This Saturday in London, there will be a national demonstration against the war in Afghanistan, calling for UK troops to be withdrawn. The demonstration will start from Hyde Park (12pm), and proceed to Trafalgar Square (speeches at roughly 230pm).
More information and resources on the demo and march can be found here: http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1542/1/
Farid Bakht, joint International Coordinator of the Green Party, will be a speaker at this Saturday's demonstration.
In advance of the march, Farid commented: "At its last conference in September, the Green Party called for an immediate withdrawal of UK and NATO forces from Afghanistan. It also demanded a peace agreement, involving the UN, with the active participation of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries. We need to stop this unjust and unnecessary war."
"The war in Afghanistan has now entered its ninth year, and the majority of the population in this country is against our involvement in that war. Our generals lost the 'hearts and minds' of the Afghan people long ago. The leaders of the three main political parties have now also lost the 'hearts and minds' in this country."
"To the Afghan people, it looks like NATO forces are propping up the regime despite massive levels of corruption and election fraud. The Presidential elections are now set for a run-off in the first week of November. Turnout could be less than the 40% turnout in the first round. The entire process has been damaging both for democratic credibility and legitimacy, and also for the morale of our troops. And the war has now spread from Afghanistan into Pakistan, a nuclear armed state."
"If Gordon Brown wants to make the streets of London safe, and if he wants to keep our soldiers safe, the best thing he can do is to bring the troops home."
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Notes to Editors
- Farid Bakht is available for interview. He is the joint international coordinator of the Green Party of England and Wales. He is a frequent contributor in Asian media on the subjects of politics, conflict, economics and the environment. He wrote his first book, "Bangladesh in dangerous times" in 2006. He is half Basque, half Bengali and lives in London.