KARZAI TALKS ABOUT WAR CRIMES OF NATO

International forces in Afghanistan have mismanaged the fight against the Taliban, leading to a rise in violence, and now risk losing people’s goodwill, President Hamid Karzai told an Indian news channel. Karzai has often criticised the Western conduct of the war in Afghanistan, saying civilian casualties must stop. In an interview to be aired on Indian television he said foreign troops had failed to go after “the sanctuaries of the terrorists” which Afghan officials say exist over the border in Pakistan. He did not directly mention Pakistan but the Afghan government has said that the West should have done more to crackdown on Taliban and Al-Qaeda bases in Pakistan. He also said violence had risen because not enough attention was paid in time to the training of a new Afghan army and police force. He further reiterated that he did not accept charges in the Western media of corruption, ineptitude and paranoia in his government. “I don’t even recognise it.” He had earlier opined that it was a serious neglect that despite warning by his government other former members of the Taliban who had given up arms were unfairly hunted down within Afghan territory. He added that some of the Taliban who had laid down their arms, who were living in the Afghan villages peacefully, who have accepted Afghanistan’s new order, were chased, hunted for no reason, and forced to flee the country.