Sunday, October 9, 2011
In Pakistan, 40 dead Shi’ites is no big deal
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 9, 2011/Troy Media/ – Hundreds of Afghan civil society and human rights activists held a demonstration in Kabul on Friday protesting against the ethnic cleansing of the Hazara ethnic and sectarian minority group in Pakistan.
According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, more than 600 members of the Hazara minority have been slaughtered in the last couple of years by the Al-Qaeda-linked sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
The latest attack was reported on October 4. According to the New York Times, “. . . attackers riding in a pickup truck intercepted the bus carrying mostly Shiite day laborers traveling to a market. The gunmen forced non-Hazara passengers to get off the bus, then opened fire on the people remaining inside.”
Fourteen people – all vegetable vendors going to a market – were killed. Just a week before that attack, another bus on the way to Quetta-Taftan was targeted. According to a statement by the Human Rights Watch, “On September 19, near the town of Mastung, gunmen forced about 40 Hazara who had been traveling by bus to Iran to visit Shia holy sites to disembark, shot 26 dead, and wounded six. Although some Hazara managed to escape, another three were killed as they tried to bring victims to a hospital in Quetta. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group, claimed responsibility for the . . . attack.”
Barbaric attempts at ethnic cleansing
The Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams said that “these targeted attacks are a barbaric attempt at sectarian and ethnic cleansing. The government’s failure to break up the extremist groups that carry out these attacks calls into question its commitment to protect all of its citizens.”
In reaction to the October 4 attack, a statement from Amnesty International said, “Sadly, this is only the latest in a long line of brazen attacks against Quetta’s Shi’a population. Sectarian violence has been a feature of the general breakdown in law and order in Pakistan, but these recent attacks seem to indicate a new targeting of the ethnic Hazara community”.
According to Pakistani media reports, more than 600 members of this ethnic and sectarian minority have been killed in Quetta since 2001. Though the targeted-killing of Hazara Shias in Quetta started in 1997, about a hundred have been killed execution-style in 2011 alone.
All the attacks since 1997 have been claimed by the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant outfit and breakaway faction of the Sipah e Sahaba Pakistan, founded by Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in Punjab in 1996. The banned group is a lethal sectarian outfit active in anti-Shiite attacks in Pakistan, whose government has failed to crack down against its members. In fact, known LeJ leader Malik Ishaq was released by a Pakistani court in July. Since his release, the attacks on the Hazaras in Quetta have increased.
Pakistani journalist Amir Mir, LeJ, in a report for Asia Times Online, translated a letter warning that it is time to “purify Pakistan” of the Hazaras. His translation read:
“All Shi’ites are worthy of killing. We will rid Pakistan of unclean people. Pakistan means land of the pure and the Shi’ites have no right to live in this country. We have the edict and signatures of revered scholars, declaring Shi’ites infidels. Just as our fighters have waged a successful jihad against the Shi’ite Hazaras in Afghanistan, our mission in Pakistan is the abolition of this impure sect and its followers from every city, every village and every nook and corner of Pakistan.
“Like in the past, our successful jihad against the Hazaras in Pakistan and, in particular, in Quetta, is ongoing and will continue in the future. We will make Pakistan the graveyard of the Shi’ite Hazaras and their houses will be destroyed by bombs and suicide bombers. We will only rest when we will be able to fly the flag of true Islam on this land of the pure. Jihad against the Shi’ite Hazaras has now become our duty.”
Why did Pakistan law enforcement agencies fail to crack down on Lashkar-e-Jhangvi? Because Pakistan’s all-powerful Inter-Services Intelligence and its military are more focused on the Baloch separatists in Balochistan, while Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, operate freely in the province.
40 dead no big deal
Prominent Pakistani journalists such as Najam Sethi, Mushtaq Minhas, Javed Nusrat and others are now calling the continuous attacks on Hazaras ethnic genocide. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a statement last week called upon President Zardari and Prime Minister Gillani “to take immediate, direct and personal initiative to prevent the killing of members of the Hazara community in Quetta and ensure action against all those who have failed to protect citizens’ lives.”
