Afghan president fires top provincial officials

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has fired between 15 and 20 top civil and military chiefs across the country, accusing them of corruption and abuse of power, officials said Sunday.

The move came after an emergency Cabinet meeting late Saturday, presidential spokesman Sayed Fazel Akbar told reporters in the capital, Kabul.

The decision targets high-ranking officials in Kandahar, Logar, Balkh, Paktika, Nimruz and Farah provinces, Akbar said. They include security and intelligence chiefs, brigade commanders, customs directors, finance chiefs and a mayor.

But Karzai's government has little authority outside Kabul, despite a new national army numbering about 1,000 men. Most of the countryside is the realm of powerful warlords -- some tenuously allied to Karzai -- who command huge private armies of their own.

Anticipating resistance

Akbar said the government is anticipating resistance. It was unclear how the orders would be enforced, but it appeared to be the first step by Karzai to rein in the regional warlords and establish some control.

"We will try by political means, or by conversation or negotiations, to convince these people to accept these decisions," Akbar said.

"There will be a little trouble of course. Nobody wants to leave voluntarily. But the people were against them, and that means the people and the government will join hands to bring these changes."

Those firings were based on the recommendations of five separate government delegations that recently traveled around the country to meet with provincial officials, Akbar said.

He said some officials had been involved in drug trafficking. The United Nations said last month that Afghanistan had once again become the world's No. 1 producer of opium.

Not all the changes were negative. Another group of senior commanders and administrative chiefs had been promoted as well, Akbar said.

Karzai was appointed interim head of state in December 2001 and began an 18-month term as president of the transitional government in June after he was chosen at a loya jirga, or grand council, held in Kabul.