Karzai says US, NATO running 'parallel' government in Afghanistan

Kabul, Nov 27 : Afghan President Hamid Karzai has reportedly criticised the US and other foreign countries for creating a "parallel government" in the countryside during an overview of Afghanistan's problems before a UN Security Council delegation.

He said every effort to defeat the Taliban had failed because of the "parallel government".

"The problem here is, in a diverting play, the presence of the international community has created a parallel government to those such as of the Afghan government that are functioning. The PRTs in certain parts of the country have become a parallel structure to the governor of the province," he told the UN team.

Karzai, however, did not elaborate on how the reconstruction teams had created parallel governments, but the significant amount of international aid attached to them would wield substantial influence in impoverished regions.

He also complained that private security companies "have become a parallel structure to the security forces of Afghanistan", employing thousands of Afghans, most with criminal backgrounds, who are "equally as harassing to the Afghan population as Taliban and other terrorist outfits".

"With an entire NATO force in Afghanistan and the entire international community behind them, still we are not able to defeat the Taliban," the Daily Times quoted Karzai as saying.

Foreign governments, the US in particular, have been ramping up military and aid efforts in Afghanistan. The US has some 32,000 troops in the country, but military leaders say up to 20,000 more could be sent to Afghanistan next year.

According to the paper, international forces have set up a countryside system of joint military and civilian teams whose primary task is not combating, but reconstruction and development. But, Karzai said that the presence of the so-called provincial reconstruction teams, has undermined provincial governments.

ANI