Karzai’s Running Mate Poised for Political Return - NYTimes.com

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By CARLOTTA GALL

KABUL, Afghanistan — Once the most powerful man in Afghanistan, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim sat on the political sidelines for the past five years after being accused of corruption and maintaining an armed militia when he was defense minister.

Now, after President Hamid Karzai drafted him as a running mate, he is poised to take up power again and is re-emerging as an important power broker for Mr. Karzai, despite lingering reservations about him among American officials and others in the West.

In a rare interview last week in his sumptuous home in Kabul, the capital, Marshal Fahim vehemently denied any allegations of wrongdoing, and called for a peaceful resolution of the disputed count from the Aug. 20 election. A partial recount began Monday, with results expected to be announced within days.

Though he acknowledged a substantial element of fraud in the vote, he said he felt confident that it was not enough to reverse Mr. Karzai’s lead.

“I think Karzai can win in the first round,” he said.

If Mr. Karzai is confirmed the winner, Marshal Fahim will become first vice president, and Karim Khalili, another former leader of the resistance against the Soviet invasion, will become second vice president.

Before the election, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, tried to warn Mr. Karzai away from Marshal Fahim, saying he would damage the president’s standing with the United States and other countries.

But the embattled Mr. Karzai sought Marshal Fahim’s support anyway, not only for the votes he could attract, but also for the muscle he could provide as Afghanistan’s most powerful former militia commander.

Marshal Fahim’s political rebirth now presents a quandary for Afghanistan’s allies, though he may yet prove critical to Mr. Karzai, both in heading off protests by opponents over the tainted election and in battling a tenacious Taliban insurgency, which he has taken on before.

Marshal Fahim commanded the anti-Taliban forces of the United Front, which fought alongside American forces and toppled the Taliban in 2001.

Although his forces have been disbanded or absorbed into the police and the army, he still commands solid support among the former resistance fighters, the mujahedeen, and so exerts considerable influence over the streets of Kabul and much of northern Afghanistan.

He said he had sided with Mr. Karzai in the election, rather than with his former comrade-in-arms and Mr. Karzai’s main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, because he believed that Afghanistan needed a strong national government that would unite its two largest ethnic groups, the Tajiks and the Pashtuns.

Mr. Karzai, who is from the Pashtun south, tried to go it alone during the past five years and pushed aside many former allies, especially among former resistance fighters in the north, Marshal Fahim said. But he said the president had learned that he could not manage without them.

“Now he realized that he needs us, and we need him, and to rescue Afghanistan from 30 years of war, we will listen to each other and work together,” he said.

But he acknowledged that Mr. Karzai had to introduce changes if re-elected, in particular in his handling of corruption and improving government practices.

“We need a central government working with a lot of effort, where people see themselves as participants,” he said. “And we should have better coordination with the foreigners on security.”

Marshal Fahim has himself been accused in the past of corruption, particularly related to his distribution of prime real estate to cabinet members and some of his generals while serving as vice president in Mr. Karzai’s absence.

Allegations have emerged recently of his involvement in drug smuggling when he was defense minister, which Marshal Fahim vehemently denied.

“I challenge you: if someone can find one shred of evidence, I will hang myself,” he said in the interview. “It is baseless and a complete insult.”

The accusation was particularly shaming, he said, because when the mujahedeen fought against the Soviet occupation, and later against the Taliban, their leader, the legendary commander of the Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Massoud, banned drugs and even cigarettes. “Not even a puff or a sniff was allowed,” Marshal Fahim said.

He denied a report in The New York Times in August that said he had use of a Soviet-made cargo plane to transport heroin to Russia and return with cash. Afghanistan had no working planes when he was defense minister, he said.

He visited Russia twice during his time as defense minister, both times as a guest on a Russian government plane, and smuggling drugs on such occasions was out of the question, he said.

He said, as Mr. Karzai has, that the information was propaganda and part of a conspiracy against them before the election.

American officials have indicated that they would like Marshal Fahim sidelined as vice president, but it is not clear how the United States military would regard his return to power and his interest in coordinating what he calls the “fight against terrorism.”

A longtime opponent of the Taliban, Marshal Fahim advocates a tough approach to the insurgency. He said that while it was appropriate for the president to continue to offer peace talks to the Taliban, he did not believe that the Taliban were interested in reconciliation.

“My belief is the time for peace is when we are strong and the Taliban are weak,” he said. “Now would not be a good time for Afghanistan to make peace.”

He said the government and coalition forces should focus on hitting Taliban bases both in Pakistan and in southern Afghanistan, and he endorsed the search for a new strategy in fighting the insurgency.

“The method of fighting should be studied very carefully; there should be a new strategy,” he said. He is not opposed to the presence of foreign troops, describing them as “a reality,” and he would not comment on the proposals of the United States commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, for sending more troops, saying that it was up to the coalition commander to decide what he needed.

He proposed promoting brave and experienced former resistance fighters into critical police and military positions to improve security in areas in the north where the insurgency was spreading.

“They are in the structure already, but you have to appoint them,” he said. “Then you have to clear those areas and make posts and give them to good mujahedeen who have a good reputation in those areas and let them keep the security.”

That may prove controversial, however. Under changes put into place by the Interior Ministry, the emphasis has been on the literacy and training of police recruits, and many former resistance fighters have been sidelined to prevent a return of militias loyal to particular strongmen.