‘No Shame’: Rape Victim Watches His Attackers Take Victory Lap on TV

KABUL, Afghanistan — On the television screen in a second floor room in Kabul last month, Ahmad Ishchi watched it live: how justice in Afghanistan bends to the powerful.

Instead of being taken away in handcuffs, those accused of heinous crimes in this country can be seen strolling the red carpet.

In the winter of 2016, Ishchi went on national television to accuse Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the vice president of a government bankrolled by the United States, of abducting him, and then punching and kicking him until a pool of blood formed under his feet. Dostum, he said, next dropped his pants and tried — and failed — to rape him before asking his guards to sexually assault him with their guns.

During those televised interviews in which he described what had been done to him, Ishchi, 63, who was perceived as a rival to Dostum’s leadership of Afghanistan’s Uzbek community, could not sit straight because his wounds, verified by two medical forensic reports, were still too fresh.

While Dostum had a long history of alleged human rights abuses that had never been prosecuted, it was harder for the government to ignore charges aired before such a large TV audience. President Ashraf Ghani promised justice, telling Western diplomats he would not tolerate this on his watch.

Amid an investigation into the rape allegations, Dostum went into exile in Turkey. For more than a year after he left, he and two of his chief bodyguards refused to cooperate with investigators, vehemently denying the charges and calling it all a conspiracy.

Seven of Dostum’s guards were sentenced to five years in prison. Court documents, which presented interviews with dozens of eyewitnesses as part of the evidence, left no doubt that the crime had happened.

Then, last month, Dostum returned from exile — not, however, to submit to a court appearance, but to revel in a red-carpet reception.

Ishchi watched live on TV from his Kabul home as Ghani’s Cabinet officials, including a second vice president leading the justice portfolio, thronged the steps of the general’s plane. He watched as Dostum, after a near miss with a suicide-bombing, drove to his palace, where he told his supporters to celebrate.

“Play your drums, your dambura tonight,” said Dostum, a charismatic orator, referring to a type of lute. “Tomorrow, go back to your studies.”

Lined up behind the general were several of the bodyguards who had been convicted — and who should have been in jail, not on television.

“Their weapons in hand, in uniform, they were standing behind him,” Ishchi said. “It’s been seven months since the court sentenced them, and no one has taken action. This is clearly political treatment of the case, and admission of weakness.”

What Ishchi said he saw was a government that had promised justice but showed no will for it. Or could not deliver it.

And he saw a class of former warlords, many of them also accused of crimes, uniting around Dostum despite recent bloody battles with him, because if one of them faced justice it would leave the rest vulnerable, too.

Ishchi said he took the celebrations around the general’s homecoming as another display of how “there is no shame, there is no conscience” among Afghanistan’s leadership His son, Baktash, said his father was worried. With Dostum back, what would happen to the dozens who had provided eyewitness accounts of the crime, and to the hundreds who had protested against it? Already, some armed men have fired in the air in front of Ishchi’s house in his home province, Jowzjan, where was once governor.

“He was very demoralized,” said Baktash.

He tried to console his father, telling him the general’s return increased the odds of a court hearing, although he did not really believe that. To try to lift his father’s spirits, he said, “we told him all the lies we could.”

Despite coming to power with the help of people like Dostum, whom he had called a “known killer” in the years before choosing him as a running mate, Ghani, the author of a book called “Fixing Failed States,” had raised the hopes of many Afghans that he would rein in the crimes and corruption of the powerful elite.

Last week, however, the top U.S. watchdog for Afghanistan issued a scathing review of Ghani’s efforts. The U.S. government views Afghanistan as “consistent with a largely lawless, weak, and dysfunctional government,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report.

Court documents and interviews with officials suggest that a genuine effort was made by lower level officials to bring Dostum to justice, but it was scuttled by lack of political will at the top. Prosecutors repeatedly punched above their weight, including convincing the country’s Supreme Court to move the case from Jowzjan, the scene of the crime — where Dostum exerts almost total control — to more neutral ground in Kabul.

The fact that prosecutors even indicted Dostum surprised many, who had considered him untouchable.

But the judges assigned to the case, based on direction from the Supreme Court, repeatedly asked the prosecutors to drop the vice president’s name from the indictment until he appeared for questioning. He never did so, and the trial was postponed indefinitely. That judicial stance, Ishchi’s team believes, was where political meddling in the case was decisive.

Even if Ghani was sincere about wanting justice in this case, he undermined his efforts by political mistakes — which survivors of Afghanistan’s history of turmoil, like Dostum, are masters at exploiting.

With the general in exile, Ghani sent government forces to arrest Nizamuddin Qaisari, the commander of the general’s militia in restive Faryab province, who was also accused of abuses. But the method of arrest stirred trouble for Ghani, as leaked photos and videos showed the troops kicking and abusing Qaisari’s bound guards.

Dostum’s lieutenants took advantage of the anger over the videos, and stoked demonstrations across several provinces in the north. The protests, which demanded the return of Dostum, continued until Ghani sent his advisers to Turkey to fly him back to Kabul. Days after the return, a smiling Ghani received his vice president in his office.

“The first vice president is back. He goes to his office and continues his job,” said Haroon Chakhansuri, a spokesman for Ghani. “Legal issues go to the justice system, and they will make their decisions.”

Besides the protests, electoral calculations are another reason for Ghani warming up to Dostum. The president is up for re-election next year, and losing Dostum’s ethnic Uzbek support base would be a major blow.

Abdul Shukoor Dadras, a legal expert and defense lawyer, said the legal process had lacked clarity on central issues, including whether the country’s sitting vice president could be questioned by the attorney general, or whether a special process was needed.

“Unfortunately, from day one, this case has been dealt with more as a political game,” Dadras said. “And we saw the result of it, which was the return of Gen. Dostum, as part of a deal, to the seat of vice presidency.” Ishchi and his family say they are losing hope that Ghani’s government will be able to provide justice, particularly in an election year. But they will continue their struggle.

Ishchi has lodged a case against Dostum at the International Criminal Court. In Afghanistan, in addition to pressing the government with petition after petition, he has started a newspaper, compiled a book on the case and is working on his memoirs.

“At least we will show the true face of this criminal,” Ishchi said.