Azaranica is a non-biased news aggregator on Hazaras. The main aim is to promote understanding and respect for cultural identities by highlighting the realities they face on daily basis...Hazaras have been the victim of active persecution and discrimination and one of the reasons among many has been the lack of information, awareness, and disinformation.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Deport order sparks furore

Kirsty Needham
November 15, 2011

THE federal government will deport the first asylum seeker to Afghanistan this week under a controversial return agreement with the Afghan government.
Ismail Mirzajan, 27, has been told he is scheduled to be moved from the Villawood detention centre in Sydney and flown to Kabul on Saturday.
Mr Mirzajan, from Afghanistan's Hazara ethnic minority, fled the country as a 17-year-old a decade ago and has not been back since. The removal notice says he will be charged $32,782 for the deportation, which will be escorted.

The Afghan embassy in Australia is understood to be unhappy with deportations of its nationals. A prominent Hazara politician travelled to Australia this year to argue that returns should be voluntary.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said: ''Australia's agreement allows for the return of those Afghans not considered to be genuine refugees to Afghanistan.''
Refugee groups have complained to the Australian Human Rights Commission against Mr Mirzajan's deportation. His cause has also been taken up by church and support groups.
An Immigration Department spokesman said: ''Country information indicates that a returned Afghan national would not solely by being present in Kabul face a genuine risk of being killed or seriously injured.''
He said Mr Mirzajan's application for refugee status had been rejected by the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Federal Magistrates Court.
Mr Mirzajan arrived in Australia by plane in February 2010, having fled Afghanistan in 2001. He first went to Pakistan, then Iran and Greece before seeking refugee status in Britain in 2002. He was refused asylum in 2004 and went to Ireland, where he was allowed to stay temporarily, before travelling to Australia.
Rejecting his claim, the Refugee Review Tribunal said Mr Mirzajan had initially lied about his story. He had told officials at the airport he left Afghanistan in January 2010. Mr Mirzajan says he was coached
by people smugglers to change his story.
Advocates said the length of time he has been away from Afghanistan demonstrated the plight of Hazaras who felt it unsafe to return while the war against the Taliban continued. Earlier this year, The Age reported that up to 20 of the 179 asylum seekers returned to Afghanistan after the 2001 Tampa controversy had been killed by the Taliban.
Australian National University Afghanistan expert William Maley said the government needed to be very careful about sending Hazaras back to Afghanistan as the security situation in Kabul deteriorated.
The department spokesman said Australia did not return people to their country of origin where it would contravene human rights obligations.
Mr Bowen's spokesman said: ''It's a fundamental part of our immigration system that if people are found not to be genuine refugees that they should be removed.''

SMH

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Call to end Hazara killings

our correspondent
Monday, November 14, 2011

LONDON: International Imam Hussain Council (IIHC) organised Hazara conference at Al-Khoei Foundation to reflect on the plight of Hazara tribe and their future in the context of their right to religious freedom, citizenship and more importantly life without fear.

People came in hundreds from across Europe to take part in the conference. Audience constituted of prominent politicians, philanthropists, human rights campaigners, and notables from the Hazara tribe. The speakers at the conference voiced concerns over the “massacre of peace loving Hazaras”. They expressed concern over the denial of fundamental rights to be able to live without fear.

The conference was addressed by Lord Avebury, veteran human rights activist, Rubab Mehdi Rizvi, chairperson, International Imam Hussain Council, Yousif Al-Khoei, Haji Marzooq Ali, Hazara leader, Liaquat Ali Hazara, human rights activist, Dr Ali Alawi, Professor Harvard University, Murtaza Poya of Amnesty International and Azizullah Royesh, human rights activist.

The panelists included Sadiq Noyan, information secretary of Hazara Organisation UK, Hafiz Khurram, Hazara Progressive Alliance, Mokhtar Ali, secretary general of Afghani Community of Milton Keynes and Ali Hakimi, Hazara Progressive Alliances. Lord Avebury condemned the killing of Hazaras and urged the international community to take notice of the issue.

THE NEWS

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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Australia's got talent, Hazara Refugee artist Ghulam Sakhi Hazara

Bamiyan in the Autumn

November 12, 2011, 3:31 pm

Text and photos by Lai Yung Sun

I went on a business trip to Bamiyan and stayed at the "Roof of the Bamiyan Hotel" overlooking the Bamiyan Buddha complex. When I registered my name, the guy who was in charge, Javed, asked me whether I came by chartered helicopter. I said I came by road and he was quite surprised.

He told me that I am a brave man. I said to the contrary, I am a stupid Karji (foreigner) and he laughed loudly and shook my hand with me with great enthusiasm. He said with some sadness in his voice that "now we don’t get any foreign guests, at least they don’t travel by road due to the dangerous security situation."

I told Javed "it is those who take this journey by road who will really understand Afghanistan and see the beauty and smell the nature."

Javed nodded and said "balay balay (yes yes.)"

The distance is 109 miles (174 Km) the trip took eight hours. This will tell you the condition of the road. Honestly there were no roads but dirt tracks and we got lost a few times because there was hardly the trace of a road but open space and the Kohi Baba mountains in front of us.

I feel very privileged to see all this. There are many foreigners who never left their high security homes and hardly moved out of Kabul (not even seen Kabul properly after five years). It is a shame that so much beauty is never seen.

This is my second trip to Bamiyan. It was very dangerous, especially to go through Taliban country. I was dressed like an Afghan and I looked like a Hazara. Nobody gave me a second look, as long as I did not open my mouth.

