Eastern Afghanistan gears up for peace

1 Sep 2009

Eastern Afghanistan gears up for peace

Jalalabad, 1 September 2009 - United Nations agencies, civil society organisations, media and government bodies in Jalalabad vowed today to carry out various activities to promote peace in the restive eastern Afghanistan.




Speaking at a meeting called by the eastern regional office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to launch the Peace Day campaign, participants said they will organise sports events, public campaigns, art and handicraft exhibitions, roundtables, publication of peace materials with the underlying theme of peace.

In Kunar province, the Provincial Government declared a district - Marawara - as peace district today.

The world is celebrating the International Peace Day on 21 September. However, in Jalalabad, the stakeholders said they will hold the main Peace Day event after Eid, which falls around 21 September.

On the Peace Day last year, lives were saved through a 70 per cent drop in security incidents.

Hostilities were almost brought to a halt, including by the Taliban, following an appeal by the United Nations, allowing vaccination of 1.6 million children against polio.

In the eastern region, the UN's Children Fund (UNICEF) is planning to organise through the Youth Department, among others, cricket and volleyball events between 2-10 September, with participation of about 2,000 youths.

UNICEF is also planning to organise high school and community drawing competitions, besides organising media roundtables on 11 and 21 September. The national Radio and Television Afghanistan (RTA) will broadcast the roundtables four times.

Eight radio stations and two television channels (RTA and Sharq) in the eastern region are broadcasting UNAMA-produced 30-second radio and TV spots having peace message throughout the campaign period.

Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) project is going to organise ceremonies to hand over captured illegal arms.

The Nangarhar Provincial Government is preparing to declare three districts in Nangarhar - Kama, Durbaba and Dibala - as peace districts on 21 September.

UNAMA is planning to hold peace discussion with religious leaders.

Aurang Samim, Director of the Culture and Information Department (Nangarhar Province), said his office is going to publish “Nangarhar” newspaper with peace messages in it during the campaign period and distribute it.

Zwak, head of the government’s youth affairs unit, said youths should be massively mobilised with peace messages during the campaign.

Zwak’s office is going to invite about 700 youths, of them 300 will be girls, in the main Peace Day event.

“There are thousands of youths in Nangarhar struggling for peace,” said Zwak.

While stressing the need of engaging more youths in peace campaigns, Hanif Gardiwal, the Executive Director of the Governor of Nangarhar, underlined the need of delivering peace messages to remote villages.

UN-Habitat is going to distribute various Peace Day publications among the Shuras. UNHCR is going to organise sports competition.

Sheela Babury of the Department of Women Affairs said her office is going to organise handicraft exhibition with peace message during the campaign period.

A Jalalabad-based NGO called Youth in Action Association (YIAA) is going to organise a peace march in Jalalabad city.

A media support and training organization called Mediothek Afghanistan is also going to distribute publications with peace messages, erect billboards and hold roundtables, among others.

An NGO called Afghan Organisation for Human Rights and Environment Protection (AOHREP) is going to organize similar activities in Laghman Province.

By Tilak Pokharel and Shafiqullah Waak, UNAMA