Shah Mahmood Amir a severely traumatised young man from Kabul was deported to Austria in August under the iniquitous Dublin Convention. Below we share his story.

SHAH MAHMOOD AMIR'S STORY,
taken down Wednesday, October 24, 2001 by Bob Hughes,
with the help of Houri Ghamian.

Shah Mahmood Amir is 29. 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 this year 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.

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 Friday, October 26, 2001