105 ethnic Hazaras feared drowned

A boatload of asylum seekers believed to have set off from Indonesian waters for Australia in October has never arrived, the Afghani refugee community says.

Brisbane-based Hassan Ghulam said worried relatives of 105 ethnic Hazaras believed to have left Indonesia on October 2 had started contacting him weeks ago.

Hazara are a Persian-speaking ethnic group who live mainly in the central region of Afghanistan.
"A young gentleman, he had a brother on that boat, he contacted me (saying) that the boat departed Indonesia on October 2 with 105 Hazaras on it," Mr Ghulam said.

"He asked if I had heard anything on the arrivals because he had had no news for quite some time."
Mr Ghulam said other Australian-based Hazaras who had learnt that their relatives were on the boat had become anxious.

Checks with the Department of Immigration and Customs and Border Protection had revealed nothing about the fate of the boat or those on board, Mr Ghulam said.
Contacts of the men had travelled to Indonesia and checked detention centres but had found no sign of them, he said.

"There was no news at all. The gentleman contacted me again and he had no news," Mr Ghulam said.
"He told me there were people who made inquiries, travelled to Indonesia, checked the detention centres et cetera and there is no sign of the 105 people."

Jack Smit of human rights group Project SafeCom Inc said it was important to know what happened to the boat and what happened during the voyage.
"If it was monitored by Indonesia on behalf of the Australian government, we need to know whether it was intercepted by Indonesian authorities," Mr Smit said.

"Conversely, if its voyage was monitored in Australian waters by Australian maritime and border protection authorities, we need to know what happened to the boat. If the boat perished, we need to hear that from the authorities."
A Department of Immigration spokeswoman said the department could not reveal the identities of asylum seekers being processed for their own protection.

But asylum seekers are granted access to telephones to contact their families on arrival, she said.
-The West

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Customs intercepts 60th asylum boat with 58 passengers aboard

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A BOAT carrying 58 passengers and four crew was intercepted by Customs and Border Protection Command last night - the 60th and final boat to arrive in 2009.

One man suffering what was described as a “serious medical condition” was taken immediately to the mainland for treatment.

The Australian understands the man was gravely ill with septicaemia following a recent operation.

The boat was intercepted north of Ashmore Island at 10.15pm on New Year's Eve.

The boat's arrival comes amid fresh debate about how to handle the surge in arrivals.

On Wednesday, Liberal leader Tony Abbott attracted criticism following his pledge to tow seaworthy asylum boats back out to sea.



The proposal, which was also endorsed by Kevin Rudd prior to the last election, was attacked by refugee groups and church leaders as dangerous, illegal and inhumane.

A total of 60 boats carrying 2727 passengers and 138 crew arrived in 2009.

The arrivals represented a huge spike on the previous year, where just 161 people arrived by boat.

The opposition has blamed the spike on a series of measures by Labor aimed at softening Australia's treatment of refugees.

But the government says increasing instability and violence in source countries like Sri Lanka and Afghanistan is to blame.
-ABC 2009

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MUHARRAM: HOLY MONTH FOR SHI'A ISLAM: ST MARRY'S MOSQUE

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Muharram is observed by the Shia community of Muslims in commemoration of the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Imam Hussain, who was killed in the Battle of Karbala in AD 680. The prophet's son-in-law Ali, and Ali's elder son Hassan, are also remembered during this period as having suffered and died for righteous causes.

Muharram, or the sacred month, marks the beginning of the Muslim year.





Muharram is one of the four sacred Months out of twelve. The other being ZiQad,ZilHajj and Rajab. It is a sacred month NOT because the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (saw) was martyred in this month. It is sacred because Allah made it sacred along with three other months and told us about it in the Quran.

The word muharram also means respect.

