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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (201923)	11/11/2001 11:18:10 AM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

A wily survivor regaining clout Greg Myre - Associated Press Sunday, November 11, 2001 Islamabad, Pakistan --- No Afghan warlord has switched sides more often than the gruff and burly Rashid Dostum. Dostum, 46, returned to prominence Friday when his troops rolled into Mazar-e-Sharif, the city that served as his headquarters until he was driven out by the Taliban in 1998. ''Dostum is a mercenary,'' said Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's intelligence agency. ''Dostum's men are dogged fighters. But they have always fought for money and loot. They used to be known as the 'carpet snatchers militia.' " Dostum never was known as a pious Muslim, though he claims to be now. A high school dropout, he began his military career in the Communist Afghan army, fighting alongside the Soviets in the 1980s. But after the Soviet army left, Dostum defected from the government army and joined the Afghan guerrillas. The move hastened the collapse of communism and left Dostum in control of a large swath of relatively prosperous northern Afghanistan. He commanded thousands of men and inherited a vast stock of Soviet arms. His offices included a villa with crystal chandeliers, a swimming pool and a satellite dish. But when the rebel groups began fighting each other for control of the distant capital Kabul, he joined the fray. The fighting flattened much of the city, killing thousands of civilians. When the Taliban took Kabul in 1996, Dostum retreated to Mazar-e-Sharif. He held it until his betrayal by his No. 2, who cut a deal with the Taliban to oust him. Dostum settled in Turkey, then returned to Afghanistan with a fighting force believed to be fewer than 1,000 men. accessatlanta.com