Shah Mahoud Amir Must Stay

Shah Mahoud Amir: A national of Afghanistan, is on this day in Dover removal/detention centre. Facing imminent removal to Austria, as a third country returnee. He was asked to attend an interview at the Dover immigration office on Friday 19th July. His solicitors told him that he need not attend in view of his poor health, but he misunderstood (no translator was present) and travelled to Dover in a great state of agitation and was then detained, pending deportation to Austria.

Bristol Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers (BCDAS), have been supporting Shah, since June last year and are campaigning to keep Shah in the UK.

Petitions and leaflets in support of Shah can be obtained from:

BCDAS

Box 41, Greenleaf Books

82 Colston Street

Bristol

Further information:

Bob Hughes

Tele: 0117 973 3869

hughesbob@compuserve.com

Shah Mahmood Amir's Story

Shah Mahmood Amir is 30. He was born in Kabul in 1972. He and his family lived in a small town 17km west of Kabul itself, but they moved into the city -- a western suburb called Khoshhal Khan Mina -- in about 1984 (when Shah was 12), because the fighting against the Russians was intensifying in the countryside. Shah's father worked as a nurse.

I get the impression that Shah and his family managed to survive the war with the Russians reasonably undamaged. He completed high school and, in 1990 (aged 18) started a course at the Engineering Institute in Kabul.

In 1992 the civil war between the Hazara (Iranian-backed; Shia) and Pashtun (Pakistani and Saudi-backed; Sunni) began in earnest, and moved into Kabul itself. The Engineering Institute was closed.

Describing the period 1992-1996, he says "You could not imagine it. Everyone carried arms of all kinds, like toys. Big, brand-new weapons."

In the summer of 1992 Shah was one of 100 civilians seized off the street by Hazara fighters, and held hostage for 4 days in an open car-park. The Hazaras said they would kill 3 of the hostages for every one of their own soldiers who was killed -- and they carried out this threat several times during the 4 days. "17 or 18" of the hostages were killed, right in front of them. He says: "They were throwing the bodies around the car park"; "It was like *mahshar*" [I understand 'mahshar' = hell, or the end of the world]. He was in constant and immediate fear of death for the whole 4 days; repeatedly stood helpless as men next to him were grabbed and killed, their bodies abused, and left lying in the heat of the sun.

Shah says he can still smell the bodies. From this point he seems to have been effectively disabled. Life was now dominated by nightmares and flashbacks and the smell of the bodies. He had to pass the car park every day. He could not face meat in any form, had difficulty eating, and lost weight severely. He could not be left alone. He was given work in a general store under the care of his two younger brothers. This was more occupational therapy than a real job. "I was there just to be busy." He had become "forgetful" -- would forget what change to give a customer, or what the customer had asked for, or where the item was kept. The family realised he needed to be busy, and to be looked after constantly.

In autumn 1995 the war erupted again and the western suburbs became a battleground.

His cousin Maliha, her husband, and their 12-year-old daughter Royna lived next door. They heard an explosion. Smoke and dust were coming out of Maliha's house -- it had been hit by a mortar. The three of them were inside, covered with blood. Each one had multiple wounds from the bomb fragments. In Maliha's case, a fragment had gone through her face and out through the back of her head. Her husband was still alive and neighbours rushed him to hospital.

Non-family members are not allowed to touch female bodies, so it fell to Shah, as the '1st-degree mahram' (closest male relative), to take charge of his cousin and neice -- in the middle of a full-blown battle: small-arms, mortars and artillery explosions all around. He checked their pulses and hearts and was sure they were dead. His mother confirmed this. All agreed that they were dead. He went to the Mosque to ask the mullah what he should do now. The mullah said that the priority was to get the living out of the city -- so it was imperative to get the bodies buried without delay.

He took the bodies, under fire, to the cemetery. Local people helped him carry the bodies, in bedsheets, and to dig the graves, but as mahram he had to be the one who physically placed them in their graves. Then they evacuated the area and moved to the north-eastern suburbs where the fighting was less intense, until the cease-fire.

After the cease-fire, the family was able to assemble for the day of mourning. Maliha's brother, a doctor, came back from Pakistan. He said to Shah: "How could you bury them without a proper death certificate? Why didn't you take them to the hospital for a proper doctor to examine? How do you know they were dead?" Shah was made to feel that he had failed them utterly -- and that he might even have buried them while still alive.

"That whole side of the family refused to talk to me. Now in their eyes I am a murderer, because I rushed their burial. Every other night I dream of that little girl playing with my sister. In my dream she turns to me and says 'why did you bury me while I was still alive?' And I jump up shaking all over."

In 1996 the Taliban took the city and the fighting ended at last. Shah resumed work in the shop, in his brothers' care, and continued somehow to cope with his precarious mental and physical state until March this year (2001).

He explains that the Taliban have been running short of troops for their war against the Northern Alliance. First they declared their war to be Jihad -- thereby making it every man's duty to fight in it, or be apostate: a cynical abuse of Islam. Then they took to rounding up whatever men and boys they could find and sending them either to fight, or to clear mines.

Shah was arrested in March 2001 and taken to a detention centre. He knew he would be sent to the front. He had quite a lot of cash with him from the shop, which he gave, and his watch, as a bribe to the guard, and escaped and lay low. Later, he heard that the guard had been accused of letting him escape; the guard claimed that Shah had beaten him up and escaped by force -- so now he was wanted not only for refusing Jihad, but also for assault.

The family decided it was unsafe for him to remain -- yet he was not capable of living without close family support. Shah has 2 cousins in England (Azimulla in Bristol and Noor in London) so it was decided to try to send him here. His uncle found an 'agent' and arranged everything. He arrived in England in June 2001.

I gather that Shah was intercepted in Austria on his way here. Under the Dublin Convention, he is liable to be returned there, where he knows no-one; whereas here in Bristol he enjoys very caring support from his cousin Amizulla, who is "like a brother to me". For his mental wellbeing if nothing else it would seem self-evident that he should be allowed to remain in Bristol.

Bob Hughes and Houri Ghamian for BCDAS