Kabul's notorious new resident

General Malik is an old rival of General Dostum

General Abdul Malik has been accused of murdering thousands in the Afghan civil war. The BBC's Afghanistan correspondent, Kate Clark, went to see him in his new Kabul home.

Since the fall of the Taleban in Afghanistan, many people have returned to the capital, Kabul.

Some, like General Abdul Malik, are men with murky reputations dating back to earlier stages in the Afghan civil war.

General Malik is now living in a Kabul tenement block - and, he says, is actively supporting the interim administration.

He has been lying low since he arrived back, saying he still has concerns about his security.

Now in his late thirties, with a baby face and wearing a pin-stripe suit, General Malik speaks eloquently about his desire for peace.

Violent past

But human rights organisations say he of one of the men they would most like to see put on trial.

Many people have returned to Kabul since the Taleban left

He is accused of switching sides in 1997 and allowing the Taleban to capture the main city in northern Afghanistan, Mazar-e-Sharif - and after switching sides again, killing large numbers of Taleban prisoners of war.

He is also thought to have handed over his former ally, Ismael Khan, to the Taleban.

General Malik said he does not deserve his poor reputation.

"Anyone who's involved in politics would have personal and political enemies, and this reputation comes from those enemies. My conscience is clear and international bodies have no problem with what I've done," he said.

General Malik denied that powerful factions in the current administration had allowed him to return so they could use him as a counterweight to his old rival in the north, General Dostum.

He said he was his own man and his party, the Islamic Movement, was independent.

He feared no-one, he said, but he has yet to venture back to the north of Afghanistan.