Introduction
Since the formation of Khalsa Aid, it has ventured into may parts of the world
where humanitarian assistance was needed. Its very first mission in 1999 was to
provide food and shelter to the refugees on the Albanian/ Yugoslavia border
where thousands of victims of the war in Yugoslavia were taking shelter. During
the new millennium in 2000, Khalsa Aid was also providing assistance to the
victims of the Cyclone that hit East India in the state of Orissa where it
provided assistance to all the affected schools in starting their educational
needs. In 2001 Khalsa Aid also went to Turkey to provide medical and water
assistance to the victims of the earthquake that struck the north west of the
country.
Khalsa Aid has ventured on their humanitarian aid
mission once again, but this time the destination of their mission was a region
of the world where very few brave people would dare to venture. Their mission
was to Kabul in Afghanistan. Two Khalsa Aid volunteers ventured onto this
mission including the current chairperson Amrik Singh from Hays in West London.
The Khalsa Aid mission to Afghanistan was planned
well in advance over a year ago, but due to circumstances of regional
instability they were always hindered in completing their mission in the past.
The danger in Afghanistan is still very real as many westerners are still
targets of the Al-Quieda in Kabul and the whole country is still widespread
with warlords and tribal fighting.
Khalsa Aid’s prime mission into Afghanistan was to assess the situation
of the minority communities that still resident within Kabul and identify what
their immediate needs that Khalsa Aid was able to assist in the short term that
would make the maximum impact over the long term future of these minority
communities. These minority communities were namely the religious minority
communities. For Khalsa Aid, their mission did not extend outside of Kabul due
to limited resources and time.
Local Conditions
On Khalsa Aid’s venture into Kabul they realised
that very few Christian and hardly any Jewish communities were present in the
area of Kabul, so this only left the Sikh and Hindu communities that still had
any significant presence in Kabul.
During the hay-days of Afghanistan, it was
suggested that in Kabul alone there was in the region of around 25,000 Sikh and
Hindu families that resided in Kabul. However, the stories today is very
different, in Kabul there still is a significant Sikh and Hindu community, but
their numbers combined are around 500 families and even fewer outside of Kabul.
The tragedy that the Sikh and Hindu communities
faced during the power grab and rule of Afghanistan by the Muja-Hudine and the
Taliban was immense and brutal. Many of those who could afford to, managed to
escape the fanatical hatred did so to neighbouring countries, India and many
other western countries as refugees.
Those that were left behind in Afghanistan were
those who were the poorest-of-the-poor. Were treated like slaves by their
rulers and in many cases by their neighbours and were referred to as "Kafers"
(non-believers). During these times, these minority communities were attacked
and in some cases killed without remorse and without justice. There were many
stories of Sikhs who had been killed only because they were Sikhs, or young
girls being kidnapped molested and sold like slaves. In many respects these
stories could have been repeats of history for the Hindu and Sikh communities
like it was 400 years ago in India, during the rule of the Moguls.
In 1992, during the onslaught control of the
Muj-Haddine in Kabul, many of the residences, businesses and places of worship
for Sikhs and Hindus were targeted, damaged or occupied. Even today, many of
these places are still in the same status, and those minority communities that
are still alive or present in Afghanistan are still pleading for their
properties to be restored, but to little avail. In many cases of illegal
occupation there is very little evidence to justify true ownership of property
as much of the documentation has either been lost, or over the years the
properties have been bought and sold several times over, hence proving
impossible to justify who is the rightful owner.
During the rule of the Taliban the minority
communities were again targeted in similar ways to that of the Muj-Hadine.
During the time of the Taliban, these minority communities were restrained from
wearing clean cloths as they were "Kalfa" and hence were regarded as being
dirty. Like wise these minority communities were also told not to wear any white
cloths as the colour white was a pure colour. The only colour that these
minority communities were allowed to wear was yellow, as this represented the
colour of ‘urine’. Towards the end of the rule of the Taliban, they became more
fanatical towards these minority communities and just like the Nazis did to the
Jews, these minority communities were told to wear yellow markers, so that all
could know that they were Kafers.
The Sikhs were more obvious targets due to their
distinct appearance with turbans. Even during Khalsa Aid’s mission in Kabul
they were on a number of occasion’s referred to as "Kalfers" and other
derogative terms - but most surprising was that these references were coming
more from young children than the adult population.
