Her Excellency Hillary Clinton
Through:
Subject: Appeal for US Intervention in Balochistan
Dear Madam,
We would like to draw your kind attention towards the gruesome violations of human rights by the Pakistani security agencies in Balochistan in recent months. Before highlighting the recent violations of human rights by the Pakistani state security agencies, it is imperative to briefly the mention the Baloch Pakistan Conflict in a historical perspective.
In the wake of the British withdrawal from India 11th August 1947 , three days before the independence of Pakistan India 27th March 1948 . The Baloch as a national entity has been resisting the Pakistani rule on Balochistan through peace and democratic means however, the Pakistani response the Baloch demand for national sovereignty has been ruthless and violent.
The primary aspect of the conflict between the Baloch and Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan
The second aspect of Baloch-Pakistan conflict is the irrational and politically perverse doctrine of ‘Islamic brother-hood’. The concepts of Islamic brother-hood, and Pakistani Islamic Nation doctrine adopted by the state were used as tools for subjugating the Baloch and other nationalities and for undermining their cultural, linguistic and social traditions. Organized attempts are being made by state establishment to bring religion into a prominent position in a secular Baloch society. In this regard, large numbers of religious schools are being patronized by the state in every corner of Balochistan to convert the 'ignorant Baloch' and save them from ‘eternal damnation’.
Cultural exploitation of the Baloch is another characteristic of the Baloch and the state conflict. Alien cultural traditions and language are being imposed at the expense of traditional Baloch social values, the Baloch socio-cultural and political systems are being destroyed or corrupted in a systematic and organized way.
Crude military power has been the only way adopted by almost every Pakistani Government in dealing with the Baloch discontent. The Pakistani army, perceiving the Baloch nationalism as a grave threat to the state, launched major military offensives in Balochistan during 1948, 1958, 1962, and 1973. The ongoing military campaign is the bloodiest one causing internal dislocation of thousands of the Baloch.
Violation of basic human rights of the Baloch is the most painful aspect of the Baloch-Pakistan conflict. Extra judicial killings, harassment, kidnapping and inhuman torture of the Baloch leaders; political activists and intellectuals are the normal state responses to the Baloch political mobilization and expression of Baloch national aspirations.
A ruthless war has been going on in the Pakistani controlled Balochistan for the last five years in which thousands of innocent men, women and children have been mercilessly killed, hundreds of thousands have been displaced and thousands are missing. Whereabouts of thousands of the Baloch civilians are still unknown. Pakistani govt. officials have accepted of more then 1000 missing person themselves last year and we genuinely believe that their lives are in grave danger. Abductions of students, doctors, teachers, journalists and human rights activists is going on daily basis in Balochistan. The Chief Minister of Balochistan, the Governor of Balochistan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the President of Pakistan have admitted the worsening human rights situation in Balochistan and have shown their helplessness against Pakistani army and its notorious Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) agencies. In addition of this, the Pakistani military establishment has created numerous religious terrorist organizations as proxy “Hit Squads” and with the help of these organizations consisting of drug peddlers, dacoits and social outcasts. These are working with different nomenclatures and are given the task of physically eliminating the Baloch intellectuals, political and human rights activists.
The graphic details of human rights violation in Balochistan have been published by different non-governmental organizations and international humanitarian’s institutions.
The human rights violations of the Baloch by the Pakistani State Establishment are characterized by humiliation of the Baloch leadership; displacement of thousands of the Baloch; extra-judicial killings and kidnappings of the Baloch activists.
· In 2001, the respected Baloch nationalist personality and chief of the Marri Tribe Nawab Khair Bux Marri was insulted, arrested and kept in solitary confinement for more than a year.
· In 2006, the house of Nawab Akber Bugti a prominent nationalist leader and president of Jamhoori Watan Pary was bombarded by the armed forces, killing and injuring more than 70 people including women and children.
· President of the Balochistan National Party Sardar Akhtar Mengal was abducted in 2006, tortured and in a small cage. He was kept in solitary confinement for more than a year.
· In 2007, rockets were fired by the security forces on the house of Sardar Attaullah Mengal, the towering personality of the Baloch national resistance and a former Chief Minister of Balochistan.
· In February, 2009, an assassination attempt was made on the life of Mir Jan Mohammad Dashti, the Baloch intellectual and scholar, seriously wounding him. His publication house was latter occupied by the security agencies and his newspaper Asaap was forcefully closed.
Hundreds of the Baloch settlement and nomadic villages had been bombarded and burnt forcing thousands of inhabitants to flee their areas and becoming internally displaced. Two hundred thousand Baloch have been forcefully dislocated by the armed forces and are living in miserable conditions.
