Dmitry Litvinovich: Who is the provisional government here?

Today, the Afghan provisional administration officially assumed office. Burhanuddin Rabbani handed over power to Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai. This is a significant enough event for the entire world community. Two thousand people gathered in the Afghan Ministry of Internal Affairs to take part in the ceremony of the new Afghan government’s inauguration. A UN official in Afghanistan, while making a speech, said how important this ceremony was and what problems the new Afghan administration needs solve.

Representatives of Iran and European countries stated that politicians’ presence in this ceremony from many countries of the world showed the world community’s interest in the peaceful development of the country. Near the end of the ceremony, the new head of Afghan government, Hamid Karzai took the oath of the country’s leader. Since that moment, he became the head of Afghanistan, and, namely, it is he who is now responsible for Afghanistan’s future.

Afghanistan has many troubles. People do not even possess the things necessary to survive, and food and medicines are hard to supply to the country, because the Taliban changed their tactics and are carrying our a guerrilla warfare. In addition to the Taliban, numerous Pashtun groups are functioning in Afghanistan that do not acknowledge any authority and commit robberies, taking advantage of the complicated situation in the country. In the Afghan provinces, the situation seems to be better. After the Taliban were driven out, the old leaders of the local administrations returned to their posts. However, they seem to acknowledge the provisional government only de jure but not de facto.

The government itself also has some troubles. They are not so obvious now, when it starts to clean its Augean stables left after the Taliban’s governing and after the war.

So, what problems will the new government solve? Hamid Karzai answers this question. In his interview for CNN, he said the history gave his country a new opportunity. “Afghanistan will be a peaceful country,” – he stressed in a good English.

The new administration has to face some very difficult tasks: first of all, to guarantee the security of its citizens and then to restore the economy ruined by the war. According to the UN, in the next five years, Afghanistan needs international aid of the sum of 9 billion dollars.

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/12/22/35061.html