For A Man Who Could Not Have Been More Committed To Justice, An Unjust End

The Age

Saturday September 16, 2006

GEOFF STRONG

INSIDE a nondescript brown brick house in an ordinary Dandenong street, a migrant family sits and prays, coming to terms with how an extraordinary death terminated an even more extraordinary life.

There is a stream of friends and neighbours, even a phone call from state Ethnic Affairs Minister John Pandazopoulos.

But despite the sympathy, the events are particularly galling for Hakim Taniwal's youngest, 19-year-old Amina. She was present three months ago when her father received a CD with a warning of his assassination.

Mr Taniwal, a highly educated Afghan refugee, was an intellectual and optimist who lived in the house for five years before his friend, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, lured him back to help rebuild his homeland. He went on to hold the jobs of provincial governor and national cabinet minister.

Last Sunday his efforts were repaid in familiar currency, when he was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber.

Amina, her mother and two older brothers were visiting her father in the troubled Paktia province, near the Pakistan border, when he received the video-CD warning. Until then, he had been talking of retiring and returning to his Dandenong home.

Despite the West's deteriorating image of Islam post-September 11, Mr Taniwal knew his religion was not the enemy of peace in an enlightened world. He demonstrated there was only one enemy - ignorance.

A man of enormous intellectual curiosity, Mr Taniwal had been educated in the traditions of his country and the West. After high school, he spent nine years studying in Germany, first sociology, then chemistry. Languages came easily to him; he was fluent in five, including German, English and his native Pashtu.

He became professor of sociology at Kabul University, before fleeing with his family to Pakistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979.

But to the Taliban, any study outside a narrow view of Islam is regarded as "the devil's learning". Mr Taniwal and educated moderates of his ilk were regarded as the enemy.

The CD Mr Taniwal received three months before his death did not contain an explicit threat. It merely showed him in close-up going about his duties as governor. But there was no doubt what the video meant. The Taliban was saying 'we have you in our cross-hairs - if you want to live, get out'.

"My father was talking about retiring and coming back to Melbourne," says Amina. "When he showed us the CD, he told us he had changed his mind. 'I'm not scared of these people', he said."

Unlike other Government officials, Mr Taniwal did not surround himself with extensive security. He reasoned that because he tried to do his best for the people, he had few enemies and needed little protection.

Last Sunday that idealism proved naive. A Taliban fighter waited for his car as it drove through the gates of his Government office. The man bowed slightly towards the car as it passed and detonated explosives, killing Mr Taniwal, his bodyguard and a nephew. At his funeral on Monday, attended by President Karzai, another suicide bomber self-detonated, killing six.

The Taniwal family sought sanctuary in Australia in 1997, not long after the Taliban came to power. Mr Taniwal knew they would not be safe in exile over the border because the Taliban had strong links to the Pakistan security service.

German friends suggested he seek safety there, but he was curious about Australia and another Afghan emigre, Kaliq Fazalhad, offered to sponsor the family.

Mr Fazalhad, who has lived here since 1972, has been a leader of the Afghan Australia Association and runs a business in Dandenong. Like Mr Taniwal, he also returned and worked in the Karzai Government, serving as minister of public works in 2002.

He said his friend believed in an Afghanistan with democratic institutions, equality of the sexes, functioning hospitals and education facilities.

"In both of the provinces he governed - Khorst where his family came from and Paktia - he established universities. The Taliban hated this," he said.

"They particularly hated women being educated. When we held talks with them and asked them the reason for their hatred, they could never explain. They wanted an Afghanistan that was the Middle Ages with Land Cruisers and Kalashnikovs."

After Mr Taniwal's death, it was the duty of his eldest son, Khushal, to fly to the memorial service in Afghanistan, leaving his brother, Zmarak, to guide the family.

Zmarak, 25, is studying computer networking at Monash University. He was following in his father's footsteps to get an education and help rebuild their homeland, but like the rest of the family he is now having second thoughts.

He is concerned for the safety of his eldest sister, Sharifa Alam, who stayed in Afghanistan to marry when the family left. Her husband, a Government official, is also in the Taliban's sights.

A memorial service for Hakim Taniwal will be held at 2pm today at the Russian Orthodox church in Kirkham Road, Dandenong.

© 2006 The Age

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