Despite the continuous attacks, and calls by rights groups, the Government of Pakistan and its security establishment have turned a blind eye and deaf ear. Shamefully, the Chief Minister of Balochistan and member of the Executive Committee of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, Nawab Aslam Raisani, was making jokes out of the massacre in Quetta. In a statement referring to the attack in Mastung that killed 40 Hazaras, he said, “of the millions living in Balochistan, 40 dead is not a big deal. I will send a truckload of tissue papers to the bereaved families. I would have sent tobacco if I was not a politician.”
Abbas Daiyar writes for Daily Outlook Afghanistan as well as Troy Media. He can be reached at Abbas.daiyar@gmail.com.
Rallies condemn killing of Hazaras in Pakistan
Saturday, October 8, 2011
By Sue Bolton, Melbourne
Hazara-led rally in Melbourne, October 1. Photo: indymedia.org.au
More than 29 Hazaras traveling on a bus near Quetta, Pakistan, were separated from other passengers and executed by Islamic fundamentalists on September 20. This was the third time Hazaras have been attacked in a month.
After hearing the news, more than 400 Hazara asylum seekers in Curtin detention centre protested the killings near the centre’s administration building on September 21. The protest was to alert the immigration department of the situation Hazaras face in Pakistan.
The Hazara community in Australia and around the world held protests against the killings with an international day of protest on October 1. Protests were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Darwin and Brisbane in Australia, and Stockholm, London, New York, Karachi, Islamabad, and Toronto.
Speakers at the Melbourne rally, where 700 to 1000 Hazaras protested in pouring rain, highlighted the silence of the Australian government and the UN on the killing of Hazaras in Pakistan.
Quetta has a large community of Hazaras who have fled persecution in Afghanistan. But most Pakistani are Sunni Muslim and the Hazaras, who are Shia Muslims, are increasingly the target of fundamentalist killings. Many of the Hazara asylum seekers’ families have been left living illegally in Quetta.
Hazaras are a minority group in Afghanistan. Historically, they have been persecuted and driven off their lands. Many have fled to Iran and Pakistan. Most Afghans that come to Australia for protection are Hazaras.
Lashkar e Janghvi, a fundamentalist Sunni militant group, claimed responsibility for the September 20 killings.
In June, it issued this warning: “Just as our fighters have waged a successful jihad against the Shia-Hazaras in Afghanistan, our mission [in Pakistan] is the abolition of this impure sect and people, the Shias and the Shia-Hazaras, from every city, every village, every nook and corner of Pakistan.
“Like in the past, [our] successful Jihad against the Hazaras in Pakistan and, in particular, in Quetta is ongoing and will continue [in the future]. We will make Pakistan their graveyard — their houses will be destroyed by bombs and suicide bombers.”
On August 31, on Eid (the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan), Lashkar e Janghvi carried out its threat. It attempted a suicide bombing of a mosque in Quetta. They were stopped by Hazara community members, 11 of whom were killed, including a four-year-old girl and a 70-year-old man.
All Hazaras are targets — not just men, political activists or businessmen. Hazara women have been shot at on buses while going to the market and young boys are shot at on motorbikes by masked men.
The leader of Lashkar e Janghvi is free in Pakistan, making speeches against the Shia community, more assaults on Hazaras.
The Hazara community is deeply fearful that a genocide is approaching. Australian Hazaras are grieving for family members lost in the recent attacks and are asking their Australian friends to support them in condemning this violence against their people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Refugee Action Coalition Sydney (RAC) says the Australian government deported a Hazara man from Villawood detention centre to Pakistan on September 20 — the same day that Hazaras were massacred in Quetta.
RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul said: “The man is not a citizen of Pakistan. And the immigration department ignored the very real dangers that confront the Hazaras in Quetta. The deported man’s son had been injured in a Taliban attack in May this year."
GREEN LEFT
By Sue Bolton, Melbourne
More than 29 Hazaras traveling on a bus near Quetta, Pakistan, were separated from other passengers and executed by Islamic fundamentalists on September 20. This was the third time Hazaras have been attacked in a month.
