Afghan interim prime minister (20012) and head of state (2002 ), born in Kandahar, Afghanistan. A Pashtun, and son of a powerful chief of the Popolzai tribe, he studied politics at the University of Simla, India. In 1983 during the war with the Soviet Union he channelled money, weapons, and supplies to the Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan. When the Soviets left, he served as deputy foreign minister in the Mujahideen administration (1992), but quickly became disenchanted with them and sided with the Taliban. By 1994 he had become increasingly disillusioned with the movement, refused the post of ambassador to the UN in 1996, and went into exile in Pakistan, where he began organizing resistance against the Taliban. He travelled repeatedly to the USA to lobby for support, and secretly returned to Afghanistan to recruit anti-Taliban fighters in October 2001. At the UN Bonn conference on Afghanistan (Dec 2001), he was named leader of the interim government. He won a landslide majority to become head of state (June 2002).
حامد کرزي
|
|
|
| 1st President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan | |
|---|---|
| Incumbent | |
|
In office since December 22, 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Mulla Mohammad Omar |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
| Born |
December 24, 1957 Kandahar, Afghanistan |
| Political party | None |
| Spouse | Zinat Karzai |
Hamid Karzai (Pashto: حامد کرزي, Persian: حامد کرزی) (b. From December 2001, Hamid Karzai had been the Chairman of the Transitional Administration and then the Interim President from 2002 until he won the 2004 Presidential election.
Biography
Hamid Karzai was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as an ethnic Pashtun of the influential Popalzai clan.
He is married to Zinat Karzai, an obstetrician by profession.
Relations with the Taliban
When the Taliban emerged onto the political scene in the 1990s, Karzai was initially among their supporters. After the Taliban drove Rabbani out of Kabul in 1996, Karzai refused to serve as their U.N. Karzai lived in exile in Quetta, Pakistan where he worked to reinstate Zahir Shah. His father was assassinated, presumably by Taliban agents, on July 14, 1999, and Karzai swore revenge against the Taliban by working to help overthrow them.
Afghan Leader
In the months following the September 11, 2001 attacks, forces loyal to Karzai together with Mujahideen loyal to the Afghan Northern Alliance worked with the United States to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan and muster support for a new government. Under the December 5 Bonn Agreement they formed an interim Transitional Administration and named Karzai Chairman of a 29-member governing committee. The Loya Jirga of June 19, 2002 appointed Karzai Interim holder of the new position as President of the Afghan Transitional Administration.
Karzai's actual authority outside the capital city of Kabul was said to be so limited that he was often derided as the "Mayor of Kabul".
2004 Afghan Presidential election
Karzai was a candidate in the October 9, 2004 presidential elections.
As incumbent president Karzai held high name recognition among voters, and was admired by his supporters for his steady leadership during an uncertain post-war period. Following investigation by the UN of alleged voting irregularities, the national election commission on November 3 declared Karzai winner, without runoff, with 55.4% of the vote.
Karzai was officially sworn in as President of Afghanistan on December 7, 2004 at a formal ceremony in Kabul.
President of Afghanistan
After winning a democratic mandate in the election and removing many of the former Northern Alliance warlords from his cabinet, many thought that Karzai would pursue a more aggressively reformist path in 2005.
On September 5, 2002, an assassination attempt was made on Hamid Karzai in Kandahar. The gunman, one of the President's bodyguards, and a bystander who knocked down the gunman were killed when Karzai's bodyguards returned fire. A second attempt on Karzai's life took place on September 16, 2004 when a rocket missed the helicopter he was riding to Gardez, where Karzai planned to open a school.
In 2004 he rejected a US proposal to end poppy production in Afghanistan through aerial spraying of chemical herbicides, possibly fearing that he may alienate some warlords who are less hostile to his administration or who support him conditionally. Moreover, it is rumored that Karzai's younger brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who helped finance Karzai's presidential campaign, is involved in the drug trade. The situation is particularly delicate since Karzai and his administration have not been equipped either financially or politically to influence reforms outside of the region around the capital city of Kabul. Karzai has been, to varying degrees of success, attempting to negotiate and form amicable alliances with them for the benefit of Afghanistan as a whole, instead of aggressively fighting them and putting the entire nation at jeopardy of a full blown civil war. Karzai said terrorism is "rebounding" in his country, with militants infiltrating the borders to wage attacks on civilians.
In a video broadcast on September 24 Karzai said that if the money spent on the Iraq War went to Afghanistan, his country would "be in heaven in less than one year".
Criticism
Hamid Karzai has received harsh criticism from the Afghan human rights group Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan who charge that the current government has no support in most areas of Afghanistan, and that fundamentalists are enforcing anti-women laws as they were under the Taliban. Karzai was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal for 2004 and made an Honorary British Knight in 2003. Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai helps coordinate humanitarian assistance in the southern province of Kandahar. Several sources, most notably the film Fahrenheit 9/11, have reported that Karzai once worked as a consultant for the oil company Unocal. Spokesmen for both Unocal and Karzai have denied any such relationship, although Unocal could not speak for all companies involved in the consortium. In December 2001, Karzai survived a "friendly fire" missile attack when the batteries gave out on the GPS device of a member of Karzai's group. On September 25, 2006, Karzai was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Georgetown University.
User Comments Add a comment…