The saddest tragedy of the whole event was that
when these minority communities asked for help they were told by the
Afghanistan governments of the times to go and get help from India as they were
Indians and not Afghanistani. The tragedy was that India likewise referred to
these communities as Afganistani and not Indian. Even with a common regional
culture and history that in many cases spanned over thousands of years of links
with India, these minority communities were denied any assistance by the Indian
Government.
Needs Assessment
After several meetings with Khasla Aid team and the Sikh and Hindu communities,
these communities identified that they had several concerning issues that they
needed help with. These Agenda issues were identified as follows:
1.
Visa Difficulties - there
were two main issues that the community were facing, thee were as follows:
a.
By-Road Visa Difficulties - These minority
communities were denied "By-Road" Visas by the Indian government, which
prevented them from coming into India by road (even though Pakistan had granted
these visas). This prevented these minority communities from coming to their
religious and cultural homes of Punjab and India.
b.
Visa Denial by India - A handful of individuals
were listed on the Indian governments ‘black-list’ because most had previously
come to India with their families and had overstayed their stay in India, and
were being denied returning to their families who were still in India.
2.
Rebuilding of the Gurdwaras and Mandars - both
communities had their places of worship attacked and damaged (more so the Sikh
Gurdwaras). Both communities wanted these places of worship to be restored to a
condition where they could begin their worship. Although the Afghan government
had made commitments to assist but no assistance has yet been provided.
3.
Refugees Returning - many
refugees that were returning to Afghanistan found that they received no support
except the little that was provided by the UN Refugee Program (which was a bag
of grain, US$100 and a plastic sheet for shelter) - These returning refugees
found that their property and businesses had been occupied by others and were
denied access and returning to their property (even through legal
intervention).
4.
Cremation of dead bodies -
The most difficulty that both the Hindu and Sikh communities were facing was
that they were still being denied by the Afghanistan citizens to cremate the
bodies of their friends and family members how had died. Desperate measures
were taken by both the communities to dispose of the bodies and this meant the
dismembering of body parts and during the night cremating on the court-yard of
the Gurdwara in Kabul over several days and during the night when no one could
see the smoke.
5.
Education - The
minority communities were not given equal and fair education for their children
and only the first four years of education was being provided to their children
through the Afghanistan government.
6.
Fair representation in Afghan Government -
Although the constitution of the Afghan Government has recognised the minority
communities and their role in future governments, they have not been
represented or asked for their representation in any new Afghan governments and
they want to have representation.
A request was made by the Afghanistan Hindu and
Sikh community was that they would like to have a modern cremation machine
which would allow them to cremate their deceased persons without smoke or smell
and pollution.
Meetings with Agencies
A meeting was planned together with Khalsa Aid, the
local Kabul Hindu Community Representative (Ram Saran) and the local Kabul Sikh
community representative (Ravinder Singh) scheduled on Sunday the 30th
May 2004 with the Indian Embassy (Mr J.K. Shriwaskt) for 10am and the British
Emabassy (Rebecca Sagar) at 11am to discuss the above mentioned issues. When we
arrived at the Indian Embassy, we were told that the person that we were to
meet had not arrived. We waited until 10.45am and left to go to the British
Embassy.
Khalsa Aid also met with the First Secretary
Rebecca Sagar at the British Embassy in Kabul. In response to the above 7
points that we discussed with Rebecca, the response was as follows:
1
Rebecca informed that the British Government was
not in a position to assist the community regarding the visa problems they had
with the Indian government. The local Sikh community representatives asked
about being issued British visas if needed, Rebecca informed us that the
British Embassy in Kabul did not issue visas at the moment, so the easiest way
that a visa could be issued was by the visa application being made at the
British Embassy’s in Pakistan or in Dubai.
2
Rebecca was concerned about the damage that had
been inflicted on the maunders and the Gurdwaras, but she informed us that
there was a responsibility under the new Afghan constitution to rebuild damaged
Mosques, Gurdwaras and Maunders. Also in addition to this Rebecca also informed
us that there were small funds available to that they may be able to release to
repair damaged Gurdwaras and Maunders - if we were interested in applying for
these funds. Thee funds are allocated by the DfID but the responsibility of the
local British Embassy (and not directly part of the DfID applied funds).
3
Rebecca informed us that if there was any cases of
UK refugees returning who were facing these problems, and we could not confirm
this. Rebecca asked if the Sikh and Hindu communities were facing any
discrimination in Kabul and identify if this discrimination was a result of
their religion or if it was due to them being refugees. We informed Rebecca
that we will attempt to prepare a brief report of our findings at some point in
the future.
