Phillips

Denise Phillips, revise 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Why Hazaras flee An historic perspective of their persecution1 Submission for the G e rattlingwherenments Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Denise Phillips BA (Hons), PhD Candidate, Univer investy of bracing England, 19 July 2012 Quetta be alike discussed. The roundtime(pre zero(prenominal)nal) ethnic and sacred animosity against minority Shiite Hazaras continues to drive the bloodshed today. When we dismission our esponsibilities offshore, vilify refugees and pursue a punitive style of deterrence as a solution, we ignore these past and present atrocities. Executive summary This theme gives historical information just ab come out of the closet the kickoff ground, Afghanistan. As minority Shiites, Hazaras veritable persecution is borne out of an unresolved, century-old spectral and ethnic hatred of them. This has resulted in massacres, dispossession of their lands and decades of charge discrimination. Their persecution was fiercely reignited during the civil war and by the Taliban in the 1990s.Understanding that hi written report is vituperative to political. Not only be Hazaras dying on boats, but excessively in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Australia must respond to this over-all crisis with tender-heartedity rather than punitive measures. I alimentation the recommendations made in the Asylum Seeker Resource nerve centers submission and the Open Letter. As Afghanistan moves towards a possible Taliban coalescency or faces growing lawlessness, and as Hazaras continue to be slain or attacked in Hazara-populated regions and in neighbouring Quetta, Hazaras are likely to continue to flee and ingest grounds under the 1951 Refugee Convention to affright persecution.Introduction In addressing the problem of initiation renderers risking their lives on boat move aro unds to Australia, the reasons for their flight should remain at the forefront of policy-making and political debate. I offer an historical overview of a key source country, Afghanistan, and of the origins of Hazaras persecution. Current crises in both Afghanistan and Abdur Rahmans subjugation of Hazaras in the 19th century After the traditionally dominant Pashtuns and the Tajiks, Hazaras are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, although a minority. The Hazaras traditionally live in theHazarajat, a loosely defined region within the central highlands. While some 85 percent of Afghanistans world follow Sunni Islam, about Hazaras are Shiite Muslims, causing them to be condemned as infidels at different points throughout history. 2 Their suffering began in earnest in the late 1800s. The Hazaras were a semi- self-reliant society living in Afghanistans central highlands, the Hazarajat. The entire Hazara population possibly numbered over half a million, with about 340,000 fa milies in the Hazarajat. Although not a cohesive group, most were Shiites and spoke theHazaragi language, a derivative of Dari. In contrast, their surrounding ethnic groups were mostly Sunni Muslims and spoke Pashto or Dari. 3 Against a backdrop of imperial tensions betwixt Britain and Czarist Russia, Britain helped install an anti-Russian Pashtun, ameer Abdur Rahman (1880-1901), on the throne in expectant of Afghanistan in 1880. In amid British India and Russia. 4 exchange for a British annual subsidy, Afghanistan was to provide a buffer zone In the previous century, the Pashtun tribal ruler, Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747-1773), had already established a pattern of subjugating sub-groups and new(prenominal) ethnic groups within he region. To bring Afghanistans legion(predicate) different tribes under a modify authority, Abdur Rahman proclaimed the Durrani Pashtuns as supreme and mobilised Sunni Islam with a patriotic xenophobia. Condemning Shiite Hazaras as infidels, Rahid Rahma n 1 Over-all notes drawn from Denise Phillips, From Afghanistan to Australia An oral history of loss and hope among Hazara refugees, PhD thesis, University of New England, Armidale (forthcoming) Denise Phillips, Wounded memory of Hazara refugees from Afghanistan Remembering and forgetting persecution, tarradiddle Australia, vol. , no. 2, stately 2011, pp. 177-198 and Denise Phillips, Hazaras persecution worsens pass on the new establishment show leadership by lifting the suspension on Afghani asylum claims? , Australian Policy and invoice, August 2010, http//www. aph. org. au/files/articles/hazarasPersecution. htm. 2 William Maley, auspices, People Smuggling and Australias New Afghan Refugees, Working Paper no. 63, p. 8 M. Hassan Kakar, The pacification of the Hazaras, in M. Hassan Kakar, A Political and Diplomatic History of Afghanistan, 1863-1901, Leiden, 2006, p. 26. 