Third anniversary of death of Ahmed Shah Massoud

Описание: (9 Sep 2004)

1. Various of Ahmed Shah Massood's tomb
2. Walking shot Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim arriving at tomb
3. Fahim with Afghan VIP praying at tomb
4. Presidential candidate Mohammed Yunus Qanooni crying
5. Military officers laying floral wreath on grave
6. Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani arriving at tomb
7. Rabbani writing message of remembrance in book
8. Various of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) officer arriving (Name not available)
9. Officer paying respects at tomb
10. People standing outside tomb
11. SOUNDBITE: (Dari) Henatullah Baimaan, Massood supporter:
"I can say we are as strong as a mountain. The courage which he showed during his resistance was without equal. Not only Afghan people respect what he did but all the politicians and military respected him worldwide."
12. Various of people praying for Massood outside tomb

STORYLINE

Mourners gathered at the tomb of Ahmed Shah Massood in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul on Thursday to mark the third anniversary of the Afghan commander's death.

Mourners stood nearby as military representatives placed a floral wreath on Massood's grave.

Thursday's ceremony was attended by Massood supporters as well as the country's Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim, presidential candidate Mohammed Yunus Qanooni and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

On Wednesday, thousands of people in Kabul's stadium in a ceremony to honour Massood.

Among the guests was the country's Interim leader Hamid Karzai, who had started campaigning on Tuesday in the lead up to Afghanistan's historic presidential election.

Shah Massood, who was known as "The Lion of Panjshir," was renowned for his defiance of occupying Soviet forces during the Afghan jihad, or holy war, in the 1980s, and later the Taliban.

He was killed by suspected al-Qaida suicide attackers posing as journalists just two days before the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Massood - admired in the West as a brilliant military tactician with a taste for the arts - was a deeply divisive figure in his homeland.

Fellow ethnic Tajiks see him as a hero.

But Pashtuns, who supplied the main backing to the Taliban and also include Karzai's tribe, view him as no better than the other warlords who
fought a brutal civil war after the Soviet pullout.

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