Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Infobox Prime Minister
name = Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
ګلبدین حکمتیار
order = Prime Minister of Afghanistan
president = Burhanuddin Rabbani
term_start = 17 June 1993
term_end = 28 June 1994
predecessor = Abdul Sabur Farid Kuhestani
successor = Arsala Rahmani (Acting)
president2 = Burhanuddin Rabbani
term_start2 = 26 June 1996
term_end2 = 27 September 1996
predecessor2 = Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai (Acting)
successor2 = Mohammad Rabbani
order3 = Prime Minister of the Northern Alliance
president3 = Burhanuddin Rabbani
term_start3 = 27 September 1996
term_end3 = 11 August 1997
predecessor3 = Office created
successor3 = Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai
birth_place = Kunduz, Afghanistan
death_date =
death_place =
party = Hezbi Islami
Infobox Military Person
allegiance = Afghan mujahideen
Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin
Al-Qaeda
Taliban
serviceyears = 1975 – present
commands = Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin
battles = Soviet war in Afghanistan
Civil war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ( _ps. ګلبدین حکمتیار) (born 1947) is an Islamist Mujahideen leader and former warlord. He is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. He was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and fought in the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal. He held the office of Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1993 to 1994 and again in 1996. One of the most controversial of the Mujahideen leaders, he has been accused of spending "more time fighting other Mujahideen than killing Soviets" and wantonly killing civilians. [Bergen, Peter L., "Holy war, Inc. : inside the secret world of Osama bin Laden", New York : Free Press, c2001., p.69-70] He is currently wanted by the United States for participating in terrorist actions with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and on February 19, 2003, the United States Department of State blacklisted him as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist". [cite web |url=http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/17799.htm |title=Designation of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as a Terrorist |accessdate=2008-07-06 |date=February 19, 2003 |work=Press Statement |publisher=United States Department of State]

Early life

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was born in 1947 in Imam Sahib district of the Kunduz province, northern Afghanistan, a member of the Kharoti tribe of the Ghilzai Pashtun.cite news
url=http://www.jamestown.org/news_details.php?news_id=325
date=June 29 2008
title=Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Return to the Afghan Insurgency
author=Muhammad Tahir
publisher=The Jamestown Foundation
accessdate=2008-07-02] His father, Ghulam Qader, who migrated to Kunduz, is originally from the central Ghazni province.

Afghan businessman and Kharoti tribal leader Gholam Serwar Nasher deemed Hekmatyar to be a bright young man and sent him to the Mahtab Qala military academy in 1968, but he was expelled due to his political views two years later. He then attended Kabul University's engineering department starting in 1970. Hekmatyar thus earned the nickname of "Engineer Hekmatyar," a term frequently used by his followers and allies, though he was unable to complete his degree. During his time as a student in Kabul, he was known for throwing acid on female students who didn't wear the veil.cite web |url=http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370138 |title=Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: From Holy Warrior to Wanted Terrorist |accessdate=2008-07-04 |last=Marzban |first=Omid |date=September 21, 2006 |publisher=The Jamestown Foundation] [Cite book | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qPVuxclJ4N0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Meena,+heroine+of+Afghanistan&sig=ACfU3U3Xb9VKCx_E2xXkQphvD2uaEFKOTg#PPA37,M1 |author=Chavis, Melody Ermachild | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=Meena, heroine of Afghanistan: the martyr who founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan | year=2003 | publisher=St. Martin's Press | location=New York, N.Y. | isbn=978-0-312-30689-2 | pages=208]

Hekmatyar joined the underground Muslim Youth group in 1970. He remained active at the University until a 1972 incident in which he was implicated in the killing of a member of a Maoist group, and sent to jail for two years. When Daoud Khan seized power from King Zahir in 1973, Hekmatyar was released and fled to Pakistan, where he and other Afghan exiles regrouped and established contacts with Pakistani intelligence.

Exile in Pakistan

The arrival of Afghan opposition militants in Peshawar coincided with a period of tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, due to Daoud's claim to control the entire Pashtunistan, including significant portions of Pakistani territory.

