|
Report from Washington
On Monday, March 7, 2005, the largest briefing room in the Long worth Congress building (Room 1539) was fully packed by those interested to know more about the sorrows of Balochistan. Among attendees were congress researchers, journalists, Baloch, Sindhis and other Pakistanis and citizens of other countries. The World Sindhi Institute (WSI) organized this information session/briefing.
Mr. Munawar Laghari himself a Baloch, Executive Director of WSI welcomed the participants and reiterated that WSI is dedicated to fighting for the rights of Sindhis within the existing boundaries of Pakistan. He asked the US Government that any financial or military support to the present regime be made conditional on the full respect of human rights for Pakistani citizens.
Mr. Selig Harrison, who was also moderator of the session, referred to several documents contained in his book "In Afghanistan’s Shadow: Baloch National and Soviet Temptations" that he wrote some years ago. He said that it would appear that what is happening today in Balochistan has similarities with what happened 30 years ago in 1973-197.
That insurgency involved 80,000 Pakistani military troops and 56,000 Baloch tribesmen. The tribesmen cut railway lines and blew gas pipelines. The military used helicopter gun ships and several air strikes to crush the uprising. He added that it is ironic that Iran supplied the helicopters used in those battles but now Pakistan was accusing Iran of supporting the present insurgency.
He detailed the account of the how final Marri tribe stands at "Chamaling" hills. The men from the "Marri" tribe stayed in hills and sent their children and women to their villages in planes. As the fight reached statement, on September 3, 1974, Pakistan military began their air strikes. The one-sided fight continued for seven days. Thousands of Marri tribesmen, women, and children were killed. As an economic punishment, 50,000 sheep and 15,000 camels owned by the Marri tribe were confiscated and auctioned in Punjab.
Returning to the present crisis in Balochistan, he added that it is little bit difficult to assess, as the Pakistani government has not acknowledged whether or not they are engaged in an insurgency. Some say that there are 10,000 military troops and about 4000 Baloch tribesmen involved in the present confrontation. He went on to say that Baloch has genuine complaints in that they are not getting their due share from the natural resources, particularly gas. The province does not receive fair share of royalties on these natural resources.
Hasan Mujtaba, who is an award-winning Sindhi journalist, now in exile, living in the USA, is a recipient of prestigious awards from Human Rights Watch and John Hopkins University. He compared the 1999 high drama when Pakistan’s intelligence service (ISI) spread stories that there was a Baloch insurgency and that Asif Zardari was supporting that insurgency to divert attention of people from observing the preparation for nuclear test.
He added that unlike other groups, Sindhis and Baloch do not support spread of nuclear and other devices of mass destruction. This time he feels that the governments to divert people’s attention from their ambitious plan to convert Baloch into a minority in their province.
He quickly added that General Musharraf is partly correct when he says that they made to build modern and beautiful Balochistan - what he actually means is a series of modern and beautiful military cantonments and non-Balochi dominated towns.
He said that whenever free democratic elections are held, Baloch nationalists win big. The popularity of Baloch nationalists is based on the fact that the people of Balochistan in general and of Qalat in particular did not want to join Pakistan. They were forced to become part of Pakistan by a military action.
Reciting reports from the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Balochistan, he presented a picture of arrests, imprisonment, and torture of Baloch people at the present time.
Malek M. Towghi, a Baloch academician and expert on issues related to South Asia and interplay of secularism and Islamic ideologies in Muslim world, used maps to take the audience through the history of Balochistan from Ashoka, Gupta, British to present times.
He explained that Balochistan has largely independent or semi-independent throughout the history. Even when the Persian or British empires considered Balochistan to be part of their empires, other than collecting token revenue and handling defense and foreign affairs, they let Baloch people free to lead their lives and control their resources.
The influence of British over Balochistan mainly came via various treaties that they had signed with Khan of Qalat and other leading tribes. He quoted several incidents of inter-state protocols to demonstrate that British recognized Balochistan as not being a part of British India.
