Utrecht, Netherlands - On September 21, the International Day of Peace established by the UN General Assembly in 1981 for “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace within and among all nations and people," UPF Netherlands renewed its commitment to peace. The previous week included activities to this end.
Conference on Development Aid: Perspectives and Examples
On September 19, UPF-Netherlands hosted a conference on Development Aid: Perspectives and Examples, in Utrecht. Speakers included Yakubu Iddrisu, founder and executive director of the Ghanaian NGO Community Partnership for Youth and Women Development, and Huub Mudde, Manager of the Sustainable Development Center at the Maastricht School of Management. Every year, another UPF partner, Youth Service Initiative, sends its trainee volunteers to support Community Partnership for Youth and Women Development activities in Ghana. For a report about the conference, click here.
Ninth Massoud Commemoration in the Netherlands
UPF-Netherlands was represented at the ninth Massoud Commemoration in Nagele, Flevoland on September 19. Afghanis in the Netherlands were the first outside of Afghanistan to hold a large meeting to commemorate their national hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, whose assassination two days before the 9/11 attacks in the US (and believed to be coordinated with it) so shocked the world that the next year he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, although the prize can only be awarded to a living person.
UPF activist Christopher Davies spoke about Massoud and the tragedy that when he came to the West to warn of the dangers of what was happening in Afghanistan, this strong man of the East — 'strong in heart,' as Kipling wrote about in his "Ballad of East and West" — did not meet a correspondingly strong man in the West who might have helped Massoud protect his country and the world from the 9/11 events and all that has followed. It was possibly Massoud's openheartedness to those of other tribes and nationalities that allowed his enemies to get near him and kill him.
When Afghanistan was being ravaged by the Soviet Union, UPF Founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon encouraged documentary filmmaker Lee Shapiro, "You make a movie to let the world know what is happening there." However, when travelling to interview Massoud, Shapiro's party was attacked by a Soviet helicopter gunship and he was killed.
UPF Chairman Rev. Hyung Jin Moon had recently spoken of how the prophet Muhammad had forgiven his enemies after he had captured the city of Mecca, and Massoud had shown similar compassion to the Taliban he captured, even though they would have killed him given the slightest opportunity.
UPF-Netherlands Ambassador for Peace S.E. Taheri has been centrally involved in organizing Massoud commemorations in Europe since 2002.