Foreign Policy, 17 July 2020
This article by Emran feroz looks at the outrage about Afghan warlord (and ex-Vice President) Rashid Dostum to the honorary rank of ‘marshal’. AAN#s Thomas Ruttig is quoted here, among others, as saying:
“There is not the slightest doubt that Dostum has committed war crimes and had former or current political allies brutally assaulted,” said Thomas Ruttig, a co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. “But among the warlords active in the 1990s, he has often been singled out as particularly bad. From my point of view, he was just an easier target as he had been associated with the former Communist government.”
Other warlords have been beyond any public criticism in Afghanistan, while some of them have more real power than Dostum’s often ceremonial titles, Ruttig said.
Revisions:
This article was last updated on 22 Jul 2020
