Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Washington this week, and corruption is expected to be at the top of the agenda. Back at home, Afghan authorities have already launched their own crackdown -- aimed, in part, at foreigners.
Reuters reports today from Kabul that the Afghan government has closed down nearly two dozen international aid groups and charities working in the country for failing to provide proper documentation and paperwork to the government. IRIN reports that the groups hit by the ban include Save the Children Japan, Afghan Children’s Relief Organization, International Dispensary Association and Samaritan’s Purse International. In addition, 152 Afghan non-governmental organizations had their licenses revoked.
It's not clear if this is a populist push -- Karzai has blamed "foreigners" for encouraging electoral fraud during Afghanistan's flawed 2009 presidential election -- or part of a genuine effort to close non-profits that aren't doing what they are supposed to do. But it comes after a series of raids by Kabul's vice squad that targeted expatriate watering holes and set the capital's international community on edge.
Private security firms also seem to be in the crosshairs. Early this week, the Afghan government barred two private security firms after separate incidents in which hired guards shot and killed civilians on a dangerous southern highway. One of the firms, Compass Integrated Security Solutions, maintains offices in Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Iraqi Kurdistan; a second, Watan Risk Management, describes itself as "Afghan owned and British managed."
Again, it's not clear if the move represents the beginning of a broader crackdown on expatriate security firms, or a genuine effort to reduce on civilian casualties. In the past, the presence of private security firms in Afghanistan has been a controversial issue, but aid agencies, private firms and the military rely on private guard services to escort convoys around the country.
Karzai is traveling to Washington with a large delegation of cabinet ministers. The talks kicked off last night with a formal dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and attended by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and National Security Advisor James Jones. The administration has been careful to strike a cordial tone. In a briefing yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs described Karzai's administration as "our partner in this battle against al Qaeda and its extremist allies."
It's a sharp contrast to public statements just a few months ago. Back in December, when asked if the new government reflected Karzai's commitment to fighting corruption, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley gave only a tepid endorsement.
"Our judgment is not universal regarding every single minister that he’s announced," he said. "We have said to President Karzai, quite specifically, that we remain concerned about the performance of his government ... and we will continue our process of certifying very specific ministries and channeling our assistance through those ministries that we think are being run well and address the concerns that we have for performance and corruption."
Update: Tom Layton of Samaritan's Purse tells Danger Room the group closed its office in Afghanistan in 2008. "As best as we know, our name was still on the books and their were eliminating the names of organizations that were still on the books. When we left, we were in good standing." He said they had received no notification from the Afghan government.
In an e-mail to Danger Room, M.H. Mayar, the deputy director of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, said the move was a "legal action" by the Afghan government. Under Afghan law, Mayar said, groups that do not submit semi-annual and annual reports to the Ministry of Economy can be dissolved.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