THE HAZARA ETHNIC SOCIETY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA (HESWA)

THE HESWA IS HOLDING THE MUHARRAM MOURNING 10 DAYS TO RECITE PLAINTIVE VERSES AT:

PLACE: St Marry's Mosque
TIME: 2000-2200 (8am-10pm)** (**=time variation due to assembling)

For contact details please contact the head of the HESWA.
To add more to this post or any thing else regarding the Holly month of Muharram please do not hesitate to contact me either by placing a comment on this post or by email at:

Email: hazara.eswa@yahoo.com
or hazaranewswa@yahoo.com

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55th asylum seeker boat intercepted

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55th asylum seeker boat intercepted: Rudd under pressure

Authorities have intercepted another asylum seeker boat, taking the tally for the year to 55.

The boat was intercepted just after 8pm on Tuesday by HMAS Launceston about 30 nautical miles northeast of the Ashmore Islands.

Initial indications suggest there are 51 passengers and four crew on board the vessel. They will be transferred to Christmas Island where they will undergo security, identity and health checks.
The latest arrival comes as the government faces increasing pressure to do more to solve the asylum seeker problem with detention facilities on Christmas Island already stretched to their limits.

As of Tuesday, there were 1,487 detainees on the island, including 82 in tents which were erected as temporary accommodation to cope with the growing asylum seeker population.
7NEWS Ltd

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Theory: Origins of Hazaras

The origins of the Hazaras are not fully reconstructible and thus debatable.

At least partial Mongol descent is difficult to rule out, because the Hazaras' physical attributes and parts of their culture and language resemble those of Mongolians. Thus, it is widely accepted that Hazaras do have Mongolian ancestry, if not direct male-line descent from Genghis Khan, as some Hazaras allege. Some Hazara tribes are named after famous Mongol generals, including the Tulai Khan Hazara named after Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis Khan. Theories of Mongol or partially Mongol descent, are plausible, given that the Il-Khanate Mongol rulers, beginning with Oljeitu, embraced Shia Islam. Today, almost all Hazaras adhere to Shiism, whereas Afghanistan's other ethnic groups are mostly Sunni.

Another theory proposes that Hazaras are descendants of the Kushans, the ancient dwellers of Afghanistan famous for constructing the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Its proponents find the location of the Hazara homeland, and the similarity in facial features of Hazaras with those on frescoes and Buddha's statues in Bamiyan, suggestive. However, this belief is contrary not only to the fact that the Kushans were Indo-European Tocharians, but also to historical records which mention that in a particularly bloody battle around Bamiyan, Genghis Khan's grandson, Mutugen, was killed, and he ordered Bamiyan to be burnt to the ground in retribution, renaming it Ma-Obaliq ("Uninhabitable Abode") while replacing the local population with his armies and settlers[citation needed].

A third theory, and the one accepted by most scholars, maintains that Hazaras are a very mixed race. This is not entirely inconsistent with descent from Mongol military forces. For example, Nikudari Mongols settled in eastern Persia and mixed with native populations who spoke various Iranian languages. A second wave of mostly Chagatai Mongols came from Central Asia and were followed by other Turko-Mongols, associated with the Ilkhanate (driven out of Persia) and the Timurids, all of whom settled in Hazarajat and mixed with the local Persian population, forming a distinct group.
vBulletin: Hazara

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HAZARA GENETICS-MONGOL LINKED Y-CHROMOSOMES

HAZARA GENETICS-MONGOL LINKED Y-CHROMOSOMES

Genetically, the Hazara are primarily a mixture of eastern Eurasian and western Eurasian peoples.

Genetic research suggests that they are related to neighboring peoples, while there also seems to be a distant relation to Turkic and Mongol peoples of Inner Asia,such as the Uyghurs of China.

A Mongol element in the ancestry is supported by studies in genetic genealogy as well, which have identified a particular lineage of the Y-chromosome characteristic of people of Mongolian descent ("the Y-chromosome of Genghis Khan"). This chromosome is virtually absent outside the limits of the Mongol Empire except among the Hazara, where it reaches its highest frequency anywhere. About two thirds of the Hazara males sampled carry a Y-chromosome of this lineage.
vBulletin: Hazara

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