Letter for Ajmal

Marina Black: maringrad@yahoo.com

Jakephotog@yahoo.com

Irrespective, you have my consent to use my name. For once I will take off my editor’s hat and not insist on absolute accuracy. The cause is too important.

Freedom for Rahmatullah Hanefi and Adjmal Nashkbandi
http://www.emergency.it/appello/index.php?ln=En

And a Dossier by La Repubblica
http://www.repubblica.it/speciale/2007/dossier_liberate/index.html

No journalist should have to go through this. What support can we give?

No journalist should have to go through this. What support can we give?

David Hoffman

benmilpas@gmail.com

Timor-Leste Photographers’ Association
tilpaimages@gmail.com

tommy@tommyimages.com

Seeinnyc@aol.com

Abhishek Chandra

Ed Kashi

Just a note here to tell you that I am expecting to send all your signatures to CPJ for a final post update tomorrow afternoon sometime. I will keep collecting them on this thread up to that time when Teru or I note the last CPJ signature, here.

I believe Teru wants to keep this Ajmal signature thread going however for future petition effort if Ajmal is not released soon.

So please keep signing and we will just let you know when it is time to start up a new petition so you know exactly where your signature efforts are going.

The CPJ link where all your names will soon be updated to the CPJ Letter of Support that has been modified above along with the first signature list Teru sent in, is listed below for you to see. And I will notify you here, as well, when the last and final signature update has been posted there.

http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/asia/afghan02apr07na.html

Thank you all, and I am sure that Ajmal would be very happy and grateful to know of his colleagues support of him, this appeal for his immediate release, and of his past and present professional efforts as a journalist that caused him to be put at this great risk in order to ensure an impartial and free press for the people of Afghanistan.

Thanks again and my apologies to anyone for any mistakes or exclusions that occurred in haste when your names and occupations were being gathered from this thread through a “cut n’ paste” method for Word Document late, last night.

I will double check this thread for anyone whose names were missed on the CPJ Update at http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/asia/afghan02apr07na.html, and give them to Teru to add your names instead to another Ajmal petition that he is working toward putting together next week and describes in his post below.

Actually, any names that I may have unfortunately missed from this thread for the updated CPJ post will be very significant next week in helping Teru to start his new petition off with some new signatures. We will especially appreciate their missed significance then, since no one can guess how many more new signatures may still come into LS to help us continue the pressure if Ajmal is not released soon.

So please continue to sign if you haven’t already and thanks again for your understanding and support.

thanks again, and stay tuned for word from Jake Price and the Seen Unseen/Bubble Lounge crew for a new york event next week.

http://www.petitiononline.com/hostages/petition.html

This is a direct letter to President Karzai, and we are arranging for it to be delivered by hand to Kabul.

We’ll also post more resources and notes to the following site:

http://youarenotforgotten.net/

also, URGENT – given the most recent deadline given by the Taliban (3pm monday) for the Afghan govt to contact them to negotiate Ajmal’s release, we’re also asking everyone to email or fax a message to the Afghan govt. (saturday and sunday are working days for Afghan govt offices)immediately — thank you all.
=============
To: President Hamid Karzai

President Hamid Karzai
Gul Khana Palace
Presidential Palace
Kabul, Afghanistan

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to urge your government to do everything within its power to work for the release of Ajmal Naqshbandi, the Afghan journalist who was seized last month along with La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo and driver Sayed Agha. While Mr. Mastrogiacomo was freed on March 19 due to the intervention of Afghan authorities, Ajmal apparently is still being held by members of the Taliban somewhere in Helmand province. (Sayed Agha was, tragically, beheaded by his captors.)

We hope that your government will devote as much energy and attention to securing Ajmal’s safe release as it did to negotiations on behalf of Mr. Mastrogiacomo.

