Dear friends,
In a new sign of hope, the Taliban released their first two hostages yesterday. The attention and persuasion is beginning to work--but 19 young people, mostly women, still face execution and the nightmare of captivity.
Over 90,000 of us from 187 countries have rushed to help, and added our voices to an emergency petition, calling on the Taliban to honour their own 'Pashtunwali' code of hospitality by releasing the hostages. This week, we'll spread our message across Afghanistan, by running the petition as a full page ad in a major newspaper, the Killid Weekly. Officials have given us the phone number of the Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusef Ahmadi--so we will also call him to deliver our message directly to the Taliban leadership.
The Killid Weekly ad, and the phone call to Ahmadi, will be more effective the greater our numbers. We need to get well over 100,000 signers in the next 24 hours, and massively grow the petition this week. Please forward this email to as many friends as possible and ask them to sign the petition at the link below:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/honour_the_afghan_code/c.php/?cl=15689078
Afghans tell us that asking the Taliban to respect their own code of honour is a powerfully persuasive message. In 2003 an aid worker named Bettina Goislard, 29, was shot dead by Taliban gunmen. Local people chased down the gunmen and handed them over to the police--and then marched hundreds of miles to Kabul with Bettina's body to show their shame and remorse.
Although they were Christian evangelicals, all evidence says that the Koreans were in Afghanistan to do aid work, not to convert Afghans to their faith. As with other hostages, like the German engineers, the Taliban targeted them for political and tactical reasons, not religious ones.
The lives of 19 innocent people hang in the balance. So do the lives of many Afghan civilians who rely on international help--because if the Koreans die, other aid groups may leave. This week we have two major opportunities to be heard by the Taliban. Our strength lies in our numbers. If you have already signed the petition and would like to send a message to your email address book, click below to use our tool:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/honour_the_afghan_code/c.php?cl=15689078#tellafriend
With hope,
Ricken, Iain, Pascal, Graziela and the rest of the Avaaz Team
In a new sign of hope, the Taliban released their first two hostages yesterday. The attention and persuasion is beginning to work--but 19 young people, mostly women, still face execution and the nightmare of captivity.
Over 90,000 of us from 187 countries have rushed to help, and added our voices to an emergency petition, calling on the Taliban to honour their own 'Pashtunwali' code of hospitality by releasing the hostages. This week, we'll spread our message across Afghanistan, by running the petition as a full page ad in a major newspaper, the Killid Weekly. Officials have given us the phone number of the Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusef Ahmadi--so we will also call him to deliver our message directly to the Taliban leadership.
The Killid Weekly ad, and the phone call to Ahmadi, will be more effective the greater our numbers. We need to get well over 100,000 signers in the next 24 hours, and massively grow the petition this week. Please forward this email to as many friends as possible and ask them to sign the petition at the link below:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/honour_the_afghan_code/c.php/?cl=15689078
Afghans tell us that asking the Taliban to respect their own code of honour is a powerfully persuasive message. In 2003 an aid worker named Bettina Goislard, 29, was shot dead by Taliban gunmen. Local people chased down the gunmen and handed them over to the police--and then marched hundreds of miles to Kabul with Bettina's body to show their shame and remorse.
Although they were Christian evangelicals, all evidence says that the Koreans were in Afghanistan to do aid work, not to convert Afghans to their faith. As with other hostages, like the German engineers, the Taliban targeted them for political and tactical reasons, not religious ones.
The lives of 19 innocent people hang in the balance. So do the lives of many Afghan civilians who rely on international help--because if the Koreans die, other aid groups may leave. This week we have two major opportunities to be heard by the Taliban. Our strength lies in our numbers. If you have already signed the petition and would like to send a message to your email address book, click below to use our tool:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/honour_the_afghan_code/c.php?cl=15689078#tellafriend
With hope,
Ricken, Iain, Pascal, Graziela and the rest of the Avaaz Team
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:35 PM
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