Corruption will bring Afghanistan to its knees: Mojaddadi

Kabul, Feb 3 : Corruption in Afghanistan will bring the country to its knees if it continues, the former head of the senate told government officials and civil society activists at a gathering to address national concerns.

Labeling corruption in Afghanistan as shameful, Sebghatullah Mojaddadi said that the rampant graft may cripple Afghanistan, and suggested that to eradicate it tougher punishments need to be enforced on everyone equally and with no exception.

"The main cause of people's problems is corruption. In our country, there is murder, rape, kidnapping, stealing, and until religious laws are enforced on all – from the President to the ordinary citizen – we will not be out of this problem," he told the gathering in Kabul.

The Minister of Information and Culture Sayd Makhdoom Raheen said that better communication will help resolve the problems discussed at the meeting.

"What we need now is to resolve the country's important issues by communications and talks. We should listen to all opinions here and plan a solution for the issues, and put it into practice," he said.

An official from the Ministry of Defence stated that low capacity and sabotaging of activities were among the main challenges facing security, a topic also addressed at the gathering.

"Lack of capabilities among us is known as a threat. If we don't improve it, and if the lives of our soldiers are at risk every day, we will definitely lose the support from people and the soldiers' families which will cause us not to be triumphant in the battles," said Operational Head of Ministry of National Defence Afzal Aman said.

Ministry of Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqi said, "The intelligence of the neighbouring countries is trying to sabotage the process of police trainings. The neighbouring countries don't want the Afghan police to be trained by the international community."

The current number of military staff in the country is almost 352,000, with about 195,000 in the Afghan National Army and 157,000 in the national police. That is an average of 800 security personnel per district, although they are not distributed evenly across the districts.

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SA/EN