HAMID Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president today, promising to restore security to the war-shattered country three years after the fall of the Taliban. Mr Karzai took an oath on the Koran as he was inaugurated in front of foreign dignitaries including US Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The ceremony at the heavily fortified presidential palace in Kabul took place under watertight security amid threats by the ousted hardline Islamic Taliban regime to disrupt it.
Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld both warned that "extremists" still wanted to take back Afghanistan, and the Taliban yesterday night launched a deadly attack on a checkpoint in southern Khost province. The audience erupted in applause after Mr Karzai took the oath and kissed the Koran. He himself then swore in vice presidents Ahmed Zia Masood and Ustad Mohammed Karim Khalili, standing between them on the podium. He promised in his oath to exert his efforts "towards the prosperity and progress of the people of Afghanistan". Addressing the audience, he also pledged to tackle the problems facing Afghanistan after 25 years of war, including the swelling drug trade, powerful warlords and Taliban remnants.
Afghan, NATO and US forces drew a tight security cordon around the capital before the inauguration and many streets in downtown Kabul were closed. Mr Cheney hailed it as a "great and historic moment for the people of Afghanistan" and praised the US role in bringing democracy to the country. Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld, who arrived separately, were to leave the country immediately after the inauguration and an official lunch with Mr Karzai. "The military mission is not over," Mr Rumsfeld told US special forces at the Bagram airfield just outside Kabul. "It is not over, there are still groups, extremists, that would like to take this country back. |