By ALISSA J. RUBIN and MARK LANDLER
November 19, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — Tainted by a flawed election and allegations of high-level corruption in his regime, President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated Thursday for a second term, saying the Afghan Army should assume full control of the country’s security within five years.
“The role of the international troops will be gradually reduced,” Mr. Karzai said at a midday ceremony held at the presidential palace in Kabul. “We are determined that in the next five years, the Afghan forces are capable of taking the lead in insuring security and stability across the country.”
To restore security and reintegrate insurgents who wish to support the government, he said he would hold a traditional loya jirga, a tribal council, to invite “dissatisfied compatriots who are not directly linked to international terrorism to return to their homeland.”
In a somber counterpoint to the ceremony in Kabul, two suicide bombers struck Thursday in the southern provinces where the fighting has been fierce. In Zabul Province, a car bomber struck a NATO convoy, and news reports said two American soldiers were killed. Since the beginning of the Afghan war in 2001, more than 920 American soldiers have died out of a total of 1,520 allied troops killed fighting the Taliban.
In Oruzgan Province a man wearing a suicide vest detonated his explosives at a market, killing 10 people, including 2 children.
Mr. Karzai spoke in Dari and Pashto, reaching out to the two largest ethnic groups, and also touched on the major points that the Americans and other Western countries have pressed him to address.
The audience of about 800 people — overwhelmingly male — comprised government officials, military officers, tribal leaders and foreign dignitaries.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended, as did President Asif Ali Zardari of neighboring Pakistan and the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, whose country has 9,000 soldiers deployed in the 43-nation NATO-led coalition fighting the militants.
Mr. Karzai drew applause on only three occasions: when he pledged to create a transparent and accountable government, when he promised to fight corruption and when he thanked the United States and other allies for their help.
The ceremony was the culmination of a divisive and chaotic electoral process that began on Aug. 20 when Afghans went to the polls. Mr. Karzai was proclaimed the winner earlier this month when his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister, withdrew from a runoff even though a United Nations-sponsored inquiry had found evidence of widespread electoral fraud.
His inauguration at this pivotal moment — eight years into the Afghan war as the United States is weighing a new battle strategy — raises the question of what Afghans and American officials can expect of him over the next five years even while doubts swirl about whether he can complete his term.
Mr. Karzai faces calls from ordinary Afghans, Western donors and the United States to root out corruption by replacing many members of his cabinet, some regional governors and many lower-level but powerful figures.
In his inaugural address Thursday, Mr. Karzai said corruption was “very dangerous problem,” according to a text of the speech.
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9:02 PM
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