The Words of the Davies Family

Afghanistan: Vandag en Morgen": Cultural Evening, June 27, Amsterdam

Christopher Davies
June 27, 2007

There is usually a "UPF Cultural Evening" on the last Thursday of the month in our Dialoogcentrum in Amsterdam South, but in June it happened on Wednesday, June 27: with an evening "Afghanistan: Vandag en Morgen". The guest speaker was S.E. (Akram) Taheri, Secretary General of Stichting Nasr (Nasr Foundation) who became a UPF Ambassador for Peace last December. ('Nasr', has many meanings: in this case it means 'helping overcome problems', in Persian, the most widely spoken language in the country).

The atmosphere was set with recorded Afghan music, produced by Stichting Nasr Chairman, S.N. (Sayed) Taheri, who became an Ambassador for Peace in January; and by a large map of the country and some four pictures of Afghan life; UPF had a board with large photos of UPF-Afghanistan Secretary General Umberto Angelucci and his family, Afghanistan’s President Kazai after receiving an award from UPF and the home page of the internet group AfghanistanHelp, created to publicize Afghanistan and its situation.

After a short period of getting to know each other over Dutch coffee and Afghanistan tea (actually black Indian/English, but that is what is drunk there), UPF-NL Secretary General Wim Koetsier opened the evening with an introduction to UPF.

After then showing the UPF-Europe video "Peacemakers", about UPF and in particular UPF Ambassadors for Peace, Mr. Koetsier invited Mr. S.E. Taheri to speak. He told a little about how he came to be in the Netherlands and then about the history, present situation and what he felt needed to be done in order to free Afghanistan from its present unrest.

He felt a major problem was the Americans not understanding the ethnic divisions within his country, resulting, for example, in their particular support, especially in government, of the Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group, making up 35-42% of the population (reports vary). He himself is a Tajik, who make up between 27 and 34%, but their language, Persian, is spoken by more people than the Pashtun language. S.N. (Sayed) Taheri later mentioned that the Afghan government was far too subservient to the Americans. Whatever the reason for this, it was not good a good omen for the future of the country.

Ironically, the Taliban were and are drawn mainly from the Pastuns, and the Taliban had tried to impose their language as the only one to be used in the country. The great national hero of resistance against the Russians and Taliban was Ahmad Shah Massoud, a Tajik, who was assassinated by Taliban design, almost certainly by Arabs operating out of Pakistan.

It should be said that the Taheris are not anti-Pashtun as such, just against the current imbalance in power/influence. Incidentally, their eldest brother is an army general, currently training new recruits, and their youngest brother has an important position in the national government.

Mr. Taheri (Akram to his friends) continued that Pakistan is a breeding ground for the Taliban and noone seems to be able, or, it sometimes seems, even wants, to stop them. International aid and the drugs trade are both hugely corrupting influences, it is public knowledge that some at the very top of the government have close family relatives dealing in drugs, even the president, on a visit to Europe, had been challenged about this by a German politician. (The BBC recently reported that the drugs economy was larger than the legitimate economy.)

His brother, S.N. (Sayed) Taheri interrupted to ask, "What can we, as Ambassadors for Peace do to improve the situation?" Akram suggested that it might be possible to organize visits to Afghanistan, so others could see the real situation there. He said he would like to know more about UPF activities there.

Wim Koetsier had left for the airport (he returned later in the evening) and Christopher Davies explained that he was meeting someone who had been visiting Israel/Palestine with MEPI. Maybe what was needed was something similar for Afghanistan: someone called out "API (Afghanistan Peace Initiative)!"

Christopher shared communications he had received from Umberto Angelucci, about UPF's efforts to help Afghanistan. He first reported how Rev. Moon had been concerned about the situation there some decades before and how leaders of the resistance had been invited to conferences to explain what was happening; and demonstrations organized by the student group CARP and articles in the Washington Times newspaper had helped support the Mujahideen and had a strong influence in persuading the US government to give them substantial military aid, including Stinger missiles, which certainly were a major factor in the Soviets withdrawing.. He also told the story of Lee Shapiro, killed by a Soviet helicopter gunship when filming there.

Currently, Umberto Angelucci reported: "from the UPF side we are trying to encourage people to cooperate with the local government. We are teaching Peace Education, promoting Peace Ambassadors and encouraging them to work for peace in their community. We are giving free medical treatment and also motivating youth to play sports for peace.

"UPF Afghanistan is sponsoring 4 Afghan athletes and the Vice President of the National Olympic of Afghanistan to attend the Inter-religious Peace Sports Festival in Korea. The event will take place in July 1-11. With this event we want to let the international community know about Afghan people and their desire to rise above the difficulties of their country."

Mr. S.E. (Akram) Taheri returned to the podium, saying he was so happy to hear all this news about UPF, and introduced Kawa Kerami, a young and very energetic Afghani who has created an excellent website about Afghanistan, " Jawedan: The Immortal Massoud" (Jawedan means something like "long live") - jawedan.com/en, and who energetically and passionately developed on the speech from Akram. He called Afghanistan the "Heart of Asia" and explained its strategic position. The document from which he spoke, "Afghanistan, yesterday, today and tomorrow", can be seen in the internet group AfghanistanHelp.

In the 19th century, the British had wanted to use Afghanistan as a buffer between India and Russian ambitions, referring to their efforts as "the Great Game". Adding to the assertions that the US wanted to direct the resistance to terrorists, past and present, he said that the American CIA had not liked Massoud’s independent spirit and many felt that the CIA might have been involved in, or privy to, plans to assassinate him.

After S.E. Taheri had awarded him with an Ambassador for Peace certificate, Kawa said it was a great honor and huge responsibility. Holding it to his chest, he said he would cherish it and do his very best. S.H. Taheri awarded an Ambassador for Peace certificate to A. Ayubi, a famous artist, who specializes in portraits. Sayed later explained that he, Mr. Ayubi, had painted a number of portraits of Ahmad Shah Massoud and donated them to the Afghanistan embassy in the Netherlands and that was where Sayed had met him.

Hans Campman introduced the UPF custom of drinking a toast to World Peace with Holy Juice. He explained that, in keeping with UPF’s assertion that peace needed to start within the individual and family, the toast was taken in two stages, the first by, or on behalf of the females in a couple, the second by, on on behalf of the male, future if not yet present.

Akram had prepared some Afghan food, rice and meat balls and a dressing of yoghurt, aubergines, tomatoes, onions and garlic and it was washed down with black tea, Coca Cola and Fanta, apparently the currently preferred drinks in the country whose culture we were celebrating.

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