Protesters call for action to help Afghan people
It began with a solemn ceremony at the National War Memorial and ended with a rousing version of Afghanistan's national anthem in the shadow of the Peace Tower.
Roughly 300 Afghan-Canadians, some of whom came from as far as Toronto and Sherbrooke, Que., gathered Saturday to express their fears for the future and to demand Canada and the United Nations do something about the tragedy unfolding in their homeland.
“It's a huge shock for us. If you told us that something like this would happen in just a few weeks, I wouldn't have believed it,” said Saeid Toukhi, who was among a smaller group that laid a wreath at the cenotaph to honour the more than 150 Canadian soldiers killed during the war in Afghanistan.
“I am deeply sorry and deeply shocked. There is now a generation of Afghans who are now under the control of the Taliban.”
The Canadian government promised to help resettle 20,000 Afghans, but ended its emergency evacuation flights on Thursday, just hours before a terrorist attack outside Kabul airport killed nearly 200 people.
Toukhi's wife, Shokoufa Toukhi, said her sister-in-law was very nearly among the casualties. She had travelled to the airport — it took 48 hours to make it though Taliban road blocks — and was among the crowd outside the airport gates just two hours before the suicide attack.
“She was in the exact place where the blast happened,” Shokoufa said. “As soon as I heard the news on TV that they were warning about an attack, I called them and said, `Get out of there!' So they left.”
The sister-in-law and her family are still stranded and Shokoufa has no idea how they will get out.
That Canada continues to help Afghans escape was one of the demands by rally organizers.
“We are getting messages day and night. Our inboxes are full of messages, pleading with us to help them,” said Kazim Hizbullah, whose friend was among the dead. “They had heard that Canada has committed to saving 20,000 people. So they thought they would be safe. It really hurt us to see them, with visas in hand and all their documents in place, to be killed.”
Hizbullah says he doesn't believe the Taliban can be trusted and he wants the Canadian government to push them to commit to upholding democratic principles, such as free speech, human rights and the rights of women. He also wants Canada and Western governments to press Pakistan, which he accused of destabilizing Afghanistan.
“We want the Canadian government to put pressure on Pakistan to play a constructive role, not a destructive role.”
Most pressing of all, he said, is the looming humanitarian crisis under Taliban rule.
“We are hearing very alarming statistics that many millions of Afghans are at risk of starving,” he said. “Winter is coming. These cities are very cold — just as cold as Canada — and they have no fuel. This humanitarian crisis is looming. That pains us. That keeps us awake all the night.”