Jude Law promotes peace by visiting Afghanistan

Jude Law promotes peace by visiting Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Jude Law is visiting Afghanistan to promote peace in the war-ravaged country.

Together with director Jeremy Gilley, the Oscar-nominated Law has returned to Afghanistan to help maintain momentum for Peace Day — an annual day on Sept. 21 urging a global cease-fire and nonviolence.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted Peace Day in 2001, following a lobbying campaign by Gilley which he documented in the film “Peace One Day.”

“When I left Kabul last year, I was hugely moved not by the conflict that I have read so much about, but by the people’s courage and the people’s sense of hope,” Law told reporters in Kabul on Monday.

Noted for his roles in movies such as “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Cold Mountain,” Law helped Gilley produce his second documentary film, called “The Day After Peace.”

The documentary, which also features former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama, Angelina Jolie, Annie Lennox and Jonny Lee Miller, charts the way Peace Day can be used as a focus for lifesaving activity, Gilley said.

Law said the movie “was the most important film I have been part of.”

Last year Law and Gilley traveled and filmed in treacherous areas of eastern Afghanistan to help promote the day. The visit was shrouded in secrecy.

Law said ordinary Afghans, who marched and prayed as they marked Peace Day last year, are among the film’s stars.

“It is Peace Day’s commitment to take this film as a message from people of Afghanistan to the rest of the world,” Law said.

Law and Gilley, who arrived in Kabul on Sunday, are to meet President Hamid Karzai, top NATO and U.N. officials, and members of the aid community.

Law’s visit coincides with one of Afghanistan’s most violent periods since the ouster of the Taliban from power in 2001. More than 3,700 people — mostly militants — have died as a result of the war this year.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Meinhardt Raabe (Munchkin coroner in “The Wizard of Oz”) is 93. Jazz pianist Horace Silver is 80. Singer Sam Gooden of The Impressions is 69. Singer Jimmy Clanton is 68. Singer-turned-minister Joe Simon is 65. Singer Rosalind Ashford of Martha and the Vandellas is 65. Sportscaster Terry Bradshaw is 60. Actor Mark Harmon is 57. Actress Linda Purl is 53. Drummer Jerry Augustyniak of 10,000 Maniacs is 50. Drummer Paul Deakin of The Mavericks is 49. Actor Keanu Reeves is 44. Actress Salma Hayek is 42. Actress Cynthia Watros (“Lost,” “Titus”) is 40. Singer K-Ci of K-Ci and JoJo is 39. Actor Katt Williams (“Norbit”) is 35. Bassist Sam Rivers of Limp Bizkit is 31. Drummer Spencer Smith of Panic at the Disco is 21.