Afghan who tried to return but ended up in dire straits

BOARDING the ill-fated boat of asylum seekers in Indonesia last week, Ali Talash must have had a strange sense of deja vu.

Now lying injured in the Royal Perth Hospital, it was Mr Talash's second trip to Australia on an Indonesian boat.

In 1999, as the Taliban's control of Afghanistan tightened and the persecution of his Hazara community increased, Mr Talash said goodbye to his wife and children. He was taken by people smugglers through Pakistan and Iran, then flown to Malaysia and on to Indonesia, where he boarded a boat.

That boat was intercepted and he spent about a year in immigration detention before being granted a temporary protection visa. He moved to Auburn, in Sydney's south-west, and spent the next four years working as a tiler.

But as the war in Afghanistan progressed he became hopeful his country may have stabilised.

Mr Talash, who is in his 40s, was depressed and missing his wife and children, whom he could not see because the conditions of his visa meant he was not allowed to leave Australia.

So in 2003 he decided to go back to Afghanistan.

Mr Talash called a friend in Perth, Salman Rahmani, and told him of his decision.

"I said, 'If you go maybe you will (get) killed' — but he said, 'It's been so long, I must see my family'," Mr Rahmani said.

"He said he couldn't sleep in the night, he was very worried about his children and after he went back to Afghanistan it was very bad.

"It's sad, because Ali Talash missed (his chance to get) a permanent visa. Everybody else, me, our friends, we got permanent visas and became citizens, but he went home. By now he would have been a citizen, it's very sad."

But when Mr Talash returned to Afghanistan he found it still a violent, chaotic place and decided to try to get his family to Australia.

Increasingly frustrated by the lack of help from Australian embassies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, earlier this year he decided to make a perilous return journey.

The boat carrying him and 48 other asylum seekers was intercepted by the Australian Navy, and before they reached the safety of Christmas Island, there was an explosion on board, knocking many of them into the water.

Mr Rahmani's son Jarajo Zirak, 20, has been going to Royal Perth Hospital every day since Friday, trying to get information about Mr Talash's condition.

Mr Talash's wife called Mr Zirak on Friday, scared her husband had died. So far, Mr Zirak has been able to tell only that Mr Talash is alive, with officials unwilling to give details.

"She called me and was crying and was worried," Mr Zirak said. "She called me last night and I said there was no news yet. For the first few days she called me every two hours."

Indonesia stops nearly 900 asylum seekers: AFP

Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Keelty says authorities in Indonesia have stopped nearly 900 suspected asylum seekers from travelling to Australia since September last year.

Thirteen boatloads of asylum seekers have arrived in Australia in the past five months.

The Navy intercepted the latest boatload near Ashmore Island off the north-west coast of Australia on Sunday.

"Since September 2008, in Indonesia, there have been 40 identified disruptions comprising of 887 foreign nationals suspected of being in transit or have entered Indonesia for the purpose of travelling to Australia illegally," Commissioner Keelty said.

Police yet to reveal cause of fatal boat blast

Five people were killed in the April 16 explosion near Ashmore Reef. (File photo) (Department of Defence)

Northern Territory Police are still to determine whether a fatal boat explosion near Ashmore Reef last month was a result of sabotage or an accident.

They have interviewed 41 asylum seekers who were on the boat, known as the SIEV 36.

Five people were killed in the April 16 explosion.

Of the 44 people rescued, three remain in a stable condition at the burns units of the Royal Perth and Royal Brisbane hospitals.

Earlier this month, government sources told the ABC fuel was deliberately poured on the boat deck as a threat, after the Navy intercepted the vessel.

It is alleged those on board feared they would be turned back to Indonesia.

However, the head of the Afghan community in Western Australia says some of the survivors now in immigration detention say it was an accident.

The Immigration Department is still to interview the survivors.

The asylum seekers are believed to be from Afghanistan, but the department cannot formally identify them until their interviews are finished.

Immigration says its focus remains on providing support and welfare to the group.

Protest in Australia Against the Rape Law

Protesters holding banner in front of Afghanistan Embassy, Canberra Australia.

Tuesday May 12, 2009–- Afghanistani Australians from around Australia gathered in Canberra to voice their concern over the increasing Talibanization of Afghanistan as well as to condemn Afghanistan’s now infamous Rape Law. Protesters shouted slogans against the shameless move by religious fundamentalists to further rid women of their basic rights in clear violation of United Nations declaration on Human Rights, to which Afghanistan is a signatory. They further urged the Australian public and government to use their influence to ensure Human Rights are upheld in Afghanistan.

Large number of protesters were women.

The protesters, majority of who were women, took their concerns to the Australian Parliament House and later to the gates of the Afghanistan Embassy in Canberra where they formally filed their protest with the Afghanistani Ambassador to Australia, who promised to pass the concerns of the protesters to authorities in Kabul.

