KABUL: Former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul on Thursday after two decades in hiding, calling for peace with Taliban insurgents and criticising the Western-backed government, which he said was not working.

Hekmatyar’s comments in a ceremony at the presidential palace highlighted the complications likely to face President Ashraf Ghani, who signed a peace deal with Hekmatyar last year that brought his Hizb-i-Islami party into the government fold. Even before the ceremony, Hekmatyar’s arrival in Kabul, the city his forces bombarded ruthlessly during the 1990s civil war, appeared aimed at reinforcing his status as a major new force on the political scene.

A convoy of dozens of white pickup trucks carrying armed men and draped in Afghan flags and green banners made its way through the capital as it brought Hekmatyar from Jalalabad, the eastern city where he has been based for the past few days.

Calling his former allies in the Afghan Taliban “brothers”, Hekmatyar, a charismatic speaker whose address was frequently interrupted by shouts of acclamation, portrayed himself as a mediator able to bring peace. That, he said, would remove the justification for the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Ghani and the Americans have long pursued a negotiated peace with Taliban militants, but their efforts have come to little and the insurgency has gained ground in recent years, claiming thousands of lives each year.

“The most important issue for me is to end this war and rescue the country from crisis,” said Hekmatyar, calling on neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Iran not to interfere.

The Hizb-i-Islami leader said he had accepted the constitution drawn up following the US-led campaign that ousted the Taliban in 2001, but wanted it amended and said a parliamentary system was not appropriate for Afghanistan.

The national unity government led by Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, painstakingly brokered by Washington after the disputed election of 2014, was “not working”, he said, and either Ghani or Abdullah should resign.

“It is not suitable for the current condition of the country,” he said, but added that he was not seeking any formal position for himself. “I am not here for partnership. I have no conditions, I don’t want ministries.” Hekmatyar also made a pointed call to politicians, many of whom keep their families abroad: “Bring your families back to Afghanistan. I have returned with my family.”

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2017