Monitoring Desk
KABUL: In a letter to Abdullah Abdullah, Baktash Eshchi, the son of Ahmad Eshchi, the former Jawzjan governor and ex-member of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, has urged Abdullah not to recommend marshal rank for General Abdul Rashid Dostum in the proposed plan intended to end the political impasse.
This comes amid reports that Afghanistan’s former first vice president and leader of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, would be awarded the rank of marshal as part of a proposed political agreement between President Ashraf Ghani and his political rival Abdullah Abdullah.
Eshchi’s son has also called on the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to resist such a move, warning that the people of Afghanistan will include Ghani’s name in the list of violators of human rights if he endorses the recommendation for Dostum to be awarded the rank of marshal.
This comes as the two election rivals Ghani and Abdullah have inched closer to seal a political agreement aimed at ending months of political impasse in the country.
“From a legal perspective, awarding someone with the rank of marshal through a political agreement is not possible–the rank of marshal is about the prestige of a nation,” said Eshchi.
Eshchi said he was expecting Dostum to be banned from any political activities so that the way is paved for his legal and judicial investigations.
“He (Dostum) wants to create some kind of impunity for himself and that can be in the shape of a marshal rank,” said Eshchi.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has called on the Afghan political leaders not to allow those accused of human rights violations to get any post in the government or in the political system of the country.
“Human rights and other issues related to human rights should not be sidelined in any political agreement,” said Zabiullah Farhang, head of the media department of the human rights commission.
“Those who are illiterate, who are militia and who have not attended any military academy and have not fought any foreign wars, they can’t be awarded the rank of marshal,” said military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhel.
It appears that one of the factors delaying the signing of the agreement between Ghani and Abdullah is that there has not been a final decision about awarding the marshal rank to Dostum.
“I hope that awarding the rank of marshal to general Dostum leads to further development of national unity,” said Ahmad Saeedi, university lecturer,
But officials of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan and Dostum’s aides have said that no legal or judicial institutions of the country have accused Dostum of rights violation.
The origin of Eshchi-Dostum Rift:
On December 2016, Former Jawzjan governor and ex-member of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, Ahmad Eshchi, claimed that he was sexually assaulted by Dostum and his bodyguards – while in Dostum’s “custody.”
Eshchi claims he was in Dostum’s custody for five days and then spent 11 days in a National Directorate of Security (NDS) detention.
He claimed that Dostum beat him up, threatened to kill him and sexually assaulted him.
Recounting the details of the assault, Eshchi claimed that first he was beaten by Dostum’s bodyguards and then he was taken to his house. He said it was here that Dostum tried to abuse him sexually.
Eshchi has meanwhile called on the president and relevant government and international organizations to defend his rights.
Dostum’s office at the time said that the issue was a plot against Dostum and that a number of institutions had started a conspiracy against him.
Dostum’s office at the time also said Eshchi was arrested by security forces on charges of involvement in groups opposed to the security forces in Jawzjan.
The report of sexual abuse of Eshchi sparked reactions at home and at the international level.
The European Union, Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States sought a transparent assessment of the issue. (TOLOnews)
