NEWS BRIEFS
9/02/09
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An ethnic Uzbek warlord reportedly called in by President Hamid Karzai to bolster his election campaign has left Afghanistan after less than three months in the country.
Officially, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum returned to Turkey for treatment for an unspecified illness, representatives of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan said in a statement released to the Afghanistan.ru news site.
Dostum arrived in Afghanistan in June of this year to campaign extensively for Karzai during the run up to the August 20 presidential. Dostum drew large crowds in northern provinces, local media reported. The controversial military leader fled Afghanistan in October 2008 after an alleged mass brawl at the home of his former election campaign manager.
He is also at the center of a probe into the deaths of a large number of Taliban prisoners in December 2001. Afghan commanders are said to have ordered a cover up by dumping the bodies in a mass grave in Dasht-i-Leili.
Posted September 2, 2009 © Eurasianet
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