Under the patronage of Pakistani General Naseerullah Babar, then governor of the North-West Frontier Province, and with the blessing of President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, camps were set up to train Hekmatyar and other anti-Daoud islamists. [cite book |last=Kleveman |first=Lutz |title=The New Great Game: Blood And Oil In Central Asia |year= |publisher=Grove Press |location= |isbn=0802141722 |pages=p.239]

The islamist movement had two main tendencies: the "Jamiat-i islami" ("islamic society") led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, that advocated a gradualist strategy to gain power, through infiltration of society and the state apparatus. The other movement, called "Hezb-i islami" ("islamic party"), was led by Hekmatyar, who favored a more radical approach, in the shape of an uprising led by a vanguard of islamist intellectuals. Pakistani support went to Hekmatyar's group, who, in October 1975, undertook to instigate an uprising against the government. Without popular support, the rebellion ended in complete failure, and hundreds of militants were arrested. [cite book |last=Roy |first=Olivier |authorlink=Olivier Roy |title=Islam and resistance in Afghnistan |year=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-39700-6|pages=76 ]

The failure of Hekmatyar's attempt led to a formal split between the two tendencies, both of which were allowed to open offices in Peshawar, and led eventually to a polarization of mujahideen politics between gradualists and radicals. [cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+af0106) |title=Afghanistan: Pakistan's Support of Afghan Islamists, 1975-79 |accessdate=2008-07-11 |year=1997 |publisher=Library of Congress] Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, to distinguish it from a smaller splinter group, was formed as an elitist avant-garde based on a strictly disciplined Islamist ideology within a homogeneous organization that Olivier Roy described as "Leninist", and employed the rhetoric of the Iranian Revolution. [Roy, "Islam and resistance in Afghanistan", p.78] It had its operational base in the Nasir Bagh, Worsak and Shamshatoo refugee camps. In these camps, Hezbi Islami formed a social and political network and operated everything from schools to prisons, with the support of the Pakistani government and their Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). [ [http://news.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA110091995?open&of=ENG-310 Document Information | Amnesty International ] ] [cite web |url=http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373427 |title=Shamshatoo Refugee Camp: A Base of Support for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar |accessdate=2008-07-04 |last= Marzban |first=Omid |date=May 24, 2007 |publisher=The Jamestown Foundation]

Role in the anti-Soviet resistance

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Hekmatyar received millions of dollars from the CIA through the ISI. Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin received some of the strongest support from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and worked with thousands of foreign mujahideen who came to Afghanistan.cite web
url=http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/afghan-bck1023.htm
title=Backgrounder on Afghanistan: History of the War
month=October | year=2001
publisher="Human Rights Watch"
accessdate=2007-03-17] According to the ISI, their decision to allocate the highest percentage of covert aid to Hekmatyar was based on his record as an effective anti-Soviet military commander in Afghanistan. [cite book |last=Yousaf |first=Mohammad |coauthors=Adkin, Mark |title=Afghanistan, the bear tr
year=1992 |publisher=Casemate |isbn=0-9711709-2-4|pages=p. 104 ] Others describe his position as the result of having "almost no grassroots support and no military base inside Afghanistan," and thus being the much more "dependent on Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq's protection and financial largess" than other mujahideen factions. [Kaplan, Robert, "Soldiers of God : With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan," New York : Vintage Departures, 2001, Kaplan, "Soldiers of God" (2001), p.69]

Hekmatyar has been harshly criticized for his behavior during the Soviet and civil war. At various times, he has both fought against and allied himself with almost every other group in Afghanistan. He ordered frequent attacks on other rival factions to weaken them in order to improve his position in the post-Soviet power vacuum. An example of his tendency for internecine rivalry was his arranging the arrest of Ahmed Shah Massoud in Pakistan in 1976 on spying charges. [Hussain, Rizwan, 2005. "Pakistan and the emergence of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan", Aldershot: Ashgate, p.167]

The Paris based group Medecins Sans Frontieres reported that Hekmatyar's guerrillas hijacked a 96 horse caravan bringing aid into northern Afghanistan in 1987, stealing a year's supply of medicine and cash that was to be distributed to villagers to buy food with. French relief officials also asserted that Thierry Niquet, an aid coordinator bringing cash to Afghan villagers, was killed by one of Hekmatyar's commanders in 1986. It is thought that two American journalists traveling with Hekmatyar in 1987, Lee Shapiro and Jim Lindalos, were killed not by the Soviets, as Hekmatyar's men claimed, but during a firefight initiated by Hekmatyar's forces against another mujahideen group. In addition, there were frequent reports throughout the war of Hekmatyar's commanders negotiating and dealing with pro-Communist local militias in northern Afghanistan.Kaplan, Robert, "Soldiers of God : With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan," New York : Vintage Departures, 2001, p.170]