After hearing the news, more than 400 Hazara asylum seekers in Curtin detention centre protested the killings near the centre’s administration building on September 21. The protest was to alert the immigration department of the situation Hazaras face in Pakistan.
The Hazara community in Australia and around the world held protests against the killings with an international day of protest on October 1. Protests were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Darwin and Brisbane in Australia, and Stockholm, London, New York, Karachi, Islamabad, and Toronto.
Speakers at the Melbourne rally, where 700 to 1000 Hazaras protested in pouring rain, highlighted the silence of the Australian government and the UN on the killing of Hazaras in Pakistan.
Quetta has a large community of Hazaras who have fled persecution in Afghanistan. But most Pakistani are Sunni Muslim and the Hazaras, who are Shia Muslims, are increasingly the target of fundamentalist killings. Many of the Hazara asylum seekers’ families have been left living illegally in Quetta.
Hazaras are a minority group in Afghanistan. Historically, they have been persecuted and driven off their lands. Many have fled to Iran and Pakistan. Most Afghans that come to Australia for protection are Hazaras.
Lashkar e Janghvi, a fundamentalist Sunni militant group, claimed responsibility for the September 20 killings.
In June, it issued this warning: “Just as our fighters have waged a successful jihad against the Shia-Hazaras in Afghanistan, our mission [in Pakistan] is the abolition of this impure sect and people, the Shias and the Shia-Hazaras, from every city, every village, every nook and corner of Pakistan.
“Like in the past, [our] successful Jihad against the Hazaras in Pakistan and, in particular, in Quetta is ongoing and will continue [in the future]. We will make Pakistan their graveyard — their houses will be destroyed by bombs and suicide bombers.”
On August 31, on Eid (the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan), Lashkar e Janghvi carried out its threat. It attempted a suicide bombing of a mosque in Quetta. They were stopped by Hazara community members, 11 of whom were killed, including a four-year-old girl and a 70-year-old man.
All Hazaras are targets — not just men, political activists or businessmen. Hazara women have been shot at on buses while going to the market and young boys are shot at on motorbikes by masked men.
The leader of Lashkar e Janghvi is free in Pakistan, making speeches against the Shia community, more assaults on Hazaras.
The Hazara community is deeply fearful that a genocide is approaching. Australian Hazaras are grieving for family members lost in the recent attacks and are asking their Australian friends to support them in condemning this violence against their people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Refugee Action Coalition Sydney (RAC) says the Australian government deported a Hazara man from Villawood detention centre to Pakistan on September 20 — the same day that Hazaras were massacred in Quetta.
RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul said: “The man is not a citizen of Pakistan. And the immigration department ignored the very real dangers that confront the Hazaras in Quetta. The deported man’s son had been injured in a Taliban attack in May this year."
GREEN LEFT
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Activists Urge Australia Not to Deport Afghan Asylum Seekers
October 08, 2011
Phil Mercer | Sydney
Afghan refugees gather at a house in a suburb of Adelaide, Australia. (file photo)
Rights activists in Australia are criticizing the government's plan to repatriate Afghan refugees who fail to qualify for asylum. They say the government is downplaying the security risks in Afghanistan and thus are jeopardizing the safety of the asylum seekers being sent home.
Australian officials say Afghanistan has taken what they call "major steps towards democracy and stability." There are about 1,500 Australian troops in Afghanistan, and while officials in Canberra acknowledge that poverty and security issues remain a critical challenge, they insist that important progress has been made.
Some critics say the Canberra government is downplaying the security risks in Afghanistan. And they say that assessment has an impact on Australia's immigration policies regarding Afghan refugees.
The issue was a topic of discussion at a conference on Australia's Afghanistan policy hosted by the University of Technology in Sydney. Organizers there say that as a consequence of the government's assessment, Australia has reduced the number of protection visas it grants Afghan refugees. They say that in 2007, Australia granted visas to 95 percent of Afghans seeking asylum. Now, they say, fewer than half of such visa applications are approved.
