Hamid Karzai

Became President:	December 7, 2004
Date of Birth:	December 24, 1957
Place of Birth:	Karz village, Qandahar

Hamid Karzai (Arabic: حامدکرزى) (born December 24, 1957) has been the President of Afghanistan since December 7, 2004. Muhammad Karzai had previously been the interim president of the Afghan Transitional Administration, named at the Loya Jirga of June 19, 2002 and appointed shortly afterwards. Prior to this Karzai was inaugurated as Chairman of the Transitional Administration on December 22 2001 following the Bonn Agreement of December 5, 2001.

On November 3, 2004, Karzai was declared winner of the October 9 presidential elections with 55.4 percent of the vote. He was inaugurated a month later on December 7 and became the first democratically elected leader of Afghanistan.

Karzai was born in Kandahar. An ethnic Pashtun and a member of the powerful Populzai clan (from which many Afghan Kings have come), he came from a family that were among the strongest supporters of King Zahir Shah. Thus, he was involved in politics in Afghanistan early on. He took a postgraduate course in political science at Himachal University in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India from 1979 to 1983, then returned to work as a fund-raiser supporting anti-Soviet uprisings in Afghanistan during the rest of the 1980s. After the expulsion of Soviet forces, he served as a minister in the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Karzai speaks six languages; Pushtu, Dari, Urdu, English, French and Hindi. He is married to Zinat Karzai, a doctor by profession. They were married in 1998 and have no children.

When the Taliban emerged onto the political scene in the 1990s, Karzai was initially among their supporters. However, he later broke with the Taliban, citing distrust of their links to Pakistan. After the Taliban overthrew Rabbani in 1996, Karzai refused to serve as their U.N. ambassador. In 1997, Karzai joined many of his family members in Quetta, from where he worked to reinstate Zahir Shah. His father was assassinated, presumably by Taliban agents, July 14, 1999, and Karzai swore revenge against the Taliban by working to help overthrow it.

In 2001, following the September 11 terrorist attack, Karzai worked with agents of the United States to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan and muster support for a new government. On December 5, 2001 exiled Afghan political leaders--many with no followers inside Afghanistan--gathered in Bonn, Germany, and named Karzai chairman of a 29-member governing committee and leader of an interim government. The ceremony for the transfer of power took place December 22.

On September 5, 2002, an assassination attempt was made on Hamid Karzai in Kandahar. A gunman wearing the uniform of the new Afghan National Army opened fire, wounding the Governor of Kandahar and an American Special Operations officer. The gunman assasin and one of the President's bodyguards and a innocent well wisher to Karzai were killed. An American bodyguard to Karzai accidentally killed and wounded several people.

Karzai has received an honorary doctorate in literature from Himachal University on March 7, 2003.

Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai helps coordinate humanitarian assistance in the southern province of Kandahar.

Several sources, most notably the documentary 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 they could not speak for all companies involved in the consortium. [1] http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/lane.htm [2] http://209.41.191.254/cnn.cfm?id=118579&category=Economy&Country=AFGHANISTAN The claim appears to have originated in the December 9, 2001 issue of the French newspaper Le Monde. It was also stated by the Christian Science Monitor [3] http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0610/p01s03e-wosc.html . Some have suggested that Karzai was confused with U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad.

Karzai's actual authority and popular support outside the capital city of Kabul was said to be so limited that he was often derided as the "Mayor of Kabul." Despite this, Karzai defeated his 22 opponents in the country's presidential election on October 9, 2004, winning 21 of the 34 provinces. 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. Other contributing factors to his win may have included his endorsement by US President George W. Bush's administration, the brief one month campaign season, and the paucity of news coverage in the country about his opponents. Although his campaigning was limited due to fears of violence, elections passed without significant incident.

Controversy erupted due to the failure of indelible ink to prevent voter fraud. Following investigation by the UN, the national election commission on November 3rd declared Karzai winner, without runoff, with 55.4% of the vote. This represented 4.3 million of the total 8.1 million votes cast.

Karzai was officially sworn in as President of Afghanistan on December 7, 2004 at a formal ceremony in Kabul. Many interepreted the ceremony as a symbolically important "new start" for the war torn nation. Notable guests at the inauguration included the country's former King, Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's three living former presidents, and American Vice President Dick Cheney.

External links

• U.S. Endgame in Afghanistan http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/01/05/41643.html
• Hopeless 22 http://www.slate.com/id/2104924/
• Karzai inaugurated in Kabul http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/07/afghanistan.inauguration/index.html