When the Independent Election Commission announced that Hamid Karzai would be president for another five years, local and international powers began to demand that the newly re-elected president clamp down on the corruption that had spread like a virus throughout his administration and the ministries.

International donors threatened to withdraw funds from the country unless Karzai could turn the ship of state around and sail in bribe-free waters. U.S. President Barack Obama began calling for accountability, giving his Afghan counterpart a six-month deadline to get hold of the dishonest elements of Afghan government.

Other NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) coalition members were similarly blunt. In a congratulatory call to Karzai after his victory in last summer’s election, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, made clear that her country was also growing impatient with the nature of afghan government.

Other Europeans were decidedly blunter. One European diplomat told The New York Times that many in the international community wanted to see “some heads on a platter,” delivered by Karzai.

Even Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary general, has put pressure on Karzai to rein in graft.

Alako named two former ministers of transportation and the former chair of Ariana Afghan Airlines, Nader Atash as people with connections to the highest levels of government who would face prosecution for misappropriation of public monies. The two ministers were Hamidullah Qadari and Enayatullah Qasemi.

Qadari was sacked in November 2008 for using his ministry to run a scam on the 30,000 Afghans selected to go to Mecca, Saudi Arabia for the hajj last year.

The pilgrims, selected by lottery, were charged around 3,000 dollars a piece by Qadari’s ministry in order to make the journey. But when they got to Mecca, delays abounded and the government hadn’t reserved the proper facilities. Unfortunately, the prosecution of Qadari and Qasemi may take some time, as they are both out of the country and currently being pursued by international police.

In addition to these named suspects, Attorney General Alako has said that there are a number of other government officials who are under suspicion for various fraud and corruption. His office declined to name these men, citing to constitutional law. He did reveal that five of the suspects were sitting governors and three are former ministers.

He said the charges include embezzlement, bribery and misuse of power. Astonishingly, murder is also one of the charges, according to Afghanistan’s top legal authority. “There is enough evidence,” Alako said recently. “As soon as we establish these special courts, we will begin prosecuting the cases.”

Recently, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta held a joint press conference with his Swedish counterpart announcing that President Karzai is in fact serious about fighting corruption in his government.

But some observers say that if Karzai bows to pressure from those who helped get him elected, the fight is already lost.

Noorullah Khpewak, a Kabul political analyst, says that if Karzai can choose a cabinet based on the most honest and well qualified applicants, it will be possible to begin rooting out government corruption. “But,” Khpewak says, “if President Karzai appoints his key cabinet members under pressure from his supporters, he will not be able to defeat corruption.”

Khpewak believes that those who supported Karzai through the long hot months of the summer campaign will expect some kind of reward for their efforts. “They want to share power,” he says. “But they will not help reduce corruption.”

But there are some who believe that Karzai will have more success rooting out corruption than in previous years.

Sayed Jawad Husseini, head of the Afghan Youth Party, believes that the incoming administration will be able to get a hold on corruption.

* This is published under an agreement with the Killid Group, an independent Afghan media group. IPS and Killid are partners since 2004.

Carpet weaving has long been a part of Afghanistan’s history and culture.

Profits from carpets go outside Afghanistan Credit: Najibullah Musafer/Killid Media

Though it is unclear exactly when Afghans began making carpets, it is believed that long ago, women poured their emotions into the carpets they created, telling stories of hero’s and prophets. Since that time, carpets have come to symbolise Afghan national dignity and stand as a testament to the creativity of her people.

Monawar Shah Haqbin, an Afghan historian, says that when kings in Afghanistan wanted to bestow precious gifts on one another, carpets were usually their first choice.

Also, when women wanted to marry, carpets were a crucial part of any dowry. Even today, when Afghan celebrities or public officials make an appearance during times of national celebration, they often do so on a red carpet, weaved by Afghan craftsmen.

Now, carpet weaving has an even more vital role as one of the few viable industries left in Afghanistan.

