The military occupation of Afghanistan has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians and war crimes – it has also forcibly displaced and uprooted entire communities from their homelands and has a long-lasting impact that is likely to carry over to the descendants of those who survive this human-made catastrophe.
ALL countries that have created human atrocities and forced displacement in Afghanistan are now walking away without any accountability including Australia. This is militant white supremacy where they invade, occupy and destroy the homelands of people of colour so we can never live sustainably, then withdraw and go back saying “Mission accomplished”. ALL these countries should be held accountable and be given human rights sanctions.
Let us not forget that in 2020 last year, Australia apologised for committing war crimes in Afghanistan https://www.riserefugee.org/australias-war-crimes. Australia’s track record of crimes against humanity has been one of the worst. From 13 August 2012 till today, no Afghan person, adult or child, who came to Australia by boat to seek refuge from this war has been given permanent residency or citizenship even after they have been accepted as a refugee. From former Prime Minister John Howard’s false, anti-refugee propaganda through “children overboard” and the Tampa affair to the drowning of Refugees in SIEVX in 2001 and torture of Refugees in the notorious Wooomera detention centre under his watch, and more recently the murder, rape and torture of Refugees exiled by the Gillard, Rudd, Abbott and Morrison governments to detention centres reopened in Manus and Nauru – Australia has been humiliating and persecuting Afghan Refugees of all ages, in Australian run detention centres and using them as political pawns to create white supremacist refugee policies and win votes for over 2 decades now.
RISE eX-detainees demand that the Australian government
- Immediately release all Afghan detainees from Australian run offshore and onshore detention centres including hotels into the community with proper humanitarian, financial and medical support, without further delay.
- Grant all Afghan detainees, eX-detainees and asylum seekers permanent protection.
- Immediately allow all Afghan Refugees in Australia to apply for family reunion under the humanitarian category and fast track the processing of these applications.
- Lift the bar for all Afghan Refugees stranded in Indonesia to unite with their families in Australia.
- Fast track citizenship applications of Afghan Permanent Residents and stop endangering the lives of Afghan Refugees by forcing them to contact their oppressors in Afghanistan to obtain Afghan ID documents to prove their identity.
What do we know so far from our sources?
- Taliban has announced that girls can only go to school until the age of 12.
- The school must be a girls-only school and taught by a female teacher.
- Female students were turned back home from Herat University.
- Two female principals of boys schools were turned back home by the Taliban.
- Female employees of Azizi Bank in Kandahar were asked to go home and get their husbands to come to work instead.
- Taliban announced that women should come out of their house in full coverings (Burqa) and Taliban changed the name of ‘Kandahar Radio’ to ‘Shariat Radio’.
- Previously Taliban informed religious minorities, such as Shia Muslims that they can have their religious ceremonies but the video has shown that flags of these religious ceremonies have been replaced with the Taliban flag.
- The faces of two men were painted black, and they were paraded across Herat city after being charged with stealing.
- In every city and province, the Taliban is releasing prisoners regardless of their crime.
- The Taliban only recognises nikah/marriage that is conducted by Taliban members. Any marriage outside of this is not considered a marriage. This has brought fear in the community as marriage/relationships outside of marriage is considered to be a sin and used to be punished by stoning under the Taliban government 20 years ago.
A RISE eX-detainee director says “I have lost my country and I want people to say condolences to me. While people think that my country has fallen into the Taliban’s hands in less than a week, I must say that you are wrong. You are very very wrong. The peace talks between the Taliban and USA was the start of the fall of Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban. When the Taliban agreed to no longer harm the USA’s interest they (USA) decided to leave and hand Afghanistan to the Taliban.”
Further to this, the RISE eX-detainee director adds, “Do not forget that the USA advocated for the release of 6000 top Taliban executives back in 2020. Since then small cities and villages slowly fell into the hands of the Taliban, while the Peace talks were going on. On the other hand, the Afghanistan National Army was prevented from shooting or fighting with the Taliban as they are in the middle of peace talks but the Taliban were not even asked to stop attacking civilians. Back in 2020, and early 2021 Taliban attacked civilians many times. But the entire international community, let alone the USA, never criticised or stopped their Peace talks with them.”
“We are only seen in the world now. Where were you during the time that the Obama administration killed thousands of civilians by dropping drones? When Australia was providing military aid and sending their troops? According to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ‘no one wants Afghanistan to become a breeding ground for terror’. This makes me angrier because Afghanistan became a ‘breeding ground for terror’ when Boris Johnson’s country invaded Afghanistan.”
“We should demand immediate sanctuary and protection for the Afghan refugee community in Australia, and also demand that the United Nations provide a coordinated response to provide safe passage for ALL Afghan people who seek protection immediately.”
Finally, countries saying “sorry” for committing atrocities and giving refugee status to the Afghan community – you are not being “compassionate”. You have explicitly committed crimes against humanity in Afghanistan. You ALL have blood on your hands.
Australia must be sanctioned from all international human rights treaties and blocked from participating in international refugee humanitarian and human rights decision making forums until the Australian government Ends Mandatory Detention, Ends Refoulement and Ends Refugee Boat Turn back policies. https://www.riserefugee.org/topic/sanction-australia/
Statement to the link : https://drive.google.com/file/d/19H7nXXx5U4ZbXH2s-gA7inbQ6IZ0nsWX/view
‘Nothing About Us Without Us’