Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai

Infobox Prime Minister
name = Haji Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai
image
order3 = Prime Minister of the Northern Alliance
president3 = Burhanuddin Rabbani
term_start3 = 11 August 1997
term_end3 = 21 August 1997
predecessor3 = Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
successor3 = Abdul Ghafoor Rawan Farhadi
birth_date =
birth_place =
death_date = 21 August 1997
death_place = Bamyan, Afghanistan
party =

Haji Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai (died: August 21, 1997) was a politician and diplomat of Afghanistan. He was an ethnic Pashtun, a member of the Mohammadzai tribe. During the 1970s he entered the Afghan foreign service. He was sent to the United States to represent the political admisitration supported by the Soviet Union. As the Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Ghafoorzai sought it his duty to call on the global partners to denounce the Soviet invasion in 1979. From then until 1992, he worked as a representative official to trigger international support against the regime that the Soviets had set up in Afghanistan. When the communist government fell in 1992, Ghafoorzai acted as an intermediary to unite the factions of Afghanistan. He worked in the United Nations until 1995, and then became deputy foreign minister. He became foreign minister in July 1996, but his time in this position was short-lived, as in September 1996 the Taliban captured Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

Ghafoorzai remained politically active as the Taliban advanced, becoming a member of the Afghan Northern Alliance opposition movement. On August 11, 1997, just 10 days before his death, he was appointed prime minister of the opposition government. He was killed in a plane crash in Bamyan Province.

References

* [http://www.afghan-web.com/documents/bio-ghafoorzai.html Afghanistan Online - Abdul Ghafoorzai]