As you know, brave Afghan journalists such as Ajmal routinely undertake far greater risks than a visiting foreign correspondent, and with far less protection. Ajmal had a reputation as a good reporter with a deep understanding of Afghanistan’s complexities. International attention to the situation in Afghanistan depends on the work of local journalists like him.

We are also deeply concerned about the detention of Rahmatullah Hanefi, a hospital manager working with the Italian humanitarian organization Emergency, which reportedly helped mediate the release of Mr. Mastrogiacomo. Mr. Hanefi was said to have been taken by Afghan security officials immediately after Mr. Mastrogiacomo’s release and is believed to be held in a prison in Kabul. He has not had access to his family, Emergency staff or lawyers, and there are reports that he was tortured in custody.

We call on your government to release Mr. Hanefi immediately. Humanitarian workers and journalists must maintain contact with a variety of actors in the course of their difficult and dangerous work, including with members of militant organizations. Such contacts should not expose them to persecution by the state.

Thank you for your attention to these urgent matters.

Sincerely,

==============
Karzai email:

president@afghanistangov.org

Office of the spokesman of President Hamid Karzai
Tel: +93 799 33 77 55

Embassies of the Islamic State of Afghanistan
(available at http://www.president.gov.af/english/diplomatic_representations.mspx)

United States
Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad
Tel: +1 202 483-6410
Fax: +1 202 483-6488

United Kingdo
Ambassador Ahmad Wali Masoud
Tel: +44-20 7589 8891
Fax: +44-20 7581 3452

United Nations
Permanent Representative to the UN Zahir Tanin
Tel: +1 212 972 1212
Fax: +1 212 972 1216

Australia
Ambassador Mahmoud Saikal
Tel: +61-2 6282 7311
Fax: +61-2 6282 7322

Canada
Ambassador Omar Samad
Tel: +61 3 563 4223
Fax: +61 3 563 4962

Czech Republic
Ambassador Azizullah Karzai
Tel: +42 02-233-544-228
Fax: +42 02-233-452-009

France, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland
Ambassador Zalmai Haquani
Tel: +33 1-45250529
Fax: +33 1-42244714

Germany
Ambassador Hamidullah Nasir Zia
Tel: +49 30 206 7350
Fax: +49 30 229 1510

India
Ambassador Masood Khalili
Tel.: +91-11 410 3331
Fax: +91-11 687 5439

Italy
Ambassador Abdullah Ali
Tel: +39 06-8621 6111
Fax: +39 06-8632 2939

Japan
Ambassador Haron Amin
Tel: +81-3 5465 1219
Fax: +81-3 5465 1229

Norway
Ambassador Yahya Maroofi
Tel: +47 22 83 84 10
Fax: +47 22 83 84 11

Pakistan
Ambassador Nangyalai Tarzi
Tel.: +92 51 2824 505/6
Fax: +92 51 2824 504

Poland
Ambassador Abdul Hai Haidar
Tel: +48 22-6460314
Fax: +48 22-848028

admin@afghanembassy.net, afg.emb.vie@chello.at, afghanembassydhaka@yahoo.com, ambassade.afghanistan@skynet.be, ariana@sofianet.net, contact@afghanemb-canada.net, afgemb_beijing@yahoo.com, afghan_emb_cairo@hotmail.com, ambafghane@wanadoo.fr, afghanische-botschaft@t-online.de, afghanspirit@yahoo.com, afghanembassy_jkk@yahoo.com, afghaembassytehran@hotmail.com, afghanembassy.rome@flashnet.it, info@afghanembassyjp.com, afg_emb_kuw@hotmail.com, afghanemb_bishkek@yahoo.com, afghanem@tm.net.my, info@afghanemb.com, nstarzi1@yahoo.com, afgembqatar@hotmail.com, afghanem@online.ru, afgembriyad@hotmail.com, afembsudan@hotmail.com, mission.Afghanistan@ties.itu.int, afghanemintj@yahoo.com, sm_kh2003@yahoo.com, pa.afghanembassy@btinternet.com, info@embassyofafghanistan.org, afgwatan@aol.com, dl.afghanistan@unesco.org, afgemuz@mail.tps.uz

I cut n’ pasted Teru’s sample letter above to my email but changed it’s greeting to Dear Afghan Embassies. My Subject line read “HELP AJMAL NAQSHBANDI”.

