RAWA activists holds demo

Published April 29, 2003

ISLAMABAD, April 28: More than 300 Afghans, including women and children, observed a black day and held a protest demonstration in front of the UN office here on Monday.

The demo was organized by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan against the Northern Alliance-led government in their country.

The demonstrators, who had come from refugee camps in Peshawar and Rawalpindi, raised slogans including “April 28 is more sinister and shameful than April 27,” referring to the events when the Mujahiddeen had come to power on April 28, 1992, and the Saur Revolution of April 27, 1978.

The demonstrators said the oppression of the Jehadis on the Afghan people was so painful that it could not be forgotten until the Northern Alliance leaders and their accomplices were punished and thrown out of the country.

They said talking about free elections, framing new constitution and establishment of a national policy would be unfair and unacceptable as long as the present rulers remained in power.

The demonstrators also criticized their government for supporting Anglo-US attack on Iraq.

“The atrocities committed against the Afghan women by the Northern Alliance were brutal which can not be forgotten nor forgiven,” said a woman demonstrator.

She said the true picture of Afghanistan was clear and the present government in Kabul had brought no political change to the country. “Nothing has changed with the installation of the new government which is under the influence of the Northern Alliance,” she added. —Jamal Shahid