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Skyreporter has been asked why this site continues to track the bizarre scandals swirling around President Karzai’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet.
The answer’s simple. We hear a lot about corruption in Kabul, but rarely do we get a chance to clearly see all the personalities and particulars of a specific instance of government breakdown and subversion, complete with the story’s international culprits.
Western powers talk the talk of Afghan reconstruction, but by advancing individuals like Sabet they walk a decidedly different line, one that is actively contributing to the further erosion of the Karzai administration’s flagging authority.
For any nation, a solid justice system is the cornerstone to stability. In a state like Afghanistan, nurturing trustworthy policing, courts and legal appeal mechanisms is even more vital. After three decades of devastation and bloodshed, the Afghan people need to know their families and communities have at least a fair chance at achieving peace.
NATO and Afghan National Army forces can battle Taliban militants day in and day out. Unless the broader population has confidence in the central government, military operations alone will accomplish nothing over the long term.
And that’s the calamity we face today. As Attorney General Sabet’s exploits show, the Karzai regime is moving further from the goal of legal credibility and responsibility. By failing to rein in anti-democratic officials such as Sabet (who is compromised by alleged divided loyalties - see ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE), Karzai’s western backers, such as Britain, the U.S. and Canada, are deepening the crisis, and dooming their own costly military efforts in Afghanistan to failure.
It’s not only Sabet’s misconduct that damages the administration of justice. His very presence, like that of other dark figures lurking behind Hamid Karzai, holds back genuine, reform-minded Afghan democrats in parliament and the civil service.
Skyreporter has detailed the Attorney General’s lurid past. A longtime counsellor to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who Afghans revile as one of the most contemptible warlords and terrorists the country has produced. A refugee to Canada, on highly suspect terms. A welfare claimant in Montreal, who only a few years later is developing a valuable property in Kabul.
Causing turmoil in anti-narcotics policing at Kabul Airport, exploiting police personnel as a private militia to deploy against the news media - Abdul Jabar Sabet has provided only one clear public service as Attorney General. He has revealed the house of Karzai for what it truly is: a self-serving, tumble-down facsimile of a government, a betrayal of the Afghan peoples' quest for peace.
Listen closely. You can hear the sound, carried on the parched winds blowing out of the desert southeast. It's the Taliban, howling with appreciation. They’ve been hammered by Western military might, but stand to be reprieved by Western political incompetence – the abject failure to deliver, in Kabul, an administration that holds out even a distant prospect of justice, and through that system of justice, a definitive end to the Taliban menace.
Next on skyreporter.com – tracing the trail of prisoner abuse back to Kabul. The old warlords are at it again...
6 Comments
thnks {:-)
Has anyone put a dollar value on the poppy trade. How would it compare to the $30 billion of pledged foreign aid ?
Interesting point, Keith. Given last year's bumper crop of opium, an estimated yearly value of $6 billion seems very conservative. See the film report HEROIN RULES, currently on page 5 of Recent Stories.
Would you just shut up this baseless propaganda. He is the only person in the Karzi's administration who reinforce justice and rule of law. He is the only person for who in the first time in the Afghan histry people demonstrate for his support.
Best, A
Hummmm.... interesting :>
AV
Dear Ajmal,
The only time in history? Very funny indeed.
Anyway some of those demonstrators admitted that they were paid to march.
And majority of them hadn't even seen the segement on Tolo TV for which they were protesting.
Sabet has been using his Hezb Islami support base to round up people from outside Kabul to come to Kabul to protest against Tolo (Tolo incidentally is the only real organisation in the country to consistently stand for democratic values). Only about 300 people turned up, and some complained that they were not paid! But most worrying of all, the protestors were incited along racial and language issues. For many who did not want to take sides, this was finally confirmation that Sabet had gone too far, and must be removed. Tolo to their credit have specifically discouraged protests in its favour.
I remember the time when Tolo in one of its programs made accusations against the former Supreme Court Chief Justice, and he also wanted Tolo closed down. Tolo said what most knew but were afraid to say. Now we have a much better team at the Supreme Court bench probably because of that Tolo report.
AP
Of course it's the Attorney General's record that speaks most convincingly about the man and his methods. Here at skyreporter, we're simply passing along the evidence. Take a look at the AFGHAN HEROIN series in Recent Stories. Sabet's trail is easy to follow. That much damage is impossible to hide...
The Attorney General should be sacked for not only storming a television station but also for inciting violence. Added to this, news has just emerged (which was confirmed by the Kabul Mayor on Ariana TV)that he managed to secure a prime property at Wazir Akbar Khan Hill (which overlooks Kabul's most prestigious suburb). The property belonged (and technically may still belong) to the Ministry of Health. How could it be that the President can not sack someone who is a regular law breaking (with little regard to due process), land-grabbing inciter of violence.
The epitomises the failure of the AFghan govt.
i too often find a non afghan devoting his/her life for the justice of the afghans while we have such interisting individuals that are in power and are working soo hard to take that very same justice away
mr kent keep up the amazing work and stay safe
Re: Kent, you are such a sick man, I’m lacking of vocabulary to explain……………
If you really feel that Attorney General is not a suitable person for his Job, do us a favor, go and raise your concerns directly with Mr. Sabet, I would rather suggest a Face to Face Interview, we would love to see that), But, I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to do so, as you don’t have the guts to face him, so what a petty…..
And you as a media person, shouldn’t take sides, we can smell it….try to understand limitations of your job…A MEDIA should always be impartial.
Kamran,
Thanks for telling us that demonstrators were paid to march, however, you shouldn’t forget that not its easy hire dari speakers (disables) were parsiwans…so keep watching you back, we might hire them again for something special than that….hmmmm.
Tariq Khan,
Thanks for contributing to the steroetype and didn't take long for you to mention backsides and payments. I guess safe to say that birds do fly with one wing over your house :-)
As for your comments to Mr. Kent, why are you assuming that he would be afraid to interview Sabet? Being gutsy doesn't mean having goons as bodyguards to beat up reporters. Being gutsy means being man enough to take critisim from the media and not invade their TV station and beat up their employees.
So please leave the Afghan macho nonsense behind (ooops didn't mean to get you excited with that word) and act like a civilized person.
Where is your Afghaniyat? We are guests on this site and you are disrespecting the very people that enble you to make your point. Prove them wrong with words and logic. Don't act tough behind a PC.