AFGHANISTAN - Sep 20 - Karzai Questions US Airstrikes.

Just days after the country's first parliamentary elections in 35 years and well before votes are even counted, the president, Hamid Karzai, questions the need for major military operations in Afghanistan, asserting that airstrikes are no longer effective and that the US-led coalition should focus more on shutting off the flow of militants. In what seemed to be a reference to Pakistan, Karzai said that the fight against terror should "concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supply to them, on the money coming to them". Afghan officials have complained in recent months that Taliban insurgents are using Pakistan as a sanctuary. Karzai added that the US should refrain from raiding houses without authorization from the Afghan government. Both the airstrikes, which can lead to civilian casualties, and the house searches have grown increasingly unpopular. It was not the first time the president has complained about the American military presence. In May, his request for more authority over military operations by the 20,000-strong force was rebuffed by Pres Bush. The US Def Sec Donald Rumsfeld, at a Washington news conference, conceded that airstrikes were less effective "when you don't have a massed army on the ground or large puddles of enemies". But he said the US was already co-ordinating closely with the Afghan government on counterterrorism activities. In his first comments to journalists since Afghanistan's Sep 18 parliamentary elections, Karzai expressed "relief and satisfaction" that they had come off without any major incidents. He said the fact that Afghans had voted in spite of all the threats against them and the killings in the weeks before the elections was proof that Al Qaeda had been defeated in Afghanistan. The holding of parliamentary and provincial elections completes the international program for Afghanistan's transition laid down in the Bonn accords of 2001, but Karzai warned that it did not mean Afghanistan was capable of standing on its own. "We have just begun the foundations", he said. "Institutionally, we are very weak". The country lacks the resources and human capital to run an effective civil service, is struggling to raise $350m in revenues annually and cannot yet pay for its own army, police and administration, he said. Karzai said he was appealing to foreign governments to direct assistance away from humanitarian organisations and toward investment in trade and industry. He said he had specifically requested help from international backers, including the US, in building reservoirs and electric power plants. "I would like to concentrate on that", he said. "Roads and electricity are what the Afghan people ask for". He also said that Pakistan has formally proposed to build a fence to stem the flow of insurgents, but that he had rejected the idea. The 1,500-mile, or 2,400km, border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has never been officially determined, and both countries continue to use the administrative division, known as the Durrand Line, that was drawn by the British more than 100 years ago. Karzai said building a wall would be extremely difficult because the boundary divides tribes and families, adding, "It is separating people, not preventing terrorism". The idea for a fence, first suggested by Pres Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan last week, was formally proposed in a letter to the Afghan government.