-by-side with US 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 47-year-old, whiskey-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 will work under new Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim, who said yesterday that international peacekeepers were welcome in Afghanistan for no longer than six months.
But Karzai, who has made security a top priority, quickly responded that they 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 force, led by Britain, is expected to number 3,000 to 5,000, including pledges of 1,200 by Germany and 1,500 by Britain.
The inauguration of Karzai and his Cabinet on Saturday was a tranquil transfer of power, compared to Afghanistan’s violent past.
Many Afghans have said they strongly supported international peacekeepers.
“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. — AP
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2001/12/25/world/afheal&sec=world
_____________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: This email and any attachments may contain confidential and/or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient,
kindly delete this email including all attachments, destroying all forms of all copies, and do not disclose, disseminate or otherwise make use of the information contained therein. Non-compliance with the forgoing may result in legal action.
This message has been checked for all known viruses by the
MessageLabs Virus Scanning Service. For further information visit
http://www.messagelabs.com/stats.asp
