Naming The Dead Of Afghanistan, 7 October 2008

On 7 October 2008, Voices in the Wilderness and Justice Not Vengeance held a remembrance ceremony opposite Downing Street for the dead of Afghanistan. For seven hours we stood near the Cenotaph, reading the names of British soldiers who had died in the war, and the names of some of the Afghan civilians who have died in the war.

We used a loudhailer, in order to be heard in Downing Street, and a Tibetan bell. Before reading each name we rang the bell once. We read one Afghan name every minute, followed thirty seconds later by the name of a British soldier. We had an hour of name-reading followed by an hour of silent vigil, meaning that we had four hours of naming the dead. (We had a separate space for people to speak to each other.)

Despite the fact that the ceremony was unauthorised (we had notified the police in advance, but not sought their permission to hold the ceremony), and the use of loudhailers in Whitehall is prohibited, no one was arrested, though the police did take Milan Rai's name and address. See here for some photographs of the event.

The Names

If you would like to carry out the ceremony, JNV has created printable lists of names: 121 British soldiers' names (as of 31 October) and 158 Afghan civilians' names (a partial list from Professor Marc Herold's Afghan Victims Memorial site). They might be used for a two-hour ceremony.

British military deaths: rtf Word html

Afghan civilian deaths: rtf Word html

If you use these lists for an event - perhaps for the 20 November anniversary of the supposed 'liberation' of Afghanistan, please do notify us. You may also wish to thank Professor Marc Herold for compiling the Afghan Victims' Memorial site.