4
Regarding the cremation problems, we were advised
that we should contact the Afghan government in Kabul to discuss the
difficulties that the communities were facing. In addition to this Rebecca also
advised us to put an application for funds with the British Embassy in Kabul to
assist in the purchase of a modern cremation machine, we were informed that the
they may be able to provide funds in the region of £5k to £10k for this
project.
5
Rebecca informed us that Education was a problem
across the whole of Afghanistan and it would be difficult for them to do
anything immediately in assisting us in this area. Again she asked if the
community was being discriminated against due to their faith or general.
6
Regarding the fair representation of the minority
communities in the Afghan government, Rebecca said that this was not an area
that she would be able to help in.
The British government was prepared to assist in
providing financial assistance in the repair of damaged Mandars and Gurdwaras,
and the financing towards the purchase of the cremation machine. Overall the
felling was positive between the Sikh and Hindu community members.
Khalsa Aid made three trips to the Indian Embassy
in Kabul with the main representatives of both the Hindu and Sikh communities.
We again returned to the Indian Embassy on the 30th May at 2pm and
the reception informed us that only one representative could go and meet the
J.K.Shiriwasto; hence, Bherminder went to meet him, where he informed of the 7
points that they would like to discuss with the Indian Embassy representatives.
Bherminder was informed that he would have to meet with the Ambassador who was
not in the country; instead a meeting was arranged with the Ms Vijay Singh who
was overall responsible for the affairs of the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
Bherminder met with this person, who then agreed for the other representatives
to meet with her. During the following responses were given by Ms. Vijay Singh
to the above 7 point agenda:
1
The Indian Government was not in a position to
provide By-Road visas to the Afghani Hindu or Sikh communities as there was
still a risk of terrorism.
2
The Indian government had black listed individuals
due to them either over-staying their visit to India without extending their
visas and were not obliged to provide any formal response to these individuals
but was also not ruling out the possibility that these individuals would not be
given visas in the future.
3
The Indian government informed us that they did not
provide any assistance to any community or religious group and did not work
with NGO’s. Due to these reasons, they were not in a position to assist in the
rebuilding of any Maunders or Gurdwaras in Kabul. Khalsa Aid emphasised that
the Hindu religion had a very long historic base in Afghanistan and India
mainly considers itself as a Hindu country so it was assumed that they had some
ethical links to this community. Also it was also mentioned by Khalsa Aid that
the Sikh community was socially tied to India and it was natural for India to
assist the plight of the Sikhs of Afghanistan. In response to this comment Ms
Vijay Singh responded that the Sikh community in Kabul was once a very rich community
and they could assist themselves for the future.
4
With relation to the problem that the two
communities were facing in the cremation of their deceased people, the Indian
government said that they could not provide any assistance e to any
communities, religious groups or NGOs. Khalsa Aid then asked if in the event
that a cremation machine was purchased from India then they would assist in
having this machine exported duty free, to which the Indian government informed
us that there was no duty on imports to Afghanistan.
5
We identified that the Education was a very great
need for both the communities in Kabul and as India was providing teachers and
doctors to the Afghan government it would be good if they could also provide
assistance to the Sikh and Hindu communities to have a teacher that could teach
English. In response to this Ms Vijay said that India was not there to be
exploited and if Khasla Aid paid salaries to them according to UK rates then
they would provide teachers.
6
We also asked if India could place any influence on
the Afghan government to ensure that the minority communities could have fair
representation in any new government. In response to this Ms Vijay informed us
that they were not in a position to do this.
After our planned meeting came to a close, the
Hindu representative informed the Indian Embassy representative that when Mr
Jaswinder Singa (the former Foreign Minister - BJP) came to Afghanistan he had
informed them that he would assist in getting the community a vehicle in which they
could collect the dead bodies of their community, but nothing had come of this
commitment -even though India had provided the Afghanistan government with 700
TATA busses, they could not give the community 1 vehicle. The Hindu representative also accused the
Indian government of not recognising them as being part of the Indian community
and informed that they always invites the Indian government to all religious
events (i.e. Dawali, etc.), but the Indian government never invites they to
their events (such as independence day raising of the flag). Ms Vijay said that
this was not the case as they had not had any formal event of raising the flag
and the event was very informal.
On the 1st of June at 3pm we met with
the UNHR (Human Rights body) to discuss the same agenda points. We were met
with Richard Bennett (Chief technical Advisor to Human Rights). We discussed
all the seven points with him and we were assisted by Daya Singh from the Kabul
Sikh community (no Hindu representative - due to short notice of the meeting).
The response to the 7 agenda points was as follows:
1
Mr Bennett said that he will take this issue up
with the Indian government as this was in violation with the UN Human Rights.