Some of the articles in The Shi’a Personal Status Law that are in gross violation of the Human Rights are as follows:

• Treatment of women as sex objects
• Legalization of marital rape, including the obligation on women to submit to their husbands’ sexual desires at a minimum of four times a week.
• Age discrimination, legalization of marriage at 16 for girls and 18 for boys
• Legalization of forced marriages
• Child Abuse and Child Marriage, thereby the legalization of intercourse with a minor
• Allowing men to have multiple wives
• And more …

Protesters demanded the Australian Govt. to use its influence against the Rape Law.

Demands:

1. All the people of Afghanistan should have the right to enjoy freedom, liberty, freedom of speech as well as the right to exercise their belief.
2. All marriages should be voluntary and sexual relationship within marriage should be on voluntary basis too.
3. We demand the abolition of laws that allow men to have multiple wives.
4. Women are not the property of men. The obligation on them to be subjects to their husbands’ permission must be abolished.
5. We urge the Australian government to condemn ‘The Rape Law’ and use its influence to ensure Human Rights are upheld in Afghanistan.
6. The Shiite Personal Status Law is in gross violation of Human Rights, it is a cruel attacked against women. It must therefore be repealed and its provisions eliminated without any delay.

Protesters demanded the Rape Law must be repealed.

English Telefilm “Guiltless” by Hazaragi Drama Association

Quetta– English Telefilm, “Guiltless” by Hazaragi Drama Association is to be released soon.

HDA while talking to HazaranewsPK said their telefilm is pending due to financial problems of HDA and requested the Hazara business community and diaspora abroad to contribute financial assistance. Director of HDA and writer of “Guiltless” Muhammad Ali Dana told their new film is about the consecutive target killing of Hazaras in Quetta Pakistan. The story of the film focuses on a family victim of terrorism.

Muhammad Ali Dana, Director of HDA is the writer of “Guiltless”. Script of the film has been edited by Professor Nazir Hussain. Paragon Academy’s Sajjad Asim and Learners Academy’s Mehdi and Abbas have also contributed in the script. Actors of the film include Nazir Hussain Danish, Abay Danish, Mujtaba, Hina Batool, Mehdi, Abbas and Salman. Acting instructors included actor of Pakistan Television, Najeebullah Hazara and artist, Naseem Javed. Background Damboora of the film is played by Khair Ali Shahristani.

Actors of Guiltless, by Hazaragi Drama Association.

M Ali Dana told HazaranewsPK they have finalized the film. Its release is pending due to financial problems of HDA. Contributions can be made at Account Number 60382-4, Shabbir Hussain, Habib Bank Limited, Complex Branch Quetta.

HDA presented its first stage show in 1996. It has produced about 26 dramas yet including Mullah e Na Mullah and Londoni, written by Shaheed Hussain Ali Yousafi.

Recording to Guiltless, by Hazaragi Drama Association.

April 29th 2009: Hazaragi Drama Association (HDA) has appealed to Hazara businessmen and affluent members of society to ensure their financial contributions wholeheartedly to the association for releasing successfully the English movie named as “Guiltless” made on merciless target killings of innocent Hazara citizens in Quetta , a press release of HDA made available to this website on Thursday said.

The HDA, has made the televised-film, “Guiltless”, in English language which focused on the current waves of terrorism and brutal target killings of innocent Hazaras who have been fallen victims in the recent waves of acts of terror mercilessly and guiltlessly in Quetta .

The Drama Association has appealed to affluent Hazara tribesmen to contribute financially in favour of

Hazaragi Book “NOO BOKO” Published

May 13 2009 Quetta–
Hazaragi poetry book, NOO BOKO (Nine Peak of the Mountains) written by renowned poet in Quetta, Liaqat Ali Aajiz has been published in Quetta. The book includes Hazaragi poetry about motherland Hazarajat and nine popular Hazara heroes. Mr. Aajiz has beautifully expressed his love towards the motherland and heroes. The book has been published by Humanitarian And Development Assistance in Focus (HADAF). The book is available in all bookshops of Hazara Town, Alamdar Road and Mehrabad.

Asylum seekers delivered to Christmas Island

THE largest contingent of asylum seekers - 187 people - arrived at Christmas Island yesterday aboard supply ship HMAS Tobruk.

The ship had been steaming to the island and its immigration processing facility with 138 refugees and 12 defence escorts on board, when it was diverted to collect another 49 rescued from a sinking boat by the crew of patrol boat HMAS Maryborough off Broome in WA.

HMAS Tobruk will anchor off the island for 48 hours.

It was expected the transfer of the 187, 20 at a time, by a barge crewed by Customs officials, would take all day.

Unloading began yesterday. The arrivals were given health, quarantine and baggage checks before being sent to an immigration facility or detention camp.

A total of 387 people now are being processed by immigration officials at the island facility.

Before yesterday's influx, 310 were on the island of which 198 were in the detention centre, 79 in a temporary camp and 33 were in community detention.