3 Sayed Askar Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan An Historical, Cultural, stinting and Political Study, Ric hmond, 1998, p. 114 Kakar, The pacification of the Hazaras, pp. 120-122, 126. Amin Saikal, with care from Ravan Farhadi &038 Kirill Nourzhanov, Modern Afghanistan A History of Struggle and Survival, London, 2004, pp. 6, 7, 12. 4 1 2 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 rallied interchangeiers and tribal levies to quash Hazara rebellions in the Afghan-Hazara wars of 1891-1893.Hazaras were slain, ball upd and exchange into thraldom. Soldiers piled Hazaras read/write heads into towers to warn others against dissent, and some were skinned to death or had their tongues cut out. Although slavery was banned in 1895, many remained enslaved until King Amanullahs emancipation laws were passed in the 1920s. Much of the Hazarajat was decimated, and their agricultural economy crushed. Starving, some ate grass and sold their children for wheat to survive. The Hazaras were fined for rebelling and taxed haphazardly. All facets of Afghani governance, s ociety and law conspired against Hazaras, seeking to destroy their property, tribal systems, religion and socialisation. Rahid Rahman attempted to impose Sunni Islam and demanded that qazis (judges) and muftis (Islamic leaders) in various districts single-valued function only Hanafi, a Sunni Islamic legal system, for dealing with Hazaras. To depopulate the Hazarajat, the government issued firmans, royal decrees, authorising Pashtun nomads, Kuchis, to access Hazaras lands for grazing their livestock. mayhap several tens of thousands fled to Central Asia, and Balochistan in what is now Pakistan. Victorious, Rahid Rahman demeaned the Hazaras and claimed that Afghanis saw them as enemies of their country and religion,7 laying the stand for a century of persecution to the present. Marginalisation in the twentieth century consequent governments lose since marginalised Hazaras. Under the banner of nationalism in the early 1900s, belief Pashtuns tried to assert their identity, culture and history over all other ethnic groups. The Hazarajat was removed from official maps and lands were divided into five responsiblenesss to weaken the Hazaras political authority.King Nadir Shah (1929-1933) outlawed the promotion of Hazara history and culture, 5 Peter Marsden, Afghanistan Minorities, negate and the Search for Peace, London, 2001, p. 6 Saikal, Modern Afghanistan, pp. 5, 12, 17, 35-39 Kakar, The pacification of the Hazaras, pp. 120122, 132-137 Burchard Brentjes &038 Helga Brentjes, Taliban A Shadow over Afghanistan, Varanasi, 2000, p. 75 Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, pp. 101, 120-129, 131-136. 6 Kakar, The pacification of the Hazaras, pp. 137, 138 Lenard Milich, The Behsud conflicts in Afghanistan A blueprint to parry further clashes in 2009 and beyond, Eurasia Critic, June 2009, pp. , 3, http//www. eurasiacritic. com/articles, accessed 10 June 2010 Alessandro Monsutti, trans. Patrick Camiller, War and Migration Social Net cash in ones chipss and Economic S trategies of the Hazaras of Afghanistan, New York, 2005, p. 105. 7 Mir Munshi Sultan Mahomed Khan (ed. ), The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan, with a new introduction by M. E. Yapp, vol. 1, Karachi, 1980 (1900), pp. 276-279, 282-284. imprisoning or executing intellectuals who wrote on the subject. authorized policies tried to strip names associated with the Hazaras from historical archives. Between the 1930s nd 1970s, the Anjom-e Tarikh (Historical Society), aided by the Pashto Tolana (Pashto Academy), rewrote much of Afghanistans official histories. Signifi push asidet texts were as well reportedly burnt-out. Until 1978, the Hazaras were marginalised, taxed indiscriminately, and denied equal rights and vital infrastructure in their villages. 