Ahmad Zia Massoud

Infobox_President
name = Ahmad Zia Massoud
احمد ضیاء مسعود


order = First Vice President of Afghanistan
president = Hamid Karzai
vicepresident = Second Vice President is Karim Khalili
term_start = 7 December 2004
term_end =
predecessor =
successor =
birth_date = birth date and age|1956|05|01|df=y
birth_place = Ghazni province of Afghanistan
dead =
death_date =
death_place =
spouse =
religion = Islam
party = Independent

Ahmad Zia Massoud (Born: May 1, 1956) is the current first Vice President of Afghanistan in the administration of President Hamid Karzai. He is the younger brother of Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Bio

Early years

Zia was born in Muqur, which is in Ghazni province of Afghanistan. He attended Esteqlal College, the French college in Kabul, for his primary and secondary studies, and then entered the Polytechnical University of Kabul. However, he left school in his third year, in 1978, caught up in the tumultuous events in the country, and joined the mujahideen with his brother Ahmad Shah, in the Panjsher Valley north of Kabul.

Fighting against the Soviets

From 1978 to 1981, Ahmad Zia directed Qarargah of Paryan in Haut-Panjsher, and directed resistance in the entire valley. Between 1981 and April of 1992, his commander (Ahmed Shah Massoud) named him special representative of his Jamiat-e-Islami party to Peshawar, Pakistan, where the seven principal parties of the Afghan resistance met. Also during this period he maintained and increased contacts with political leaders of all the Afghan resistance movement, including diplomatic circles and international organizations; in addition, he traveled abroad to plead the case of the mujahideen.

Afghan civil war

After the fall of the Soviet-backed communist regime, Burhanuddin Rabbani, his father-in-law, chose him to be the advisor and special representative of the Islamic State of Afghanistan.

Fall of the Taliban

In December 2001, President Hamid Karzai named him ambassador to the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin; in February 2004 his functions were extended to include the Republic of Armenia, and then in July of that year, Georgia, Belarus, and Moldavia as well.

On July 26, 2004, Karzai announced that he had chosen Ahmad Zia as his running mate in the October 9, 2004 presidential elections.cite web |date=Wednesday, 4 August, 2004, 14:41 GMT 15:41 UK|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3535880.stm|title = Defence chief backs Karzai rival|format = HTML |publisher = BBC News| accessdate = 2008-05-11 | last=Andrew North |quote=Mr Karzai last week decided to choose Ahmed Zia Massoud as his running mate over Mr Fahim.] cite web |date=July 27, 2004|url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807E5D9153DF934A15754C0A9629C8B63|title = Afghan Leader, in a Surprise, Picks a New Running Mate|format = HTML |publisher = New York Times| accessdate = 2008-05-11 | last=CARLOTTA GALL |quote=]

Assassination attempts

While campaigning in the 2004 elections a bomb was detonated at a political rally in the northern Afghan city of Feyzabad. Two people were killed but Massoud emerged unscathed.cite web |date=Wednesday, 6 October, 2004, 08:57 GMT 09:57 UK|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3719370.stm|title = Blast hits rally of Karzai ally|format = HTML |publisher = BBC News| accessdate = 2008-05-11 | last= |quote=]

Family

Ahmad Zia Massoud is married and has four children: three girls and a boy.

See also

*Politics of Afghanistan
*List of leaders of Afghanistan

References

External links