Original article at WND | August 4, 2000 | Full Story

Chagai, Balochistan, area of Pakistan atomic test in May 1998

KARACHI, Pakistan "” At least one person is dying every day due to a severe drought in one of the remotest regions in south Asia "” the area where Pakistan conducted its atomic test in May 1998 "” raising concerns about the safety of the nuclear experiment.

Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province and some areas in neighboring Sindh province have been ravaged by one of the worst droughts in half a century, while Afghanistan and vast tracts of lands in India are similarly affected.

One of the worst death fields is the drought victims' camp at a place called Siahkoh, or Black Mountain, situated in Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

Because of the super-sensitive defense-oriented nature of the area, volunteer organizations are being shooed away by the authorities, WorldNetDaily has learned.

"Most of the deaths are young children, as there is no milk for them. One or two are dying every day," said Majeed Zaheer Badini, a young local activist from a town called Noshki, 10 kilometers from the camp. According to locals in Balochistan, the drought has forced the native nomadic shepherds into subhuman existence, "which may as well be the worst nightmare of any economic refugee in a foreign land."

According to aid workers, at least 80 percent of the 27 million livestock in Balochistan have perished, although the government says not more than 10 percent have died. The human toll may be over one thousand, but the government counts only 16 deaths.

"You come and see; there is a graveyard full of people, mostly children who have perished in the drought," said Badini. "The authorities deny this, but admit they keep a record of only those who die in the refugee camps."

More than two-thirds of Balochistan's eight million people are nomadic shepherds and depend on animal husbandry and livestock.

Pakistan chose the Chagai area in Balochistan for conducting at least five underground nuclear tests in May 1998 as a response to India having done the same in the Pokhran deserts in Rajashtan two weeks earlier.

The two countries' nuclear blasts invited international condemnation, but both New Delhi and Islamabad insist that their tests were totally "safe." Intriguingly, the worst drought has come in the regions in both countries close to the sites of the atomic blasts.

"The drought in Balochistan has resulted in an acute water shortage, and some weeks back, when the tribesmen encamped at Siahkoh protested, they were beaten up by the local law-enforcement agencies' personnel," said Badini. According to Badini, other than 20 kg of wheat flour per family, the government has done precious little, while most of the relief goods have been given to area notables and members of the extended family of the governor of Balochistan, Amirul Mengal.

"One day before the arrival of (Pakistan junta chief) Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the authorities did distribute some goods, but after that, the people have been left to the mercy of donor agencies," said Badini. The nomadic shepherd tribes most affected are called Mengal, Badini, Mamasani, Jamaldini, Rakhsanis and Chanaal.

The relief commissioner in the Balochistan capital, Quetta, denies any pilferage, saying that each and every relief item being distributed is army-monitored.

"The number of livestock perished has been blown out [of] proportions. Had there been so many deaths, it would have become a [huge] business as the bones etc. are used for chicken feed," said Balochistan relief commissioner Rashid Javed from Quetta.

But relief workers like Badini and also former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal say the authorities have gobbled up at least 2 billion rupees ($38 million) donated by the government, foreign countries and donors.

The former chief minister insists the present drought has a nexus to the nuclear blasts of May 1998.

"Even in the world's top industrialized countries, any atomic blast is never entirely safe. How can these blasts be safe in Pakistan or India?" Mengal asked when contacted by WND. Mengal's government in Balochistan was ousted after he protested against the nuclear blast in his home province.

"Just like Balochistan gained fame internationally for being the "˜atomic test land' of Pakistan, in the same way it deserves to be famed for the drought and famine, hunger and poverty, remoteness and deprivation, joblessness and illiteracy of its natives," said a local columnist, Manzoor Baloch. "The camps meant for drought victims in Balochistan are a big slap on the face of the rulers, who pride themselves on being an atomic power."

Nearly 99 percent of the most affected drought victims are nomadic shepherds who do not have any official identity cards and have little dealings with the authorities. Since there is no provision for mobile identity-card issuance teams, a majority of the shepherds have not obtained any official papers.

"To absolve themselves of their humanitarian duty, at first the authorities said they were Afghan immigrants as they have no identity papers. But "¦ is the person who does not carry identity papers not a national of this country?" asks Baloch. He claims that without palm-greasing, even in Balochistan towns, no one can get his identity card. The situation is worse in the no-man nomadic territories.

The drought-affected people, nearly 1,500 families, were first housed in a volunteers' camp called Kissankuri near Noshki, but were later shifted to Siahkoh, over 10 kilometers from the town, "three kilometers from the road and four kilometers from the water wells."

If water is life, then there is no life at Siahkoh. According to Baloch, when the people protested in the form of a long march, they were beaten up and eight of them arrested.

"The governor of Balochistan was fed the wrong information that the people who had protested wanted Pepsi-Cola. There had never been any protest in Washington, London or Moscow for Pepsi-Cola. The nomads have never heard the name Pepsi; how can they demand any? What a shame the governor believed the information fed to him by the officials," said Baloch.

Besides a dearth of water, other factors contribute to making life at the Siahkoh camp no bed of roses. Male nomads who take their leftover flocks to the pastures and whose womenfolk go out to collect wood for fire return to find their tents uprooted by the officials. The tents have mostly been provided by either U.S. Agency for International Development or Edhi, the largest human service organization in Pakistan.

Haji Dost Mohammed, an inmate of the Siahkoh refugee camp says the pastoral families are not allowed to take their tents with them.

"The government officials snatch from us the tents if we move out to graze our sheep and goats," says Mohammed.

His charge seems well-founded.

"There were 1,480 families in the Siahkoh camp, but now there are 1,160 left because of the atrocious official behavior," said Badini.

Local doctors at the Siahkoh camp say chicken pox, nutritional deficiencies, diarrhea, chest infection and pneumonia are the most common afflictions of the Siahkoh camp inmates, while conceding that essential medicines like oral re-hydration salts, iron syrup and vitamin B-complex are in short supply.