8 causality president of Afghanistan Dr Najibullah (1986-1992) acknowledged their suffering, saying that the most difficult and lowliest paid jobs, poverty, illiteracy, amicable and nationalist committed, and bloodshed continues t o this day. discrimination were the lot of the Hazara people. No justice was gained for atrocities mow downs during the civil war and Taliban regime Hazaras became politically mobilised in the 1980s and defend since gained greater political representation. However, their persecution was brutally re-ignited during the civil war by gibe ethnic groups and by the Taliban. In 1993, soldiers under command of the Rabbani government (1992-1996) targeted the fort of the Hazaras political party, the Hizb-e Wahdat, in Afshar, a district in West capital of Afghanistan with a large Hazara population. Soldiers, however, turned against civilians. After a frenzy of looting, rape vote outed or remain missing. 10 nd summary executions driven by ethnic hatred, slightly 700-750 Hazaras were Persecution intensified under the Taliban regime (1996-2001) as its soldiers in advance(p) into Afghanistans north and the Hazarajat. Not only do Hazaras shun the Islamist beliefs of the Taliban, the Taliban are recruited mostly from the Pashtun group, the Hazaras traditional enemy. (In reverse, organism Pashtun does not automatically equal Taliban view as and millions of Pashtuns occupy also suffered within Afghanistans 8 Hafizullah Emadi, The Hazaras and their role in the process of political transformation in Afghanistan, Central Asian Survey, vol. 6, no. 3, 1997, pp. 363-371 Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, pp. 5-8, 155-174, 218 Saikal, Modern Afghanistan, pp. 111-113, 283. Hazaras cite Puta Khazana (The Hidden Treasure), published in 1960, as an congresswoman of a controversial or fictitious history funded by the government which promoted Pashtun superiority. 9 Quoted in Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, p. 162 10 Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan, pp. 198, 199 Human Rights Watch, Blood-Stained Hands Past Atrocities in capital of Afghanistan and Afghanistans Legacy of Impunity, New York, 2005, pp. 70-100. Numbers cod neer been accurately ascertained.One Hazara websit e estimates that approximately 1,000 were killed or remain missing. See Afshar and Kateh Sahe massacre, Hazara. moolah, 2009 http//www. hazara. net/taliban/genocide/afshar/afshar. html, accessed 19 June 2010. 3 4 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 conflicts. ) In 1998, in retaliation for war crimes committed by the United Front (of which Hazaras were a part) against Taliban soldiers, the Taliban slaughtered approximately 2,000 or more than Hazaras in Mazar-e Sharif. Civilians were killed in residential areas and trade places, some dying with their throats slit.Highlighting the accompanying religious hatred, Taliban governor Mullah Manon Niazi had publicly incited the attack, preaching that, Hazaras are not Muslim. You can kill them. It is not a sin. Hazaras were reportedly warned to take lessons from their own history, and to every convert, flee or be killed. Hundreds fled the dread of Mazar-e Sharif. Massacres continued, with Taliban sol diers rounding up civilians in the Yakaolang district in 2001, publicly executing at to the lowest degree 170, many of whom were Hazaras. Near Robatak Pass, the Taliban also executed at least 31 civilians, with 26 confirmed to be Hazaras. 1 A resurgent Taliban After more than a decade, American and NATO forces have failed to bring peace and a withdrawal method is imminent. Regrouping since 2001, the Taliban is now made up of an alliance of three Islamist groups the Quetta Shura Taliban, the Haqqani Ne devilrk, and Hezb-i Islami Gulbuddin, an insurgency draw by the US Department of Defence as resilient and evolving. 