Karzai: Private Contractors "Waste Billions"
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has stated that he does not see any benefit to keeping private contractors in Afghanistan:
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday stood by his recent order to dissolve the lucrative business of private security contracting in his war-torn country.
“They are wasting billions of dollars of resources and they are definitely an obstruction, an impediment in a most serious matter to the growth of Afghanistan's security institutions, the police and the army,” he told ABC News' "This Week with Christiane Amanpour.”
Karzai charged that the companies were corrupt, “looting and stealing from the Afghan people” and harassing civilians who “don't know if they are security companies at daytime and then some of them turn into terroristic groups at nighttime.”
There are roughly 30,000 private contractors currently providing security in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, a presidential decree ordered the 52 companies in the country to stop operations by Jan. 1.
Security companies will be allowed to continue protecting embassies and aid organizations within their compounds or as escorts, Karzai said. But they are barred from jobs belonging to the Afghan government and police.
Click here to read more.
