Karzai blames foreigners for Afghan corruption

By Subel Bhandari and Hares Kakar Dec 11, 2011, 11:50 GMT

Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday in part blamed his western allies for spreading corruption in his government, by giving billions of US dollars in contracts to officials and relatives.

'Our international partners not only had helped us in the law enforcement but they also became the hurdles in recent years,' Karzai told a press conference in Kabul to mark International Anti-Corruption Day, to an audience including western diplomats.

'If anyone is friends with a foreigner, he can do whatever he wants in his power. Huge contracts are being given,' Karzai said.

'One of the bright and clear ways to tackle is for our international partners not to give contracts to government (officials) and elders (directly),' he told the gathering at the Amani High School, next to his palace.

Afghanistan ranks as second highest corrupt country in the world, Transparency International said last month, a global corruption watchdog.

Private security companies, mostly owned by foreigners, are also one of the biggest hurdles against anti-corruption measures, he said, not least the development of the interior ministry and police.

'Immunity is a big problem that exists ... Those who are powerful have immunity.'

'Obviously, any one holding a foreign passport can do any kind of wrongdoing and can easily run away,' he added. Many senior government officials have dual passports in Afghanistan.

Karzai even compared Afghan officials with two passports to the Taliban who are waging a decade-long insurgency.

'As the Taliban have shelters outside the country, these corrupt officials also have shelters aboard,' he said. 'They run away to Paris, Washington when they do wrong.'

The Afghan president also asked the American government to extradite former Central Bank governor Abdul Qadeer Fitrat, who had fled the country after being involved in an investigation into Kabul Bank.

Fitrat was accused by the Karzai administration of embezzlement and concealment in the Kabul Bank case.

Fitrat however told US media that he feared for his life and so fled the country.

Kabul Bank, the country's largest private lender, and handler of the salaries for about 80 per cent of Afghanistan's civil servants and private accounts, nearly collapsed last year with a run on deposits following the exposure of massive fraud at the bank.

Shareholders, including Karzai's brother, were accused of using loans from the bank to buy property in Dubai. The bank has not been able to retrieve the loans taken by shareholders, most of whom connected to senior Afghan government officials.

Karzai's government came under heavy international criticism after the revelation of the fraud last year.

Karzai also criticized western media for causing worries and mistrust among his people.

'Before and after Bonn conference, BBC and other international media kept serving propaganda that there will be a civil war when the foreigners leave Afghanistan in 2014,' he said.