killings in Quetta - Neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan is safe for Hazaras; by Refugee Action Coalition Sydney

on Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 11:56pm
MEDIA RELEASE

CURTIN ASYLUM SEEKERS HOLD PROTEST AT HAZARA KILLINGS IN QUETTA.
NEITHER PAKISTAN NOR AFGHNAISTAN IS SAFE FOR HAZARAS

Yesterday (Thursday 21 September), at 3.30pm, more than 400 mostly
Hazara asylum seekers staged a peaceful protest near the
administration building inside Curtin detention centre.
According to a statement released by the Curtin Hazara asylum seekers,
the hour-long demonstration was to let the immigration department know
of the dangerous situation that face their families in Quetta,
Pakistan.

Quetta has a large community of Hazaras who have fled persecution in
Afghanistan. But Pakistan is mostly Sunni Muslim and the Hazaras, who
are Shia Muslim, are increasingly the target of fundamentalist
killings in Quetta. Many of the Hazara asylum seekers families have
been left living illegally in Quetta.

“We want immigration department to know how we feel and how much we
worry [about our families’ situation].” the statement said.

The protest was held following news that on 20 September, over 29
Hazaras traveling on a bus near Quetta, were separated from other
passengers and executed. It was the third such attack in a month.

A number of speeches at the Curtin protest told of the persecution of
Hazara and Shia Mislims. The asylum seekers held banners saying,
“Where is UN?”; Why UN do not hear our voice?; Stop killing of
innocent Hazaras?; Is being Hazara is a crime?

At the end of the peaceful protest the asylum seekers returned to
their compounds. But the anxiety remains.

On the same day as the mass killing of Hazaras in Quetta, the
Australian government deported an Hazara man from Villawood detention
centre to Pakistan.

“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,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action
Coalition.

“The Australian government has directly violated its commitments not
to refoule asylum seekers. We are also calling on the government to
terminate its Memorandum of Agreement with the Afghan government to
return Hazaras to Afghanistan?

“How can the Australian government possibly justify such an agreement,
when the attacks on the Nato base and the killing of Burhanuddin
Rabbani, the head of the Afghan Peace Council show that Kabul itself
is not safe?” asked Rintoul.

For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713