This article is from page 8 of the 2006-01-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
FORMER Taliban member and Corofin asylum seeker, Dawi Roshaun, has been given 15 days to lodge a final appeal with the Department of Justice or he will be deported to Afghanistan, where he claims he faces execution.
Mr Roshaun was among a group of 15 asylum seekers evicted from the Corofin Hostel with just a days notice last September and has been living in Dundalk and Mosney ever since.
In November, his second appeal for refugee status was denied when a representative from the Department of Justice claimed that he was too young to have joined the Taliban in 1997.
“They say that I was too young to be in the Taliban at 18, but they were not there. There were boys of 16 years, or younger. If there was any kind of justice in Afghanistan I would go back there in a minute, but there is none.”
Dawi claims to have joined the Taliban in order to protect his family after the group invaded his home town of Kohistan in 1997.
Following the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 it became dangerous for many former Taliban members to live in Afghanistan.
He fled Iran in fear of his life and then on to Ireland where he has been living since 2002.
Mr Roshaun claims to have received personal death threats from a member of the Afghan parliament as-well-as drug dealers in his native town.
“In 1997 I was in charge of an arsenal depot in north of Kabul when two weapons dealers from the Northern Alliance were captured by the Taliban in Kohistan and sent to the Kandahar prison.
“One of them was executed and the other bought his freedom,” said Mr Roshaun.
“Their family believe that I informed on them to the Taliban which is not true. Now the brother of the executed man is a member of parliament and the other man’s brother is a drug dealer and also the Defence Minister in the province of Kapisa.”
In Dundalk, Dawi joined a creative writing group and has a number of works due for publication later this year.
Members of the group have made a number of representations on his behalf including contacting his relatives and members of the Afghan parliament in an effort to prove the danger to his life should he return home.
Dawi has a meeting with the Department of Justice later this month which is his last chance to prevent his deportation to Afghanistan.