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Karzai sacks intelligence chief
President Hamid Karzai removed Muhammad Arif Sarwari, the head of the National Security Directorate, the Afghan intelligence service, on Wednesday in a move that many here took as a sign of Mr. Karzaiâs growing confidence. The dismissal, announced by the official Bakhtar news agency, came amid a flurry of new appointments in the last week, including four new provincial governors and many new regional police chiefs.The appointments, coming soon after the approval of a new constitution, are part of a drive to improve efficiency and governance, aides to the president said, as well as an indication of Mr. Karzaiâs increasing influence. Foreign diplomats and military, United Nations and human rights officials had long called for Mr. Sarwariâs removal. The National Security Directorate, designed along the lines of the KGB, is a Soviet-era relic that was criticized in the last two years for human rights abuses, spying on citizens and serving factional interests rather than the interests of the president and the country. Some Western diplomats have cast aspersions on the directorateâs performance on intelligence matters. Mr. Sarwari is a Panjshiri, a member of the powerful clique from the Panjshir Valley, which still dominates the key ministries of foreign affairs, defense and intelligence in Mr. Karzaiâs government. He was removed by presidential decree and appointed as an adviser to the president without portfolio. Replacing Mr. Sarwari will open the way to modernizing the intelligence service, a presidential aide said. Mr. Sarwariâs replacement has not been announced, but officials said it was likely to be Amrullah Saleh, a former assistant to the intelligence chief and also a Pansjhiri. Mr. Saleh, younger than Mr. Sarwari, well educated and an English speaker, has served until now as the chief liaison officer with the foreign military and diplomatic corps in Kabul. Mr. Sarwari served as the head of intelligence for the Northern Alliance during its resistance to the Taliban in the years before the American invasion in 2001, and was in charge when the allianceâs leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud, was assassinated by suspected Al Qaeda operatives on Sept. 9, 2001. Although blamed by some for that grave security lapse, Mr. Sarwari, better known as Engineer Arif, became head of the National Security Directorate in Kabul when the Northern Alliance took control there in December 2001. In a speech to the loya jirga, or grand council, Mr. Karzai spoke passionately about the need to abolish a service that spies on its own people. The council approved the constitution a month ago. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-02-05 |
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