In 1987, member's of Hekmatyar's faction murdered British cameraman Andy Skrzypkowiak, who was carrying footage of Massoud's successes to the West. Despite protests from British representatives, Hekmatyar didn't punish the culprits, and instead rewarded them with gifts.cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n16_v45/ai_13294519/pg_2 |title=Afghanistan revisited - civil war between mujaheddin factions |accessdate=2008-07-04 |last=Sikorski |first=Radek |authorlink=Radosław Sikorski |date=August 23, 1993 |publisher=National Review]

Another example of the Hezb-i Islami's tendency to internecine fighting was given on July 9, 1989, when Sayyed Jamal, one of Hekmatyar's commanders, ambushed and murdered 30 commanders of Massoud's "Shura-ye-Nazar" at Farkhar in Takhar province. The attack was typical of Hekmatyar's strategy of trying to cripple rival factions, and incurred widespread condemnation among the mujahideen. [cite book |last=Maley |first= William |title=The Afghanistan wars |year=2002 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=0-333-80291-8|pages=p.176]

Author Peter Bergen states that "by the most conservative estimates, $600 million" in American aid through Pakistan "went to the Hizb party, ... Hekmatyar's party had the dubious distinction of never winning a significant battle during the war, training a variety of militant Islamists from around the world, killing significant numbers of mujahideen from other parties, and taking a virulently anti-Western line. In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid, Hekmatyar also received the lion's share of aid from the Saudis. [Bergen, Peter L., "Holy war, Inc. : inside the secret world of Osama bin Laden", New York : Free Press, c2001., p.69] "

Pakistan dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq felt the need to warn Hekmatyar that

It was Pakistan that made him an Afghan leader and it is Pakistan who can equally destroy him if he continues to misbehave. [Henry S. Bradsher, "Afghan Communism and Soviet Interventions," Oxford University Press, 1999, p.185]

As the war began to appear increasingly winnable for the Mujahideen, Islamic fundamentalist elements within the ISI became increasingly motivated by their desire to install the fundamentalist Hekmatyar as the new leader of a liberated Afghanistan.

Alfred McCoy, author of "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia", accused the CIA of supporting Hekmatyar drug trade activities, basically providing him immunity against his assistance in the fight against the USSR. [http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/nugan_hand.html Interview with Alfred Mc Coy, 9 November 1991] by Paul DeRienzo]

Post-DRA civil war

In April 1992, as the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan began to collapse, government officials joined the mujahideen, choosing different parties according to their ethnic and political affinities. For the most part, the members of the "khalq" faction of the PDPA, who were predominantly Pashtuns, joined with Hekmatyar. [Maley, "The Afghanistan Wars", p.189] With their help, he began on April 24 to infiltrate troops into Kabul, and announced that he had seized the city, and that should any other leaders try to fly into Kabul, he would shoot their plane down. [Maley, "The Afghanistan Wars", p.193] The new leader of the "Islamic Interim Government of Afghanistan", Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, appointed Ahmed Shah Massoud as defense minister, and urged him to take action. This he did, taking the offensive on April 25, and after two days heavy fighting, the Hezb-i Islami and its allies were expelled from Kabul. [cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+af0123) |title=The Peshawar Accord, April 25, 1992 |accessdate=2008-07-03 |year=1997 |publisher=Library of Congress] A peace agreement was signed with Massoud on May 25, 1992, which made Hekmatyar Prime Minister. However, the agreement fell apart when he was blamed for a rocket attack on President Mojaddedi's plane.cite web
url=http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghan2/Afghan0701-01.htm#P325_88217
title=Afghanistan's Civil Wars: Violations by United Front Factions
publisher="Human Rights Watch"
accessdate=2007-03-17] The following day, fighting resumed between Burhanuddin Rabbani's and Ahmed Shah Massoud's Jamiat, Abdul Rashid Dostum's Jumbish forces and Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami forces.

From 1992 to 1996 the warring factions destroyed most of Kabul and killed thousands of people, most of them civilians during the Afghan civil war. All the different parties participated in the destruction, but Hekmatyar's group was responsible for most of the damage, because of his practice of deliberately targeting civilian areas. [Maley, "The Afghanistan wars", pp.202-205] Hekmatyar is thought to have bombarded Kabul in retaliation for what he considered its inhabitants collaboration with the Soviets, and out of religious conviction. He once told a "New York Times" journalist that Afghanistan "already had one and a half million martyrs. We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic."cite news |first=Tim |last=Weiner |title=Blowback from the Afghan Battlefield |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E0D7103AF930A25750C0A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 |publisher= The New York Times |date=March 13, 1994 |accessdate=2008-07-03 ] His attacks also had a political objective: to undermine the Rabbani government by proving that Rabbani and Massoud were unable to protect the population. [Maley, "The Afghanistan wars", p.202]

