Ex-UN envoy says Karzai may have drug problem

The United Nations' former number two in Afghanistan has cast doubt on the mental stability of President Hamid Karzai and suggested he may have a drugs problem. It is the latest barb in what is turning into an increasingly personal war of words between the American diplomat Peter Galbraith and Karzai.
 
Galbraith (above left) was fired as envoy to Afghanistan by the UN last September after accusing his Norwegian boss Kai Eide of helping to cover up electoral fraud to the benefit of Karzai (above right). Speaking to MSNBC's The Daily Rundown yesterday, Galbraith said that Karzai's behaviour - such as a threat at the weekend to join the Taliban if he was forced by foreigners to push ahead with reforms, and his claim last week that Galbraith had been involved in last year's electoral fraud - "raises questions about his mental stability".
 
Galbraith added: "He's prone to tirades. He can be very emotional and act impulsively. Some palace insiders say that he has a certain fondness for some of Afghanistan’s most profitable exports."
 
The reference to opium or heroin was clear. Asked if he was saying Karzai had a substance abuse problem, Galbraith replied: "There are reports to that effect. But whatever the cause is, the reality is that he can be very emotional."
 
Whatever the truth of Galbraith's accusations, they come just a week after US officials decided that Karzai's younger half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, should be allowed to remain as representative for southern Afghanistan despite alleged links to the drugs trade.
 
The New York Times reported that officials had decided that evidence of Ahmed laundering money, paying off the Taliban and facilitating shipments of opium through Kandahar province was not strong enough to remove him from his position.
 
"My recommendation was, remove him," a senior NATO officer told the New York Times. "But for President Karzai, he's looking at his brother, an elected official, and nobody has come to him with pictures of his brother loading heroin into a truck." ·