March and Meeting Celebrate National Free Afghanistan Day

A crowd of about 90--including a handful of Harvard conservative activities--marched along Boston's Freedom Trail and gathered at Faneuil Hall yesterday to urge the United States to help "restore freedom to the courageous country of Afghanistan.

The events--sponsored in party by a Harvard branch of a national military policy group--were an effort to "create political momentum" to help the Afghanistan freedom-fighters overcome Russian oppression, said Andrew L. Eiva, president of the Boston-based Free Afghanistan Alliance, which organized the day's events.

Yesterday's gathering was one of several events across the nation to commemorate "Free Afghanistan Day," which President Reagan proclaimed.

Faneuil Hall Speeches

The six speakers at the Faneuil Hall meeting included a recent emigrant from Afghanistan who declared. "The Afghan people are dying by the thousands." The emigrant who refused to reveal his same, added. "They are proud to fight this battle but what they needs is your help."

Theodore Elliot, dean of Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, told the audience Americans should "rekindle our love for freedom" and said, "Afghanistan freedom-fighters should get the kind of equipment they need."

A representative of the AFL-CIO and Mildred Jefferson, a Republican candidate for Massachusetts senator, also spoke at the meeting.

Harvard's branch of Students for Peace and Security (SPS) backed yesterday's events "to show our benefit solidarity for the Afghan people," SPS member Mark A. Sauter '82 said yesterday.

Sauter, a leader of the Harvard-Radcliffe Conservative Club, described SPS as a bipartisan organization to educate the public on the arms race.

The group opposes disamament and a bilateral nuclear arms freeze, but supports arms talks to achieve nuclear force parity, said SPS member Thomas M Clark '85, the Conservative Club's secretary.