12 With safe havens for terrorism in western Pakistan, the insurgency entertains strongholds in gray and eastern regions of Afghanistan, and has been expanding to the west and north. 3 The Talibans clear presence in Shinwari district of Parwan province, less than a few hours from Kabul, was demonstrated with newsworthiness work week of the Talibans execution of a y oung woman on adultery charges. 14 Terror in the Hazarajat Analysts recently deemed Ghazni to be among the most volatile provinces in southern Afghanistan. 15 In 2006, a occasion governor was assassinated, and in 2007, the Taliban held 23 southwest Koreans hostage. Located in Ghazni province is Jaghori, an Hazara- populated district and former home of many Hazara refugees now in Australia. Jaghori nd Hazara-populated Malistan are surrounded by Pashtun areas under Taliban control. In June 2010, the Taliban reportedly distributed nightletters, a method of intimidation, to districts within Ghazni province, warning that the main road out of Jaghori to Kabul is now closed. Residents need to travel beyond Jaghori for medical, commercial, study and work reasons, but travel is now perilous. Taliban routinely search travellers on the Qarabagh-Jaghori road. Travellers have been tortured, detained and some have gone missing. Their vehicles have been stolen and the road is periodically closed .Many fear a repeat of the Talibans 1997 road blockade of essential supplies. Additionally, Jaghori potently supports education, with numerous high inculcates and primary and middle schools. The Taliban, however, have targeted schools. For example, in July 2010, the Taliban attacked and burnt schools in Tamki, Jaghori district, and in Qarabagh district. The Taliban also killed Syed Sekander Muhammadi, the head teacher of a school in Shaki Nuka, in Qarabagh district, as he travelled to Ghazni. 16 In nearby Oruzgan province, the decapitated corpses of 11 Hazara males were iscovered in the Khas Oruzgan district on 25 June 2010. Police official Mohammed Gulab Wardak reported that the Taliban killed them because they were ethnic Hazaras and Shiite Muslims. 17 This occurred in the very province where Australias Defence Personnel have been deployed in a security and reconstruction role, showing the dire 11 Human Rights Watch, Afghanistan The Massacre in Mazar-I Sharif, vol, 10, no. 7(C), November 1998, http//www. unhcr. org/refworld/docid/45c9a4b52. html, accessed 18 June 2010 Human Rights Watch, Massacres of Hazaras in Afghanistan, vol. 13, no. (C), February 2001, http//www. hrw. org/bequest/reports/2001/afghanistan/, accessed 18 June 2010 Peter Marsden, Afghanistan Minorities, Conflict and the Search for Peace, London, 2001, p. 22 Mullah Manon Niazi quoted in On genocide of Hazaras, Hazara. net, January 2011, http//www. hazara. net/taliban/taliban. html, accessed 18 July 2012. 12 Department of Defense, make Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan Report to Congress in Accordance with 2008 case Defense Authorisation Act (Section 1230, Public Law 110-181), USA, January 2009, p. 7, http//www. efense/gov/pubs/OCTOBER_1230_FINAL_pdf, accessed 12 August 2010. 13 Maria Golovnina, Factbox Insurgency in Afghanistan Who are they? , 25 phratry 2009, Reuters, http//www. reuters. com/article/idUSTRE58O2F620090925, accessed 12 August 2010. Dylan Welch &038 Ben Doherty, God tells us to finish her Taliban cue world they are no spent force, The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 2012, p. 1. 14 threat to Hazaras, eve alongside a broader military presence. 15 William Maley, On the position of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan, 28 June 2010, posted on Welcome to Ataullahs Page, http//ataullahnaseri. ordpress. com/2010/06/28/on-the-position-of-the-hazara-minority, accessed 5 August 2010. 16 doubting Thomas Ruttig, A new, new Taliban front, Foreign Policy, 21 June 2010, http//afpak. foreignpolicy. com/posts/2010/06/21/a_new_new_taliban_front_0, accessed 5 August 2012 Ahmed Rashid, Taliban Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, New Haven, 2000, p. 67 Abdul Karim Hekmat, Unsafe haven Hazaras in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Special report, University of Technology Sydney, October 2011, pp. 18, 19. 