WASHINGTON: The US State Department has refused to say whether Afghanistan’s Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum is welcome to the United States, although it did acknowledge that American officials work with him when they need to.

The US media reported earlier this week that Washington has denied Mr Dostum a visa because of his activities as a warlord. Mr Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, is known across Afghanistan for his gross human rights violations.

Media reports claimed that the visa denial mentioned the allegation that his militia killed hundreds of Taliban prisoners.

“I cannot talk about that … because these records are confidential under US law, so we can’t comment on individual cases,” said the State Department’s Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner when asked if the United States had denied Mr. Dostum a visa.

“I understand that he did put out a statement or spoke to the media and said that he chose not to travel to – at this point, given the security situation in Afghanistan,” he added.

When asked if Mr. Dostum was welcome in the United States, the US official said: “We work with him as needed. He is the vice president of Afghanistan. We obviously work with him as needed in his official capacity.”

“But is he welcome here?” the journalist asked again. “He is the vice president of Afghanistan. We will certainly work with him in that capacity. I’ll leave it there,” Mr Toner responded.

Media reports claimed that Mr Dostum was eager to visit Washington and US officials were equally keen on hearing his views on how to deal with the Taliban insurgency. But when they realized that Mr. Dostum was listed on their records as a human rights violator, they had to tell him that his visa request would be denied if submitted.

The New York Times reported that the message was passed to the Afghan government days before Mr Dostum was to leave for a trip to New York and Washington. To avoid a “humiliating public spectacle”, the Afghan government quietly cancelled Mr Dostum’s visit, the report said.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2016