8/12/2019 Karzai Oath

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KABUL: Afghanistan's new leader Ham id Karzai is sworn in chairman of the Afghan interim governm ent here on Saturday.—AFP

Karzai takes oath,vows to bring peaceKABUL, Dec 22: Soft-spoken

aristocrat Hamid Karzai wassworn in on Saturday as leaderof Afghanistan in the first peace-ful handover of power in 28years,  facing the daunting taskof rebuilding a land destroyedby war, hatred and hunger.

  I promise you that I will fulfilmy mission to bring peace toAfghanistan, that we cannot seeagain the chains of fighting andshooting in our country, MrKarzai said in a speech in bothPushto and Dari — the two mainlanguages of Afghanistan.

In the interior ministry, 2,000tribal leaderS*<ijieoniing cabinet

members, diplomats and the USgeneral commanding the warattended the ceremony to installMr Karzai's interim government.

  Today we are happy that wecan see the sun rising again onour land. I think a wave of peace

See also Pp 14,16and unity is coming to our coun-try, Mr Karzai, 43 , said toapplause.

Sworn in by the acting chiefjustice, Mr Karzai then adminis-tered the oath of office to the 29other members t>f his govern-ment that win hold dmt» bt  *w- ••

months.He embraced outgoing presi-

dent Burhanuddin Rabbani, whoheld the job m ostly in a nominalcapacity for nearly a decade.

NARROWING RIVALRIES:Dressed in a green and purplestriped Uzbek robe and wearing

a lambskin cap, Mr Karzaishared the stage with Tajik offi-cials of the Northern Alliance,leaders of the ethnic Hazarasdescended from Genghis Khanand Uzbek warlord Gen AbdulRashid Dostum.

Former foes and longtime

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Karzai takes oath

vows to bring peaceContinued from Page 1

friends, elders in turbans, sol-diers in camouflage and USGeneral Tommy Franks sat inthe audience.

"This is indeed a momentousday for Afghanistan, but thechallenges ahead are alsomomentous and everyone pre-sent today will have a share infacing up to those challenges,"United Nations special repre-sentative Lakhdar Brahimi said.

Mr Karzai's estimated 25 mil-lion people, including five mil-lion refugees abroad, will belooking to him to enforce peaceamong warlords after years offighting, and to end hunger asthe harsh winter sets in withcrops destroyed by three yearsof drought.

Mr Brahimi, who brokeredthe talks in Bonn this month atwhich Afghan groups agreed onthe administration, remindedhis audience that "each andevery" Afghan had beentouched by tragedy in decadesof civil war and foreign inva-sion.

Mr Karzai unveiled a 13-pointplan to rebuild Afghanistan andpaid homage to warriors whotoppled the Taliban.

The national anthem playedas curtains parted at the back ofthe stage to reveal a huge por-trait of Ahmad Shah Masood,legendary leader of theNorthern Alliance who wasassassinated in a suicide bomb-ing two days before the Sept 11attacks in the United States.Shouts of "God is Great"

echoed through the hall asspeakers referred to the latehero,  known as the Lion ofPanjsher.

Shouts erupted as Mr Karzaipromised his people an Islamicgovernment and applause fol-lowed his pledge of respect forwomen.

"Our country is nothing but aruined land," he said in aspeech that was a show of diplo-matic prowess as he broke off towelcome Herat Governor IsmailKhan when he came late, calledfor prayers and ensured his

remarks left out no one."Oh God the journey is long

and I am a novice. I need yourhe lp ,"  said the ally ofAfghanistan's former king ZahirShah.

An Afghan honour guard ofaround 50 men in aging ceremo-nial greatcoats and black boots,bearing rifles with fixed bayo-nets stood outside the interiorministry.

ENSURING  PEACE: Britishtroops patrolled Kabul to boostsecurity at the first peaceful

and undisputed handover ofpower in 28 years.

"It's a great day," said JamesDobbins, US special envoy toAfghanistan.

He arrived with Gen Franks,the man in command of the US-led war in Afghanistan thatwrested power from the Talibanafter six years of fundamental-ist rule when men were bannedfrom trimming their beards andwomen could only appear inpublic veiled in  burqa

"I will safeguard the achieve-ments of Jihad," the trim-beard-ed Xarzai said in his oath ofoffice. "I will try my best to riseabove the ethnic, religious andlinguistic prejudices to servemy country and work for nation-al unity."

On the streets, hopes werehigh among men and women.

"Karzai is one of the Afghanswho wants to do good things forthe country and is capable ofdoing good," said MohammadYunis Omarkhe, an ethnicPakhtoon medical student.

Among the women at the cer-emony, none was wearing aburqa They were wearing silkscarves over their hair, andmany were wearing makeup.

SECURITY  TIGHT: Securitywas tight in a capital that hasbeen ravaged by war since theSoviet invasion on ChristmasDay in 1979.

Soldiers of the NorthernAlliance that swept into Kabulon Nov 13 in the wake ofretreating Taliban, arrestedthree suspected armed fightersof the fundamentalist militia in

the interior ministry compound.They were said to be armed.

Northern Alliance policewearing newly painted whitehelmets sprayed with the word"Police" in English and Darisealed off the streets for severalblocks around the ministry.

Many carried Kalashnikovrifles.  Inside the interior min-istry compound, several hun-dred armed Alliance troopswere deployed, including someon rooftops. Every visitor wassearched.

The Alliance has been provid-ed 18 ministries in the interimadministration of Mr Karzai.

"I just want a peaceful gov-ernment to make our citypeaceful," said Shilla, a womanwalking in a blue   burqa veilwith a small boy. "And I amhappy that the government of

the Taliban is finished."The British Marines, deployed

despite reservations among theNorthern Alliance about thepresence of foreign troops, werewearing berets but not helmets.They carried personal weapons.