Between luxury and weapons, the Taliban camp in Kabul in the palace of their worst enemy

In Kabul, the Taliban have taken the luxurious palace of one of their worst enemies, former vice-president Abdul Rashid Dostum. From there, amid plush sofas, a tropical greenhouse and hot tub, they promise to leave corruption behind and open a new chapter for Afghanistan.

In an endless corridor of apple green carpet, so thick that your feet sink in when you walk, a taliban fighter sleeps on a sofa, with its well-kept kaláshnikov, under the gaze of colorful fish that live in seven gigantic aquariums.

He is part of the close guard of Qari Salahuddin Ayoubi, a powerful commander of the new regime who stayed, with about 150 men, in this huge house on several floors on August 15, when the Islamists entered Kabul.

On an Afghan scale, the resort is unimaginably luxurious, with its labyrinth of lounges filled with comfortable sofas, glossy paintings, finely carved wooden furniture, chandeliers, an indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a hammam, a jacuzzi, a gym …

Its owner, Marshal Dostum, one of the most famous Afghan warlords and head of government of the past two decades, I would have fled to Turkey.

Corruption

Like many other powerful men of the overthrown regime, supposedly would have benefited from massive corruption which diverted part of the Western aid sent to the country and which ended up discrediting the last Executive in the eyes of many Afghans.

Some of the officials the land was illegally annexed build luxury homes in the district of Shirpur, close to foreign embassies.

Years have passed and the residents of the capital, resigned, have ended up nicknamed it the “thieves’ quarter”.

A completely different world from that of the Taliban fighters, very often poor and who, for years, sacrificed all comfort for the profit of the rebellion, surviving between mountains and valleys.

But Qari Salahuddin Ayoubi, now 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 the afterlife“He says from his office, where it’s very cold because of the air conditioning.

It is much warmer in the huge tropical greenhouse installed in a wing of the building, where the Taliban roam or they take tea under a glass roof hundreds of square meters.

Above the vegetation dominates a mezzanine in which a large dark wooden bar recalls the festive tastes of the generalI like strong alcohol.

Dostum was above all one of the worst enemies of the Islamist movement and he has been accused of numerous war crimes, such as the massacre of 2,000 Taliban in 2001, who died of suffocation in abandoned containers in the middle of the desert, under a blazing sun.

But Commander Ayoubi firmly denies wanting revenge.

“Our fighters are young, they have suffered a lot, they have been victims of injustice,” he underlines. And yet this house “we did not degrade it”. “If anyone else who has had the same problems [con Dostum o con el gobierno anterior] were in our place, there would be no more these tables, nor these chairs, perhaps they would have destroyed everything.

He does not deviate from the moderate official discourse which the Taliban have shown since coming to power and which, according to their detractors, is only a facade to flatter the international community.

The Taliban will respect private property, the commander said. “But if the same thing happens under the corrupt old government and there are those who are trying to build a house by claiming land or money from the people, we will not accept it“.

Upon his arrival he ordered that they will remove the security posts from the walls concrete that protect the house as if it were a small fortress, so that traffic can be normal.

“We are on the side of the poor”, concludes. In the corridor, dozens of more or less influential visitors await him, all bearded and turbans, waiting for the comings and goings of exotic fish.

AFP Agency

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