New Zealand Defence Force
Te Ope Kaatua O Aotearoa

28 July 2005

New Zealand Defence Force personnel had the opportunity to introduce Te Reo and Maori culture to a different audience during Maori Language week when the Afghani President visited Bamyan, Afghanistan on Wednesday 27 July.

President Hamid Karzai and Vice President Mohammad Abdul Karim Khalili were greeted by Lance Corporal Sas Winikerei, who proffered the rakau tapu (peace offering) as part of the wero.

President Karzai said, 'It is a tremendous pleasure to see your native welcome and to know that you, in New Zealand, keep your traditions alive and display it, even thousands of thousands of miles away. That's really the way to represent a people and to keep a nation alive forever...this is what I will be telling the people of Afghanistan.'

The President then met members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team and received a brief on recent work.

ENDS

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