Afghan President Hamid Karzai intends to impose rules restricting international involvement in anti-corruption investigations, a move that U.S. officials fear will hobble efforts to address the endemic graft that threatens support for his administration in Afghanistan and the United States.
Karzai wants to circumscribe the role of American and other foreign law enforcement specialists in two key anti-corruption organizations set up in the Interior Ministry by preventing them from direct involvement in cases.
“The management will be Afghan, and the decision makers will be Afghan, and the investigators will be Afghans,” Mohammed Umer Daudzai, Karzai’s chief of staff, said Wednesday. Concern about Karzai’s willingness to root out corruption has emerged as a flash point in the U.S.-Afghan relationship, with American officials arguing that Karzai has not done enough to demand accountability and Karzai maintaining that the problem has been fueled by the influx of billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
