By JOSIE CLARKE
An Afghan man who joined the mujahideen in 1979 and rose through the ranks to become a commander fled to New Zealand when the Taleban took over his country.
The man, whose name is suppressed, has been denied refugee status in New Zealand because of alleged crimes against humanity. He has gone to the High Court to have the ruling overturned.
He was 17 years old when he and his older brothers joined the mujahideen group Hezb-i-Islami while living in a refugee camp in Peshawar. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and had forced the family from their home in Jalalabad.
The man rose through the ranks and in 1987 was appointed a commander of 250 men. He later led repeated "engagements" into Afghanistan from Pakistan, continuing to fight even after the Soviet occupation ended in February 1989.
By 1992, he was the mujahideen's administrator for the Jalalabad district of Behsood. He was earning enough to support his family: his salary was supplemented by $US500 a month from a reconstruction agency and $US500 from hiring his truck to a mine-clearing agency.
Over the next four years, he led a settled life, which included a pilgrimage to Mecca.
By 1996, he had saved $US30,000.
In September that year, the Taleban attacked Nangarhar and he took his family to Kabul. He said his fear of the Taleban was confirmed when he learned that they had come looking for him but had taken his father and younger brother into custody instead.
The family fled again to Mazar-i-Sharif, which the Taleban took over in August 1998. He left his family there and crossed into Uzbekistan with his brother.
Two months later, they flew to Malaysia and on to New Zealand.
The men arrived at Auckland Airport on November 28, 1998. Neither of them carried a passport.
He told the Refugee Status Appeals Authority this year that he feared the Taleban would persecute him if he returned because of his connections with the mujahideen.
The imprisonment of his father and brother was evidence of his fate if he returned to Afghanistan.
However, the Refugee Status Appeals Authority said neither the man nor his brother was a credible witness.
The authority could not accept any part of their case because of discrepancies in information the man provided over various hearings.
Story archives:
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Mujahideen chief fears he will share his family's fate
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