Afghanistan: between luxuries and weapons, the Taliban camp in Kabul in the palace of their worst enemy

Emmanuel duparcq

09/12/2021 14:01

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 9/12/2021 6:29 PM

In Kabul,

the Taliban have taken the luxurious palace of one of their worst enemies

, former Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum.

From there, among soft sofas, a tropical greenhouse and a Jacuzzi, they promise to leave corruption behind and start a new chapter for Afghanistan.

In an endless corridor of apple green carpet, so thick that the feet sink when stepping on,

a Taliban fighter sleeps on a sofa

, his kaláshnikov tightly held, under the gaze of the goldfish that live in seven gigantic aquariums.

He is part of the nearby guard of Qari Salahuddin Ayoubi, a powerful commander of the new regime who

, along with some 150 men, stayed with this huge multi-story house

on August 15, when Islamists entered Kabul.

On an Afghan scale, the resort is one of unimaginable luxury, with its maze of lounges replete with comfortable sofas,

gleaming paintings, finely carved wooden furniture

, chandeliers, an indoor pool, sauna, hammam, Jacuzzi, gym ...

On an Afghan scale, the resort is of unimaginable luxury.

AFP photo

Its owner, Marshal Dostum, one of the most famous Afghan warlords and chief of the government of the last two decades,

would have fled to Turkey.

The corruption

Like many other powerful men from the overthrown regime, he allegedly

took advantage of the massive corruption

that diverted part of the Western aid sent to the country and ended up discrediting the last Executive in the eyes of many Afghans.

Some of those responsible

illegally annexed land

to build luxurious mansions in the Shirpur neighborhood, close to where the foreign embassies are located.

The years passed and the residents of the capital, resigned, ended up naming it the "thieves' neighborhood."

Its owner, Marshal Dostum, one of the most famous Afghan warlords, would have fled to Turkey.

AFP photo

A world completely different from that of the Taliban fighters, who are

often poor and who, for years, sacrificed any comfort for the sake of rebellion, surviving between mountains and valleys.

But Qari Salahuddin Ayoubi, now a military commander of four provinces (Kabul, Kapisa, Panshir and Parwan), is sure of one thing:

his men are above materialistic baseness.

"For us, living in the mountains or in the middle of luxury does not change us at all, because our faith is Islam and in Islam [...]

we only care about life after death,

" he says from his office, where freezing cold reigns from the air conditioning.

A completely different world from that of the Taliban fighters, who are very often poor.

AFP photo

It is much warmer in the huge tropical greenhouse installed in one wing of the building, where the Taliban stroll or have

tea under a glass roof

of hundreds of square meters.

A mezzanine dominates the vegetation in which

a large dark wooden bar recalls the festive tastes of the general

, fond of strong alcohol.

Dostum was, above all,

one of the worst enemies of the Islamist movement

and has been accused of numerous war crimes, such as the massacre of 2,000 Taliban in 2001, who died asphyxiated in abandoned containers in the middle of the desert, under a scorching sun.

But Commander Ayoubi

firmly denies wanting revenge.

Above the vegetation a mezzanine dominates in which a large dark wooden bar recalls the general's festive tastes.

AFP photo

"Our combatants are young, they have suffered a lot, they have been victims of injustice," he stresses.

And yet this house

"we have not degraded

.

"

"If anyone else who had the same problems [with Dostum or with the previous government] were in our place, there would be no more tables, no chairs, maybe they would have destroyed" everything.

It does not depart from the moderate official discourse

that the Taliban have displayed since their rise to power and which, according to its detractors, is nothing more than a facade to flatter the international community.

The Taliban will respect private property, says the commander.

"But if the same thing happens under the old corrupt government and there are those who try to build a house by claiming land or money from the people,

we will not accept it

."

The Taliban will respect private property, says the commander.

AFP photo

As soon as he arrived, he ordered that

the security posts of the

concrete

walls

that protect the house be

removed

as if it were a small fortress, so that circulation can be normal.

"We are on the side of the poor," he

concludes.

In the corridor, dozens of more or less influential visitors await you, all with beards and turbans, waiting for the exotic fish to come and go.

AFP Agency

PB

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