He added that unlike some other provinces of Pakistan, both the people and their leaders (Khan of Qalat) had opted to be an independent state. He said that Mr. Jinnah was engaged as the legal representative to protect the interests of Balochistan in the "independence and partition" discussions.
Mr. Jinnah was paid very handsomely for his services, once with a heap of gold that was equivalent to his weight. He added that unfortunately, Mr. Jinnah did not represent Baloch well in those negotiations. This coupled with the fact Pakistani military action against the decision of the both the people and their leaders resulted in the denying them their right of self-determination to chart out their future.
He detailed ten (10) reasons as to why Balochistan should be an independent state. He challenged US authorities to support the just demands of Baloch, Sindhis, Pakhtons, Kurds, and Barbers. He added that, this time US will be on the right side of the history for with or without their support Baloch will regain their sovereignty.
In an answer to a question whether Baloch will accept the political solution whereby the Pakistani constitution was changed to reflect the main tenants of 1940 Lahore Resolution. He answered that although in his opinion the Pakistani rulers including military have no appreciation or understanding about true modus operandi of a federated state, nevertheless, much of Balochi leadership have indicated that they will accept a solution on such lines.
Miriam Young, formerly associated with the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace, said that she was not an expert on Balochistan. He focus is more on fighting for changes to the US policies to protect human rights in all countries including those that allies of the USA.
She said she was surprised how little is known about Balochistan, which is the largest province of Pakistan. She added that a great deal of natural resources of Balochistan is utilized in Pakistan. For example 48% of gas needs are met by the gas production from the Sui fields, and yet only 6% people in Balochistan has gas connections.
Many of these natural resources are controlled by world’s largest oil and gas companies and they can be pressured to help local people. Commenting on the present situation in Balochistan, Ms. Young said that the present situation appear to reflect creation of intentional conflict in order that the government can secure more control of the area.
This may be in part to provide security for creating new housing schemes for a large number of military and civilian personnel. This is being done without securing any consent from local Baloch and under the present set-up the local people have no say in the decisions that affect them. She added that a big part of the problem is the lack of attention to education. She urged the US government to provide a great deal of support and attention to education in Pakistan.
This will then also help to increase respect for human rights. She added that US should support education and social programs not only when Pakistan when it needs Pakistan but during other times also. While providing financial aid, the US government should also put pressure on the Pakistan authorities to treat people of Balochistan with fairness and justice.
She also emphasized that US should pressure on government for a serious judicial reform. Under the present system, a common person seldom receives justice. She urged the US government to ensure that all the central government that it receives from other countries and US is fairly and equitably distributed among all provinces.
In concluding her presentation, Ms Young reminded the Pakistani government that the feeling of helplessness among local people would only increase their desire for independence more and more.
Mr. Zahid Makhdoom, was arrested and imprisonment for ten months and now serves as a judge in British Columbia province of Canada. He started his presentation that there are a lot of misunderstanding about the social and internal governing system of Baloch tribes and relationship between tribesmen and their leaders.
It is in fact, Baloch society is highly developed and it contains a strong social net for elderly and those who can not earn living themselves. He quoted an interesting incident in which a Baloch tribal leader said to Bhutto that until the authorities are able to offer a good social system that recognizes dignity of Balochi people, the Baloch people will not want to change the present system.
He stressed that the root cause for the non-respect of human rights of women and minorities is because of the lack of "rule of law" in Pakistan. The rules that require four male witnesses to a case of rape are a prime example of inadequacies of Pakistan’s legal system. The "law of necessity" has been misused so many times to justify illegal rulers that no one has any confidence or trust in the judicial system.
Every dictatorial government comes to power by violating laws and then issues regulations and rules with such a frequency, that many Pakistanis think that constitution has become meaningless. He said that US & UK and other democratic countries have an obligation not to allow Pakistan and its ruler General Musharraf to be "bad". It must insist that the present government must play by the rule of law.
http://sindhweb.blogspot.com/2005/03/sorrows-of-balochistan-echo-in.html |
