In the UN Commission on Human Rights 58th Session March 18 - April 26, 2002 speech by: Mehran Baluch Item 11: Civil and Political Rights Intervention Mr. Chairman, If there is an example of the grossest violation of human rights committed by a state through design and stratagem, it will be found in Balochistan, the southern province of Pakistan. The Baloch land, whose independence had been recognised even by the British rulers of India, was forcibly and illegally occupied and annexed by the ruling elite of the Punjabis in Pakistan through guile, repression and the unleashing of brute force. Mr. Chairman, Pakistan was created in 1947 on the basis of the theory that the Muslims of the subcontinent are a separate nation and the new country would be their homeland. But the Punjabi ruling oligarchy of the same Muslim homeland unleashed a reign of terror and brutal repression against the Baloch, who like the Muslims of Bangladesh (former East Pakistan) and Mohajirs and Sindhis of Sindh province are the co-religionists of the Punjabi ruling Muslim elite. It is pertinent to mention that the ruling oligarchy of Punjab opposed the creation of Pakistan and now they have become the master on the yoke of their army and civil bureaucracy. They have self-assumed the power to issue certificates of patriotism while their own loyalty is suspicious on the ground that they broke Pakistan in 1971 to maintain their hegemony and strangulation. In 1973, the Baloch movement for rights and autonomous rule for the province was suppressed by ordering the Pakistani air force to bombard the towns and villages of Balochistan. Over 15,000 Baloch men, women and children were massacred. Seldom in the contemporary history do we find a country bombarding its own civilian population. There is negligible representation of the Baloch in the civil and military service of the country. The Baloch have been singled out for exclusion from the policy planning structure of the country because they are not trusted as faithful to Pakistan. Mr. Chairman, the treatment of the Punjabi oligarchy towards political opponents is not only revengeful but also inhuman. My father, Khair Bakhsh Marri, 74 years old and a frail man who has been the most outstanding nationalist leader of Balochistan spent two years in jail at this advanced age. The government has refused him the permission to go abroad for medical treatment that he so desperately needs despite European Parliament's formal recommendation. Mr. Chairman, Balochistan continues to remain a neglected region. Literacy rate is bare 3 per cent and income per capita is the lowest in Pakistan. It was not without a design that Islamabad rulers exploded the nuclear device in the Chagi hills in Balochistan in 1998. The radioactive fallout of this experiment on the people of the area is simply disastrous. Mr. Chairman, perpetuating its colonial designs in Balochistan, Islamabad based Punjabi regime has resorted to the policy of divide and rule to break the will of the proud Baloch people who want to be the masters of their own land and are not prepared to submit to the exploitative forces of the dominating Punjabi ethnic oligarchy. Shoaib Suddle, the Inspector General of Police (I.G.) also known as the “AKA”, the Butcher of Karachi, who committed near-genocide in 1995-96 has now been installed in Balochistan to commit massacre through staged “encounters” terming his victims as foreign agents as he did against Mohajirs in Sindh province. Recently three Baloch have been killed in a staged encounter in Kalat, Arbitrary arrests, detention and torture in police custody are widely rampant in Balochistan as instruments of repression by the federal administration. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reports seventeen deaths as a result of encounters in Balochistan (Page 91). On 6th January 2002, Gulbar Perkani Baloch, Abdul Wahid Marri Baloch and Khair Mohammad Marri Baloch were killed by the security forces in a staged encounter. On 26th February 2002, Ghulam Sanvar Zehri Baloch was killed in custody of the state. The security forces brutally tortured him to forcibly make him sign a pre-written statement, when he refused; he was shot dead in his cell. Nura Marri was arrested in September 2001, he was brutally tortured by the security forces to force him to sign a pre-written confessional statement, upon his refusal, they broke his legs while Gul Hassan was mercilessly tortured and both are in unlawful detention. In August 2000, Abdul Nabi Bangulzai Baloch, Alam Perkani Baloch were arbitrarily arrested, tortured and are still in the unlawful detention of the state without any charges. The federal-government, using the divide and rule policy in Balochistan has recently appointed one thousand local stooges as OGDC employees for the protection of oil and gas exploitation. Mr. Chairman, the international community should hold the Pakistani establishment, the army and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Agency) accountable for the crimes of physical, social, economic and cultural genocide of the people of Balochistan. Pakistan requires a new Constitution embodying the true spirit of the Pakistan Resolution of 1940. The art of carrying a religious, ethnic, linguistic or cultural minority along with the majority population without taking recourse to the much abused concept of “majoritarianism”, is learnt and practised only in a democratic arrangement. In final analyses, we may say that challenging the viability of Balochistan and Sindh provinces would tantamount to challenging the very existence and viability of Pakistan. The viability and existence of the former East Pakistan was challenged in 1970-71 by the ruling oligarchy of Punjab and resultantly, they dismembered the state of Pakistan created by Jinnah on the basis of the “Two Nation Theory”. Thank you Mr. Chairman