Meet Your Afghan Warlords, Part Two: Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq
Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq (photo from RAWA)
This is the second in a series of posts to help Americans get to know some of the most powerful figures in the Afghan government for whom our troops are killing and dying. Today we’ll meet a warlord’s warlord: the kind that engineers immunity for his and his fellow war criminals’ crimes against humanity.
Meet Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq.
Mohaqiq was one of the leaders of the notorious Hezb-e Wahdat, which in late 2001-early 2002 targeted Pashtun civilians for violence because of their ethnic ties to the Taliban. According to Human Rights Watch, Hezb-e Wahdat was “implicated in systematic and widespread looting and violence in almost every province under their…control, almost all of it directed at Pashtun villagers. In scores of villages, homes were destroyed, possessions were taken, and men and boys were beaten and in some cases killed.…[T]here were several reports of rapes of girls and women. In Chimtal district near Mazar-e Sharif, and in Balkh province generally, both Hizb-i Wahdat [alternative English rendering of Hezb-e Wahdat] and Jamiat forces were particularly violent: in one village, Bargah-e Afghani, Hizb-i Wahdat troops killed thirty-seven civilians,” which, as of 2003, was the largest known intentional killing of civilians since the fall of the Taliban.
Following the overthrow of the Taliban, Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq managed to get himself appointed as a vice chair of the interim government and as Minister of Planning. During the 2002 loya jirga that set the basic shape of the new government, Hezb-e Wahdat was named by Human Rights Watch as one of the groups that used threats and intimidation against other delegates. Through their use of these thuggish tactics, Mohaqiq’s militia helped corrupt a process which many hoped would lead to greater civilian control relative to the warlords, but which led instead to the warlords’ solidifying their power. Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, of course, retained his positions of power.
Mohaqiq’s militia also became widely feared and loathed for their practice of kidnapping young girls, “forcibly marrying” them (what a useless euphemism for rape), and ransoming them back to their parents. They seemed to especially enjoy snatching girls who were on their way to school, leading many parents to keep their girls home rather than risk their abduction and rape.
But here’s the real kicker: once legtimized, Mohaqiq was one of the masterminds of the widely condemned legislation that granted warlords amnesty for their war crimes during the civil war. The UN sharply condemned the amnesty law, declaring “No one has the right to forgive those responsible for human rights violations other than the victims themselves.”
Here’s the kicker: Karzai just promised to carve out a new province for Mohaqiq in exchange for his support in the election.
So, to sum up, Mohaqiq was a commander of a militia known for using rape as a weapon of war and for human rights violations and war crimes. He deliberately targeted civilians. Then, once he obtained “legitimate” political power, he used it to block prosecution of himself and other warlords for war crimes. But hey–’the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ when you subscribe to counterinsurgency doctrine, so our policymakers have tasked our troops with fighting to make sure thugs like this stay in power in Afghanistan.
Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq is just one more reason why American policymakers should stop sending our troops to prop up a warlord-ridden narco-state government in Afghanistan. Get our troops out of there.
Learn more at Brave New Foundation’s Rethink Afghanistan site, which just released the latest segment of their documentary online: “Part Six: Security.”
Would you mind providing the link for “part 1?” thanks!
Sure! All of the segments are available at http://rethinkafghanistan.com.
Part one is available here: http://rethinkafghanistan.com/troop_full.php.
dcrowe!! u dont know nothing about afghanistan and afghans histori or maybe u are a pashton guy who ignor their own masaker over Hazara people!! u should know alittle bit about afghanistan, can hazara people walk free in pashton area now? when 71000 ISAF solder are in afghanistan we cant walk and we are not free in afghanistan, and pashtonn are free evrywere in afghanistan. in 1999 Taliban kiled 10000 hazara people in Mazar sharif in 48 hours, where wre u? or Hazara is human????? dont be an idiot when u u dont know nothing
Mehdhi:
Thanks for stopping by.
Of course I don’t ignore the crimes of the other sides in the conflict, but your statement doesn’t make much sense. We can talk about whatever war crimes you want to bring to people’s attention and condemn them all; that, however, doesn’t get any side off the hook for their crimes. Nothing the Taliban did justifies targeting civilians. Nothing. You’re going to have to think of a better defense for Mohaqiq than “Pashtuns killed people too!”
Here is a blog link you may be interested. A reporter in Afghanistan.
http://outsidethewire.com/blog.html
This one caught my eye.
http://outsidethewire.com/blog/afghanistan/to-watangatu.html
Thanks!
What a nonsense article! Don’t know why ppl forces themselves to lie.
Dear whoever read this article,
As we’re all taught in schools and universities not to trust baseless and junk stuffs from the internet, this is also one of thousands of nonsense things on the Internet. Please do not trust it. I think the United States is doing a great job in Afghanistan. They’re fighting the terrorists, building schools, and helping poor who need a helper the most.
To clarify about the warlords, not only Mohaqiq but all of them killed innocent people including Karzai. The pushtoons killed hazaras and the hazaras killed pushtoons. You may have heard from the media that the pushtoons under the name of Taliban killed more than 10000 innocent hazaras in Mazar and many more hundreds of Tajiks and Uzbeks. I think the writer have no right to judge one over another. Let us the Afghans fix our own problems. Not jerks who you confuse by their false writings.
Anyway, there is a lot to say but i’m not really interested in politic stuff.
I support America!
what a bunch of american bullshits!
you are just proving one single fact: Americans are ignorant in nature. they will never know anything about outside of their country. in afghan war, they are puppets in hands pashton national triblists like zalmay khalilzad and ashraf ghani.
what is this nonesense (for example) :”…notorious Hezb-e Wahdat, which in late 2001-early 2002 targeted Pashtun civilians for violence because of their ethnic ties to the Taliban…”
yes, you americans do not deserve more than this information.
only one western nations know us afghans very well: english. those evil nation who is fucking both of americans and afghans.
american idiot:
If you want to dispute the material in the post above, please feel free to do so. But this is totally useless diuretic outrage, argumentum ad personam. If you post another comment like this you will be banned from the site.
what on earth is a “MEZB” that is not another way to spell HIZB.
You are correct….looks like I cited a typo over and over. It’s been fixed.
I feel very sorry for you. and i realy feel sorry for whom read your blog. im an afghan student. i know my country mutch better than you. and even mutch better than CIA.You american call hizbullah a terrorist group,even alle of you know they are protecting theier people. and now You stupid call mohaqeq as a warlods. I think you are a Pashtun or pakistani. What you wriht here is not true. mohaqeq was just protecting his people. hazara people. Please read about hazara people in internet. the pashtuns and taliban killed thausands of hazara people. the pashtuns killed millon of hazara people for past 150 years ago. You are realy stupid, when you judge some one without a good knowledge. You , which is reading this blog. please research before you belive what he say. i think he is a terrorist pashtun. alle pashtuns are terrorist. shame on you pashtun. becoz pashtuns are a shame for islam.