Karzai sworn in amid promises of war on corruption
19/11/2009 - 17:07:10Afghanistan president Hamid Mr Karzai today promised to root out his government’s endemic corruption in an inauguration speech made under intense pressure to shed the cronyism and graft that marked his first term.
Mr Karzai also said he wanted private Afghan and foreign security companies to stop operating in the country within two years.
His government, he said, “is committed to end the culture of impunity and violation of law and bring to justice those involved in spreading corruption and abuse of public property.” He promised to pass a law requiring that all senior officials declare and register their assets.
Mr Karzai won this year’s fraud-tainted presidential election after his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of a run-off, saying it was impossible for the vote to be fair.
But Mr Karzai sought to portray himself as a unifying force and invited those who ran in the election to work together for the benefit of the country.
But Mr Abdullah, who served as Mr Karzai’s foreign minister for several years, said it was Mr Karzai’s administration that had created the problems.
“His record and policies I consider as the basic and fundamental reason for the failures of the international community and Afghanistan together,” he said.
“So for me it’s those agendas for change which are important rather than my having posts in the Cabinet, that has never been my agenda.”
Mr Karzai said a loya jirga, or traditional council of elders, would be called to address the insurgency, but did not set a timeframe.
Mr Karzai, who has often bristled at the criticism levelled at him from Western powers, said his government was doing whatever it could to implement reforms.
“We are trying our best to implement social, judicial and administrative reforms in our country,” he said. “Being a president is a heavy task and we will try our best to honestly fulfil this task in the future.”
Initial foreign reaction was positive.
“This was a speech with the right emphases. It fulfilled our expectations,” said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who attended the inauguration. “We will take President Mr Karzai at his word and expect that the right words will be followed by the right doings.”
Mr Karzai said a conference would be held soon in Kabul to address ways to tackle corruption, and that his government would take its fight against drug trafficking seriously.
The president insisted he would select “expert ministers” capable of providing competent leadership.
Mr Karzai was sworn in to a second five-year term by the head of the Supreme Court during a ceremony attended by hundreds of Afghan and foreign dignitaries from more than 40 countries. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and British Foreign Minister David Miliband were among them. Heavily armed soldiers stood beside armoured personnel carriers at the gate to the palace.
Mr Karzai said Mr Zardari’s presence at his inauguration was a sign of “good relationship, good brotherhood.”
Traditionally rocky relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which share a 1,500-mile border, have improved steadily since Mr Zardari’s elected government replaced the military dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf.
The Taliban, however, said the inauguration ceremony was meaningless and that they would not accept his call for national unity.
“Today is not a historic day. This is a government based on nothing because of the continuing presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan,” a spokesman said.
“Mr Karzai’s call to the Taliban to come to the government has no meaning. He became president through fraud and lies,” he said.
Others were hopeful, if somewhat sceptical.
“President Mr Karzai has not done too well in the past four years. I hope he can perform better in the future,” Sher Mohamad, a taxi driver, said as he passed through a police and army checkpoint. “In this country if you want a good job you have to pay a bribe to get it. Maybe he can stop that.”
As Mr Karzai vowed to make the country safe from an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency, two US service members died in a bomb attack and a suicide bomber killed 10 civilians in the south.
The two Americans were killed by a suicide car bomber who detonated his explosives near the gate of a Nato base.
The 10 civilians died when a suicide bomber targeting an Afghan security forces convoy blew himself up in a busy market before reaching the convoy.
Three of the dead were boys aged between 12 and 14 who were selling shopping bags in the market. Thirteen others were wounded.
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