Karzai signs new constitution

Описание: (26 Jan 2004)
1. Pan of audience
2. Audience listening
3. Audience listening to anthem
4. President Hamid Karzai
5. Former King Mohammed Zaher Shah next to Karzai
6. Audience
7. Karzai and former King Mohammed Zaher Shah walking to podium
8. Karzai signing constitution
9. Applause
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Samad, Government spokesman:
"I pray to God almighty that this constitution will guide the way for the government and the people of this country to observing the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam, strengthening of national unity, the realisation of democratic goals, building a civil society and the achievement of cultural, economic, social and political prosperity for all and will ensure peace, equity and brotherhood in the Afghan nation. From Allah we seek success. Hamid Karzai, president of the traditional Islamic state of Afghanistan."
11. Karzai and former King listening
12. US commander
STORYLINE:
Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, signed his country's new constitution into law on Monday, 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.
The step was just the latest under a UN-sponsored peace drive designed to rebuild the Afghan state since a US-led invasion drove out the Taliban two years ago.
The constitution outlines a tolerant, democratic Islamic state under a strong presidency, as sought by Karzai, a two-chamber parliament and an independent judiciary.
Ratified on January 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, a victory for human rights advocates.
Karzai has praised the new constitution, which also recognizes minority languages while giving few powers to provincial authorities, as a chance to pull the country together after nearly a quarter-century of violence.
But 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 hardline Islamic Taliban and its anti-government allies.
About 60 people have been killed in violence in the past three weeks, including 15 civilians, most of them children, who died in a January 6 bombing in the southern city of Kandahar.

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