塔利班从前阿富汗官员住所起获1240万美元财产
文 / 林煇智
9/15/2021
（早报讯）阿富汗塔利班控制的中央银行表示，当局周三从前政府高官那里没收了近1240万美元的现金和黄金。
路透社报道，阿中央银行周三（15日）在一份声明中说，这些钱和黄金被存放在一些官员的房子里，这些官员包括前副总统萨利赫。
萨利赫目前的下落仍不明。他曾发誓要抵抗塔利班上台。上周萨利赫一名家庭成员说塔利班已经处决了他的兄弟阿齐兹。
在一份声明中，阿中央银行敦促民众继续使用该国的货币。有报道指出，人们越来越担心该国的银行和公司缺乏资金，特别是当地广泛使用美元的情况下。
两位商业银行家说，这表明塔利班正在寻求收回属于前政府官员的资产，中央银行上周向当地银行发出通知，要求他们冻结与前政府有关的政治人物的账户。
塔利班战士进驻阿富汗前军阀豪宅 形成强烈对比
来源：中央社
9/12/2021
曾任阿富汗副总统的军阀杜斯坦（Abdul Rashid Dostum）在塔利班掌权后逃亡海外，他在首都喀布尔的奢华豪宅如今被过惯叛军清苦生活的 塔利班战士占据，形成强烈对比景象。
在杜斯坦的富丽堂皇别墅内，铺着苹果绿厚地毯的无尽长廊一旁，有一名年轻战士躺在沙发上睡觉。他上方是7个巨大水缸之一，可见到异国奇鱼游过。
根据法新社记者所见，这座豪宅的深广大厅天花板挂着大型玻璃吊灯，如迷宫般的一个个起居室摆放舒软的大沙发。还有一个铺着精致蓝绿色磁砖的室内泳池，甚至有一个三温暖烤箱、一个蒸气室和一个设备完整的健身房。
自从 塔利班8月15日攻下喀布尔后，势力最强的指挥官之一艾育比（Qari Salahuddin Ayoubi）和他有150人的连便进驻杜斯坦的豪宅。记者见到的战士是艾育比的私人安全小组成员。
这座豪宅内部奢华程度，恐怕是大部分阿富汗百姓难以想像。基层的塔利班战士也趁机一窥阿富汗前领导阶层的奢侈生活，他们说这是盛行多年的官员贪腐结果。这些伊斯兰主义战士为了反叛，多年来放弃物质享受，在阿富汗乡间平原、谷地和山上过着克难的生活。
如今是4个省军队指挥官的艾育比表示，跟他一起进驻豪宅的战士决不会被这些奢侈惯坏。他告诉法新社：「伊斯兰教绝不主张我们过奢华的生活。」还说死后上天堂就能享受富足。
豪宅主人杜斯坦是位恶名昭彰人物，他与阿富汗近代历史发展有紧密关系。他原是伞兵，做过共产党指挥官、军阀和副总统，是位典型的政坛九命怪猫，40年来在不断的冲突中都能安然脱身。
尽管杜斯坦的部队和连串战争罪行扯上关系，但阿富汗前政府原本冀望利用他的军事长才和塔利班对他的恨之入骨来保住政权。不过，在杜斯坦大本营不敌塔利班攻势溃败后，67岁的他已逃到邻国乌兹别克斯坦。
外界普遍怀疑，杜斯坦利用贪腐大大获利，而贪腐正是阿富汗前政府名誉扫地原因。有数名阿富汗官员违法夺取土地盖豪宅，这块地区还被当地人称作「小偷区」。
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塔利班有充分理由痛恨杜斯坦。他曾在2001年被控杀了2000多名塔利班战士，当中许多人是被锁在货柜里放在沙漠中，活活在大太阳下被闷死。
不过，艾育比否认有任何报复想法。他说：「如果和我们遭受同样压迫的其他人来到这里，你不会见到还有桌椅，他们可能已经把这些东西都破坏。」
Warlord chic: Taliban make themselves at home in Dostum’s mansion
Now in the hands of rank and file Taliban fighters, the opulent villa has given the austere Islamists a peek into the lives of Afghanistan’s former rulers
AFP
9/12/2021
Taliban fighters have taken over the glitzy Kabul mansion of one of their fiercest enemies — the warlord and fugitive ex-vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Now in the hands of rank and file Taliban fighters, the opulent villa has given the austere Islamists a peek into the lives of Afghanistan’s former rulers, and they say the luxury is the proceeds of years of endemic corruption.
Along an endless corridor with a thick apple-green carpet, a young fighter sleeps slumped on a sofa, his Kalashnikov rifle resting against him, as exotic fish glide above him in one of seven giant tanks.
The fighter is part of the personal security detail of Qari Salahuddin Ayoubi — one of the new regime’s most powerful commanders — who installed his company of 150 men in the mansion on August 15, the day Kabul fell.
The luxury AFP saw on a tour of the mansion would be unimaginable for most ordinary Afghans.
Huge glass chandeliers hang in cavernous halls, large soft sofas furnish a maze of lounges and an indoor swimming pool is finished with intricate turquoise tiles.
It even boasts a sauna, a Turkish steam bath and a fully equipped gym.
It is an out of this world experience for the new occupants, who for years sacrificed creature comforts for rebellion — living on their wits in the plains, valleys and mountains of rural Afghanistan.
But the new head of the household — now the military commander of four provinces — makes it clear his men will not get used to the luxury.
“Islam never wants us to have a luxurious life,” Ayoubi told AFP, adding luxury comes in paradise, “the life after death”.
The mansion’s owner, Dostum, is a notorious figure woven into the fabric of Afghanistan’s recent history.
A former paratrooper, communist commander, warlord and vice president, he was the very definition of a cunning political survivor who weathered over four decades of conflict in war-torn Afghanistan.
Despite a series of war crimes linked to Dostum’s forces, the former Afghan government hoped his military acumen and seething hatred of the Taliban would help them survive.
But his stronghold was overrun and the greying 67-year-old fled across the border to Uzbekistan.
Dostum is widely suspected to have hugely profited from the corruption and embezzlement that discredited the former government.
Several officials illegally took land to build luxurious mansions in one neighbourhood, earning it the nickname “Thieves’ Quarter” among locals.
In one wing of the enormous house, Taliban fighters relaxed in a massive tropical greenhouse of several hundred square metres under a huge glass roof.
That is overlooked by a mezzanine dominated by a dark wood bar — a testament to the reported decadent tastes of a general renowned for a penchant for late nights and strong liquor.
The Taliban have good reason to hate Dostum.
In 2001, he was accused of killing more than 2,000 fighters — locking many in containers in the middle of the desert where they suffocated under a scorching sun.
But Commander Ayoubi rejected any desire for revenge.
“If other people who had been oppressed like us came here, you would not have seen the chairs and tables. They might have destroyed them,” he said.
But the new regime will not allow such luxury to be built with ill-gotten gains in the future, he said.
“We are on the side of the poor,” he says, as dozens of visitors wait patiently in the corridor, idly watching the indifferent fish.
