The Hazara and Afghan community members held a rally in McPherson Square in Washington, DC on Sunday (Oct 8) to protest the killing of 35 schoolgirls inside the Kaaj Educational Center in the Dasht-e-Barchi district of Kabul, Afghanistan.
Rallies were also held around the world in 64 countries and 92 cities as Hazara calling attention to the ongoing genocide of the ethnic and religious minority, according to a Counter Current report by Phil Pasquini.
The suicide attack on Sept 30 killed 35 schoolgirls and injured over 82, all members of the Hazara Shia minority community, which is about 15 percent of the population of Afghanistan.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing although the Islamic State Korasan (IsisK), Islamic State of Iraq, the Levan ISIL and the ruling Taliban have a history of attacks against the minority Hazaras the report said.
In a report earlier this year, the House of Lords Select Committee on International Relations stated: "The Hazaras have a long history of suffering state persecution on both ethnic and sectarian grounds."
After the rally at McPherson Square, the crowd of several hundred marched and chanted as they headed to the White House where a second rally was held. Dr. Gregory Stanton, a world renown genocide expert, told the crowd, "This is the sort of activism that will change governments." In illustrating the horrific and inhumane treatment the Hazara face in Afghanistan he went on to relate a story about an Hazara mother who had just given birth and shortly afterward the Taliban invaded the hospital killing most of the women in the maternity ward along with their newborn infants.
According to the World Hazara Council, the Hazaras of Afghanistan have endured nearly 300 attacks since 2002. These attacks have a long history. In the 1890s, the Hazaras faced genocide, slavery, and massive depopulation that killed sixty percent of Hazaras.
Under the Taliban in the 1990s, Hazaras were victims of at least nine genocidal massacres. The Taliban massacred between 2000 and 15,000 Hazaras in Mazar-e Sharif in 1998. The Taliban massacred hundreds more Hazaras at Bamyan when they blew up the stone Buddhas.
None of the crimes carried out against Hazaras have been investigated. None of the perpetrators have been arrested or brought to justice. No compensation for victims and their families has been paid.
As the de facto authority in Afghanistan, the Taliban have failed to provide protection for the Hazaras. The Taliban have forcibly displaced thousands of Hazaras from their ancestral lands across the country including Daikundi, Helmand, Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Uruzgan.
The World Hazara Council in a call for "Stop Hazara Genocide Rallies October 8 worldwide" said the Hazara people call for the following:
1. The UN, US, UK, EU, human rights organizations, and journalists must recognize that the systematic attacks against the Hazaras in Afghanistan fulfill the definition of genocide: the intentional destruction of a substantial part of an ethnic and religious group, as such.
2. The UN and national governments should initiate urgent consultations with Hazara organizations on practical actions for the protection of the Hazaras in Afghanistan.
3. The International Criminal Court must open investigations of the atrocities against the Hazara people and should initiate cases against perpetrators for genocide and crimes against humanity.
4. All countries should prioritize Hazaras fleeing Afghanistan for asylum and resettlement as refugees.
