3 July 2007
Mehran Baluch, the Baluch representative at the UN Human Rights Council, discusses the Baluch struggle for liberation from Pakistani occupation and oppression.
Pakistan invaded and annexed the newly-independent state of Baluchistan in 1948. But the Baluch people have never given up their struggle for freedom.
After six decades of occupation and bloody repression, Pakistan is once again escalating its war against the people of Baluchistan, detaining without trial thousands of Baluchs and executing hundreds more. Because Britain and the United States want Pakistan as an ally in their so-called “war on terror” they are arming Pakistan and acquiescing with its suppression of the Baluch people.
Pakistan’s war against non-fundamentalist Baluchistan and its moderate nationalist forces is strengthening the position of the Taliban who have exploited the situation to establish bases in the region. From these bases they launch terror attacks against the Baluch and seek to enforce the Talibanisation of Baluchistan. The Pakistani government colludes with the Taliban’s murderous campaign, on the grounds that it helps to crush the Baluch people and their struggle for independence.
Many of the Taliban leaders hide out in Baluchistan, from where they plan and launch their military operations to overthrow the democratically elected government of Afghanistan. Their campaign to usurp power in Kabul is taking place with the tacit collusion of key figures in the Pakistani government, military and intelligence services. The Pakistanis are allowing the Taliban to use Baluchistan as a base for their war against democracy and human rights.
The international community is looking the other way, allowing the Baluch people to be suppressed and ignoring their right to self-determination.
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