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“Some people think Afghanistan is occupied by Western soldiers, but this is absolutely wrong, those boys give their lives for Afghanistan; a boy from America, Holland, France giving his life, we always admire him. Massoud was our dear friend and our hero, but he could not be successful without the help of other Afghanistanis and the world. He was abandoned, but he was very patient and kind, and he gave his life not just for Afghanistan, but for the sake of mankind. I wish he could be alive today, to see the world is now helping Afghanistan.”
So spoke Massoud Khalili, a brother in arms of the Afghanistani national hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, himself a hero in his own right, and now Afghanistan's envoy to Turkey, in an address at a large gathering on Sunday, September 14 in the VIP Lounge, Beverwijk, commemorating the death of Massoud, the "Lion of Panjshir", on September 9, 2001, just two days before “9/11”, in an attack probably linked to the attacks of the US. Khalili was also severely injured in that attack and required extensive re constructive surgery, but the man that addressed the 650 plus Afghanistanis and friends who had travelled from all over Europe for this event seemed in the best of health, radiating warmth and love that was returned to him tenfold by his enraptured listeners.
Khalili spoke mainly in his native language Farsi, but he made his remarks of gratitude in English, at the request of Universal Peace Federation Nederland (UPF-NL) Ambassador for Peace (AfP) Sayed Nezamuddin Taheri, Director of the Nasr Foundation, who, with his brother Sayed Ekramuddin Taheri, Secretary General of the Nasr Foundation, member of the gathering's organization committee and fellow UPF-NL AfP, had invited UPF-NL Secretary General Wim Koetsier to attend the "Seventh Commemoration Ceremony of the Martyrdom of Ahmad Shah Massoud National Hero of Afghanistan". |
