The call came with the warning that they faced the risk of persecution or death if forced to return to their homeland.
The warning from William Maley, director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University, is supported by research showing that at least nine Afghans deported when their asylum claims were rejected were killed after being forced to return to war-torn Afghanistan.
Professor Maley says the Gillard government's plan to repatriate a group of about 50 Afghans in coming months will put them in grave danger. Most of those facing forced removal are members of the ethnic Hazara minority, who have been persecuted by the Taliban, which controls large areas of the countryside.
"In Afghanistan, there is a pervasive fear, fuelled by Western politicians talking openly about the need to reconcile with the Taliban, that the country is heading back to the dark days before September 11, 2001," Professor Maley told The Australian.
"It is therefore no surprise that ethnic Hazaras, a group ferociously persecuted at that time, are desperate to escape.
"Unfortunately the Immigration Department's processing of refugee claims has become so haphazard there is a grave danger that people in need of protection might be thrown, metaphorically, to the wolves. There should be a moratorium on returning anyone to Afghanistan until the integrity of the assessment process can be properly guaranteed."
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told The Australian last week his department was finalising arrangements for the repatriation of an initial group of about 50 Afghans in the coming months.
"I have grave fears for Afghans who are sent back," said Phil Glendenning, director of the Edmund Rice Centre, a Catholic group that has followed the fate of about 270 failed asylum-seekers, including nine Afghans who were killed after being sent home by the Howard government.
In one case documented by the centre, an ethnic Hazara man, Mohammed Hussain, was deported to Afghanistan in 2008 from Nauru, where he had been detained under the Howard-era Pacific Solution.
Mr Glendenning says Hussain, who had formerly been an anti-Taliban fighter, was kidnapped by Taliban forces and taken back to his home village in Afghanistan's Ghazni province.
"He was thrown down a well in front of 35 members of his family, and then they threw a grenade down and decapitated him," says Mr Glendenning, who met Hussain in Kabul in September 2008. He says Hussain expressed fears at the time that he would be killed..
In a second case, another deportee from Nauru, Abdul Azmin Rajabi, saw his daughters aged six and nine killed when the family was targeted four months after their return to Afghanistan.
"If the government can't guarantee their safety, they should not be returned,' Mr Glendenning told The Australian.
Professor Maley says the targeting of returnees is "more likely now than in 2008".
According to the UN, 2010 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the war began, with 2777 civilians killed, three-quarters of them by insurgents.
The Taliban has stated that its policy is to exterminate the Hazara people.
Hundreds of Afghans, mostly Hazaras, could face deportation as about 50 per cent of Afghan asylum claims are now being rejected.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
سیما سمر: صلح پایدار در افغانستان نیازمند اجرای عدالت است
سیما سمر: "ما باید فرهنگ پاسخگویی و عدالت را تقویت کنیم."
کمیسیون حقوق بشر افغانستان گفته است که تامین صلح پایدار در این کشور با اجرای عدالت و به دادگاه کشانیدن مجرمان جنگی پیوند دارد.
سیما سمر، رئیس این کمیسیون روز چهارشنبه، ۱۰ حمل/فروردین در کنفرانس "ایجاد هماهنگی میان بازماندگان قربانیان جنگ" در افغانستان گفت که هیچ فردی حق بخشیدن جرائم جنگی را ندارد.
خانم سمر گفت که همه افغانها به گونه مستقیم یا غیرمستقیم قربانی بی‌عدالتی هستند و برای اجرای عدالت نیاز به اتحاد همه مردم افغانستان است. به گفته او، تامین صلح بدون اجرای عدالت ممکن نیست.
رئیس کمیسیون حقوق بشر افغانستان گفت: "اگر ما خواسته باشیم که افغانستان را به سوی صلح پایدار ببریم و اگر خواسته باشیم که افغانستان را از جنگ های قبیله ای، قومی، زبانی و منطقه ای نجات بدهیم، ما ضرورت به پاسخگویی و عدالت داریم."
او تاکید کرد: "ما باید فرهنگ پاسخگویی و عدالت را تقویت کنیم. این کار ممکن نیست که یک نهاد آن را انجام دهد، یک نیرو یا یگ گروه یا یک قوم آن را انجام دهد. تمام اقوام افغانستان باید این کار را انجام دهند."
برنامه عدالت انتقالی در سال ۲۰۰۵ میلادی در افغانستان اعلام شد و هدف آن بررسی جنایات جنگی در سه دهه گذشته، گردآوری اسناد در خصوص بی عدالتی ها و ایجاد نهادی معتبر برای اجرای عدالت انتقالی خوانده شده است.