2
Mr Bennett said that he will take this issue up
with the Indian government as this was in violation with the UN Human Rights.
3
With regards to the refuges that were retutrning,
Mr Bennet said that any refuges that had left Afghanistan over 2 years ago were
very likely to find it difficult or almost impossible to get their property
back as there were no records which could prove that much of the occupied
properties belonged to the rightful owners. However the UN was prepared to take
up cases on behalf of individuals if they came forward. In addition to thisMr
Bennett was also prepared to set up a formal meeting between the Indipendent
Afghan Human Rights Commission and the Sikh/Hindu communities to discuss these
issues (as Mr Bennett was an advisor to the group).
4
With regards to the damage to the Gurdwaras and
Maundars, Mr Bennett said that this was a common situation with Mosques in the
country also and there was little assistance that they could provide to the
community, unless the community was being denied right to worship freely.
5
Mr Bennet informed us that Education was a
particular problem across the whole of the country and if the community felt
that they were particularly being discriminated then he may be able to assist.
Md Daya Singh did say that they wee not being given equal facilities to other
school in Kabul, so Mr Bennett agreed to come and visit the school and meet
with the Hindu and Sikh communities.
6
Regarding fair representation, Mr Bennet said that
it was not possible to him to assist in this matter, but the only way the
community could get this fair representation would be to stand in elections and
take part in politics of the country.
Mr Bennett was very responsive and requested that
he be allowed to take these issues to the UN on the communities behalf. In
principle we agreed to this and also gave the contact details of the local
Kabul Sikh and Hindu representatives in order to ensure they were in agreement
with our decision.
Mr Bennett also asked that the Sikh and Hindu
communities should have their representative to work as an employee in the Independent
Afghan Human Rights Committee and he would support their application in this
body as an advisor to the group.
Providing Assistance
The assistance that Khalsa Aid provide to the Kabul
Sikh and Hindu communities was as follows:
A.
Purchase of educational facilities which included
stationary and schooling material for a complete year of operation. This also
included school bags and material for 150 children. The cost of this was a
total of US$500.
B.
Purchase of three Pentium III computers, HP Printer
and Networking - one of these computers was also fitted with internet
connectivity and a combo drive CD drive (CD Read/Write and DVD). The total cost
of this was US$1,500.
C.
Khalsa Aid also provided reading books for all the
years, which amounted to a total cost of US$250.
D.
Although the four teachers what were available at
the school were funded by the Afghan government, the headmaster of the school
was financed by donations by the Gurdwara, which amounted to US$100 per month -
Khalsa Aid provided an addition top-up to this existing payment by another
US$80 per month for a complete year, which amounted to a total of US$960 for
the year.
E.
Khalsa Aid also provided funds to the school to
employee another two more teachers for a year. Each teacher receiving a salary
of US$120 per month. For two teachers the cost amounted to a total of US$2,880.
F.
Khalsa Aid also provided funds to the Kabul Sikh
Gurdwara committee towards the building fund, which totalled US$1,300.
G.
Khalsa Aid also provided funds to the Kabul Hindu
Maunder committee towards the building fund, which totalled US$1,300.
ACCOUNTS:
Stationary + School Bags US$ 500
3 X Pentium III Computers US$
1,500
Reading material for school US$ 250
Headmaster salary top-up (US$80pm for year) US$
960
2 X Teachers salary for year (US$120pm for year) US$ 2,880
Gurdwara Building Fund US$
1,300
Maunder Building Fund US$
1,300
Daya Singh (Payment for assistance) US$ 100
-------------
Total US$
8,700
OTHER
COSTS
Hotel
US$ 350
Taxi & Food
US$ 161
Airport Tax
US$ 20
-------------
Total US$ 531
The total monies that was directly spent on the
mission totalled US$ 9,231.
In addition to these monies spent directly on the
mission, the Khalsa Aid team also had personal expenses that they incurred.
Some of these expenses still need to be claimed and are identified as follows:
Purchase of Video tapes for mission UK£ ?
Purchase of Sony memory stick for mission UK£
?
Afghan Visas (for 2 people) UK£ 60
Phone Bills
UK£ ?
Conclusion
Throughout all of our missions, we have been supported by
the public so much that we are truly grateful to God for blessing us with the
opportunity to extend the resources of the community into relief efforts to
assist these individuals. We hope that the sangat will continue to support
Khalsa Aid so that we can live up to the ideals of the "Seva" or
"Selfless Service" tradition.
