KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai signed Afghanistan's new constitution into law yesterday, putting into force a charter meant to reunite his war-shattered nation and help defeat a virulent Taliban insurgency.
Seated next to Afghanistan's former King Mohammed Zaher Shah in a palace at the Foreign Ministry, Karzai signed a decree formally declaring the 162-article document ratified earlier this month as the country's supreme law.
Congratulations! he called to Afghan leaders who helped draw up the new charter, as Cabinet ministers and foreign diplomats applauded at the brief ceremony.
The step was just the latest under a U.N.-sponsored peace drive designed to rebuild the Afghan state since a U.S.-led invasion drove out the Taliban two years ago.
The constitution outlines a tolerant, democratic Islamic state under a strong presidency.
Ratified Jan. 4 after a sometimes bruising debate at a 500-member loya jirga, or grand council of representatives from across the country, the text also declares men and women equal before the law.
Karzai has praised the constitution as a chance to pull the country together after nearly a quarter-century of violence.
Celebrations of its adoption have been tempered by a fresh wave of attacks across the south and east of the country blamed on holdouts from the hard-line Islamic Taliban and their anti-government allies.
About 60 people have been killed in violence in the past three weeks.
U.S. warplanes fired on suspected militants Sunday night after they clashed with a patrol in eastern Afghanistan, American and Afghan officials said.
U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said the U.S. patrol was in contact with anti-coalition militia near Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province, some 120 miles east of Kabul, when the aircraft struck.
He said there were no casualties on either side.
Also Sunday, a remote-controlled bomb exploded along a road near Asadabad, where U.S. troops have a base, causing no injuries, an Afghan security official said. The explosion occurred near Nawabad, about a mile southeast of the city, said Haji Jehandad Khan, Kunar's chief of border security.
Militants loyal to Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are believed to operate in Kunar and nearby provinces. Hekmatyar, a former prime minister, has lined up with Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts to oppose U.S. forces and the Afghan government.
Four Afghans were reported killed in a case of mistaken identity in Helmand province further south. The four were killed after Afghan soldiers opened fire on them when they refused to stop at a checkpoint, Deputy Gov. Haji Pir Mohammed said. Three soldiers at the checkpoint were injured, one seriously, when the soldiers in the car fired back.
The United Nations has warned that countrywide elections to be held under the new constitution in June may have to be delayed because of poor security, and can only go ahead at all if the situation improves.
So far, only about 500,000 of the estimated 10 million Afghans eligible to vote have been registered, and U.N. teams have yet to venture into the riskiest areas.
17 Archives
The Associated Press
