Karzai will limit corruption investigators

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai plans to restrict the involvement of outside participants in investigations into official corruption, his chief of staff said.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Mohammed Umer Daudzai said Karzai intends to impose rules on two investigations that will limit the authority of U.S. and other international involvement in the investigations.

"The management will be Afghan, and the decision makers will be Afghan, and the investigators will be Afghans," Daudzai said Wednesday.

He said foreign advisers will be permitted to participate in "training and coaching, but not decision making."

Most of the foreign advisers involved in the process work for the U.S. Department of Justice, and U.S. officials are concerned the move to limit their authority could harm efforts to deal with official corruption that undermines support for Karzai and the United States, the Post said.

"What he's proposing would effectively neuter" the two organizations responsible for the investigation, a U.S. official involved in Afghanistan policy told the newspaper.