Formerly, 270 noted poets including Nobel, Pulitzer, continental and national literary prize winners as well as presidents of international poetry festivals, presidents of PEN clubs, and writers associations from 88 countries have signed an open letter to world leaders, declaring their solidarity with the Hazara people. The letter asked world leaders, including US president Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to take steps to ensure the Hazara community in Pakistan and Afghanistan was no longer subjected to genocidal acts.
The letter drafted by a Hazara poet, Kamran Mir Hazar also addressed to EU leaders, said for more than a century, the community in Afghanistan and Pakistan had been victim of systematic crimes such as genocide, slavery, sexual abuse, war crimes and discrimination.
In Afghanistan, despite thousands of international troops deployed, the Hazaras were regularly attacked by Afghan Kuchis, backed by the Taliban and the Afghan government. The letter alleged, saying roads leading to Hazara areas had been blocked by the Taliban gunmen, who stopped Hazara cars and murdered their occupants.
In central Afghanistan, the letter said, a huge Hazara population remained marginalized and denied basic legal rights. As a result, it claimed millions of Hazaras had fled Afghanistan, creating terrible and unnecessary refugee situations in countries like Turkey, Greece, Australia, and Indonesia.
In Pakistan as recently as Thursday, January 10, more than one-hundred Hazaras were killed in an organized terrorist attack in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.
The poets asked world leaders to declare a state of emergency on the Hazaras’ situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan and mount pressure on the Afghan and the Pakistani governments to stop the terrorists groups involved in genocidal acts against the community.
It called for asylum to Hazara seekers, establishing an international truth commission to investigate systematic crimes against the tribe. The letter also suggested opening cases in international courts such as the ICC concerning genocide and human rights violations to protect Hazaras.
The letter factually unearths the rebuttal of century long Hazaras’ socio-economic and political rights. Even the democratic government in office could not do away their endless miseries. There were certain developments by governmental institutes showing grave discriminatory attitude towards Hazaras, one being the "Ethnographic Atlas of Non-Pashtun Ethnic Groups of Afghanistan," published in June by Science Academy, labeling derogatory charges against Hazara nation. The official documents still reads Hazaras’ population 9%, contrary to the survey conducted in 1995 by the "World Almanac and Book of Facts"; the population of Hazaras in Afghanistan to be 19%.
Hazaras, for most part of history were subjected to butchery, mass massacre and alienation and coerced expatriation. It is high time the twin governments and humanitarian organizations respond to their endless sufferings.