Warlord’s delight
SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images In a development that’s getting far too little press, Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a limited amnesty bill into law this weekend. The bill absolves most individuals of any wrongdoing (read: war crimes) in the fight against the Soviets and the country’s bloody civil war in the 1990s. Warlords and militia leaders ...
SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images
In a development that’s getting far too little press, Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a limited amnesty bill into law this weekend.
The bill absolves most individuals of any wrongdoing (read: war crimes) in the fight against the Soviets and the country’s bloody civil war in the 1990s. Warlords and militia leaders can still be prosecuted, but the burden of proof is solely on the accuser. And with the lower house of parliament totally dominated by former militia commanders (unsurprisingly, they were the authors of the bill), the idea that victims will now come forward and charge some of the most powerful men in the country with wrongdoing seems preposterous.
The bill’s authors argue that war crimes tribunals for deeds going back decades would tear the country apart. But it’s interesting that those authors had the most to lose if the tribunals went forward. And now it’s clear who (still) pulls the strings in Afghanistan.
More from Foreign Policy


At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment
Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.


How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China
As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.


What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal
Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.


Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust
Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.