Aghan govt 'wasting lives of western troops'

The Afghan government was today accused of squandering the lives of its Western allies amid a sea of corruption.

President Hamid Karzai’s chief rival Abdullah Abdullah, speaking after five British soldiers were shot dead in Helmand province, said the government had wasted eight years of opportunity and international help.

The Afghan election commission’s decision not to have a run-off election after a fraud-marred first round was not legal and has created a government that cannot be trusted to follow the rule of law, Dr Abdullah said.

“That government cannot bring legitimacy, cannot fight corruption,” he said, adding that it “cannot deal with all the challenges, especially the threat of terrorism, security problems, poverty, unemployment and many others.”

But Dr Abdullah said he was not personally challenging the commission’s declaration of Karzai as president.

“The process has completed itself with that final, illegal decision,” he said, referring to the election commission’s ruling.

“I leave it to the people of Afghanistan to judge,” he said.

The election commission proclaimed Mr Karzai the victor of the country’s election on Monday,

cancelling the planned run-off and ending a political crisis two and a half months after a first round of voting in August that was marred by widespread fraud.

People close to Mr Karzai and Dr Abdullah have said that the two have been in talks over the last few weeks to negotiate a power-sharing agreement, but no deal has emerged.

Mr Karzai said in his victory speech yesterday that he would welcome anyone from the opposition into his administration, but did not make a direct appeal to Dr Abdullah to join him.

Dr Abdullah repeated today that he does not want a place in Mr Karzai’s government and said he has not asked for Cabinet or ministerial positions for his allies. He said the last time he spoke directly with Mr Karzai was a week ago.

“In this environment I would rather act like a pressure group,” Dr Abdullah said. Asked what recommendations he would make to clean up the government, he said that he had not yet formed a specific list of demands.

Mr Karzai yesterday promised to banish corruption by revising laws and strengthening a corruption investigation commission that was established a year ago, but did not get more specific about what needs to be done.