the main source of this problem
the main source of this problem
the main source of this problem
The crisis is threatening to undermine confidence in Afghanistan's fledgling financial system, which was built under American guidance after the collapse of the Taliban government in 2001.
Among the bank's clients is the government, which uses it to pay the salaries of about 250,000 public employees, including security officials and the military. Last week the government transferred $100 million to the bank to ensure it could pay those salaries.
The bank, whose major shareholders include a brother of Mr. Karzai and a brother of the first vice president, helped finance the president's election campaign last year and lent luxury apartments in Dubai rent-free to well-placed officials. Those connections helped shield the bank from scrutiny, officials said.
Abdullah Abdullah, who as the chairman of the leading opposition party is President Karzai's main rival, said the government's silence over its plans for Kabul Bank was troublesome.
''Kabul Bank has been funded,'' Mr. Abdullah said, though he did not indicate his source for that information. ''And the government should let the people know how much, and how will the people get it back. It's the people's money.''
Some banking officials, who blame the Western news media for inflating the crisis, insisted that Kabul Bank's operations were routine and normal. But customers in line on Sunday said they intended either to empty their savings accounts, or to withdraw money for shopping for Id al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday later this week at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Lines formed as early as 3 a.m., and by lunchtime 1,800 customers had been given tickets directing them to the appropriate counter. By the afternoon, patrons were refused entry and were signing a wait list for Monday. A sweaty free-for-all scramble took place inside the bank, with depositors jousting for the attention of tellers.
''Ten years ago we had our money in pillows,'' said Aimal Khan, who works as an information technology specialist at the United Nations as he waited to withdraw money. ''Now we're 10 years back. Pillows are safer again.''
Ghulam Rasul, a 27-year-old shopkeeper who sat on a piece of cardboard from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m., waiting unsuccessfully to enter the bank, called the United States ''the main source of this problem.''
''If they didn't support this corrupt government, we wouldn't be in this trouble,'' Mr. Rasul said. ''Barack Obama will drown with Karzai.''
In other news, the Taliban on Saturday released a Japanese journalist who was kidnapped in March when he went to interview Taliban leaders in the north of the country, Afghan officials said.
The Japanese Embassy would not comment on the release of the journalist, Kosuke Tsuneoka, a Muslim. The Afghan authorities said the release was negotiated by high-ranking Afghan officials in Kabul and by the anime pillow case Embassy
Muhammad Omar, the governor of Kunduz Province, where the abduction occurred, said the Taliban had demanded money and the release of prisoners in exchange for Mr. Tsuneoka's release, but he did not know if those demands had been met. He said Mr. Tsuneoka was in good health.
In the Taliban-dominated south of Afghanistan, three NATO soldiers were killed over the weekend in separate attacks.
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