From before: Dan Rather and Willem Marx documentary on crisis in Balochistan. Interviews with the BLA freedom fighters, Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch, Benazir Bhutto and others
Reposted from WillemMarx.com | April 2010 | Video | Video
Photo: Dan Rather interview Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch; click to watch video
Transcript of Dan Rather interview with Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch (interviews conducting during Musharraf presidency)
Ken Roth: Let me just say that the situation in Balochistan is severe. There have been hundreds of opposition figures who've been detained. There have been scores who have just disappeared, making them extremely vulnerable to torture or worse.
Dan Rather: Ken Roth heads Human Rights Watch and he's deeply troubled by what's taking place in a region that most Americans have never heard mentioned. Is the conflict in Balochistan something that we need to be more concerned about?
Ken Roth: I think the United States should be deeply concerned about what's happening in Balochistan. First, because the U.S. taxpayer is, in essence, underwriting the repression that is taking place in Balochistan.
Dan Rather: Do you consider that to be a fact?
Ken Roth: Well there's no question that the United States is sending huge amounts of resources to the Pakistani military. And there's no question that the Pakistani military is engaged in a very ugly counterinsurgency campaign in Balochistan. So in that sense, I think it's beyond dispute that the U.S. taxpayer, at least via the U.S. government, is complicit in what is going on in Balochistan.
I think it is in the U.S. national interest to have an effective democratic government running things in Islamabad. Unfortunately, they have a man who at least says the right things to Washington, but acts quite differently. He is snuffing out democracy rather than encouraging it. He is responding to things in Balochistan where there are legitimate concerns about access to the economic rewards from natural resources that are located in that province. There is concern about the Baloch population being diluted by immigrants from other parts of Pakistan, and he's responding to that insurgency by arresting people who may have nothing to with it. They may be a student activist, they may be a journalist, they may be a member of an opposition political party, but arresting hundreds of people with a significant number of them--disappearing them or torturing them. That is a recipe for things getting worse, not better.