Australia signed a deal with Kabul in January that allows Canberra to deport refugees who fail to gain asylum. So far, no one has been forcibly repatriated, but officials in Canberra will not say if or when deportations will begin. Professor James Goodman from the University of Technology questions the logic of such a policy.
“There are about 2,500 of these Afghan refugees, all of them still in detention," he said. "This agreement with the Afghan government would allow the Australian government to force them to return to Afghanistan and our concern was that clearly the security situation in Afghanistan is not improving. In fact, it is deteriorating over the last few years, deteriorating quite significantly year by year.”
The meeting of academics, students and human rights activists was held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the former Taliban government. The conference called on the Australian government to reconsider its policy on Afghan asylum to take into account what organizers characterized as a worsening security situation.
Among the speakers was Abdul Karim Hekmat, who arrived from Afghanistan ten years ago. He says members of his minority Hazara ethnic group are facing increased persecution at the hands of the Taliban and discrimination by the government. Most of the asylum seekers who apply to stay in Australia are from the Hazara group.
Abdul says any asylum seekers sent home would be at risk. “For those people who will be forced to return to Afghanistan, they will be deported in a danger zone and the Afghan government is not able to protect them, the returnees and the Hazaras will be targeted once they are returned to Afghanistan,” he said.
Immigration has become one of the most contentious issues in Australian politics largely because of a steady flow of unauthorized arrivals coming by boat in recent years. The Labor government’s proposal to send asylum seekers to Malaysia for processing was recently declared unlawful by the High Court.
Australia grants visas to about 13,000 refugees annually under various international treaties.
Voice of America
Phil Mercer | Sydney
Rights activists in Australia are criticizing the government's plan to repatriate Afghan refugees who fail to qualify for asylum. They say the government is downplaying the security risks in Afghanistan and thus are jeopardizing the safety of the asylum seekers being sent home.
Australian officials say Afghanistan has taken what they call "major steps towards democracy and stability." There are about 1,500 Australian troops in Afghanistan, and while officials in Canberra acknowledge that poverty and security issues remain a critical challenge, they insist that important progress has been made.
Some critics say the Canberra government is downplaying the security risks in Afghanistan. And they say that assessment has an impact on Australia's immigration policies regarding Afghan refugees.
The issue was a topic of discussion at a conference on Australia's Afghanistan policy hosted by the University of Technology in Sydney. Organizers there say that as a consequence of the government's assessment, Australia has reduced the number of protection visas it grants Afghan refugees. They say that in 2007, Australia granted visas to 95 percent of Afghans seeking asylum. Now, they say, fewer than half of such visa applications are approved.
Australia signed a deal with Kabul in January that allows Canberra to deport refugees who fail to gain asylum. So far, no one has been forcibly repatriated, but officials in Canberra will not say if or when deportations will begin. Professor James Goodman from the University of Technology questions the logic of such a policy.
“There are about 2,500 of these Afghan refugees, all of them still in detention," he said. "This agreement with the Afghan government would allow the Australian government to force them to return to Afghanistan and our concern was that clearly the security situation in Afghanistan is not improving. In fact, it is deteriorating over the last few years, deteriorating quite significantly year by year.”
The meeting of academics, students and human rights activists was held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the former Taliban government. The conference called on the Australian government to reconsider its policy on Afghan asylum to take into account what organizers characterized as a worsening security situation.
Among the speakers was Abdul Karim Hekmat, who arrived from Afghanistan ten years ago. He says members of his minority Hazara ethnic group are facing increased persecution at the hands of the Taliban and discrimination by the government. Most of the asylum seekers who apply to stay in Australia are from the Hazara group.
Abdul says any asylum seekers sent home would be at risk. “For those people who will be forced to return to Afghanistan, they will be deported in a danger zone and the Afghan government is not able to protect them, the returnees and the Hazaras will be targeted once they are returned to Afghanistan,” he said.
Immigration has become one of the most contentious issues in Australian politics largely because of a steady flow of unauthorized arrivals coming by boat in recent years. The Labor government’s proposal to send asylum seekers to Malaysia for processing was recently declared unlawful by the High Court.
Australia grants visas to about 13,000 refugees annually under various international treaties.
Voice of America
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