General Abdul Rashid Dostum has been called many things in more than two blood-soaked decades as an Afghan warlord. Notorious for the speed and brazen dexterity with which he has switched alliances, 'master of betrayal' and 'double-crossing butcher' are favourite names.
Human rights groups, those he has allegedly tortured and families who hold the strongman responsible for the deaths of loved ones label him a mass murderer and a war criminal.
Last month it was announced that Mr Dostum would become chief of staff of Afghanistan's armed forces. 'The appointment is a human rights disaster,' says Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
The embrace of the burly, mustachioed commander by the Afghan administration, which permits Mr Dostum to trade in his Soviet-style combat fatigues of a lawless adventurer for the crisp, pressed uniform of a government official and mainstream political life, is an injustice that will damage the new cabinet in the eyes of the international community, Mr Adams argues.
'The Afghan government, supported by the United States, is embedding into a fledgling democracy a character who is very likely a major war criminal,' he says.
Mr Dostum's tale is one of rags to riches, of monkey wrench to rocket launcher. With his taste for malt whiskey, a penchant for growing sweet-smelling roses and his love of the traditional Afghan sport of buzkashi, in which men on horseback battle for possession of a bloody, headless corpse of a goat, the former plumber and farmhand is largely an enigma outside Afghanistan. This is despite the fact he finished fourth of 18 candidates in last October's direct presidential elections with 10 per cent of the popular vote. Elaborate horror stories of deceit and barbarity have sprung up to fill the void.