Karzai in anti-graft speech declares mayor "clean"

Afghan president Hamid Karzai used a keynote anti-corruption speech on Tuesday to defend the first of his top officials convicted of graft in years, a move that could anger Western backers who demand more accountability.                                           

The president opened a three-day anti-corruption conference, which had been billed by diplomats as a sign that Karzai took the West's concern over the issue seriously. Fighting graft is seen as key to winning popular support against a resurgent Taliban.

Shortly before he spoke, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the capital''s Wazir Akbar Khan diplomatic residential district, killing seven people and wounding 44.

The blast, underscoring the growing reach of militants, took place outside the home of a former vice president, who was unhurt.

Kabul mayor Abdul Ahad Sayebi, a Karzai appointee, was sentenced to four years prison last week for corruption in the first case of its kind against a senior official in years. He is free on bail pending an appeal, and was seated toward the front at the conference, where Karzai pointed him out. 

"One very serious caution I want to say. The mayor of Kabul has been sentenced to four years jail. I know the mayor. He is a clean person. I know him," Karzai said.

He said Sayebi had been targetted by enemies for refusing to grant them government land, and gestured to his chief justice and attorney general demanding they look into the case, although he also said Sayebi should still go to jail if guilty.                                      

Karzai's standing among the countries which have deployed nearly 110,000 troops to defend his government has plunged since he was re-elected in an Aug. 20 vote, in which a U.N. backed probe found nearly a third of his votes were fake.

His actions against corruption are being closely watched in the West, where leaders of NATO countries are defending an increasingly unpopular war against domestic public opinion that questions whether Karzai''s government is worth protecting.                                           

In his speech, Karzai criticised government officials who "after one or two years work for the government, get rich and buy houses in Dubai", but he also cautioned against an unrestrained effort to root out graft, which itself could be corrupt.                                           

"As we fight corruption, we must be very careful, extremely careful, that the fight against corruption does not become corrupt itself," Karzai said.

"Every one of our police, every one of our soldiers, every one of our mayors, every one of our judges, every one of our governors can go to someone''s house knock on the door and drag a man out of that house and terrorise him. In my opinion, this is the main form of corruption," Karzai said. 

Ex vice-president survives blast

Karzai's top anti-corruption advisor, Mohammad Yasin Usmani, said corruption was rife throughout the country, but was worst in contracts from foreign governments, a point Karzai has made in the past in suggesting the West bore a share of the blame.

US defence secretary Robert Gates acknowledged last week that poor Western oversight of contracts was part of the problem. 

Shortly before Karzai addressed the conference, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle outside the house of former vice president Ahmad Zia Massoud, opposite a hotel used by foreigners. Two of Massoud's bodyguards were among the dead. 

A separate blast in Gardez, capital of Paktia province in the restive southeast of the country, killed four Afghans and one Nepali citizen at the offices of a contractor working on US government-funded aid projects, Development Alternatives Inc.  

Worsening instability has penetrated the comparatively secure capital in recent months. Hundreds of UN staff were evacuated after an attack six weeks ago.

Karzai is expected to name his new cabinet by the end of this week. In an inauguration speech widely praised by Western officials last month, he promised to appoint ministers that are honest and capable and to "end the culture of impunity".  

Western diplomats are cautiously hopeful they will see ministers they trust take charge of the main portfolios that spend their aid money. However, they also expect Karzai to include political allies of former warlords in his 26-member team, as payback for their support in the election.