It is easy to set up a loom in the home and the materials for getting started are inexpensive and easily obtainable. Women can pick up the skill and make money for their families without having to leave the home and children.

While the northern part of Afghanistan has traditionally been the carpet-production epicentre of the country, since the Taliban came to power in the 1990’s, the importance of Kabul to carpet production has grown. Women who could no longer go to school or work because of Taliban restrictions, could still make money by weaving carpets.

After the regime was toppled, the new government undertook many initiatives to train and monetise carpet production by Afghan women.

But still, the lack of large-scale resources to cut, wash and finish these carpets has crippled Afghanistan’s ability to fully capitalise on one of its most valuable commodities. Experts say that until the government provides resources for start-to-finish production of Afghan carpets, the profit from these products will continue to go to those outside Afghanistan’s borders.

Pakistan, Afghanistan’s southern neighbour, has taken advantage of its proximity to the highest quality carpets in the world. The government of that country has made the carpet business easy for manufacturers and exporters.

Mohammad Esau, a former Afghan warlord who owns a carpet shop in the Pakistani town of Atak, says that Afghans in the area are currently operating hundreds of carpet factories. He adds that Pakistan’s government has even offered him and other weavers citizenship, enticing them to make permanent homes on that side of the border.

A significant number of native Pakistanis are also involved in the carpet production business, but they tend to work in the finishing stages of production unavailable in Afghanistan, while the Afghans are responsible for the weaving and looming.

Pakistan’s government has also made it easier for carpet producers to do business. They lend as much as 80 percent of initial investment capital to producers and give 13 percent tax credits on each shipping container full of carpets exported out of the country.

By comparison, the Afghan government’s attempts to prop up the carpet industry are woefully inadequate.

In August 2007, the Afghan government held an inaugural carpet exhibition, called ‘Let’s Cover The World’, in Kabul. Solyman Fatemi, former executive director of the Association of Promotion of Afghan Exports and Ahmad Zia Massoud, vice president of the Economic Committee in Government, pledged that “by opening a bridge of friendship between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Afghan handicrafts and carpet exports will be increased.”

The officials promised help with marketing and other promotional assistance, and also land-grants for carpet producers to build factories. But like so many promises from the government, Barik Andish says, no marketing was ever done and the land grants never materialised.

Mollem Salman Taj, who exports carpets from Pakistan to the wider world, says that while Afghan carpets have a superb reputation as the finest available, three decades of war have caused a rift between international carpet dealers and Afghan producers.

Taj says that marketing is the key for Afghanistan to re-establish its dominance of the carpet market. This would both help Afghanistan as an international brand, and perhaps entice Afghan carpet weavers who have fled to Pakistan or Iran to come back home.

There are still many native Afghans who have chosen to stay here and ply their craft. Sareqi, Gul-e-Barjaste, Zaher Shahi, Mashvani, Turkmani, Khal Mohammadi, Gul-Muri are the names of just a few of the 173 traditional Afghan carpet styles that are still produced almost exclusively in this country.

But exclusively is different from entirely. While these carpets are fabricated here, they are “finished” that is, cut, washed and completed in Pakistan. After the rugs are completed, they are affixed with a ‘Made in Pakistan’ label and shipped to buyers in Italy, France and Germany.

Part of the reason that the entire production process can’t take place in Afghanistan is due to a lack of resources. Noor Ghori, who makes carpets in Afghanistan, says that cutting and dying of the carpets takes equipment and materials that Afghan producers can’t afford.

As a result, the world loses a traditional Afghan product, and Afghans lose the full profit of their hard work and craftsmanship.

(*This is the second of a two-part investigative series on Afghanistan’s famed carpet industry by Killid Weekly. IPS and Killid Media, an independent Afghan group, have been partners since 2004.)

The Afghan carpet weaving industry is Afghanistan’s second largest, behind only agriculture in terms of size and number of people employed.

