Karzai promises to wage war on corruption in government

Newly-elected president wants law forcing officials to declare all interests

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SWORN IN: Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai greets the guards of honour as he arrives for his inauguration at the presidential palace in Kabul

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai yesterday promised to root out his government’s corruption in an inauguration speech made under pressure to shed the cronyism 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 ending the culture of impunity and violation of law, and bring to justice those involved in spreading corruption and abuse of public property”.

He vowed to pass a law requiring senior officials declare and register all assets.

He 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.

Mr Abdullah, who served as Mr Karzai’s foreign minister for several years, yesterday 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 said a conference would be held soon in Kabul to address ways to tackle corruption, and his government would take its fight against drug trafficking seriously.

Mr Karzai was sworn in for a second five-year term by the head of the supreme court at a ceremony attended by hundreds of Afghan and foreign dignitaries, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and UK Foreign Minister David Miliband.

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 since Mr Zardari’s elected government replaced the military dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf.

The Taliban, however, which operates in both countries, said: “This is a government based on nothing because of the continuing presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

“Mr Karzai’s call to the Taliban to come to the government has no meaning. He became president through fraud and lies.”

As Mr Karzai vowed to make the country safe from an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency, two US service personnel died in a bomb attack and a suicide bomber killed 10 civilians in the south, three of whom were boys aged between 12 and 14 who were selling shopping bags in a street market.