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An Open Letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

Akhtar Jan Mengal

By Akhtar Jan Mengal

His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General
United Nations

Subject: Urgent Action: Pakistan, Balochistan; Crimes Against Humanity

Dear Secretary-General,

First of all I would like to thank and congratulate you for your tireless and sincere efforts for addressing pressing human rights and humanitarian challenges globally. I on behalf of people of Balochistan, a Texas-sized region straddling Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, would like to bring in to your kind attention the crimes against humanity committed by the Pakistani authorities, and encourage your good office and human rights mechanisms to publicly address pressing human rights crisis in the region.

Although there is a so-called democratic government in Pakistan but under current dispensation cases of politically motivated detention, killings and disappearance of Baloch people has increased manifold.

With the government refusing to end the practice of enforced disappearances, currently, more than 2,000 people are "missing" and arbitrarily detained in illegally established military and paramilitary cantonments in all around Balochistan, where they are subjected to torture (including electric shocks and whippings with electrical wire) to death. Detainees and victims of enforced disappearances include Baloch nationalists, students, journalists, researchers, and social workers.

Pakistan's gross human right abuses against Baloch people have been well documented by the established international organizations. Amnesty International in its October 25, 2010 report has urged the Pakistani government to must investigate the torture and killings of more than 40 Baloch leaders and political activists, killed over the past four months. Report says that "the Pakistani government must act immediately to provide justice for the growing list of atrocities in Balochistan." Furthermore, the AI statement says that the "Baloch political leaders and activists are clearly being targeted and the government must do much more to end this alarming trend."

Excellency, in last two years the human rights violations are taken a very dangerous and serious twist. The government backed "serial killers" are openly targeting moderate Baloch leaders and security agencies are disappearing, torturing and throwing mutilated bodies of political activists on the streets.

The recent killings include the cold-blooded murder of Balochistan National Party leaders and former Senator Mr. Habib Jalib Baloch in July 2010, Haji Liqat Mengal in July 2010, Chief Attahullah Baloch in August 2010, Mir. Noordin Mengal in October 2010, killing of National Party's senior leader Maula Bakhsh Dashti in July 2010, BNP Karachi president Zahid Baloch in 2008, brutal daylight abductions and killing of three senior Baloch leaders in April 2009, RasoolBux Mengal in August 2009 and assassination attempt on prominent Baloch intellectual Jan Mohammad Dashti in February 2009 are a fraction of systematic and slow-motion "ethnocide" in Balochistan.

Excellency, Pakistan made a significant number of human rights pledges in its successful campaign to join to the UN Human Rights Council, but few have been implemented. There are some core instruments that Pakistan has not even signed, while others have been signed but not ratified, this includes International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 2006.

Furthermore, the Pakistani government continues to use draconian powers to suppress basic human rights of ethnic and religious minorities and provide authorities with effective immunity from prosecution.

Despite being party to, and claiming to implement principal human rights treaties, the Pakistani government violates all of them and has consistently failed to comply with international standards in the administration of justice.

United Nations and international community cannot be silent in situations where the violation of human rights is systemic, grave, and widespread, and where States dismiss issues of human rights and refuse to engage in meaningful dialogue. In appalling situations the international community has no choice but to express its views and voice its concern. Hence, I write concerning the gross human rights situation in Balochistan, Pakistan We urge you to forcefully raise and address following human rights issues:

*Seek explanations from government of Pakistan regarding unabated cases of enforced disappearances, targeted killings by the "death squads", extra-judicial killings, torture, military operation and systematic discrimination against Baloch people.

*Urge the government to welcome all UN special rapporteurs who wish to visit Balochistan to monitor and document gross human rights violations.

*Press the government to end the practice of enforced disappearances, political assassinations, and torture and permanently close notorious detention centers where political activists are detained and abused.

*Ask that the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN special rapporteurs be invited to visit Pakistan and particularly Balochistan province.

*Invoke UN mechanisms to address Baloch people longstanding demand for national right of self-determination

Excellency, history has shown us that indifference and silence never resolved anything. On the contrary, scrutinizing and speaking out against systematic abusers of human rights can make an unmistakable and lasting difference.

We welcome any mediation and political initiative by the United Nations to resolve the Baloch question according to the UN charters and mandate and promotion of human rights in the region. With profound thanks,

Sincerely,

Mohammad Akhtar Mengal

President, Balochistan National Party

***

Additional reading:

List of missing (pdf)

Introduction to the region and human right violations (pdf)

Pakistan: The Forgotten Conflict in Balochistan (link/pdf)

***

Full text of Oct 26, 2010 Amnesty International statement: Pakistan urged to investigate murder and torture of Baloch activists

Amnesty International

The Pakistani government must investigate the torture and killings of more than 40 Baloch leaders and political activists over the past four months, Amnesty International said today.