Most of the new arrivals, including all single adult males, will go the centre

Due to the large number of fresh arrivals it is unlikely that the government's 90-day processing time frame will be met for all the potential refugees.

Navy and Customs vessels and aircraft are stretched to breaking point and Immigration officials are overwhelmed by the biggest influx of boat people since the government softened its policy last year.

So far this year 11 boats have been intercepted and 18 have been picked up since the government policy changed last September.

They have carried a total of 676 men, women and children including 479 from the 11 boats this year.

Most of the boat people have come from Iraq and Afghanistan with a smattering of Sri Lankans displaced by civil war and other nationalities and thousands more are ready to make the perilous ocean journey.

HMAS Tobruk will depart from the island tomorrow and will remain under the control of Border Protection Command.

People-smuggling baron Ali Cobra seized in action

ONE of the biggest fish in Indonesia's people-smuggling racket has been netted, after police raided a house in the eastern port city of Makassar.

The 30-year-old - known to asylum seekers the world over as Ali Cobra and described by Indonesian authorities as the "Noordin M.Top" of the trafficking racket, in reference to the regional terror tsar who has eluded capture for years - was seized on Monday night.

Ali Cobra, also operating under the name Labasa Ali, was in the process of organising a trip to Australia for 10 Afghan asylum seekers, some of whom had previously tried to make the perilous trip but had been detained by Indonesian police.

All 10 Afghan men, as well as the alleged people-smuggler, were captured in the swoop. News of the arrest comes as Australia finds itself confronting a new wave of boat arrivals.

On Tuesday, Border Protection Command intercepted a boat carrying 50 asylum seekers - the 11th such vessel to be detected this year. And late on Tuesday night, four asylum seekers found on a beach on Deliverance Island in the Torres Strait arrived at Christmas Island. The men - two Afghans, a Sri Lanklan and an Indian - were transported on a commercial flight from Perth.

Ali Cobra has established a dominant hold over the trade in recent years; according to one senior Indonesian immigration official who spoke on condition of not being identified, "in almost every case in recent times he is mentioned".

This includes an ill-fated attempt in January by a group of 18 Afghans, Pakistanis and Burmese to sail in a small fishing boat from Rote Island, west of Timor, to Ashmore Reef. Nine of those on board, including a nine-year-old boy, died when the boat sank.

One of the 10 Afghans arrested this week used a hidden mobile phone to tell The Australian from his immigration detention cell - having been returned there after Monday night's raid - that it was "absolutely" the Rudd Government's relaxed policy on boatpeople that was driving the surge in arrivals by sea.

"Absolutely. We, like everybody who tries to go, we know the detention regulations have been lifted since the fall of John Howard," said Kabul man Gulistan Ali, 32.

"We know the new Government has condemned the actions of the previous one, and has made the policies much easier for asylum seekers. We know this."

Mr Ali said he and two fellow Afghans escaped from the Indonesian detention centre about a week ago by scaling a 20m wall, leaping to the ground, hiding in dense jungle for two days and then walking 60km to Makassar, where they were contacted by phone and given an address to meet their handler.

Police swooped when the group assembled at the house.

Gulistan Ali and his two fugitive companions had previously tried to make the dangerous sea crossing on February 2, when they were arrested in the southeast Sulawesi port of Bau-Bau, preparing to board a small wooden boat.

All three had been in the detention centre, near Makassar city, since then. Gulistan Ali said the "difficult psychological situation" of being incarcerated in the "brutal conditions" there had triggered his second illegal attempt to reach Australia.

Gulistan Ali said he had paid "around $US9000" ($12,000) in total to people-smugglers since arriving in Indonesia early this year; another of the trio, Ahmad Ghahera, 25, said he paid about $US8000. Both men handed over most of that money on arrival in Jakarta, after flying from Kabul via Kuala Lumpur.

They had obtained visas from the Indonesian embassy in Kabul; there have been claims made of officials there providing the entry documents for up to $US1500. Indonesia's foreign ministry denies that allegation.

Gulistan Ali, who has a wife and two toddlers in Afghanistan, said he knew there was "less than a 50 per cent chance of succeeding, of not drowning" in the attempt to reach Ashmore Reef in Australia's northwestern waters, both in the one planned for this week and that of three months ago.

However, his life, he said, "is already ruined. Either I die - and I'm not concerned if that happens - or I secure a future for my children."

However, Gulistan Ali warned that even a figure as significant as Ali Cobra should not be seen as the end of the trail in the people-smuggling business operating out of Indonesia.

"It's a very organised mafia. But the organiser of it absolutely does not come before the people. They stay behind the curtain.

"I understand that people are very often cheated. They hand over their money and then the smugglers just report them to the authorities, to the police."

The majority of the $US9000 he had paid went, he claimed, to a smuggler "who has not been arrested". Also arrested this week in Jakarta was alleged people-smuggler Sajjad Hussein, thought to have been responsible for organising a boatload of asylum seekers intercepted in Australian waters on April 29.