Dear friends,

Happy New Year!

Please allow me to share with you, before my return to Afghanistan, the news regarding my book, which has been recently released by Harmattan publishing: Afghanistan Constitutional Law, History, Political Regimes, and Diplomatic Relations Since 1747.

As far as I am aware, it is the first book to embark upon a profound and global judicial, political, and diplomatic analysis, written in an academic style, which looks to the past and present to propose a certain number of ideas, orientations, and possible choices, which are both pratical and attainable, in order to build the future Afghanistan on a standard and solid foundation.  It is for these reasons that the third part of this book is consacrated to constitutions and political regimes, be they islamic or secular, parlementary or presidential, monarchist or republic, unitary or federal . . . in the hope that the Afghan people, masters of their destiny, will be able to freely choose, with full knowledge of the facts, their own political system.

Please forgive me for clarifying, even if it goes without saying, that no works in the humanities are perfect, this particularly being the case in law and political science, but they may provide for enriching debates, discussions, critiques, and proposals.  Consequently, it is with eagerness and pleasure that I await your critiques and suggestions so that I may take them into account for the next edition and my other works to come.

In order to facilitate the reception of your critiques, your suggestions, and your support, I have created an independant Internet site, which will allow us to maintain contact and continue dialogue, even though I will be thousands of kilometers away as of February 15, 2003.  The Afghan Government has appointed me as the representative of Western European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  I am uncertain at this point if they will allow me to serve the Afghan people, meaning all the Afghan people regardless of their ethnicity, religion, partisanship . . .?  My first, and brief, recent experience in service to the Afghan State in France was, alas, not encouraging.

Nevertheless, I am more than ever convinced that the only salvation for our people and our country is the top priority and unwavering respect of the public interest, instead of private interests, be they financial, familial, regional, ethnic, partisan, ideological, religious . . .

It would be my honor to meet you during one of my book showings, organized by:

-- The Center for Research and Documentation on Afghanistan (CEREDAF), Saturday, January 25, 2003, from 2:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m.: 16, passage de la Main d’or 75011 Paris, metro : Ledru Rollin, telephone : 01.43.55.63.50;

-- L’Harmattan, Saturday, February 1, 2003, from 6 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at l’Espace L’Harmattan: 21, rue des Ecoles 75005 Paris, metro: Maubert-Mutualité, telephone: 01.40.46.79.11;

-- Le CAPE, Tuesday, January 4, 2003, at 11 a.m. at the Maison de Radio France: 116 av. Du président Kennedy 75016 Paris, metro: La Muette, telephone : 01.56.40.50.12.

Yours,

            Dr. BACHARDOUST Ramazan  

Internet Site : http://afghanistanhumaniste.free.fr/index.html

Email : bachardoust.ramazan@free.fr and bachardoust@wanadoo.fr