17 Tahereh Ghanaati, The Hazara shambles in Afghanistan, Press TV, 27 June 2010, http//www. resstv. ir/pop/Print/? id=132225, accessed 28 June 2010 I smail Sameem &038 Jonathon Burch, Police find 11 beheaded bodies in Afghan South, 25 June 2010, Reuters, http//www. reuters. com/article/idUSTRE65O2ML20100625, accessed 28 June 2010. 5 6 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Hazaras. Although the Taliban denied involvement, Afghani analyst Ahmad Shuja fears In Maidan Wardak province, land disputes between Hazaras and Kuchis oftentimes erupt each summer but have worse in recent age.Kuchis have been arriving in the Behsud and Daimirdad districts heavily armed for conflict. Kuchis weigh the aforementioned decrees issued under Abdur Rahman entitle them to access, while many Hazaras have never accepted the loss of full rights over their land. Consequently, Hazaras have been killed and their homes burnt. In 2008, approximately 60,000 people were displaced, and in may 2010, a report estimated that 1,800 families had been displaced, 68 homes burnt, and 28 schools closed, leaving10,000 students with out school facilities.As nomads, the Kuchi are also a minority group, but hold up to the traditionally dominant Pashtun group. It is feared that the Taliban may be exploiting the past to incite attacks by their fellow Pashtuns, the Kuchi, against Hazaras. The Karzai government has either largely ignored repeated Hazara pleas for assistance or has been impotent in stopping the violence, sparking worldwide protests by Hazaras. 18 These crises cannot be dismissed as internal land disputes rather, they stem from the nineteenth century acts of conquest, dispossession and persecution and another governments marginalisation of Hazaras.Terror in Kabul Brutal assaults also have occurred recently in Kabul. On 6 declination 2011, a suicide bomber killed at least 56 Shiites pilgrims worshipping at the Abdul Fazal Abbas Shrine in the Murad Khani district in Kabul during commemorations for Ashura, the holiest day of Muharram. On the same day, a bomb attached to a bicycle exploded, killing Shii te pilgrims in Mazar-e Sharif and bringing the death toll to 60. A spokesperson for Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility via piano tuner Free Europe.LeJ, formed in 1996, is a militant Sunni Deobandi Islamist group based in the Punjab region of Pakistan. Among links with numerous terror groups, it has a close relationship with Afghani Taliban and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Most killed and wound were 18 Lenard Milich, The Behsud conflicts in Afghanistan A blueprint to avoid further clashes in 2009 and beyond, Eurasia Critic, June 2009, pp. 1-3, http//www. eurasiacritic. com/articles, accessed 10 June 2010 Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, AIHRC grave concern about armed onflict between Kochies and native inhabitants of Behsood district of Maidan Wardak, Kabul Press, 22 May 2010, http//kabulpress. org/my/spip. php? article11725, accessed 9 August 2010 UNAMA silent on Kuchi attack in Behsud, Hazaristan Times, 21 May 2010, http//hazaristantimes. wordpress . com/2010/05/21/unama-silent-on-Kuchi-attack-in-behsud, accessed 6 August 2010. the attacks leave alone inflame religious tensions, echoing a recent past in which the Taliban massacred thousands of Hazaras. 19 increase bloodshed in Quetta, PakistanSince the nineteenth century, Hazaras have traditionally fled or migrated to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, in what is now Pakistan. Quetta has long been a second home for Hazaras some live there as permanent Pakistani citizens, others as refugees. Possibly 30,000-50,000 Hazara refugees now live in Pakistan after fleeing the Taliban in 1996. Over the survive decade, however, Shiite Hazaras in Balochistan have been dying in an escalating spate of sectarian attacks, often occurring daily. LeJ have distributed leaflets condemning Shiites as infidels.Proclaiming their right under Islam to kill them, LeJ publicly state that they will continue acting against Shiites. One of its leaders, Milak Ishaque, had 40 mangle charges pend ing against him after serving 15 years imprisonment he was released on 14 July 2011. Hazaras and the Asian Human Rights Commission report that the Pakistani government, army and law enforcement impunity. 