Herat's warlord back in charge

A northern alliance fighter, center, shakes hands with an Afghan man who is accompanied by his wife and daughter in Herat city, Afghanistan, 120km from the Iran-Afghanistan border on Friday. The province's former warlord leader, Ismail Khan, has been named governor in the wake of the area's liberation on Monday. PHOTO: AP

It seems as if things are returning to normal in Herat, especially if you are Ismail Khan, a legendary and highly independent warlord here, whose forces chased away the Taliban.

That was Monday, when Khan, commanding Northern Alliance troops, liberated this city in far western Afghanistan. On Tuesday, Khan entered the city in triumph.

By Friday he had been "elected" governor general by thousands of supporters who gathered at a mosque. Thus installed, Khan held a news conference Friday in the lush garden of a villa here and delivered a not-so-subtle message to the West: Thank you for your help, such as it was, but it is no longer needed.

Khan had governed this province for four years before the Taliban took over and imprisoned him. He escaped last year and went into exile in Iran, which supported him and supplied him for his return here to fight a few months ago. Now, having reclaimed the house that had been given to him by the Afghan royal family, he has begun to govern once again.

"It [US support] was useful in some places. The support of the local people helped us more." Ismail Khan, warlord leader of Herat PHOTO: AFP

Yet governing would seem to be a lesser priority right now. Fighting still comes first. While life in Herat seems to have returned to normal surprisingly quickly, with shops open and streets crowded, some serious issues remain unresolved.

Hundreds of men from nearby villages have poured into Herat and taken up arms. They are everywhere -- in trucks, on tops of vans, in taxis with rifle butts poking out the windows. They carry weapons and ride in cars taken, in many cases, from the Taliban.

Khan, meanwhile, who with his gray-and-white beard and ever-present cadre of young followers resembles the venerable family elder, says he has set a dual course: He is waiting to see whether the Pastuns, the largest group in southern Afghanistan, successfully overthrow the Taliban and is also preparing his own forces to push on toward Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual center, if necessary.

"If the terrorists do not leave Kandahar, we'll go there to liberate it," he said.

That could complicate plans for the future of a post-Taliban Afghanistan, where, in the absence of an internationally brokered Afghan government, traditional warlords are reclaiming the territory and the power they once held.

Khan, an ethnic Tajik, is part of a minority in Pastun-dominated Afghanistan, where ethnic rivalries and hatreds go back centuries. But he went out of his way to stress that the members of the Northern Alliance agree on the need for a broad-based government, which the American-led coalition and the UN are working urgently to build.

Yet there is no need for foreign peacekeeping forces in the country, he asserted. He described the presence of British paratroopers at Bagram air base near Kabul as a "mistake," saying there was no need for them now that the Taliban had been driven from Kabul. He said Afghanistan did not need the help of the UN to form a representative government. He essentially dismissed Western hopes that the exiled king, Mohammad Zahir, could return to unite diverse ethnic groups.

The king, he said, could play a role in Afghanistan's future "just like any other Afghan." Of the US bombing of Afghanistan, he said, "It was useful in some places," but added, "The support of the local people helped us more."

On Thursday, Khan visited the city of Shandand. As he approached that city, he said: "The people began to rebel against the Taliban starting first at the bazaar. When they reached the bazaar, all the people were cheering and shouting `Allahu Akbar.'"

The only country he praised was Iran, which is just 60 miles from Herat and which has supplied substantial aid to the Northern Alliance and Khan. "Iran is the best model of an Islamic country in the world and we approve of the policy of Iran," he said. But if Khan sees Iran's Shiite Muslims as his allies, the Shiites within his own province are more of a question mark.

One of Khan's aides, Mohammedullah Afsari, conceded that Khan had not yet been endorsed by the province's Shiite population, although an influential Shiite general is one of his allies.

"Different groups have different demands and they want their demands met," Afsari said. But he said that Khan was a charismatic figure, and that "if Ismail Khan says people must get rid of them" -- those who resist him -- "people will." Afsari said that Afghans of all ethnic groups would be appointed to government positions.