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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 06, 2002

September 11 in Eyes of Afghan People

Having been living in the shadow of terror and death for many years, Afghan people now have a chance to sense another terrorist disaster happened in the other half of the world.


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Having been living in the shadow of terror and death for many years, Afghan people now have a chance to sense another terrorist disaster happened in the other half of the world.

This disaster, with a close relation with Afghanistan, is September 11 attacks on the United States.

A photo exhibition of September 11, jointly sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and the Ministry of Information and Culture of the Afghan government, has opened in the Afghan National Gallery, located in downtown Kabul.

Although most of Afghan people are living in damaged houses andworried about their food and clothes, more than 200 people visitedthe photo show when it opened on July 26, five times of the visitor number in usual days.

Pictures taken by Joel Meyerowitz, a well-known photographer from the Museum of the City of New York, are exhibited in three rooms on the first floor of the gallery.

On the earliest picture, which was taken in 1982, the World Trade Center in New York is glittering under the night sky. The latest one, taken in February of 2002, is featuring a girl mourning before wreaths dedicated to the victims. Most of the pictures show the ruins of the World Trade Center and American firemen's salvage efforts.

A few days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Museum of the City of New York commissioned Joel Meyerowitz to create an historic archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero. The archive will eventually number more than 5,000 images.

The Museum of the City of New York and Meyerowitz have selected27 images for this exhibition, aiming to provide Afghan audiences with an extraordinary extent of the World Trade Center attacks, document the recovery efforts and portray the threat that terrorism poses to any city, a threat that must be fought at all cost.

Written on the brochure, organizer of the photo show says, "As we remember the victims and the heroes of September 11, we also recall the suffering of the Afghan people at the hands of terrorism."

After standing in front of a picture of ruins for a long time, Kabul University student Zabihullah Tamana said this is his first time to see the scene of the damaged World Trade Center.

"When it happened on September 11, 2001, watching TV was forbidden by the Taliban in Afghanistan. I got the news from BBC. Those days I listened to the radio until midnight, and then when Igot up at five o'clock in the morning, I turned on the radio again," said Tamana.

He managed to get some magazines about the September 11 attack from his friends. "The pictures of the plane crashing to the towerand people running from the collapsing building have given me a deep impression," he said.

"After seeing these pictures, I feel very sad. The pictures show the cruelty of the 21 century. On the one hand I feel sorry that so many people died in the disaster, on the other hand I feelhappy that the rule of the Taliban was finished in Afghanistan as a result of September 11," said Tamana.

Written on the visitor's book, Afghan Minister of Information and Culture, Sayed M. Raheen, said the heartbreaking September 11 event not only shocked the United States but also shocked all the international community. Long life for each movement leading to the eradication of terrorism.

"By seeing these pictures and these crimes, I feel the great tragedy of September 11 both from my flesh and my soul. Please letAfghan people share the sadness with American people. I hope humanbeing will never see this kind of event in the future. To prevent that, we must cooperate and think and act together," said Chief ofAfghan Film, Sediq Barmak.

"I hope this kind of miserable event will never happen again inthe world especially not in our country Afghanistan," said an Afghan doctor, Suniulah Zalmai

"I have seen the ruins of the World Trade Center. But Afghanistan has been damaged 100 times more than that," said AbdulQadir Raofi, a citizen in Kabul.

After the six-month exhibition, the visitor's book with Afghan people's feeling toward September 11 attacks will be sent to the United States.


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