HAROUN AMIN

Haroun Amin participated in anti-Soviet demonstrations following the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. He left the country with his family the following year and settled in California. In 1995 he earned a Bachelor's Degree in political science at USC, Riverside. Amin and his family fled the country the following year and settled in California, where in 1995 he earned a Bachelor's Degree in political science at USC, Riverside, CA.
 
In 1988 he returned to Afghanistan to join the resistance forces of Ahmed Shah Massoud. After the Soviets departed from the country and at Massoud's request, he returned to the US to represent Afghan interests in the West.  In 1995 he returned to Afghanistan and Massoud's mujahidin to fight the Taliban.
 
In 1996, after the fall of Kabul, he came back to the US to represent Massoud's forces, the Northern Alliance (aka United Front) and also to be the representative of the exiled (but recognized) government of Afghanistan at the United Nations. He was instrumental in keeping Afghanistan's seat at the UN out of the hands of the Taliban.
 
In 2001, after the assassination of Massoud and the September 11 attack, Mr. Amin became to the US media, the official spokesman for the in-exile Afghan government.
 
Following the establishment of the transitional Afghan government (under Hamid Karzai) in 2002, Mr. Amin was appointed charge d' affaires/deputy chief of mission at the Afghan embassy in Washington, D.C. In December 2003, he was appointed to the post of Afghanistan's Ambassador to Japan.