Kabul: President Hamid Karzai vowed on Tuesday
that his new government would eradicate corruption and offered
an olive branch to Taliban insurgents, launching his programme
for another five years in office.
Under pressure from US President Barack Obama to wipe out
corruption and world leaders to unify the war-torn nation,
Karzai used his first appearance since electoral authorities
declared him president to pledge a cleaner rule.
"Afghanistan has been defamed by corruption. Our
government has been defamed by corruption," Karzai told a
press conference flanked by his controversial vice president
Mohammed 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 cancellation of a run-off ballot by the country's
election commission, which followed the withdrawal at the
weekend of his only challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.
The president said it would have been better for
Afghanistan to have had a second round following a
fraud-tainted first election in August, and bemoaned
Abdullah's withdrawal.
"We were hoping, and it would have been better for our
country, for the democratic process and for us, if our brother
Dr Abdullah had participated in the second round and the
second round had taken place," Karzai said.
The 51-year-old 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 Taliban insurgency is now at its deadliest,
contributing to record US fatalities eight years since the
militia was driven out of Kabul by a US-led invasion, paving
the way for Karzai to take power.
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 had told Karzai in a telephone call.
Karzai "assured me that he understood the importance of
this moment but... the truth is not going to be in words, it's
going to be in deeds", Obama added.
The White House declared Karzai the "legitimate leader of
the country" but said it would begin "hard conversations" with
the new president, with Obama poised to decide on whether to
deploy thousands more troops in coming weeks.
Bureau Report