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Conflict in Balochistan is a costly one
In the
remote desert of Balochistan, a war for independence is distracting
Pakistan as it struggles to contain Taliban and al Qaeda militants along
the Afghan border.
It is up against an array
of Baloch fighters who accuse it of plundering the hidden riches of the
arid southwestern province: natural gas.
It's Pakistan's "other"
war, a sideshow to its battle in troubled Waziristan some 250 miles (400
kilometers) to the north, where pro-Taliban fighters have gained stature
and Osama bin Laden is still suspected to be hiding.
But the conflict in
Balochistan is also a costly one, feeding off the deprivation in what is
Pakistan's largest and poorest province despite sitting on the nation's
principal gas reserves.
The army put down another
tribal rebellion here in 1974, reportedly leaving about 3,000 dead.
"It's not just a few
tribal chiefs against the government. There's a genuine movement of Baloch
nationalists. There are people enlisting every day and picking up arms,"
said Asma Jehangir, chairwoman of the independent Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan.
Violence escalated sharply
after rockets landed about 300 meters from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
while he was visiting the town of Kohlu in December.
The Pakistanis then
launched an offensive against the Bugti and Marri tribes, whose leaders
control swaths of Balochistan with guerrilla’s numbering in thousands.
People in Balochistan feel
shortchanged. The royalties on their gas have barely changed since 1952.
Only 25 percent of villages are electrified, and only 20 percent have safe
drinking water.
The recently outlawed
Baloch Liberation Army is blamed for near-daily attacks on gas pipelines
and electricity pylons that have disrupted the province's power supply. It
claimed responsibility for bombings at a police training school at the
provincial capital Quetta on May 11 that killed seven people.
'Indiscriminate
bombing'
Musharraf says he wants to
develop Balochistan. He is building a deep sea port at its coast and
encouraging foreign investment. But new military garrisons intended to
secure the restive region have bred suspicion and hardened resistance.
"The government wants to
take complete control of the gas fields for future digging and drilling.
Their policy is to exterminate the Baloch," said Nawab Akbar Bugti, 79,
the silver-bearded Bugti chief, speaking to The Associated Press by
satellite phone from his mountain hideout.
He said thousands of
soldiers and paramilitaries had been deployed, using helicopter gunships,
bombs and artillery. He claimed hundreds of civilians had been killed and
tens of thousands displaced from around Dera Bugti, some 300 kilometers
(200 miles) southeast of Quetta.
In a report on two recent
fact-finding missions to Balochistan, the Human rights commission accused
the military of "indiscriminate bombing" and listed more than 60 dead in
December and January, many of them women and children. It also voiced
"grave concern" over militants mining roads.
The government denies
killing civilians and presents the problem as one of law and order.
Raziq Bugti, a spokesman
for the elected Balochistan provincial government, said that if militias
disbanded, gave up heavy weapons and stopped challenging Pakistan's
sovereignty, negotiations would be possible.
If not, "force will be
used. It's very clear," he said.
Punjabis targeted
The Baloch make up about
half of the province's 6.5 million people. They have coexisted with ethnic
Pashtuns, Sindhis and Punjabis but long-brewing tensions are increasingly
coming to the surface.
"Punjabis should leave,"
said Asif Baloch of the Baloch Students' Organization, which advocates
independence for the Baloch. "We're not against them as human beings, but
as a dominant class."
He accused intelligence
agencies of holding Baloch activists for months, sometimes years, without
trial.
Baloch separatists have
started targeting ethnic Punjabis who dominate Pakistan's bureaucracy and
security services.
On March 18, at a mountain
picnic spot southeast of Quetta, masked men shot dead two junior
government officials they believed to be Punjabis. A third survived his
gunshot wounds by playing dead.
Faruq Shah, a Pashtun, was
spared after the attackers twice checked his ID.
"It feels like I escaped
from the jaws of death," he said. From international sources. 6.6.06 |
