PESHAWAR, Dec 5: The interim Afghan Prime Minister, Hamid Karzai, on Wednesday announced general amnesty hours after he was nominated the head of the transitional government at a landmark meeting of the Afghan factions in Bonn to put to an end 23 years of fighting in Afghanistan.

“I have declared general amnesty to all. Let there be no revenge and no vendetta,” the 44-year-old Pakhtoon tribal leader, who belongs to politically influential Populzai tribe, told Dawn.

Karzai said he would work hard to bring peace and reconciliation to his homeland. “This will be my ultimate goal and I pray that Allah gives me the strength to achieve the objective.”

The son of an Afghan parliamentarian, who had served during the rule of former King Zahir Shah, Karzai started off as secretary to Mujahideen leader Prof. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi. He lived in Peshawar for some time before moving to Quetta. His father, Ahad Karzai, a royalist, was killed in Quetta in 1999. The Taliban were blamed for the killing.

Hamid Karzai joined the so-called Rome Process in 1997 when the former king, announced his plan to bring peace to Afghanistan. He left for Kandahar in late October to fight the Taliban.

Speaking by telephone from northern Kandahar, where he was fighting the Taliban to oust them from their last stronghold, Karzai said he would make all-out efforts to convene the traditional Loya Jirga within the stipulated six-month time given to him under the UN-brokered agreement. “This is the best way to lasting peace.”

Karzai is scheduled to take over charge from ‘President’ Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani on Dec 22.

The Afghan interim prime minister said he would favour the UN peacekeeping forces in Kabul and other places to ensure peace if his new administration could not mobilize enough resources to do so on its own. “If we face problems in restoring peace due to paucity of funds, then I would favour UN forces to help us out.”

He appealed to the international community to come forward and help Afghans in their effort to rebuild and reconstruct their country devastated by decades of infighting.

Outlining his foreign policy, Hamid Karzai, who was a deputy foreign minister in the Mujahideen government led by Prof. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi in 1992, said he wanted friendly ties with all the countries. “We want friendly relations with all the countries including our neighbours.”

He particularly mentioned Pakistan and Iran and said that he wanted extremely good relations with these two countries. “I would like strong, brotherly and good-neighbourly relations with Pakistan and Iran which had stood with us during the Jihad.”

Speaking of the injury caused by the American bombing, he said a bomb exploded nearby, shattering windowpanes. A shrapnel also hit him in the face slightly wounding him. “There is nothing serious,” he said.