Kandahar's 'King'

"He who controls Kandahar, controls Afghanistan" - at least that's how the saying goes there. In that respect, the murder of Ahmad Wali Karzai by a suspected Taliban "sleeper" among his bodyguards raises the question once more: who is in charge in Afghanistan? Ahmad Wali Karzai was one of the most enigmatic political figures in the country.

He was needed by many - from Pashtun families in need of help on the one hand, to NATO on the other. Karzai tried to make himself indispensible to everyone. But he was a dubious figure, and he was considered highly corrupt. Ahmad Wali Karzai often made bigger headlines in the contested southern part of the country than his older brother, President Hamid Karzai, made in the capital, Kabul. Their relationship was seen as close - contrary to western media, Hamid Karzai never referred to his half-brother as such; always simply his brother.

The two shared a father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, who was an important figure during the time of Afghan King Zahir Schah. He was the leader of the Popolzai, a powerful and respected Pashtun tribe with direct ties to the Afghan rulers. After the fall of the king, Abdul Ahad Karzai opposed the communist regime during the 1980s and later opposed the Taliban. In 1999, he was shot by radical Islamists in neighboring Pakistan. More than ten years later, the Taliban have now taken his son, who saw himself in the role of his father as a bridge-builder and servant of his tribe.

The King of Kandahar

Like many members of the Karzai family, the 50-year-old Ahmad Wali left Afghanistan when soldiers from the Soviet Union marched into the country. His escape led him to the United States, where he ran an Afghan family restaurant for several years in Chicago. When the communist regime was toppled in 1992, Karzai came back to his native country.

But it wasn't until the fall of the Taliban that Karzai began his rapid economic and political ascent in his home town of Kandahar, the capital of the province of the same name. It played right into his hands when his brother Hamid became president of Afghanistan after the Western intervention.

Until his murder on Tuesday, Ahmad Wali Karzai held only one post, and that didn't give him too much power: he was the head of the provincial council of Kandahar. Nonetheless, he was considered one of the most powerful men in all of southern Afghanistan.

His estate in the city of Kandahar was a place of pilgrimage. In his role as the head of the Popolzai tribe, Karzai settled conflicts. His word was law, he punished and sympathized, wrote important letters, provided work, headed the tribal council, and consulted the elders. Karzai was constantly engaged in projecting the outward image of a benevolent leader. But accusations that he was a drug baron and a money launderer, or a highly-paid informant of the CIA, conflicted with his self-made reputation.

Under his rule in Kandahar, the heart of the Afghan uprising, a corrupt, mafia-like network was said to have operated that broke every law. In April, 2009, Carl Forsberg from the Institute for the Study of War wrote a detailed study saying that "Ahmad Wali Karzai's influence in Kandahar was the main obstacle" keeping the West from its goals.

Forsberg added that the brother of the president was helping to discredit the government and was leading young people into the army of the Taliban. In Kandahar and Kabul, according to the study, there was a dangerous overlap of family interests and affairs of the state.

The accusations

In October 2009, the New York Times published a report that stated Ahmad Wali Karzai had considerably helped the CIA with constructing the so-called "Kandahar Strike Force." This paramilitary unit operated under the direction of the CIA against insurgents and was based in the property in which US special forces had set up their regional command in Afghanistan.

The compound used to belong to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and according to the Times, Ahmad Wali Karzai was paid so that the Americans could use it. This intensive cooperation with the CIA has reportedly been going on since 2001.

The younger brother of the Afghan president was also in charge of logistics and security on big projects in the south. He was involved in several Afghan companies, including the Asia Security Group and Watan Risk Management, which meant he was closely connected to tribal militias. These private armies should have actually been disarmed, but instead, they currently secure NATO supply trains coming in from Pakistan. They control the main roads in the south and reportedly earn money doing so.

On those same roads, Ahmed Wali Karzai is reported to have conducted a large amount of drug trafficking. In 2007, Karzai was openly described by some members of the Afghan parliament as a drug dealer. But his brother, the president, provided protection.

According to a report in the German magazine "Der Spiegel," Hamid Karzai called the claims "complete nonsense." He reportedly looked through all the charges against his brother and found nothing untoward.

It's probably no coincidence that proven cases of election manipulation in the 2009 presidential election that benefitted Hamid Karzai were especially high in Ahmad Wali Karzai's jurisdiction.

Fought accusations to the end

Ahmad Wali Karzai continued to fight against all the accusations until his death. In an interview with the British newspaper "The Independent," he said the accusations were "very painful."

"The only crime no one has accused me of so far is prostitution," he told the paper.

He denied that he was paid a lot of money by the CIA. Karzai pointed out that his family had been fighting the Taliban long before the West ever became involved. He said he was just a tribal leader who would do his duty no matter what others said about him, adding that all the accusations against him and his family were politically motivated.

But among the people of Kandahar, Ahmad Wali Karzai was more feared than loved. They knew about his power and his connections. It was said that, if it was beneficial to him and his businesses, he would also cooperate with the Taliban. According to the few available opinion polls, less than a quarter of all people in Kandahar had trust in the Afghan state, which was represented by Ahmad Wali Karzai.

For the CIA, Karzai seemed to have been an indispensable partner. The NATO-led ISAF force in Afghanistan has said its goal is to try and win the hearts and minds of people in Afghanistan, and Karzai was a critical component. The Obama administration has tried, without much success, to free itself from his influence. Now, the seat of power that Ahmad Wali Karzai once occupied must be filled by someone new.

Author: Sandra Petersmann / mz
Editor: Michael Lawton