COPY n’ PASTE UPDATED LIST TO EMAIL ADDRESS LINE:

admin@afghanembassy.net; afg.emb.vie@chello.at; ambassade.afghanistan@skynet.be; contact@afghanemb-canada.net; afgemb_beijing@yahoo.com; afghan_emb_cairo@hotmail.com; ambafghane@wanadoo.fr; info@botschaft-afghanistan.de; afghanspirit@yahoo.com; afghanembassy_jkk@yahoo.com; afghanembassy.rome@flashnet.it; info@afghanembassyjp.com; afghanemb_bishkek@yahoo.com; afghanem@tm.net.my; info@afghanemb.com; nstarzi1@yahoo.com; afgembqatar@hotmail.com; mission.Afghanistan@ties.itu.int; pa.afghanembassy@btinternet.com; info@embassyofafghanistan.org; afgwatan@aol.com; dl.afghanistan@unesco.org;

Hope this helps

R.I.P. Ajmal…

.

May God rest his soul.

And may those bastards rot in fucking hell.

bob

La Repubblica

KABUL – "Adjmal Nashkbandi, the interpreter of the journalist of Republic Daniel Mastrogiacomo, has been killed today. We have beheaded ". Shahabuddin Aatil, a megaphone of the Mullah Dadullah – the military head of the talebani – in a telephone call to the agency of Reuters press has said, ribadendo it later to the agency Handle. Also the France Press has received the same communication, but the same agency, in morning, had been contacted from an other megaphone, Yussuf Ahmadi, that it had confirmed the fixed ultimatum (like a member of the group had said, some days before, to the brother of the hostage) for the 15 of monday (the 12,30 in Italy).

A dramatic announcement remained for various hours lacking in replies, is from sources of the government Afghan, is from that Italian, like from the humanitarian associations presents in zone, beginning from Emergency. Then, little after the 19, the sad confirmation of the Roman Prime Minister Prodi. "I have learned with anguish
news of the killing of the interpreter who is continuation to that one of the driver – has asserted Prodi – Deprechiamo with every forces this absurd crime ". "we join to the family in this ugly moment therefore – it has continued the premier – also for the humanity concept that we have. Inconceivable E’ that this has happened ". “a crime – it has still asserted – that does not find some justification but not there is justification because takes advantage for this for political speculations”.

According to how much reported from the agency Pajhwok Afghan, the talebani also have rendered the place famous in which the body of the victim would be found: in the zone of Loya Wala, the district of Hazarjusft. One “dead women foolish”, condemned hardly and “without reservoirs” from the head of mission the UN to Kabul, Tom Koenigs. And a hard sentence comes also from the House White woman. One of the megaphone emphasizes that “these dead women Barbarian remember us the reasons for which the USA and the NATO are in Afghanistan”.

Adjmal Nashkbandi would have been killed today, “around to 15,05 (12,35 in Italy ndr)” – therefore 24 hours before the expiration of the ultimatum – because the government Afghan has not freed, in exchange of the hostage, some imprisoned guerrillas. “we have waited for a lot – has said the talebano megaphone Aatil – but the government has not answered to our demands, little imports that he is sooner or later, a lot knows that he will not contact to us”.

Nashkbandi, 25 years, had been kidnapped slid 5 March, in the province Afghan of Helmand, with to Mastrogiacomo and to the driver who accompanied them. Also this last one had been killed from the abductors. Past friday the president Afghan, Hamid Karzai, in the course of a press conference had asserted that it would not be more come down to pacts with the talebani, and that how much happened with Mastrogiacomo (the liberation of five guerrillas in exchange of the journalist) had been “an exceptional case”.

