At UN office in Kabul, Karzai inaugurates panel on convening Emergency Loya Jirga

At a ceremony held at the United Nations mission headquarters in Kabul, the chairman of Afghanistan’s Interim Administration, Hamid Karzai, today officially inaugurated the Special Commission for the convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga.

Expressing his strong support for the Commission that will decide on a transitional government until democratic elections can be held, Mr. Karzai assured the members that they would function as an independent body in pursuit of their activities.

Also addressing the ceremony, the officer in charge of the UN mission, Carl Fisher, stressed that the Commission was for and of the people of Afghanistan, but added that the United Nations would stand ready to help where assistance was required.

Meanwhile in New York, a UN spokesman announced today that Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, was scheduled to go to Washington, D.C. for talks with US officials.