Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday Afghan President Hamid Karzai "must do better" if he wanted US support and that included creating a major crimes tribunal and anti-corruption commission.
"We're going to be doing what we can to create an atmosphere in which the blood and treasure that the United States has committed to Afghanistan can be justified and can produce the kind of results that we're looking for," said Clinton in the interview with ABC News from Singapore.
"We've delivered that message. Now that the election is finally over, we're looking to see tangible evidence that the government, led by the president but going all the way down to the local level, will be more responsive to the needs of the people," Clinton told ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" show.
President Barack Obama is expected in the coming weeks to announce a new strategy for Afghanistan, including sending in up to 40,000 more troops to fight the eight-year war.
A central question as he debates sending in more troops is whether Karzai can be a credible partner in the war and tackle his government's corruption and mismanagement, which is seen as fuelling the Taliban. Karzai, due to be inaugurated this week after August's fraud-plagued election, has come under strong pressure from the Obama administration to do a better job if he wants to sustain US support in a war that is increasingly unpopular with the American public.
DISSENT OVER TROOPS:
Last week, it emerged that Obama's own ambassador to Kabul, ex-military commander Karl Eikenberry, had expressed deep concerns in several memos to the president about sending in more troops until Karzai's government improved its performance.
Clinton, who declined comment on Eikenberry's classified memos, said she had made it very clear, for example, that the United States would not provide civilian aid to Afghanistan's government unless there was "certification" that it went through ministries which could be held accountable.
Washington also expected there to be a major crimes tribunal and an anti-corruption commission established. "There does have to be actions by the government of Afghanistan against those who have taken advantage of the money that has poured into Afghanistan in the last eight years so that we can better track it and we can have actions taken that demonstrate there's no impunity for those who are corrupt," she said. So far, the United States has dedicated about $40 billion - about half of that on security projects - to rebuilding Afghanistan.
The US chief inspector for Afghanistan told Reuters last week oversight and controls for that massive infusion of money had been "sloppy" so far and there needed to be more accountability for those US taxpayer funds.
Clinton, who is travelling with Obama on his week-long trip to Asia, said the US president had gone the "extra mile" to make sure that he took the right decision over Afghanistan and to ensure that al Qaeda and its militant allies were defeated. "We do not want to see Afghanistan return to being a safe haven and a staging platform for terrorism as it was before. That is what is driving the president to make the best decision he can make," she said.
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