I am so sorry and numb…….

My, Marina and Dima’s prayers and thoughts go out to Ajmal’s family and closest friends and that our hope is that we will continue to remain vigilent in our memories and in our actions to arrest what we have created that has fostered such wrongs…..

I send upon air the light of my family’s love for your family…..

i am so sorry…….

……………………………………………………………….

FUNERAL BLUES

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

— W.H. Auden

May Ajmal’s soul rest in peace.

Is anyone in touch with his family? He was their sole breadwinner. Is there anything we can do for them?

Paula Lerner

I pray for Ajmal’s soul

Erik Messori

I pray for Ajmal’s soul

Erik Messori

Rest in peace.

Jazak Allah khayran—the same verses came to mind… Ameen. Allahuma Ameen.

MEANINGS:

Ajmal—Holy, More beautiful

Naqshbandi—(one of the Persian derivatives means) ‘linked to the image maker’

“I shall outlive my executioners”

—Omar Mukhtar before being hanged by the Italian Army in Libya, (16 September 1931)

May Ajmal’s memory and example of service to his people and others outlive those at whose hands he suffered.

…goes on to say, “Here is the press release issued by President Karzai on this occasion” and then includes the said press release.

Media and Public Affairs desk
Embassy of Afghanistan,
246 Queen Street, Suite 400
Ottawa, Ontario,
K1P 5E4 – Canada

Phone: (613).563.4223
Fax: (613).563.4962

Website: www.afghanemb-canada.net
Email: contact@afghanemb-canada.net

In the past weeks, a number of LS members arrived in Kabul, carrying the money gathered by N11’s Ajmal Fund. On Friday, we met with the families of Ajmal Naqsbandi and Sayed Agha to deliver those funds, and to deliver a message of respect from our family to theirs.

To date, the contributions delivered at this meeting were the only support that these families have recieved from outside Afghanistan. We’ve heard some second hand reports that La Republica has organized a fund, but as of our meeting, nothing has been given to the families.

Both families asked us to convey their appreciation to all the people around the world who worked to help them. In the words of Ajmal’s father, they thank you all “for sharing your love, and sharing our pain”.

Everyone who shared in this effort should know that it made a difference, and that it meant something. Ajmal’s father spoke of the “superpowers” – the governments, the armies, the NGOs that didn’t even respond to them, but he was in tears when he heard about how many ordinary people around the world reached out and tried to bring his son home.

We’d also like to thank the Committee to Protect Journalists, the New York Times, The Steven Vincent Foundation, SeenUnseen and the Bubble Lounge for their support and for their contributions.

Thanks so much for the update. I just returned to the US after three weeks in Kandahar and a few days in Kabul. I wish I’d known about other LS members in Afghanistan, I would have tried to connect, although I left just this past Wednesday (prior to your Friday meeting).

Can you tell us how much you were able to give the families in the end from N11 et al? How ever much it was I’m sure it meant a lot to them.

Thanks for conveying our concern.

Take care,

Paula Lerner

http://www.lernerphoto.com
paula@lernerphoto.com

I would have liked to post the exact amount that N11/LS gathered, but we thought it best not to mention the amount of money delivered to the families. The last thing we wanted was to have the two families targeted by thieves. As is increasingly evident, this war has more to do with economics than ideology or religion. Sayed Agha’s family apparently had to buy their son’s headless corpse from the Taliban, before they could bury him.

CPJ partnered with us to handle accounting for the Ajmal Fund, and we’ve reported to them on the exact figures – so anyone interested can contact them for details.

I’m sorry that we’re not being more transparent on this, but as I said, our primary concern is the families, who are most likely not using conventional banking accounts over here.

Teru

You need not worry about “being transparent” on this one. That LS, Bubble Lunge, SeenUnseen, Stephen Vincent and CPJ were able to help these incredibly unfortunate families is, i wish, enough of a beacon to send a message to other.

