Karzai calls for Afghan lead as West warns of tough year (1st Lead)

Feb 7, 2010, 12:52 GMT

Munich - The West must let Afghans run their own country, including by carrying out peace talks with former militants, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday as top British and US officials warned of hard fighting to come.

Karzai is officially supported by Western governments, but tensions over issues such as civilian casualties and Western arrests of Afghan officials and accusations of corruption continue to strain the relationship.

Improving the situation 'means enabling Afghanistan to deliver services to the people and removing any parallel activity to that of the Afghan government,' Karzai told the annual Munich Security Conference.

NATO-led reconstruction teams, non-governmental organizations, international aid groups and bodies such as the United Nations 'must be a support to the Afghan government, not a rival to it,' Karzai said, repeating the phrase four times to hammer the point home.

Peace will also require full international support for a plan to fund militants who agree to give up fighting and come back into civil life, he said.

'The environment demands us to engage in some form of meaningful integrated reconciliation and reintegration activity, fully understood in agreement with and backed by our international partners ... We did not have full understanding in the past,' Karzai said.

Western forces in Afghanistan are expecting reinforcements of some 40,000 troops this year as part of an effort to break the Taliban-led insurgency.

That is certain to lead to hard fighting and rising casualties, top British and US officials warned the conference.

'We will have a tough year in 2010. There will be casualties. We need to let our allies know that. It's going to be a very tough year,' US Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain said.

'2010 is going to be a difficult year, but it's also going to be a decisive year. It has to be. We have to warn our populations of the difficulties to come. They can't believe there won't be sacrifice in the months ahead,' British Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth agreed.

Karzai warned that the military push should focus on avoiding built-up areas, to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.

'Ending operations in Afghan villages is what the Afghan people are seeking,' Karzai said.

And he demanded that Western forces stop unilaterally arresting Afghan civilians and officials, instead letting the Afghan law-enforcement agencies do it.

'That means ending raids on Afghan homes at night, ending arrests in Afghan homes and villages, Afghanistan regaining judicial independence completely and very very soon ... Suspects must be taken by Afghan forces through the Afghan judicial system and by the laws of Afghanistan,' he said.