Only 5.2 percent of Afghan carpets are sold by Afghans Credit: Najibullah Musafer/Killid Media

Yet, carpet producers across the country receive only a fraction of the profits that their work eventually makes on the global market. And, Afghan carpets are distributed as a product that’s made in Pakistan.

“I weave carpets so that I will not have to beg money for food like so many other children I know,” says Khaleda, a 13-year-old girl from Dasht-e-Barchi, Kabul.

Ever since Khaleda’s father died during the civil war in the 1990’s, she, her mother and three younger brothers – a nine-year-old and two eleven-year-olds – have been making carpets on their own loom to earn enough money to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.

Every three months, the family produces a six-metre carpet, for which they are paid 4,000 Pakistani rupees (about 40dollars or 2,000 Afghanis).

Khaleda says that she learned carpet weaving at one of Kabul’s many carpet factories and knows how much the skill has helped her family.

“I do not know what would have happened to us if not for my ability to weave these carpets,” she says.

While the prospect of nine, eleven and thirteen-year-old children slaving away at looms to feed themselves is extremely disturbing, it is not uncommon in Afghanistan.

What is perhaps equally troubling is the fact that carpet producers across the country are receiving only a fraction of the profits that their work eventually makes on the global market. This is because of the lack of facilities to complete the carpet making process in Afghanistan.

Carpets must be sent to Pakistan or Iran for “finishing” – a process where the carpets are cut and washed. These processes require machines and materials that most Afghan carpet weavers – often small operations like the one run by Khaleda’s family – can’t afford.

As a result, Afghan producers only see about 10 percent of the profit that Pakistani exporters realise after shipping the carpets to places like Europe or East Asia. In addition, when the carpets are completed in Pakistan, they are often affixed with a ‘Made in Pakistan’ label, so that while most of the carpet is actually manufactured here, the buyer thinks he is buying a product made in another country.

The Afghan government has tried to slow the flight of carpet revenue to Pakistan by banning the use of Pakistani rupees for all transactions. But since most wholesale exporters are located across the eastern border, Pakistani rupees remain the coin of the carpet realm.

“Most of the carpets are bought by Pakistani companies,” says Ahmad Shaker, who owns a carpet company in Kabul’s Sixth District. “We represent Pakistani companies who distribute the Afghan-made carpets and that is why most transactions are done in Rupees.”

The Afghan carpet weaving industry is booming. Last spring’s plentiful rains only increased the yield for Afghans who cultivate wool, and this bumper crop has directly led to an increase in carpet production.

Gul Mohammad Barik Andish is the executive director of the Ghoriyan Carpet Factory. He says that there is a high demand in Arab countries for the raw materials of carpet weaving – such as thread and wool – produced by Afghanistan.

But these countries buy most of these materials through Pakistan, which buys them from Afghanistan on the cheap, but sells them to others at a significant markup.

The sales structure for whole carpets is no different.

Mohammad Rasoul Fayeq, Executive Director of the Association of Carpet Producers and Exporters of Afghanistan, says that only 5.2 percent of Afghan carpets are sold by Afghans to the wider world.

The other nearly 95 percent are sold to Pakistan, and from there, to the international carpet market, where a much higher price can be demanded.

These carpets are labeled as a product of Pakistan, so that many who buy Afghan carpets, do not even know they are getting a carpet that’s been made in Afghanistan.

One hundred thousand square metres of carpet is worth about 10 million dollars on the international market. Given that about 2 million square metres are produced annually in this country, that would mean a profit of about 200 million dollars a year.

But given that 95 percent of all profits go to Pakistan, this only leaves 10 million dollars left over for Afghan carpet weavers.

The lack of large-scale resources to cut, wash and finish carpets has crippled Afghanistan’s ability to fully capitalise on one of its most valuable commodities.

Experts say that until the government provides resources for start-to-finish production of Afghan carpets, the profit from these products will continue to go to those outside Afghanistan’s borders.

(*This is the first of a two-part investigative series on Afghanistan’s famed carpet industry by Killid Weekly. IPS and Killid Media, an independent Afghan group, have been partners since 2004.)