An Afghan-Canadian academic was sworn in as the new governor of Kandahar Province on Saturday.
Tooryalai Wesa, who fled Afghanistan in 1991 and settled in Coquitlam, B.C., assumed his new post during a ceremony in Kandahar City.
After the ceremony, Wesa said he will make security a priority in an effort to curb violence in the region.
"I am not a magician," Wesa said in Pashto. "I don't believe in talking; I believe in practical work.
"I will show my work to everyone . . . and the day when the people of Kandahar understand that I can't work for them, I will go on my way."
Wesa assumes control over one of Afghanistan's most volatile regions, which has been besieged by attacks from Taliban militants.
In the past two weeks, six Canadian soldiers have been killed by roadside bombs in the province, which is home to most of Canada's 2,750 troops that are stationed in Afghanistan.
The Canadian commander of coalition forces in Kandahar province, Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, said it's not just the governor's job to establish security in the region.
"At the end of the day, this province and this region have to be secured by the people," Thompson said. "The people have to have the confidence that they can report on the movements of the insurgents so that the insurgents can be arrested or captured or killed."
Born and raised in Kandahar, Wesa has worked extensively in the province and is viewed as someone who can be an effective link between locals and the international force of soldiers, diplomats and aid workers in the region.
Wesa speaks Pashto, Dari, Farsi, English, German and Arabic, and has experience in both agriculture and education.
The 58-year-old studied agriculture at Kabul University before attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and then earning a PhD from the University of British Columbia.
His PhD thesis focused on the impact that the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan had on the country's agricultural infrastructure.
Wesa is the region's third governor in less than a year. His predecessor, Rahmatullah Rauf, claims he was pushed out of the job in a local power play. His predecessor was allegedly involved in the torture of an insurgent prisoner.
With files from The Canadian Press