In 1994 Hekmatyar would shift alliances, joining with Dostum as well as "Hizb-e-Wahdat", a Hazara Shi'a party, to form the "Shura-i Hamahangi"("Council of coordination"). Together they laid siege to Kabul, unleashing massive barrages of artillery and rockets that led to the evacuation of U.N. personnel from Kabul, and caused several government members to abandon their posts. However the new alliance did not spell victory for Hekmatyar, and in June 1994, Massoud had driven Dostum's troops fom the capital. [Maley, "The Afghanistan Wars", p.203]

Relations with the Taliban

The Pakistani military had supported Hekmatyar until then in the hope of installing a Pashtun-dominated government in Kabul, that would be friendly to their interests. By 1994, it had become clear that Hekmatyar would never achieve this, and that his extremism had antagonized most Pashtuns, so the Pakistanis began turning to new allies: the fundamentalist and predominantely Pashtun Taliban. [cite book |last=Rashid |first=Ahmed |authorlink=Ahmed Rashid |title=Taliban: Militant islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia |year=2000 |publisher= Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=0-300-08902-3|isbn=0-300-08902-3|page=p. 26-27] After capturing Kandahar in November 1994, the Taliban made rapid progress towards Kabul, making inroads into Hezb-i Islami positions. They captured Wardak on February 2, 1995, and moved on to Maidan Shahr on February 10 and Mohammed Agha the next day. Very soon, Hekmatyar found himself caught between the advancing Taliban and the government forces, and the morale of his men collapsed. [Rashid, "Taliban", p.34] On February 14, he was forced to abandon his heaquarters at Charasiab, from where rockets were fired at Kabul, and flee in disorder to Surobi. [Maley, "The Afghanistan wars", p.204]

Nonetheless, in May 1996, Rabbani and Hekmatyar finally formed a power-sharing government in which Hekmatyar was made prime minister. Rabbani was anxious to enhance the legitimacy of his government by enlisting the support of Pashtun leaders. However, the Mahipar agreement did not bring any such benefits to him as Hekmatyar had little grassroots support, but did have many adverse effects: it caused outrage among Jamiat supporters, and among the population of Kabul, who had endured Hekmatyar's attacks for the last four years. Moreover, the agreement was clearly not what the Pakistanis wanted, and convinced them of Hekmatyar's weakness, and that they should shift their aid entirely over to the Taliban. Hekmatyar took office on June 26, and immediately started issuing severe decrees on women's dress, that struck a sharp contrast with the relatively liberal policy that Massoud had followed until then. The Taliban responded to the agreement with a further spate of rocket attacks on the capital. [Maley, "The Afghanistan wars", pp.215-216]

The Rabbani/Hekmatyar regime lasted only a few months before the Taliban took control of Kabul in September 1996. Many of the HIG local commanders joined the Taliban "both out of ideological sympathy and for reason of tribal solidarity." ["The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism", Olivier Roy, Antoine Sfeir, editors, (2007), p.133] Those that did not were expelled by the Taliban. In Pakistan Hezb-e-Islami training camps "were taken over by the Taliban and handed over" to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). [Rashid, "Taliban", p.92]

Hekmatyar then fled to Iran in 1997 where he is said to have resided for almost six years. Isolated from Afghanistan he is reported to have "lost ... his power base back home" to defections or inactivity of former members. see|Afghan Civil War (1996-2001).

Post-September 11 activities

After September 11, 2001 Hekmatyar, who had "worked closely" with bin Laden in early 1990s, [Bergen, Peter L., "Holy war, Inc. : inside the secret world of Osama bin Laden", New York : Free Press, c2001., p.70-1] declared his opposition to the US campaign in Afghanistan and criticized Pakistan for assisting the United States. After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban, Hekmatyar rejected the U.N.-brokered accord of December 5, 2001 negotiated in Germany as a U.S.-imposed government for Afghanistan.

As a result of pressure by the US and the Karzai administration, on February 10, 2002 all the offices of Hezb-e-Islami were closed in Iran and Hekmatyar was expelled by his Iranian hosts .

