Sayed Salahuddin: Why Karzai might be the first victim of anti-graft fight

Published on Wednesday 8 September 2010 13:35

Afghan president Hamid Karzai might talk tough about dealing with endemic corruption that has weakened his country for so long, but tangible results have been hard to find.

Words, unlike votes, are cheap in Afghanistan, it seems.

In the past three months there have been accusations of interference in the work of Afghanistan's major crime taskforce and corruption watchdog, senior officials on the CIA payroll and graft on a huge scale at the top private bank.

"It is a government similar to a corporation, where people are after making themselves rich," said Waheed Mozhdah, a veteran Afghan political analyst.

Corruption costs Afghans $2.5 billion (1.6bn) a year, the United Nations has estimated, with European lawmakers also saying graft stops billions in aid reaching ordinary Afghans.

Mr Mozhdah said a big part of the problem is that Mr Karzai, consummate politician that he is, has no real power base. That means the man who won last year's presidential vote must tread carefully for fear of alienating the political, ethnic and even tribal powerbrokers whose loyalty keeps him in office, effectively painting himself into a corner.

One of the biggest concerns from last year's presidential vote - won by Mr Karzai despite having a third of his votes thrown out as fake - is the number of promises he was forced to make to keep his more colourful backers happy.

Rights groups, for example, have criticised Mr Karzai's decision to appoint former militia chief General Abdul Rashid Dostum as his chief of staff. Dostum, an Uzbek and former communist general, helped swing the election Mr Karzai's way, returning from exile days before the vote to rally support.

Dostum has denied accusations of human rights abuses, which include questions over how 2,000 Taleban fighters suffocated to death in cargo containers after they surrendered to him.

Analysts like Mr Mozhdah fear the same pattern has emerged this year. Even though he is not running in this month's elections, Mr Karzai must keep as many people as possible happy, or risk facing a hostile legislature that could block policies and cabinet appointments.

It is little wonder that Afghanistan ranked 179th out of 180 on Transparency International's 2009 list of the world's most corrupt countries, ahead of only Somalia. Corruption and cronyism are among the most common complaints of ordinary Afghans.

Washington fears widespread graft is boosting the Taleban-led insurgency and complicating efforts to strengthen central government control so US and other foreign troops can begin withdrawing from July 2011.

Mr Karzai promised that fighting graft would be his top priority when sworn in for a second five-year term but frustration is growing ten months after he took his oath.

Another big problem for the president is his family, typified by the crisis at the Kabul Bank.It was sparked by media allegations that the bank's top two directors had been forced to resign and the chairman ordered to hand over $160 million of luxury villas bought with bank funds in Dubai.

The central bank has denied it has taken over Kabul Bank and assured depositors their money is safe, but the crisis turned violent yesterday when angry customers were beaten by security forces as they scrambled to withdraw savings.

Mr Karzai's family is at the centre of the scandal. His brother, Mahmoud Karzai, is a major shareholder at the bank. Mohammad Haseen, the brother of first vice president Mohammad Qasim Fahim, is among major shareholders who have had assets frozen.

And then there is Mr Karzai's half brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, a leader in Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taleban and a centre of the opium trade. He has been accused of amassing a fortune from drugs, intimidating rivals and of having links with the CIA, charges he denies.

Mr Karzai says he is trying to tackle corruption, that most of the graft is in big contracts awarded by foreign firms and that the issue has been blown out of proportion by the western media.

Mohammad Yasin Usmani, chief of his graft watchdog, says 400 members of the judiciary have been purged under new reforms.

"One only has to pay a visit to the prisons to find out what has happened with regard to the campaign," Mr Usmani said.