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AFGHANISTAN-UNREST-POLITICS
Afghan VP Dostum to return after more than a year in exile
KABUL, July 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum
is expected to return to Kabul Sunday, more than a year after fleeing the
country during an investigation into the rape and torture of a political
rival.
The powerful ethnic Uzbek leader and former warlord, who is linked to a
catalogue of human rights abuses in Afghanistan, will fly from Turkey to
Kabul where he will be welcomed by high-ranking officials at a special
ceremony, Afghan officials said.
“At 4:00 pm (1130 GMT) today General Dostum’s flight will land at Kabul
international airport,” Jamal Nasir Farahmand, a spokesman for Dostum, told
AFP.
Dostum’s return, which has been the subject of much speculation, comes amid
violent protests in several provinces across northern Afghanistan — his
traditional power base.
Thousands of Dostum’s supporters have taken to the streets in recent weeks,
shuttering election and government offices and blocking sections of highways,
demanding the release of a pro-government militia leader and calling for
Dostum’s return.
Observers say President Ashraf Ghani gave the green light for Dostum to
come back to Afghanistan to quell the unrest.
Dostum left Afghanistan in May 2017 after he was accused of organising the
rape and torture of a political rival.
He had denied the allegations and said his departure was for medical check-
ups and family reasons.
Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, described Dostum as a “known killer” in 2009. Yet
he chose the ethnic Uzbek to be his running mate in the 2014 presidential
election, underlining the ethnic realities of Afghan politics.
Dostum’s return from exile comes ahead of the 2019 presidential election
that Ghani, who is deeply unpopular among non-Pashtuns, is widely expected to
contest.
Presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri said Saturday that Dostum had
been “treated” and would resume his duties upon his return.
Seven of Dostum’s bodyguards have been convicted of the sexual assault and
illegal imprisonment of Ahmad Ishchi, a former governor of northern Jowzjan
province, in 2016.
Dostum allegedly had Ishchi abducted in Jowzjan and then kept him hostage
in his private compound for several days, where the captive was said to have
been tortured and sodomised.
Chakhansuri deflected questions about whether Dostum would face charges
over the incident, saying “the judiciary is an independent body, the
government does not interfere in their decisions”.
Dostum is one of several controversial figures that Kabul has sought to
reintegrate into mainstream politics since the US-led invasion in 2001.
His heroic status in the north belies the extreme barbarities he is known
for.
Dostum, who helped the United States oust the Taliban regime in 2001,
allegedly allowed hundreds of Taliban prisoners to be suffocated to death in
shipping containers.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1035 hrs