Security agencies created Para-military organizations with different nomenclature are targeting Baloch nationalist activists, social leaders, businessmen, students and teachers to frustrate the voice of the Baloch and undermine the support for national resistance. A large number of prominent Baloch social, intellectual and political figures have been targeted and eliminated by these hit squads.
Ø The brutal murder of one of the towering figures of the Baloch national movement, Nawab Akber Bugti in 2006 and the murder of revered resistance fighter Nawabzada Mir Balaach Marri in 2007 are the most important happenings of the present conflict.
Ø Leaders of Baloch National Movement and Baloch Republican Party Ghulam Mohammed Baloch Lala Munir Baloch Sher Mohammed Baloch were killed in Turbat after arresting them from their lawyer’s office in April, 2009. In the same way Pakistani secret agencies abducted, the joint secretary of Baloch Nation Movement Rasool Bux Mengal, on 23 August 2009 .
Ø Habib Jalib, the General Secretary of the Balochistan National Party and another prominent leader of the party Haji Liaguat Ali Mengal were assassinated by the death squads of the Pakistani army in July 2010.
Ø Vice President of Balochistan National party, Mr. Noordin Mengal was killed by the security agencies in Kalat in August 2010.
Ø Lala Hameed a journalist from Gwadur was killed by security agencies along with one of his friend Hasil Baloch in October, 2010.
Ø The house of Balochistan National Party leader Ayub Gichki, one of the uncles of the Party president Sardar Akhtar Mengal was bombarded by the army and his two sons and three of other family friends were killed on 1st Decembr 2010.
Ø Mr Zaman Khan Marri and renowned Baloch Lawyer, columnist and poet, Mr Ali Sher Kurd were abducted during August and September. Their bodies were later found.
Ø Dr. Khalid a human right activist and his friend were murdered by the security forces in 2007.
Hundreds of political and social workers and civil rights activists are under detention without trials. Thousands of the Baloch political and social activists have been picked up by the security agencies since 2001 and their whereabouts are not known. It is a routine practice by the security forces to abduct political workers, human right activists and student leaders. They are usually held for many months tortured and later dumped in a remote area. Over the past 8 years, more than a thousand Baloch activists have been killed by the security forces in Balochistan. Among the disappeared there are one hundred and forty three Baloch women and 168 children are missing and believed to be abducted by the security forces.
There has been a steady rise in the number of abductions of the Baloch by Pakistani secret agencies for the last many months. The miseries of the abducted persons known popularly as missing have been highlighted by various international humanitarian organizations. The Asian Human Rights Commission, in their report on 5 March 2010 , has confirmed this number. Baloch sources’ estimate of the number of extra judicial abductions and missing Baloch people by Pakistani secret agencies is about 8000 persons.
From August 2010 the Pakistani intelligence agencies have killed 110 Baloch political and social activists and then dumped their bodies on open fields. The role of Pakistani army in the killings and abduction of 40 Baloch activists has been highlighted by the Amnesty International in its report on 25 October 2010 on Balochistan. From the of publication of this report the Pakistani state and its security agencies have accelerated their policy of enforced disappearances, abduction, arbitrary arrests, torture, killing and dumping operations in Balochistan with an alarming pace.
The recovered bodies of all victims, without exception, bear signs of extreme torture and they all have been killed and dumped in open air in the same way in different parts of Balochistan. They all bear the hallmark of professional torturers. The policy of killing and dumping is premeditated, organized and systematic.
The conditions in Iran Tehran
In the face of heinous crimes being committed by the Pakistani security forces in Balochistan and the unchecked violations of the basic human rights of the Baloch, the silence of the international community is incomprehensible. The international community is watching silently, while a whole nation is systematically being wiped out by the Pakistani state through cultural, economic, political and military aggression. This is high time for the international community to rise and act before it is too late for the Baloch.
Excellency,
The Baloch are living a life at the gunpoint in the shadows of inhuman atrocities by the most atrocious state establishment in the contemporary world. Their very survival as a nation is threatened by the distortion of their history, occupation of their land and systematic efforts and designs aimed at submerging them in an artificial Pakistani-Islamic culture. To strangulate the Baloch national aspiration once and for all, the Pakistani army is waging a war with no regards for humanitarian laws. The war against the Baloch is being waged without witnesses. They are refusing access to foreign observers, journalists and humanitarian organizations.
The situation for the Baloch is alarming. We believe that we are justified in asking for the immediate intervention of United States
We strongly request you to press the Pakistani army establishment to stop all atrocities against the Baloch political, social and human rights activists and civilians.
We will be grateful if the Government of United States could press for the establishment of an international commission to investigate the heinous crimes against humanity committed by the Pakistani State
Yours Faithfully
Samad Baloch
Secretary General
Baloch Human Rights Council (UK
long due requirement of this kind of action but this is not too late. We support your action BHRC
ReplyDelete