Foreign dignitaries began descending on Kabul Wednesday, the eve of the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai, who is struggling to rehabilitate his tattered reputation in the West after a fraud-marred election. Afghanistan's foreign ministry says 300 international dignitaries will attend Thursday's oath-taking ceremony at the sprawling presidential palace in Kabul, including 30 presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have confirmed they will attend. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew into Kabul Wednesday to attend the inauguration. The visit is Clinton's first to Afghanistan as Washington's top diplomat, underscoring the huge US pressure on Karzai to commit to serious reforms and crackdown on corruption after a controversial election mired in fraud. Her arrival, which was previously unannounced, was accompanied by rigorous security underscoring increasing instability in Kabul where suicide attacks have killed around 100 people in the last three months alone. Clinton has been at the forefront of international pressure on Karzai to ensure his next government is clean, directly linking future levels of military and financial aid to progress in eradicating endemic official corruption. The centrepiece will be Karzai's inauguration speech, with Western officials hoping that the veteran leader can lay out a specific program to combat corruption, improve performance and limit the influence of former warlords. “We would like some sort of roadmap. We want some clear direction given here,” a European diplomat said. The election, intended to bolster the legitimacy of the Afghan leader, had the opposite effect, driving a wedge between Karzai and the Western countries whose troops defend him, and alienating many Afghans. A UN-backed probe concluded nearly a third of votes for Karzai in the Aug. 20 poll were fake, meaning he failed to win the 50 percent needed to avoid a second round. He was declared the winner anyway when his opponent quit before the run-off. “No one can change the fact that Karzai won the election through fake votes and support from notorious warlords in return for ministerial and high-ranking posts,” said Abdul Shukoor, an elderly man heading to a Kabul mosque for noon prayers. “When the government is based on cheating and compromise, I can guarantee you, there won't any improvement for many years.” Karzai was installed by the United States and its Afghan allies after they helped drive the Taliban from power in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. He won a full term in the country's first democratic presidential election in 2004.
