‘between the dragon and his wrath’, 1994–2017Afghanistan after Jami‘at had become bogged down in Qunduz. Karzai and
Dostam’s enemies, however, mounted a highly successful black propaganda
campaign against him, even though many of his opponents were equally
guilty of gross violations of human rights and war crimes. They even tried
to blame Dostam for Malik Pahlawan’s massacre of some 2,000 Taliban
prisoners in the Dasht-i Laili.
Dostam instead urged the Uzbeks to vote in the upcoming presiden-
tial and parliamentary elections and then, following a failed attempt on
his life, he returned to Turkey where he remained until 2009. In October
2013 he issued an unprecedented public apology ‘to all who have suffered
on both sides of the war’, 21 the only ‘warlord’ to date to have made such
a declar ation. In 2014 Dostam supported Ashraf Ghani’s successful bid
for the presidency and was appointed first deputy prime minister. Two
years later Dostam, now in his mid-sixties, was sent into northwestern
Afghanistan where his Uzbek militia conducted successful clearance oper-
ations against Taliban and Daesh/isil insurgents in Faryab, Jauzjan and
Sar-i Pul provinces. Not that this did him any good, for he was subse-
quently accused of torturing and raping a political opponent and spent
six months virtually under house arrest. He eventually agreed to voluntary
exile in Turkey, where he formed a new political coalition. However, he
A pro-Karzai slogan on a wall in one of Herat’s main streets in the lead-up to the 2004
elections. Herat though was a Jami‘at-i Islami stronghold and Karzai’s forcible removal of
Isma‘il Khan as military commander and governor created deep resentment, especially as
his replacement was an old-style royalist and a Karzai loyalist.