By IRNA,
Berlin : The spokesman of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Josef Dieter Blotz warned that it would be very difficult to get rid of corruption and drugs in the war-stricken country.
Talking to the Berlin-based newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, the ISAF official said, “It will be very difficult for us to create an Afghanistan which is completely free of corruption and drugs.”
Western governments have repeatedly criticized the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai for not seriously cracking down on narco-trafficking and corruption.
He urged a sense of realism as to how Afghanistan could be stabilized politically.
Blotz quoted German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg as saying that no one should expect a western-style democracy in Afghanistan.
The ISAF spokesperson predicted that western troops would have to remain beyond 2014 after NATO security responsibilities have been handed over to the Afghan government.
Western countries are under massive public pressure to withdraw from Afghanistan amid a mounting death toll and a deteriorating security situation.
Violence in Afghanistan has surged in 2010, the most dangerous year for ISAF troops since the start of the war in 2001.
Some 350 foreign soldiers have died since January.