Karzai promises to end corruption

AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai vowed yesterday that his new government would eradicate corruption and unite the country after months of political chaos as he offered an olive branch to Taliban insurgents.

Under pressure from US President Barack Obama to wipe out corruption after a turbulent election process steeped in fraud, Karzai used his first appearance since electoral authorities declared him president to pledge a cleaner rule.

“Afghanistan’s image has been tainted by corruption. Our government’s image has been tainted by corruption,” Karzai told a press conference flanked by vice-president Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who is widely accused of rights abuses.

“We will strive, by any means possible, to eradicate this stain.”

Karzai was declared president for another five years after the election commission, whose chief he appointed, cancelled a run-off ballot following the withdrawal of his only challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.

Karzai has been urged by a number of world leaders to ensure his next government can command the support of all Afghans as Obama mulls whether to pour tens of thousands more US troops into battle against the Taliban.

“The future government will be a government that reflects all the people of Afghanistan... We hope that no one feels themselves isolated from this future government,” he said.

The president, whose warm relations with the West have cooled over corruption and spiralling insecurity, also urged his Taliban “brothers” “to come home and embrace their land”.

The Islamists ridiculed Karzai as a “puppet” president of the West, however, and snubbed his offer of an olive branch.

Obama and UN chief Ban Ki-moon led world powers in congratulating Karzai, but the US president called for “a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption” and a “new chapter” in cooperation between the two countries.

“This has to be (the) point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter based on improved governance,” Obama said he told Karzai by telephone. “The truth is not going to be in words, it’s going to be in deeds,” he added.

The New York Times reported the Obama administration was pressing Karzai to set up an anti-corruption commission, which would establish “strict accountability” for national and provincial government officials.

US and European officials are also seeking the arrests of what one US envoy termed “the more blatantly corrupt” people in government, the paper added.