I am thrilled and honored to join you on this historical tribunal. All Afghans, particularly the families of the war victims expect the Belmarsh Tribunal to heal their wounds by holding the U.S. accountable for the thousands of innocent Afghans lives they destroyed and the future they stole. And I salute the Progressive International for this remarkable initiative.

In the wake of the US humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, everybody asks this question: How did the two-decades of U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism ended with the Taliban terrorists gaining a swift and easy victory in Afghanistan? So far, only one person by the name of Julian Assange possibly had the answer to this mystery. In 2011, he unmasked the truth through a set of documents called the Afghan War Diary, where he exposed the tyrannical U,S policy in Afghanistan and said that one of the goals behind sustaining the war was to "to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite."

Just after the bombshell revelations about the CIA plot to kidnap and assassinate WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange while he sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the Progressive International comes to London with the first physical Belmarsh Tribunal. The intervention comes ahead of Assange’s extradition proceedings, which are set to continue in London’s High Court from 27 to 28 October 2021.

Two decades of U.S. occupation brought us nothing but ruin and loss of lives. And while the mainstream media tried to portray a rosy picture of Afghanistan, the leaks by Assange in contrary revealed bloody atrocities committed by the U.S. and NATO occupying forces. For instance, in 2007, the US Special Forces dropped six 2,000 pounds bombs on a compound where they believed a "high-value individual" was hiding, however, locals reported that up to 300 civilians had been killed in the raid. None of the media reported that incident.

According to reliable sources, about 241,000 Afghans have been killed by crossfire between the US forces and Taliban, of whom 48,000 civilians have been killed by US occupation forces in a number of unknown incidents. But in my believe the real number is much higher as many incidents are unreported and not documented.

The U.S occupation has also inflicted invisible wounds. In 2009, the former Afghan Ministry of Public Health reported that fully two-thirds of Afghans suffer from mental health problems. The war has exacerbated the effects of poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation, lack of access to health care, and environmental degradation on Afghans’ health. Therefore, U.S and its NATO allies are responsible and accountable for all the past 20 years miseries of our tormented people particularly our ill-fated women.

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to be among you all in this tribunal and I hope Jullain Assange will be free soon.