Again, marina, dima and my prayers for the two families.

And also, we hope you too are remaining strong and bearing and regrowing through and from your grief.

bob

Thanks so much for the update, and I understand completely about the security issues. Most important is that we as a group were able to offer some assistance to Ajmal and Sayyed’s respective families, and to pass on our sentiments of concern and support for them.

Thanks so much for coordinating this effort and reporting back to us. With your permission (see off list message to you) I will post a note on the EP (Editorial Photographers) forum to let the folks from that list who donated know what the upshot of all this was.

Stay safe in Afghanistan.

Paula Lerner

http://www.lernerphoto.com
paula@lernerphoto.com

Thank you for the update! (:

Thank you for making N11’s Ajmal Fund a tribute and reality. Thank you for helping Ajmal and Sayed’s families. Makes me cry hearing about other contributions never delivered. So many people know what happened and could and can still help.

Good luck and good thoughts and prayers for all of your safe work journeys to and from your homes. Teru, I can be happy today, as it sounds as if N11’s LS tribute and your intended purpose has been not only safe, but more than successful and has brought true healing to the tremendous wound of others.

Teru, with this act you also deserve much peace of heart and mind. Ajmal would still be, as always, proud to call you his colleague and friend. No doubt Ajmal’s spirit is peaceful and smiling today. No doubt he wishes many blessings for you and thanks you for helping to reassure him that his family would not be in need.

Kind Regards,

Gayle Hegland

`

`

`

MEMORIAL DAY 2007 in the US

I just returned from putting flowers on my family’s graves. Placing them and the little veteran’s flag above immediate and extended family service tombstones reminded me of Ajmal, Sayed and their families.

So coming home with a heavy heart it was wonderful news to return to my studio and hear about the safe delivery! Teru, we are all so happy that the rest of us, not able to be with you now, could do something to help Ajmal and Sayed meet at least their families’ financial obligations now that they are no longer with us in our work. It is also very comforting to hear the words of Ajmal’s dear father. Tell him we are grateful we could do something in the great wake of this precious loss and empty heart.

Perhaps there will be an ongoing fund of some sort in Ajmal’s memory…..some type of foundation either for the continuation of any needed distribution of funds to the families and/or to promote the tremendous interest and knowledge that Ajmal had about his country, his people and in Afghan journalism.

Perhaps there in a need and someplace appropriate to start a permanent fund dedicated to Ajmal’s memory that would encourage and support free journalism/photojournalism and cultural photography in Afghanistan. Something to help keep the doors for the freedom of press and arts open so that what Ajmal greatly contributed his life for the good citizens of Afghanistan to have and to keep, remains open for future generations to also nurture and protect. Perhaps the same embassies we wrote to save Ajmal, would help in this area as a means of celebrating and acknowledging their incredible culture, good peoples and country to a world that would respect and appreciate them.

This Memorial Day, I pay respect to my family lost, both the soldiers and the humanitarians that helped to keep my country and others safe and free. But also, I pay respect to the memory of Ajmal & Sayed and other international journalists that were murdered, killed in wartime or conflict, or are still missing in their efforts to make and keep Ajmal’s homeland a free democracy where the media is not threatened in the very process of merely doing their job.

And lastly, I hope that someday understanding can be reached through knowledge and that at least we can say the cause of death is no longer the result of murder, profit or war.

But I say particular thanks to those — including many LS members and other journalists — who also work to keep the world free by capturing images and telling stories of the good and the bad, as well as the lives of people in general, around the world. The free flow of essential information is critical to freedom everywhere.

EMERGENCY posted this AJMAL/HANEFI PETITION via the internet before Ajmal was murdered. 151,855 people from around the world signed.

Free, at last

taken from peacereporter written by Cecilia Strada

Afghanistan – Kabul – 19.6.2007