UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, began Monday winding up his assignment to Afghanistan.
Brahimi's spokesman said he was packing and would leave the capital of Kabul in a few days, his two-year appointment ended and a constitution in place.
Jean Arnault, Brahimi's deputy in charge of political affairs, is to serve as officer-in-charge of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan until a replacement is appointed, said a spokesman for Annan, Fred Eckhard.
Eckhard said Sunday Annan was very pleased to learn of agreement on Afghanistan's new constitution and offered congratulations all around. The loya jirga had met for three weeks.
At the end of the loya jirga Sunday, Brahimi said: "Many of you are telling me that I shouldn't leave. But, I have a boss (Annan), a kind of central government in New York and he has given me orders to leave. If I don't, then I'll be called a warlord for refusing the instructions of the central government. I am sure that you don't want me to be called a warlord."
