Victims of violence speak out in Afghanistan

KABUL - Mothers of slain teenage sons, men wounded by mine blasts and tearful widows were among Afghans who spoke out Sunday at a conference billed as the first major gathering of victims of decades of war in their country.

The so-called "victims' jirga" at a Kabul hotel brought together dozens of Afghans from across the country to build pressure on the government ahead of a national peace assembly called by President Hamid Karzai for later this month.

Legal advocates who organized the gathering in the capital want to make sure the voices of the Afghan people who have suffered at the hands of insurgents, warlords and under the former Taliban and Soviet regimes are heard at the government's peace assembly.