Washington, DC, USA | April 30, 2011

The following speech was presented by Wendy Baloch to the Balochistan International Conference held on April 30, 2011, at the Carnegie Center for International Peace in Washington DC. The event was organized by Baloch Society of North America.

Speaking for the voiceless, I am here to speak for a people who have lost their voice. A people, a nation that is being systematically annihilated as its heritage, language, and culture are being taken away, no longer allowed to practice its language, or teach its culture due to the suppression of others. The Baloch people are being silenced through senseless murders, lack of education, and segregation of its people.

Extinct is a word used when speaking of a species that no longer exists. We spend billions of dollars a year to prevent the extinction of animals; I ask, Why not people, are they any less important? If we do not speak for Balochistan and the Baloch people, Extinction is a term that will be used for their culture, language, and faces, gone forever, as their land is taken for its natural resources. It will be a country existing only in memory.

The voiceless families are afraid to speak, because to say anything is a death sentence. Women saying good-bye, without knowing if their husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers will return or be found shot and beaten in the streets. They do not know if the knock at the door is a summons to death in the gallows.

I have heard it said that "The pen is mightier than the sword." To which I reply: Pick it up. Write the powers that be, and say "I will be a voice to speak for this voiceless nation of Balochistan and because they cannot, I will be asking for help for them. By this, they are no longer voiceless, because I will have volunteered your voice to speak for them. I heard it said that until Balochistan's problem becomes worse, that it does not matter, but I say that if this voiceless nation's situation becomes any graver there will be no nation to save.

Here in the Americas, we are taught that words cannot hurt us, everyone may have an opinion, and religion is a choice. To the Baloch people, I can show you, opinions are deadly, there is no choice in religion, and words indeed can hurt, and in most cases, kill. If their problems are continually ignored, turned a blind eye to, and unspoken for, they will not only be voiceless, their heritage, culture, language and an entire nation of people will become extinct, an already voiceless nation, silenced, lost in the pages of history forever.