اما با گذشت چند سال، اکنون کمیسیون حقوق بشر افغانستان، ناامنی ها، عدم توجه نیروهای درگیر در جنگ به غیرنظامیان، فساد اداری و سوء استفاده از قدرت را از موانع عمده اجرای این برنامه می داند.
خانم سمر به این نظر است که همکاری همه مردم در این زمینه می تواند مجرمان جنگی را به دادگاه بکشاند.
این کنفرانس از سوی گروه هماهنگی عدالت انتقال برگزار شده است.
کنفرانس جاری به همین منظور و به ویژه ایجاد هماهنگی میان کسانی که به گونه مستقیم قربانی جنگ های سه دهه گذشته شده اند، برگزار شده است.
این کنفرانس از سوی گروه هماهنگی برای عدالت انتقالی، که دهها نهاد داخلی و خارجی فعال در عرصه حقوق بشر در آن عضویت دارند، برگزار شده است.
شماری از بازماندگان قربانیان سه دهه جنگ در افغانستان، مسئولان نهادهای حقوق بشری، شماری از اعضای شورای ملی افغانستان در آن شرکت کرده اند.
شرکت کنندگان این کنفرانس از مردم خواسته اند که با ادامه "دادخواهی" برای اجرای عدالت انتقالی در کشور، تلاش کنند تا افراد متهم به ارتکاب جرائم جنگی را از مقامهای سیاسی کنار شوند.
این فعالان حقوق بشری به این باورند که بهبود حکومتداری در افغانستان می تواند به اجرای عدالت انتقالی و به دادگاه کشاندن متهمان کمک کند.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Failed Afghan refugees 'should not be sent back'
Professor William Maley, one of Australia's foremost experts on Afghanistan, called for a moratorium on the repatriation of Afghans.
His comments follow a 20-year-old man from the Hazara ethnic minority, Afghanistan's most oppressed group, hanging himself at an Australian centre on Monday after reportedly waiting almost a year for a decision on his case.
Maley, director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University, said most of the 50 Afghans Australia wanted to return were Hazaras -- a Shia Muslim group persecuted by the Taliban.
He claimed the immigration department's processing of refugee claims "has become so haphazard there is a grave danger that people in need of protection might be thrown, metaphorically, to the wolves."
"There should be a moratorium on returning anyone to Afghanistan until the integrity of the assessment process can be properly guaranteed," he told The Australian newspaper.
Researchers at Sydney's Edmund Rice Centre estimate that nine Afghans were killed after being sent home by the previous conservative government of prime minister John Howard.
In one reported case, a Hazara man deported in 2008 was kidnapped by Taliban forces and taken to his home village in Ghazni province where he was thrown down a well in front of his family before a grenade was dropped in to kill him.
"I have grave fears for Afghans who are sent back," the director of the think-tank, Phil Glendenning, told the same newspaper. "If the government can't guarantee their safety, they should not be returned."
The latest suicide comes as refugee advocates say tensions are rising in detention centres, which are strained to capacity by boatpeople who are held while their claims are assessed.
A refugee group said a 26-year-old Tamil asylum seeker attempted to commit suicide on Wednesday. The immigration department said he attempted to self-harm but sustained only minor injuries.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Newly Discovered Natural Arch in Afghanistan is One of World’s Largest
28 March 2011 | Bamyan Province, Afghanistan
Ayub Alavi/Wildlife Conservation Society
Wildlife Conservation Society researchers working on a USAID-funded project in Afghanistan discovered this natural arch in Bamyan Province.
While implementing USAID’s Improving Livelihoods and Governance through Natural Resource Management Program, WCS researchers Christopher Shank and Ayub Alavi discovered the massive arch in late 2010 while surveying the northern edge of the Bamyan plateau for wildlife. The researchers returned to the natural wonder in February 2011, to measure it. The total span of arch—the measurement by which natural bridges are ranked—is 210.6 feet in width, making it the 12th largest in the world. This finding pushes Utah’s Outlaw Arch in Dinosaur National Monument—smaller than Hazarchishma by more than four feet—to number 13 on the list.
“It’s one of the most spectacular discoveries ever made in this region,” said Joe Walston, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Asia Program. “The arch is emblematic of the natural marvels that still await discovery in Afghanistan.”
The world’s largest natural arch—Fairy Bridge—is located in Guangxi, China, and spans a staggering 400 feet in width. Several of the top 20 largest natural arches are located in the state of Utah in the U.S.
