Borzou Daragahi in Herat
An old military base just outside Herat in western
Afghanistan is the current home of Commandant Haji Ghari Ahmad
Ali, nominally head of the Fourth Armoured Division. Depending
on whom you speak to, he and his men are either under house
arrest, or a division in the military of Kabul's interim
Government.
But Ghari, head of Afghanistan's Hezbollah, and his Shi'ite
warriors may instead be awaiting orders from elements within
the Iranian Government next door. 'We are disciples of
[Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeiny', referring to the leader of
Iran's Islamic revolution, said the 45-year-old former Shi'ite
militant. 'Khomeiny was our spiritual leader.'
All is apparently calm in Herat province. The road to the
Iranian border crossing is safe and secure. There is no
evidence of fighting. The city is regaining its stature as a
bustling commercial centre. But government officials, aid
workers and residents worry about new tensions developing
between the US and Iran over influence in this area, an
ancient node on the Silk Road.
'Herat has become another state in Iran,' said one Western
official of an international organisation.
Western officials acknowledge it is impossible to
completely keep Iran from casting its influence here. As many
as three million Afghans reside in the Islamic Republic. Aid
group World Vision says half of all income to residents of
villages in the western provinces are remittances from Afghan
relatives working in Iran, which has linguistic and ethnic
ties with Afghanistan as well as a 900km border. 'The links
are historical and geographic,' said a Western military
official.
Iran's political influence is palpable. Its Dari and
Pashtun-language radio station constantly spews hatred against
the United States and the 'Zionist regime' in Israel. Even
where there are other radio stations, it's about the only
thing people listen to.
One observer noted that Iranians could discreetly recruit
from among the many Afghans living in Iran and now returning.
A number of the many soldiers stationed in the city, asked
their personal backgrounds, said they were born in Iran and
arrived only a few months ago.
Within the government of governor Ismail Khan, who overseas
Herat and four other western provinces, officials genuinely
worry about elements like Ghari and the instability they could
cause. 'There are a variety of security forces here,' said an
Afghan government official. 'They're not all accountable to
us.'
Rotting Russian tanks litter Ghari's camp, owned by the
Afghan Government, where 500 soldiers and 200 employees work,
according to him and his men.
Immediately after the Taleban fell, the Iranian authorities
allowed Ghari and his men to enter Afghanistan from the then
tightly controlled border crossing at Dogharoun-Islamghaleh,
residents say. 'The Taleban left at 11pm,' said one resident
who watched Ghari and his men stream into the city. 'He
arrived by 4am.'
It took weeks of prodding before Ghari and his men left the
interior of the city and either swore allegiance to the
Government of Hamid Karzai or were confined to their base.
Ghari, surrounded by uniformed men, says he is not under
house arrest, and that he and his men are free to leave the
camp whenever they want, albeit without their guns. He says he
has put militant Shi'ite politics aside for now, and considers
himself Commandant of the Fourth Armoured Brigade.
He just wanted a role in the new Government, he said, and
met Mr Karzai during his last visit. 'I wouldn't have
struggled and fought all these years without a political
goal,' said Ghari, who claimed he began fighting the Russians
23 years ago. His funding, he said, came from private
donations.
Though he acknowledged Khomeiny as his group's spiritual
leader, he declined to answer the question of whether he bows
before Khomeiny's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's
current religious and political ruler - saying only that 'no
neighbouring countries can cut their relationships'.
Ghari also declined to say whether he had any problem with
the Western military presence in Afghanistan. 'In Lebanon,
Hezbollah's enemy is Israel,' he said. 'For the Iranian
Hezbollah it's America. For us it was the Russians. The
Russians are gone now.'
