Bamiyan: a hidden gem

by Sarah-Jean Cunningham on 04 2nd, 2011

When people think of Afghanistan they think of the war, of the dirty politics, of the corruption and the images of poverty, death and misery.

I like to show a different side to the story in my blog. A side that is positive, optimistic and beautiful; a side that exists both, in an overwhelming abundance and in the most unexpected corners of the country. Bamiyan, best known for its historic Buddha statues blown up by the Taliban 10 years ago, is one of those gems of beauty. A short but turbulent helicopter ride to the central highland’s province took me and the talented photographer, Lorenzo Tugnoli, on a mini ski adventure in the glorious mountains that surround the centre of Bamiyan.

Rah-e-Abraisham, an Afghan tour company based in Bamiyan, is one of the first in country which specialises in outdoor activities. Bamiyan is one of the safest provinces in the country and the relaxed vibe of the small town makes for the perfect weekend get-away for us Kabulis. The thing about tourism in Afghanistan is that inevitably you end up hiking through minefields. Cleared ones, but nonetheless, minefields. Actually I have learned a lot about navigating my way through minefields since arriving in Afghanistan. You are supposed to stay between the white rocks and avoid the red ones. Unfortunately, the red and white rocks lay scattered in a haphazard way after the winter rains and snow washes them away, leaving us guesstimating the correct path.

Besides the excitement of dodging land mines, the sight of the forgotten Shahr-e-Gholgola (the City of Screams) was stunning and instantly took us back to the thirteenth century when the massacre of the city by Gengis Khan took place in revenge for the murder of his favourite grandson, which eerily lead to the city being renamed the City of Screams.

So then came the skiing. And when I say skiing, what I actually mean is a hell of a lot of hiking up a snowy mountain with heavy equipment and then a short but sweet ski downhill. Despite the physically strenuous challenge of going up the mountain, it was undoubtedly enthralling to be the only people on the mountain absorbing the fresh air and stunning views. Although, I must admit, that the strong, spring sun made skiiing difficult as the snow had started to melt.

Our ski guide, Nando, was an Italian mountaineer flown in by the Aga Khan Foundation to support this tourism project and promote skiing in the province. Our Italian certainly was a character, whipping his Afghan team into shape with in a harsh but pedagogical tone while warmly admitting that they had become like family to him during his three months in the country.

The local children looked on in amazement at the foreigners dressed in strange outfits, while they comfortably walked around in the snow in flimsy-looking shoes and a shalwar kameez. One boy had ingeniously put together a pair of make-shift skis, made from planks of wood bound to his boots with rope. Apparently Nando spotted some raw talent in the boy and immediately arranged for him to join the Bamiyan ‘ski school’ and be trained to become a ski guide in time for the next ski season in Afghanistan. The boy, although somewhat reserved, seemed to show a hint of excitement at the prospect.

Still lacking electricity, decent roads, and other amenities, Bamiyan is still a long way from being a top tourist destination. However, it’s moving in the right direction and has the perfect mix of relaxation, stunning scenery and fun activities. Who knows, with the arrival on the long-rumoured international airport, Bamiyan in the future could be bustling with tourists hungry for an adventure and a dose of the peaceful side to Afghanistan.

Sarah-Jean Cunningham is half-Egyptian, half-British who recently moved to Afghanistan to pursue her passion for development. Trying to understand the country is her newest and most difficult challenge yet! She blogs at: www.sjcunningham.com

Source,
http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/02/bamiyan-a-hidden-gem.html

*Photography by Lorenzo Tugnoli

NATO in Afghanistan - Malaysians bringing bite back to Bamiyan (w/subtit...

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.

'Stop deporting Afghans'

• Sally Neighbour
• From: The Australian
• March 30, 2011 12:00AM

AUSTRALIA'S leading authority on Afghanistan has called for a moratorium on the deportation of failed Afghan asylum-seekers.

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.

Start of sidebar.

"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.

Failed Afghan refugees 'should not be sent back'

(AFP) – 

SYDNEY — Afghan asylum seekers who failed in their bids to remain in Australia should not be returned to their home country where they risked death, a leading expert said Wednesday.
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.

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.

Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have stumbled upon a geological colossus in a remote corner of Afghanistan: a natural stone arch spanning more than 200 feet across its base.  Located in the central highlands of Afghanistan, the recently discovered Hazarchishman Natural Arch is more than 3,000 meters above sea level, making it one of the highest large natural bridges in the world.  It also ranks among the largest such structures known.
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