20 authorities are failing to act, openly allowing the banned terror organisation to kill with These are but a few examples in a litany of bloody attacks. Eight Hazaras were slain inPoodgali Chowk in 2001, and 12 Hazara policeman killed in Sariab, in 2003. On 20 family line 2011, armed men intercepted a bus in the Ganjidori area of Mastung, southeasterly of Quetta. It carried 45, mostly Shiite, pilgrims travelling to Taftan, Iran. Ordering them off the bus, gunmen shot those identifying themselves as Shiites in the head, chest and abdomen. Twenty-nine Shiites were killed and five escaped. An hour 19 Ernesto Londono, loads dead in rare attack on Shiite mosque in Kabul, The Washington Post, 6 December 2011, http//www. washingtonpost. om/world/rare-attack-in-kabul-targets-shiitemosq ue/2011/12/06/gIQAVnEkYO_print, accessed 7 December 2011 Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ), Australian National Security, Australian Government, updated 15 March 2012, http//www. ema. gov. au/agd/ web/nationalsecurity. nsf/Page/What_Governments_are_doing_Listing _of_Terrorism_Organisations_Lashkar_I_Jhangvi, accessed 18 July 2012. 20 Lashkar-e Jhangvi (LeJ), Australian National Security Syed Shoaib Hasan, A year of suffering for Pakistans Shias, BBC News, Balochistan, 6 December 2011, http//www. bbc. co. k/news/worldasia-15928538, accessed 21 January 2012 Hekmat, Unsafe haven, pp. 20-23 The state of human rights in Pakistan in 2011, Asian Human Rights Commission, 2011, p. 42, http//www. AHRC-SPR008-2011-HRRptPakistan. pdf, accessed 18 July 2012. 7 8 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 later, gunmen killed 3 Shiites, believed to be victims relatives on their way to call in the bodies of their loved ones. LeJ claimed responsibility. 21 On 28 June 2012, a bomb husk killed Shiite pilgrims travelling by bus near a fruit market in the Hazarganji area of Quetta.Thirteen were killed and 30 injured, with most of the victims Hazaras. LeJ again claimed responsibility. Prominent leaders, professionals, intellectuals and policemen have been assassinated, along with a sportsman and artist. For example, Chairman of the Hazara Democratic Party, Hussain Ali Yousofi, was slain on 26 January 2011. The general Hazara population, including women and children, are now also being indiscriminately targeted. Australian Hazaras visiting relatives in Quetta speak of witnessing attacks on Hazara civilians in the streets and of a climate of terror.Abdul Karim Hekmat reports that over 500 Hazaras have been killed and over 1,500 injured as a result of targeted attacks in Pakistan since 2003. 22 Other sources cite even higher numbers. Failures of protection and continuing fear Afghanistans 2004 Constitution includes cautionary protection for human rights and Hazaras have gained prominent government positions. However, with critical failures to impose the rule of law beyond Kabul or even maintain it in Kabul reform has not translated to improved safety for Hazaras in remote villages. Insurgents do not recognise government law.Moreover, Afghani culture is bound up with traditions of governing and maintaining security through tribal and religious consensus, gained at district and community levels rather than through a centralize authority. In December 2009, the Karzai government also gazetted a law large(p) amnesty to all who committed war crimes in the past two decades of conflict, allowing alleged war criminals from various ethnicities to hold parliamentary positions with impunity. Professor William Maley cautions against tokenism, parameter that the inclusion of Hazaras within overnment has not brought about real changes. 23 History shows that the 1980s reforms which delivered greater equity for Hazaras did not stop the bloodshed which followed in the 1990s and beyond. That this is the sixth constitution since 1923 also exemplifies the fragility of Afghani reforms. preventative for minority groups requires broad social changes to address deeply-rooted tribal, religious and ethnic prejudices this is something that will take years. The possibility of a Taliban alliance with international support, set against the draw-down of troops, causes terror among many Hazaras. 