‘We don’t feel safe’: Afghan anti-graft officials demand protection
Kabul, (MILLAT ONLINE):A series of deadly attacks on Afghan anti-corruption officials has highlighted the dangers of taking on the country’s rich and powerful and sparked calls for better protection of the people waging war against graft.
Three police investigators have been murdered in the year since Afghanistan’s Anti-Corruption Justice Center (ACJC) began public hearings of high-level cases in Kabul.
Earlier this month another investigator was wounded after being shot in the face, and a senior employee was attacked outside his home, ACJC officials told AFP, in what are suspected to be targeted assaults.
No one has been arrested over the attacks, which critics say expose flaws in the security provided to the people tasked with punishing corruption — an issue President Ashraf Ghani has made a priority.
“Unfortunately we are not secure, we are not living in secure places, the commute is not safe and even in the ACJC we don’t feel safe,” Chief Judge Anisa Rasooli told AFP at her office inside the ACJC compound on the edge of the Afghan capital.
“We are working on very high-profile cases and facing very dangerous people.”
Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International, with graft permeating nearly every public institution, including the military.
The anti-corruption centre was established in June 2016 but, more than a year on, gaping holes remain in efforts to protect its officers.