Kabul blames West for corruption

The Afghan government Monday blamed its Western backers for most of the corruption plaguing the impoverished country.

Presidential spokesman Waheed Omer said Afghanistan's foreign allies were responsible for the vast bulk of corruption in the country, which is mired in extreme poverty despite receiving tens of billions of dollars in Western aid over the past decade.

"Our international partners provided the groundwork for some people in Afghanistan to become unbelievably rich. Some people (have) become an economic mafia in Afghanistan," he added.

"One of those is private security companies that have earned billions of dollars in contracts but are threatening the sustainability of peace here," Omer said, referring to security deals between US and NATO troops and private security companies operating in the nation.

Private security firms in Afghanistan are also hired by the Pentagon, the UN mission, aid and non-governmental organizations, embassies and Western media.

They employ about 26,000 registered personnel, though experts say the real number could be as high as 40,000.

Compared with the extent of corruption in the Western contract system, the level of graft in the government was small, Omer added.

The spokesman's remarks came days after Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered the 52 private security firms operating in the country to disband by the end of the year.

In an interview Sunday with ABC's "This Week," Karzai argued that the billions of dollars spent on private security firms have diverted resources from the training and equipping of Afghan security forces.

"I am appealing to the US taxpayers not to allow their hard-earned money to be wasted on groups that are not only providing lots of inconveniences to the Afghan people, but actually are, God knows, in contact with Mafia-like groups and perhaps also funding militants and insurgents and terrorists through those firms," the president said.

Also Monday, US General David Petraeus downplayed the prospect of a rapid withdrawal of US troops next year, repeat-ing his insistence that US President Barack Obama's target of July 2011 was only a "date when a process begins."

Agencies