24In summarising why Hazaras risk their lives on boats, an Hazara refugee says When the government and law enforcement agencies cant provide protection, when your house in Quetta or Afghanistan is on fire, when your home country becomes hell for you, when you cant go anywhere without the fear of being killed, when your religion and your facial features make you the easy target. When death is hovering over your head every day, then you dont have options but to flee, seek refuge, knock at other peoples door for help, sit on a leaky boat, choose a dangerous journey that possibly leads to death.Today the Hazara Shias (boat people, the asylum seekers) are in a state of discouragement and struggling for their survival as it is a basic human instinct. 25 Recommendations flee. I therefore make the following comments Based on the continuing and unresolved history of bloodshed, Hazaras will continue to 1) Given the need for duologue within a democratic process, I have reflected deeply on the current options being debated. However, we cannot participate in the trade of 21 Shehzad Baloch, sectary atrocity 29 killed in Mastung, Quetta ambushes, The Express Tribune, 21 September 2011, http//tribune. om. pk/story/256419/gunmen-attack-bus-in-balochistan-20killed/? print=true, accessed 22 September 2011. 22 Shia pilgrims bus attacked by a rocket near Quetta, 13 martyred over 30 injured, Jafria News, 29 June 2012, http//jafrianews. com/2012/06/29/shia-pilgrims-bus-attacked-by-a-rocket-near-quetta-13martyred-over-30-injured/, accessed 16 July 2012 Hazara Shia community on strike over Quetta attacks, BBC News, Asia, 29 June 2012, http//www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-asia-18640945, accessed 16 July 2012 Blast kills 13, including Shia pilgrims, in Quetta, Dawn. om, 28 June 2012, http//dawn. com/2012/06/28/eight-including-policeman-killed-in-quetta-blast/, accessed 16 July 2012 Hekmat, Unsafe haven, p. 22 Informal discussions with Australian Hazaras. 23 William Maley, Radio interview conducted by Geraldine Doogue, Afghan Hazara, Breakfast, ABC Radio National, 13 April 2010, http//www. abc. net. au/radionational/programs/breakfast/afghanhazara/3039616, accessed 16 June 2010 Una Moore, UN human rights rep in Kabul calls for remove of war crimes amnesty, UN Dispatch, 30 March 2010, http//www. undispatch. om/un-human-rightsrep-in-kabul-calls-for-repeal-of-war-crimes-amnesty, accessed 11 June 2010 Department of Defense, Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, p. 11 Shahmahmood Miakhel, Understanding Afghanistan The importance of tribal culture and structure in security and governance, US make of Peace, November 2009, p. 1. 24 Sonya Hepinstall, Holbrooke Reformed Taliban in Afghan government not wrong, Thomson Reuters, 6 June 2010, http//in. reuters. com/article/2010/06/07/idINIndia-49088220100607, accessed 18 June 2010. 25 Anonymous Hazara refugee, 29 June 2012. 9 0 Denise Phillips, revised 25 July 2012 human lives with the Malaysian option. I support the principle suggestions made in the Asylum Seeker Resource vegetable marrows submission and the Open Letter, so will not echo their points here. 2) Help educate parliamentarians and the public as to why refugees flee their homelands. make for clear leadership in depoliticising the debate. 3) Hazaras tell me they want peace and human rights in their homeland only then will they stop fleeing. Hazaras have witnessed the brutal deaths of their family members, including fathers, mothers, siblings and children.Flight is accompanied by inten se grief, trauma and longing. Waiting years for family reunions will drive loved ones to get on boats. Those left bottomland in Afghanistan not only face destitution, but are also often brutally targeted by warlords who learn that their husband, son or associate has fled to a Western country. In a recent case, the intimidation of a young Hazara refugees family members left in Jaghori resulted in an attack on the family home, killing an eight-monthold baby. I have witnessed refugees debilitating distress as they clench years