The pictures show a different side of Afghanistan - the Afghanistan seen through my eyes.

(The writer works for an American company in Afghanistan as country representative and project manager)

SUN ISLAND

Life at risk

Ghazi Salahuddin
Sunday, November 13, 2011

What you read in the headlines is scary enough. But some incidents that you learn about in personal encounters can be devastating. And I am talking about the surge in religious extremism and intolerance at a time when supposedly liberal political parties are at the helm.

Particularly alarming is the recent growth of radical Islam in Sindh, the land of sufis and saints. Indeed, the Pakistan People’s Party, as it is being steered at present, has resorted to a policy of appeasement when it comes to dealing with the fanatic and the obscurantist forces. Is this the other side of the coin of political compromise they define as ‘mufahimat’? However, sleeping with the Q (qatil?) League may not be as detrimental to PPP’s prospects as a political party as the loss it is bound to suffer with the rise in right-wing extremism in our society.

As for headlines this week, the murder of three Hindu doctors in Shikarpur district on the auspicious day of Eid has prompted a lot of concern with reference to the insecurity of our religious minorities. It so happens that there was also a report this week that a study by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has found that Pakistani textbooks discriminate against Hindus and other religious minorities. It said that many teachers regard non-Muslims as “enemies of Islam”.

Leonard Leo, chairman of the Commission, has been quoted as saying: “Teaching discrimination increases the likelihood that violent religious extremism in Pakistan will continue to grow, weakening religious freedom, national and regional stability, and global security”.

This study reviewed more than 100 textbooks used in grades one to ten in the four provinces of the country. In addition, researchers visited 37 schools in the public sector and interviewed 277 students and teachers. They also visited 19 madrassahs where they interviewed 226 students and teachers.

“Religious minorities are often portrayed as inferior or second class citizens who have been granted limited rights and privileges by generous Pakistani Muslims, for which they should be grateful”, the report said.

There is little doubt that the scope for religious tolerance in this country is shrinking. I have alluded to a shift in Sindh’s social and cultural environment in this context. Though there have been reports of forced conversions and kidnappings for ransom of Hindu traders and professionals from some parts of Sindh, my impression is based more on what I have heard from friends who reside or work in the interior of the province.

Well, over the past many years, I had known a Sindh that was mostly at peace with itself in terms of religious and sectarian harmony. Its spiritual identity was located in the shrines of Lal Shahbaz Qalander and Shah Lateef. Lately, more madrassahs have opened and fundamentalist outfits are seen to be gaining influence. Religious organisations, active in relief work after last year’s floods and this year’s rain emergency, are spreading their message of bias and discrimination.

One measure of growing concern about the level of extremist passions that exist in our society was the response of the civil society activists and even high political functionaries to the murder of three doctors on Eid. There were statements from the president and the prime minister. Nawaz Sharif, chief of his faction of Pakistan Muslim League, while offering his condolences to the families of the deceased doctors on telephone, said that his party would raise the issue in the National Assembly. Sherry Rehman has already submitted an adjournment motion on this issue.

This should be done in right earnest. The Shikarpur tragedy in which the three Hindu doctors – three brothers, in fact – were gunned down after an altercation with a Muslim tribe over a dancing girl has served to underline the entire range of issues that relate to the treatment of minorities in our society. It has helped that the report on the study done by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has been released at this time.

One news report, datelined Rawalpindi, which attracted my attention this week was titled: “Ahmadis fear another attack after intimidation”. It relates to the emergence of banners in a part of the Satellite Town, demanding that Ahmadis leave the area because the community’s activities were ‘unconstitutional’. The intention is that the Qadianis should not use a particular building for worship. It is hard to forget the exceptionally brutal attack on this community in Lahore in May 2010 when as many as 93 persons were killed.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has formed a working group on ‘communities vulnerable because of their beliefs’. A report published earlier this year –”Life at risk” – noted that “the traditional threats and discrimination faced by members of religious minority and vulnerable communities in Pakistan have steadily multiplied over the last few years in conjunction with militancy, growing intolerance and the rise to power of violent extremists in parts of Pakistan”.

It added that this was the result of “not only the advance of militants and religious extremist elements but also the government’s failure to take effective steps to protect the basic human rights” of the vulnerable communities. We may include the Hazara community of Quetta, victims of sectarian violence, in this category. So much so that even the Islamic scholars who are enlightened and who interpret religion in a progressive framework are threatened by the religious militants.

Do we really need to quote the Quaid or to emphasise that no civilised society can exist without giving the minorities a complete sense of security and confidence? The point here is that the kind of religious militancy that has been fostered in Pakistan, with ample encouragement from the ruling establishment, is in essence a rejection of the very rationale for creating Pakistan.

Unfortunately, our present rulers do not seem to understand the threat that is posed by the steady rise in religious militancy in Pakistan. Nor is this issue a major subject of our political discourse. Yes, the buzzword now is “change”. And there is a focus on “corruption” – without any appreciation of its implications in a moral and intellectual context.

We do expect our political parties to take an unambiguous position on the issue of religious militancy and define their strategies, if they genuinely want to combat this trend. Not confronting the radical Islamists may be an expedient move, as the PPP seems to think, but the consequences of this immoral ploy are bound to be horrendous.

Most of our leading politicians, including Imran Khan, the new star on the political horizon, have obviously not given much thought to the problems of invoking religion in politics. In a different context, they want to give peace a chance. They should, instead, be thinking of giving Pakistan a chance.

The writer is a staff member. Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com

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