TRANSCRIPT
Mairead Maguire: I am happy to be with you today in Kabul Afghanistan.
I have come here to give my support to the campaign for 2 million friends of the Afghan people. You have chosen to run this campaign because you remember that 2 million people from Afghanistan have died in violence and in war, and in killing.
We're here today to remember every single one of those people who died needlessly and for this I am sorry, and I say, "Sorry to the Afghan people for what the governments of the US and NATO and other governments have done to the Afghan people, and I say -- Not in my name!"
We're here on behalf of the Afghan Peace Volunteers to give a petition to the UN and that petition is to ask the UN to broker a cease fire for Afghanistan amongst all the warring factions here in Afghanistan.
Peace is possible. You have to believe that when you're working for peace.
The killing must stop in order for peace to develop and grow. But a passion for peace can come from the people. And that passion, working for peace, marching for peace, demanding your politicians make peace...
The people can do this when you believe that peace is possible. All the killing, all the war must stop.
I come from Northern Ireland and we had war and fighting among all the different ethnic groups, and it went on for a long time, a lot of people died.
My sister's three little children were killed in our war. People came out, and they said: "we want nonviolence, we want dialogue, we want negotiation from our politicians. We want to solve the problems through forgiveness, through love, through dialogue."
And it happened! It took time, but it happened. Today in Northern Ireland we have peace, and the people have security. They can go out and walk with freedom.
So peace is possible, and I have hope for Afghanistan because I believe in the people of Afghanistan.
You're good people. You don't want war. You never asked for all these years of war and division and occupation of your country, and that must cease.
You can do that through the methods of nonviolence. Your young people here -- I'm so inspired by them. They're teaching Gandhi. And they're solving their problems without killing and this is a way that works.
To all the armed groups:
Please put up your guns, stop the killing and start talking.
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