Afghanistan: We waited for my uncle for 35 years. Now I finally know what happened --- Now, after decades of uncertainty, I have found out the truth. The Dutch authorities has released a list of 5,000 Afghans who disappeared between 1978 and 1979. My uncle was on the list: number 1416. It took several attempts to locate him, since they had misspelled his name. The sloppiness reminded me that evil, after all, is banal. --- As the day went on, more and more of my friends and acquaintances located the names of disappeared fathers and uncles, cousins and friends. We discovered lies and inaccuracies. Secular people had been falsely accused of being religious fanatics. Innocent people had been wrongly accused of being criminals. --- I learned a lesson today – that without facts being established, there's no freedom from the prison of history. Without justice, there's no chance for peace. Afghan cannot do this alone – we need the world to stand by our side, to guide us, support us and in doing so, allow us to become part of a more civilised future.