By Hazara International Network [sgmb id=”1″]
The Enlightening Movement of Afghanistan organized a protest in Munich – Germany on Saturday February 18, during the Munich Annual International Security Conference. Hundreds of people arrived from different countries to join the protest.
Among the participants, the former senior producer at BBC World Service “Persian” and currently a senior leader of the Enlightening Movement and people’s high council member, Mr Daoud Naji and the spokesmen of the Enlightening Movement in Munich Sadiq Sherzad, Ghafur Sedaghat, Abbas Mohammadi, Arzu Akhlaqi and Sakhi Zahedi, the poet Raza Wasiq from Belgium, the singer Nabi Kabir, the Enlightening Movement spokesmen for England Ahad Bahaduri, Ali Sahir and the journalist Esmat Amean, Ehsan Ehsani, Rustam Ahmadi, Mohamad Rafie from Austria, Director of Outlook Afghanistan Daily Dr. Hussain Yasa, entrepreneurs and businessmen from Italy Ashraf Barati, Arif Rezai and Hamed Ahmadi, and many representative of the Hazara community in France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland and other countries, the poet, Hussain Madadi, editor of Hazara International Network in Germany, activist Murtaza Mohammadi from Vienna, journalist and Hazara International Network editor-in-chief Basir Ahang, the HIN editor-in-chief in Italy Nicole Valentini were all present in the protest.
During the protest Mr. Daoud Naji as spokesman and senior member of the Enlightening Movement brought three important messages:
1) The first message was delivered to the Afghan government. Mr Naji addressed the government that the movement is alive and that there will be no possibility for the Afghan leaders to escape from justice, equality, law and civil rights of the citizens. Mr. Naji added that the Movement is working to bring the responsible(s) of the 23rd July attack before an international criminal court. At the end he said that the Movement can count on thousands of members around the world who have very strong relationship with international parliamentary members and activists.
2) The second message was addressed to the international community: Mr Naji thanked the international community for its help in Afghanistan especially the German families who lost their brave sons that fought against the terrorism in Afghanistan. He said that though their help and efforts will never be forgotten, but he added that after 15 years of the new era, most of the Bonn Agreement articles have been violated while the actual Afghan government spent most of the aid money to free the terrorists from prisons; the same terrorists who fought against the international forces in Afghanistan. Finally Mr Naji said that President Ashraf Ghani systematically marginalized a big part of the society.
3) The third message was addressed to the Hazara Diaspora Community: Mr Naji said that all members of the community are ambassadors of their first/native countries and they need to have good relations with the people of their second countries. Mr Naji said also that critics and questions are welcomed as they are fundamental for the improvement of the Movement.
The editor-in-chief of Hazara International Network in Italy Ms. Nicole Valentini addressed a speech in English to the International Community, in which she said:
“With all the billions of dollars spent in these years by the International Community in Afghanistan, three countries could have been rebuilt from zero. So as a European citizen I am asking you: where has this amount been spent? There is still lack of infrastructures, security doesn’t exist in two third of the country, and people are continuously being forced to flee the country. Security and corruption are some of the main problems. But also economists know very well that in countries such as Afghanistan, with many ethnic groups and a low grade of cohesion, the international aids often risk to be spent always in the same regions and in proper ways. We are building walls and deporting people who flee from war, but at the same time we give out billions of dollars to some most corrupt governments of the world.
Instead of building walls we have to change our security policy. Supporting the Enlightenment Movement and its legitimate requests we are also supporting peace and security in Afghanistan. In this way people will not be forced to flee from their country and we will not need to build inhuman walls anymore.
It is to add that, during and after the demonstration, a Twitter storm with the #MSC2017 hashtag has been organised by many activists around the world and as a result Twitter trend analysts ranked #MSC2017 as one of the top trending hashtags of the day.
Despite the attempt of the Munich Security Conference Twitter account to silence some Hazara activists’ voice blocking their accounts, the protest has been a success.
The Enlightening Movement is seen with suspect both by the Afghan government and the traditional Hazara leaders who see the movement as a potential threat to their authority and to their power in the country. At the same time, in this moment the Movement represents the brightest hope for millions of people after decades of war and injustice.
It is believed that this is not the first demonstration and it will not be the last one either. Unless the legitimate requests of the Enlightenment Movement are taken into consideration by the government of Afghanistan and its international allies, the movement will resist and go on ahead with demonstrations and protests. Updates about other protests, activities and events will be reported on the official Facebook page of the Hazara International Network.
Photos by Murtaza Mohammadi
With Enlightening Movement’s Demonstration in Munich The Protests Goes on | Hazara-Azeri
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