Afghan rival says Karzai criticism helps Taliban

KABUL - A prominent rival of President Hamid Karzai accused him of helping the Taliban by making negative comments about the presence of the international community in Afghanistan.

Karzai said Thursday that if NATO countries, which have more than 120,000 troops in Afghanistan, did not stop meddling in the country’s internal affairs, the Taliban-led insurgency would become a “national resistance” because the Afghan public would perceive his government as a “puppet” administration.

In his most stinging comments to date, the president also accused Western officials and embassies of engineering “widespread fraud” in last year’s presidential election and said these parties were trying to stop the parliamentary polls slated for September.

“Karzai’s comments put Afghanistan in a dire situation with its main international supporters,” Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s main challenger in August 20 presidential election, told a press conference in Kabul. “This is treason to the national interest of Afghanistan.”

Karzai “is trying to blur the line between national resistance to terrorism and the insurgency,” he said, adding, “So what is the message to the thousands of soldiers and national police defending the country?”

“I think the given message only helps the Taliban. The Taliban and Al Qaeda are winners here,” he said. “The Afghanistan leadership has lost the way because to solve one problem he creates another.”

Karzai was declared winner of the presidential vote after Abdullah dropped out of a planned run-off, saying it would be rigged. No candidate won the first round, because a UN-backed election watchdog exposed massive fraud, mostly voted in favor of Karzai.

Karzai’s unprecedented rebuke came a day after parliament overturned a decree that gave him the authority to appoint all members of the election watchdog. Previously three of the five-member

Election Complaint Commission, were appointed by the UN.

The president made the decision while parliament was in recess. According to the constitution, presidential decrees must be approved by the lower house when it reconvenes.

Karzai also accused the Western powers of having a hand in the scrapping of his decree, a claim the country’s parliament rejected Friday.

Karzai’s public criticism of his Western allies comes amid intensifying efforts by the NATO-led force in Afghanistan to turn the tide of eight-year-war against the Taliban, which has become more powerful than ever.

The outburst indicates a deep rift between the Afghan leaders and the US and European countries, whose soldiers ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001 and still protect Karzai’s government.