By Sayed Salahuddin
Reuters, 16 July 2007
KABUL, July 16 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's government has sacked a provincial governor accusing him of sowing discord, the Interior Ministry said on Monday, after he made a rare public criticism of President Hamid Karzai.
The governor of Kapisa, northeast of Kabul, Abdul Sattar Murad, was removed after repeated complaints from civilians for being ineffective, creating discord among the people, bullying them and persuading coalition forces to carry out raids against people without justification, the ministry said.
But Murad said he was sacked because he had publicly criticised Karzai in an interview published last week.
He said there was "vacuum of authority" in remote areas that the Taliban or criminals would fill and the problem lay with a lack of leadership that could unite Afghanistan.
"What is missing is leadership. Afghanistan (is) at this critical moment of its history, we don't have a leadership that can unite the national leaders, which can see the needs of people and respond to them," he said in the interview.
"All the political parties are now drifting away from national leadership. All over the country, the people are distancing themselves from the government," he said.
The ministry said the decision to remove Murad had already been made before the interview and that was why he made what it called his "unrealistic comments" to the media.
Murad rejected the ministry's comments and said he was sacked because of the interview.
"I told a series of realities for the good of the government," he told Reuters. "I will try to speak to Karzai and explain it to him, but not because I want to be governor again."
RISING VIOLENCE
The province of Kapisa, close to the capital Kabul, is far from the Taliban heartlands in the south of the country, but has nevertheless seen a rise in violence and unrest in recent months.
An air strike by foreign troops killed a number of civilians there in March, coinciding with a wave of civilian casualties caused in other parts of the country by NATO and coalition troops.
Murad's comments, the first public criticism of the government by a senior official, came amid growing frustration among Afghans with the government over deteriorating security, civilian casualties, corruption, crime, and a perceived lack of economic development.
Karzai has led Afghanistan since shortly after U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.
Karzai, whose writ does not extend far beyond major cities, has voiced his anger about civilian casualties in foreign airstrikes. He has also repeatedly complained of not having control over foreign troops and billions of dollars in reconstruction funds.
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Citation: Sayed Salahuddin. "Afghan governor who criticised Karzai sacked," Reuters, 16 July 2007.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL32470.htm
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