On February 13, Head of Department of Culture and Information of Ghowr Mr. Moh Sarwar Azaad and representatives of a youth organisation visited camp of the Lithuanian-led PRT in Chaghcharan. In the club of the PRT camp the guests gave a lecture to civilian and military personnel on Afghan culture.
„ In Afghanistan we are guests that have come from far away. Our task is to become familiar and understand culture, traditions and religious subtleties of the people of Afghanistan before developing cooperation and assisting in reconstruction of the country", said Commander PRT-10 Col. Gediminas Macijauskas.
M. S. Azaad delivered a lecture about festivals in Afghanistan and related customs and traditions. According to the Head of Department of Culture and Information, the most prominent holidays in Afghanistan are religious. M. S. Azaad also told military and civilian personnel of the PRT about customs of other common feasts, such as weddings, history and poetry eves, etc.
„I am very glad to be invited by PRT envoys to give soldiers a lecture about the culture of Afghanistan, especially at a special time to both Lithuanian and Afghan people: 15th of February is the Liberation Day in Afghanistan, and 16th of February is the Restoration Day in Lithuania", Head of Department of Culture and Information of Ghowr Mr. Moh Sarwar Azaad said.
Native musical band concluded the event with a performance: they danced and sang traditional music to the tunes of self-accompaniment of traditional musical instruments.
PRT personnel were introduced to Afghan culture and basics of Islamic religion back in Lithuania during pre-mission training. Such instructions constitute obligatory part of preparation before deployment. At the camp PRT personnel had another opportunity to refresh their knowledge from a primary source.
This has been a second lecture delivered on Afghan culture at the PRT camp: on November of last year Head of Department of Religious Affairs of Ghowr Mullah Mohammad Shah Majid told peacekeepers about the Islamic religion and holidays in Afghanistan.
The event at the PRT camp was exhaustively covered by media of Afghanistan, report on it was shown on the news of local television channel.
Lithuanian-led PRT headquartered in Chaghcharan, the capital city of Ghowr, took up responsibility for security in the province in June 2005. PRT is a joint military-civilian mission operating under International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).Its main task is to help Afghan Central Government extend its authority in the province, and to ensure security and environment for civilian activities.
Together with around 150 of Lithuanian military and civilian personnel representatives of Denmark, Georgia, Japan, the USA, Croatia, Romania, and Ukraine, including Lithuanian Special Mission, United States Department of Defence, and USAID, work in Ghowr. PRT-10 currently providing security in Ghowr is formed on the basis of the 1st Territorial Unit of the NDVF Dainava Military District.
Based on information of PIO for PRT-10 1st Lt. Skomantas Povilionis.
