Afghan President demands judicial independence

BERLIN, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai said here Monday his country wanted to regain complete judicial independence as soon as possible.

To reduce civilian casualties completely, international military forces need to stop operations in Afghan villages, Karzai said at the Munich Security Conference, adding "we believe the war against terrorists is not in Afghan villages and homes."

"Ending military operations in Afghan villages is what Afghan people are seeking as a priority. That means Afghanistan regains judicial independence completely and rather very very soon.

"Afghan must be able to, as a sovereign government to justice its people, to explain the reason why people are arrested. The arrested people must not be arrested by international forces. The suspects must be taken by Afghan forces through the Afghan judicial system and through the laws of Afghanistan." Karzai said.

Karzai also asked the international community to play roles of "supporters" instead of "rivals" for Afghan government and "remove any parallel activities toward Afghanistan."

"Any activity that is conducted in the matter of functions of government by our international friends as parallel to our government is reducing the capacity of Afghanistan," he said.

The 46th Munich Security Conference (MSC) entered its third and last day Sunday. About 300 high-level representatives discussed a range of tough topics, including "resource security and shifting global power", "the future of European and global security", "arms control and the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)", "NATO's new strategy and mission" and "the Afghanistan."

The Munich Security Conference was founded as the Wehrkunde Conference by the German publisher Ewald von Kleist in 1962.