On May 6, 2002 the U.S. CIA fired on his vehicle convoy using a Lockheed Martin manufactured AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator aircraft. The missile missed its target. [cite web |url=http://www.cursor.org/stories/dronesyndrome.htm |title=The Problem With the Predator |accessdate=2008-07-04 |last=Herold |first=Mark |coauthors= |date=January 12, 2003 |publisher=cursor.org]

The United States accuse Hekmatyar of urging Taliban fighters to re-form and fight against Coalition troops in Afghanistan. He is also accused of offering bounties for those who kill U.S. troops. He has been labeled a war criminal by members of the U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai's government. He is also a suspect behind the September 5, 2002 assassination attempt on Karzai that killed more than a dozen people.

In September 2002, Hekmatyar released a taped message calling for jihad against the United States.

On December 25, 2002 the news broke that American spy organizations had discovered Hekmatyar attempting to join al-Qaeda. According to the news, he had said that he was available to aid them. However, in a video released by Hekmatyar September 1, 2003, he denied forming alliances with the Taliban or al-Qaeda, but praised attacks against U.S. and international forces.

On February 19 2003 the United States State Department and the United States Treasury Department jointly designated Hekmatyar a "global terrorist".cite news
url=http://www.dawn.com/2003/02/20/top15.htm
title=US designates Hekmatyar as a terrorist
date= February 20, 2003
accessdate=2007-03-18
publisher=Dawn Internet Edition] This designation meant that any assets Hekmatyar held in the USA, or held through companies based in the US, would be seized. The US also requested the United Nations Committee on Terrorism to follow suit, and designate Hekmatyar an associate of Osama bin Laden.

In October 2003, he declared a ceasefire with local commanders in Jalalabad, Kunar, Logar and Sarobi, and stated that they should only fight foreigners.

In May 2006, he released a video to Al Jazeera in which he accused Iran of backing the US in the Afghan conflict and said he was ready to fight alongside Osama bin Laden and blamed the ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan on US interference.cite news
date= May 06, 2006
url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4DB6529A-F1FC-43FC-8DB4-482F406D1DCE.htm
title=Aljazeera airs Hikmatyar video
publisher=Al Jazeera
accessdate=2007-03-17]

In September 2006, he was reported as captured, but the report was later retracted.cite web
publisher="The Fourth Rail"
author=Bill Roggio
date=September 11, 2006
url=http://billroggio.com/archives/2006/09/gulbuddin_hekmatyar.php
title=Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Reported Captured
accessdate=2007-03-17]

In December 2006, a video was released in Pakistan, where Gulbuddin Hekmatyar claimed "the fate Soviet Union faced is awaiting America as well."

In January 2007 CNN reported that Hekmatyar claimed "that his fighters helped Osama bin Laden escape from the mountains of Tora Bora five years ago." and BBC news reported a quote from a December 2006 interview broadcast on GEO TV, "We helped them [bin Laden and Zawahiri] get out of the caves and led them to a safe place."cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6252975.stm
date=January 11 2007
title=Afghan warlord 'aided Bin Laden'
publisher=BBC
accessdate=2007-03-17]

2008 Resurgence

In May 2008, the Jamestown Foundation reported that after being "sidelined from Afghan politics" since the mid-1990s, Gulbuddin's HIG group has "recently reemerged as an aggressive militant group, claiming responsibility for many bloody attacks against and the administration of President Hamid Karzai." The re-emergence of this "experienced guerrilla strategist" comes at an propitious time for insurgency, following the killing of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, when some elements of the Taliban were becoming "disorganized and frustrated."

HIG has claimed responsibility for and is thought to have at least assisted in a April 27, 2008 attempt on the life of President Karzai in Kabul that killed three Afghan citizens, including a member of parliament. Other attacks it is thought to be responsible for include the January 2, 2008 shooting down of a helicopter containing foreign troops in the Laghman province; the shooting and forcing down a U.S. military helicopter in the Sarubi district of Kabul on January 22; and blowing up a Kabul police vehicle in March 2008, killing 10 soldiers.

In interviews he has demanded "all foreign forces to leave immediately without any condition." Offers by President Hamid Karzai to open talks with "opponents of the government" and hints that they would be offered official posts "such as deputy minister or head of department", are thought to be directed at Hekmatyar. Hekmatyar reportedly now lives today in an unknown location in southeastern Afghanistan, somewhere close to the Pakistani border. Currently participating in talks held in Saudi Arabia in response to the Talibans announcement of seperation from Al Quaeda

October 6, 2008 press release

On 6 October, 2008 Gulbuddin issued a press release to mark the seventh anniversary of America's retaliatory aerial bombardment of Afghanistan.cite news
url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=200810