Activists, politicians and student leaders are among those who have been targeted in enforced disappearances, abductions, arbitrary arrests and cases of torture and other ill-treatment.

The violence takes place against a backdrop of increasing political unrest and Pakistan army operations in Balochistan, south western Pakistan.

"The Pakistani government must act immediately to provide justice for the growing list of atrocities in Balochistan," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director.

"Baloch political leaders and activists are clearly being targeted and the government must do much more to end this alarming trend."

Among the latest victims of the ongoing violence are Faqir Mohammad Baloch and Zahoor Baloch, whose bodies were discovered in the district of Mastung on 21 October 2010. Faqir Mohammad Baloch, a poet and member of the Voice of Missing Baloch Missing Persons, was abducted on 23 September.

Zahoor Baloch, a member of the Baloch Student Organization-Azad was abducted on 23 August. According to media reports, both received a single bullet wound to the head at point blank range and showed signs of being tortured.

The discovery of the two men's bodies is part of a growing trend of "kill and dump" operations. Bullet-ridden bodies of those who have been abducted, many showing signs of torture, are increasingly being found across Balochistan. Previously, the bodies of missing persons were rarely recovered.

Other recent victims of the violence include Mir Nooruddin Mengal, a member of the Balochistan National Party's (BNP-M) Central Executive Committee was shot dead by unidentified men near his home in Gharebabad, near Kalat Bazar on 13 October.

Yasin Baloch, a member of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons and brother of Mujeeb Baloch, senior member of BSO-Azad, who had also been abducted, was shot by unidentified gunmen near Roshare Kalat on 10 October.

The victims' relatives and activists often accuse the Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies of carrying out these violations. A previously unknown organization, Sipah-e Shuhada-e Balochistan, has also claimed responsibility for some of the killings.

"The Pakistan government's ongoing failure to prevent abuses has emboldened the perpetrators behind these atrocities," said Sam Zarifi.

"The Pakistani government must show that it can and will investigate the Pakistani military and Frontier Corps, as well as intelligence agencies, who are widely accused of playing a role in these incidents."

Amnesty International warned that the rise in enforced disappearances and kill and dump incidents has aggravated political tensions in Baluchistan and led to reprisal killings by Baloch armed groups.

On 14 August 2010, 17 people from Punjab province were killed in Quetta. The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility, saying that the killings were in response to the killings of Baloch missing persons.

Amnesty International urges all sides in the conflict to respect human rights and stop all torture, enforced disappearances, abductions, targeted killings and indiscriminate attacks.

In November 2009, the Pakistani government announced a package of proposed policy and legislation reforms for Balochistan, and promised to resolve the cases of enforced disappearances, but it has so far failed to do so.

Other prominent killings of Baloch activists since July include:

* On 11 July, Maula Baksh Dashti, a key figure in the Balochistan National Party and a former district Nazim (Chief Official) of Kech (Turbat) District was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in his native district.

* On 14 July, former Senator Habib Jalib Baloch, Secretary General of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) was assassinated in the Parkaniabad area of Quetta, by three gunmen on a motorbike. He received seven bullets in the neck and chest and had been receiving threats.

* On 20 July, a leading member of the BNP-M, Liaqat Mengal, was shot dead on by three gunmen on a motorbike near his house in the Kalat district of Balochistan.

* On 26 July, the bullet riddled bodies of two cousins, student Ashfaq Ahmed Mullahzai and Muhmmad Farooq Mengal, were recovered in Quetta, in the Kili Qambrani area. Their relatives claim they had been abducted in May 2010.

* On 6 September, the body of Baloch lawyer Zaman Marri was found in Mastung. He had received a single bullet to his forehead and his body showed torture marks. The lawyer was reportedly abducted by intelligence agents near his place of work in Quetta on 18 August.

* On 23 September, the bullet riddled body of missing Baloch lawyer Ali Sher Kurd was found in Khuzdar district. Kurd was reportedly abducted by Pakistani intelligent agents three days before. His neck was broken and he showed marks of torture.

Balochistan has a history of insurgency with local groups advocating greater autonomy. Four waves of violent unrest took place in 1948, 1958-59, 1962-63 and 1973-77.

Local people in Balochistan are demanding a bigger share of the revenue generated by the province's natural resources, principally natural gas, which they believe now disproportionately benefit other provinces.

Some Baloch groups have resorted to violence, while others are campaigning peacefully. The Pakistani national government has attempted to suppress this opposition by increasing the military presence in the region.

Many people have died at the hands of the security forces in extrajudicial executions and deaths in custody, and thousands of people are reported to have been subjected to enforced disappearance. The confrontation between Baloch nationalists and the state is characterised by human rights abuses committed by all sides.

Read More:

Pakistani activist abducted, risks torture: Shams-ul-din Baloch (Urgent Action, 13 August 2010)

Pakistan: 'As if Hell fell on me': The human rights crisis in northwest Pakistan (Report, 10 June 2010)


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