Kabul, July 26: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been honoured for his attempts to steer his country towards democracy with an award from a US-based refugee charity, his spokesman said today. Karzai has been invited to receive the prestigious International Rescue Committee's (IRC) freedom award for 2002 at a ceremony in New York later this year, Fazel Akbar told reporters.

A letter to the president said he was being honoured for his "efforts to establish security, and a new government and move forward towards democracy", according to Akbar.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Karzai was first installed as chairman of a six-month interim administration last December after the downfall of the Taliban regime and was elected president of an 18-month transitional government at last month's Loya Jirga grand assembly. He will continue as head of government until full elections are held in 2004.

Other former recipients include Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Myanmar opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

Founded in 1933, the New York-based IRC is a leading non-sectarian, voluntary organisation providing relief, protection and resettlement services for refugees and victims of oppression or violent conflict.
Bureau Report