Afghans Celebrate New Year Publicly for First Time in Five Years

People across Afghanistan celebrated the New Year on Thursday, the first time in five years that they can mark the arrival of the New Year by organizing and attending public celebrations.

Greeting the people on the occasion of the New Year, Afghan Interim Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai said in Mazari Sharif, northern Afghanistan, that the country, from the south to the north and from the east to west, belongs to the whole nation, Kabul TV reported.

The Afghan people share their sadness and happiness with each other, and their future and predestination lie on the Loya Jirga that is scheduled for June this year, he said.

In the capital city, international organizations and the Afghan interim administration have organized different programs, including a grand celebration in the Kabul Olympic sports center, an exhibition of social and economic achievement displaying such items as carpets, paintings and handicraft, and concerts and sports games, to mark the New Year.

Speaking at the celebration in the Olympic center, Hedayat Amin Arsala, vice-chairman and finance minister of the interim administration, said that this was the first time in five years that the Afghan people were celebrating the New Year in peace. He hoped the people would be united and help the government solve the problems facing the country at present, and in the new year, the Afghan people would be united, and the country would be full of peace, achieve economic development and make progress in education.

Minister for Agriculture Sayed Hussein Anwari said that during the past two decades of conflict, the country lost over 200,000 hectares of forest and about 8 million animals. He called on the people to plant more trees to replace the production of opium.

During the regime of Taliban, Afghan people were banned from public celebrations.

(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2002)