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　　Karzai Is Sworn In, Citing a 'New Chapter' for Afghanistan

　　By ERIC SCHMITT and CARLOTTA GALL

　　Published: December 8, 2004

　　中文导读：

　　做为阿富汗历史上首位由民主选举产生的总统，临时政府领袖 HAMID

　　KARZAI最近正式上台。仪式上，他允诺将为阿富汗人民带来一个全新的，高效率，有改革精神的领导政权，将为国家的安全和稳定做出不懈努力，严厉打击毒品制造和走私，并让民兵缴械。他也将致力于建立相关法律，保护公民的民主自由和权力，打击腐败，使国民团结，以及加强外交关系。

　　另外，两个主要民族的代表人 Ahmed Zia Massoud and Karim Khalili

　　也分别被任命为阿国的副总统。为预防任何恐怖事件发生，相关部门为整个仪式采取了严密的安全防范措施。以CHENEY为首的美国代表团出席了此次登基仪式。

　　KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 7 - Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president on Tuesday, three years after American-backed resistance fighters swept the Taliban government from power.

　　Mr. Karzai, who on Oct. 9 easily won election to a five-year term after serving as head of a transitional government, took the oath of office in a nationally televised ceremony on the presidential grounds before an audience of hundreds of Afghan ministers, tribal elders, political and military leaders and 150 foreign dignitaries, including Vice President Dick Cheney.

　　With American snipers perched on roofs and Apache helicopter gunships patrolling overhead to protect against a threatened Taliban attack, Mr. Karzai promised in his address to use his new mandate from the people to select an efficient, reform-minded cabinet that would not be constrained by powerful factional and ethnic interests, as his cabinets have been in the past.

　　"We have now left a hard and dark past behind us, and today we are opening a new chapter in our history, in a spirit of friendship with the international community," Mr. Karzai said, speaking alternately in Pashto and Dari, the country's two major languages, in his 15-minute speech.

　　In a sign of the event's importance to the Bush administration, Mr. Cheney led an American delegation from Washington that included Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and one of President Bush's most trusted advisers, Karen P. Hughes. Mr. Cheney is the most senior administration official to visit Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled in December 2001.

　　Wearing a black lambskin hat and a traditional striped silk coat over his shoulders, Mr. Karzai took his oath before the aging former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah. The president then swore in his two vice presidents, Ahmed Zia Massoud and Karim Khalili, who represent the Tajiks and the Shiite Hazaras, the country's two largest ethnic majorities after Mr. Karzai's own ethnic group, the Pashtuns.

　　Mr. Karzai vowed to strengthen security and stability, combat the production and smuggling of narcotics and collect weapons and disarm militias, all crucial campaign pledges. He also spoke of bringing the rule of law and prosperity to the country, protecting civil liberties and human rights, fighting corruption, building national unity and strengthening international relations.

　　Though much reduced, the t