15.09.2011 Afghanistan

Against the war in Afghanistan

Development organisations and peace movement unite

2010 was the bloodiest year of the war in Afghanistan, with the civil population the hardest hit by the violence. For development aid organisations working in the country this was a reason to intensify cooperation with one another and increase their contacts with the peace movement.

VENRO, an umbrella organisation of non-governmental development organisations in Germany, also has an Afghanistan Working Group, whose members include, along with medico, Caritas International, Deutsche Welthungerhilfe, Misereor, medica mondiale and Oxfam. They are united by an uncompromising opposition to the policy of ‘networked security’, which is now also supported by the German Development Minister Dirk Niebel, under which aid and development NGOs are expected to cooperate more closely with the German Bundeswehr (army) as it begins to move into ‘out-of-area’ interventions.

By establishing regular communication with the peace movement, the NGOs are looking for an ally through which the voice of the partners in Afghanistan can also be heard. In 2010 development NGOs and peace activists had several meetings towards preparing a conference in 2011 to present their shared objective jointly to a wider public.