KABUL (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Soft-spoken aristocrat Hamid Karzai was sworn in on Saturday as leader of Afghanistan in the first peaceful handover of power in decades. His formidable task is to rebuild a land destroyed by war, hatred and hunger. (Read photo caption below)
``I promise you that I will fulfil my mission to bring peace to Afghanistan, that we cannot see again the chains of fighting and shooting in our country,'' Karzai said in a speech in both Pashto and Dari -- the two main languages of Afghanistan.
In the Interior Ministry, 2,000 tribal leaders, diplomats and the U.S. general commanding the campaign that brought Karzai to power in Kabul crowded in to watch the ceremony to install the interim government which, under a U.N.-brokered deal, has been given the task of bringing peace to a land riven by war.
Sworn in by the acting chief justice, Karzai administered the oath of office to the 29 other members of his cabinet, including two women, that will hold office for six months.
A Loya Jirga, or grand council, will be called to determine a government for a further two years that will lead to a permanent system of administration for the country.
Karzai embraced outgoing president Burhanuddin Rabbani, a professor of Islamic law who held the job mostly in a nominal capacity for nearly a decade but whose reluctance to step down had contributed to civil strife and the rise of the Taliban.
Reminders of war were not far away. Armed British marines patrolled outside the ceremony to ensure security at the first peaceful and undisputed handover of power in decades.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Leader of the new interim government Hamid Karzai (R) presents Burhanuddin Rabbani (L), former President of Afghanistan, with an academic certificate awarded to him by the academy of sciences following the swearing-in ceremony at the Interior Ministry building in Kabul December 22, 2001.A Soft-spoken Afghan aristocrat Karzai formally took up the reins of power on Saturday as head of a U.N.-backed interim government replacing the Taliban who were toppled by a U.S.-led military campaign. (Peter Andrews/Reuters)