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Afghan interim govt being sworn-in
Armed British troops patrolled the Afghan capital for the first time on Saturday to boost security at a ceremony to swear in the new interim government in the first peaceful and undisputed handover of power in 28 years.
Armed British troops patrolled the Afghan capital for the first time on Saturday to boost security at a ceremony to swear in the new interim government in the first peaceful and undisputed handover of power in 28 years.
"It`s a great day," said James Dobbins, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, arriving for at the Interior Ministry where soft-spoken Pashtun aristocrat Hamid Karzai will take over the reins of power from the man who has held the nominal post of president for nearly a decade, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Security was tight in a capital that has been ravaged by war since the Soviet invasion on Christmas Day 1979.
Soldiers of the Northern Alliance that swept into Kabul on November 13 in the wake of retreating Taliban, arrested three suspected armed fighters of the fundamentalist militia in the Interior Ministry compound. Northern Alliance police wearing newly painted white helmets sprayed with the word "Police" in English and Dari had sealed off the streets for several blocks around the ministry by 9.30 a.m. (0500 GMT).
Many carried Kalashnikov rifles. Inside the Interior Ministry compound, several hundred armed Alliance troops were deployed, including some on rooftops. Every visitor was searched. Inside the hall, former foes and longtime friends sat in the audience.
On the stage, Karzai, his head covered with what is rapidly becoming his trademark grey lambskin hat, sat with Tajik officials of the Northern Alliance, leaders of the ethnic Hazaras descended from Genghis Khan and Uzbeks loyal to warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum.
The Northern Alliance was the main military force on the ground in the U.S.-led defeat of the Taliban, and will be providing 18 of the 30 ministers in the interim administration of Karzai, who becomes interim President.
In the streets outside, British Royal Marines took up positions -- answering a popular call for outside security to ensure the leaders do not return to the civil strife that killed 50,000 people in Kabul in the early 1990s. The U.N.-mandated presence of 20 at the Interior Ministry was their first involvement with security, and comes despite reservations among the Northern Alliance and many tribal leaders who are nervous of the presence of foreign troops on their soil.
Their commander, Major Matt Jones, said that the Marines were providing "a presence, reassurance" at the ministry in coordination with Northern Alliance troops. "We were invited".
"It has gone pretty smoothly up until now, Jones said. "We`ve got quite a friendly response, one of curiosity more than anything else. When we waved, they waved back."
Bureau Report
Security was tight in a capital that has been ravaged by war since the Soviet invasion on Christmas Day 1979.
Soldiers of the Northern Alliance that swept into Kabul on November 13 in the wake of retreating Taliban, arrested three suspected armed fighters of the fundamentalist militia in the Interior Ministry compound. Northern Alliance police wearing newly painted white helmets sprayed with the word "Police" in English and Dari had sealed off the streets for several blocks around the ministry by 9.30 a.m. (0500 GMT).
Many carried Kalashnikov rifles. Inside the Interior Ministry compound, several hundred armed Alliance troops were deployed, including some on rooftops. Every visitor was searched. Inside the hall, former foes and longtime friends sat in the audience.
On the stage, Karzai, his head covered with what is rapidly becoming his trademark grey lambskin hat, sat with Tajik officials of the Northern Alliance, leaders of the ethnic Hazaras descended from Genghis Khan and Uzbeks loyal to warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum.
The Northern Alliance was the main military force on the ground in the U.S.-led defeat of the Taliban, and will be providing 18 of the 30 ministers in the interim administration of Karzai, who becomes interim President.
In the streets outside, British Royal Marines took up positions -- answering a popular call for outside security to ensure the leaders do not return to the civil strife that killed 50,000 people in Kabul in the early 1990s. The U.N.-mandated presence of 20 at the Interior Ministry was their first involvement with security, and comes despite reservations among the Northern Alliance and many tribal leaders who are nervous of the presence of foreign troops on their soil.
Their commander, Major Matt Jones, said that the Marines were providing "a presence, reassurance" at the ministry in coordination with Northern Alliance troops. "We were invited".
"It has gone pretty smoothly up until now, Jones said. "We`ve got quite a friendly response, one of curiosity more than anything else. When we waved, they waved back."
Bureau Report