With support from USAID, the government of Afghanistan has launched several initiatives to safeguard the country’s environment and the wildlife it contains. In 2009, the government declared the country’s first national park, Band-e-Amir, approximately 100 kilometers south of Hazarchishma Natural Arch. The park was established with technical assistance from USAID. USAID also worked with Afghanistan’s National Environment Protection Agency to produce the country’s first-ever list of protected species, an action that now bans the hunting of snow leopards, wolves, brown bears, and other species. USAID also works to limit illegal wildlife trade through educational workshops at military bases across Afghanistan.
USAID’s Improving Livelihoods and Governance through Natural Resource Management Program addresses biodiversity conservation issues and improves natural resource management in the Wakhan corridor in Badakhshan Province and the Hazarat plateau in Bamyan Province. USAID is working with more than 55 local communities to build Afghanistan’s capacity to conserve and sustainably manage its natural resources, improve the livelihoods of the rural poor in northeast and central Afghanistan, and strengthen linkages between local communities and regional and national government institutions.
“Afghanistan has taken great strides in initiating programs to preserve the country’s most beautiful wild places, as well as conserve its natural resources,” said Peter Zahler, Deputy Director for the WCS Asia Program. “This newfound marvel adds to the country’s growing list of natural wonders and economic assets.”
The WCS saves wildlife worldwide through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together, these activities change attitudes towards nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony.
USAID, through the WCS, is taking an innovative, coordinated approach to protecting fragile upper watersheds in two Afghanistan provinces – Bamyan and Badakhshan – while improving natural resource management and increasing biodiversity at the local and national levels.
Rising tensions predicted in detention centre
A leader in Western Australia's Afghan Hazara community has warned tensions will continue to rise at the Curtin detention centre unless something is done soon.
A 20-year-old man from the Hazara minority is believed to have taken his own life at the centre in the state's far north after waiting months for his asylum application to be processed. Mohammed Asif Atay was found dead in his room by friends at the centre yesterday.
He had been waiting for a decision on his asylum application for 10 months.
The ABC has been told security officers were driven back by angry Afghan inmates as they tried to retrieve the man's body.
The Immigration Department is rejecting allegations that guards were attacked.
Hazara leader Sajjad Hassini says mandatory detention is placing too much stress on asylum seekers.
"Everything has a limit, once it goes beyond the limit, it explodes so definitely it will go worse and worse," he said.
He believes the Federal Government is repeating the mistakes of the Howard era.
"I think this government is making the same mistake that John Howard committed in his term towards asylum seekers by pressurising psychologically to return to their home countries which is openly a violation of the United Nation's human rights charter," he said.
Refugee rights campaigner Marcus Hampson says long term mandatory detention is pushing detainees to the edge.
"What you're seeing is the self-harm and the suicide is people internalising their frustrations, internalising the sense of hopelessness and loss," he said.
Mr Hampson says mandatory detention has a huge impact on the mental health of detainees and the man's suicide, and his friends' reactions, illustrate its damaging effects.
The Department of Immigration has declined to comment on the circumstances of the man's death.
Refugee advocates are warning the rising tension at the centre could spill over into protest and unrest.
Source,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/29/3177068.htm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=news
Monday, March 28, 2011
Asylum seeker dies at Curtin
ADRIAN BEATTIE, The West Australian March 28, 2011, 6:27 pm
Officials at the Curtin detention centre near Derby are investigating the apparent suicide of an asylum seeker.
An Afghani male, aged about 19 or 20, was found dead about 3pm today.
It is believed he hanged himself.
A spokesperson for the Department of Immigration confirmed that there had been a death and said that detainees and detention centre staff tried to revive the man by administering CPR.
He said that officers from the Western Australia Police would investigate the circumstances of the death. He said the department wished to extend its sympathy to the man's family and friends.
The West Australian understands the asylum seeker was a recent arrival at Curtin and was a member of the Hazara community, an ethnic and religious minority in Afghanistan.
Victoria Martin-Iverson from the Refugee Action Network said: "This is what happens when our Immigration Detention Centres become mental illness factories. This young man is not the first to end his life in this way, having reached the end of his coping mechanism."
Ms Martin-Iverson said that this latest suicide by an asylum seeker was the sixth in seven months within detention centres on the Australian mainland.
New figures from the UN's refugee agency show there was a huge jump in the number of people applying for asylum in Australia last year even though the rest of the Western world saw a decrease in claims.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said the number of asylum applications in Australia and New Zealand increased by 30 per cent during 2010 from the previous year, while around the world asylum applications fell by 5 per cent.
The large drop was attributed almost entirely to the collapse in asylum applications in southern European countries such as Italy and Greece due to new hard line policies.
Source,
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/9089760/asylum-seeker-dies-at-curtin/
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