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Peter Tatchell
Human Rights Campaigner
45 Arrol House, Rockingham Street, London SE1 6QL
0207 403 1790
David
Miliband MP
Foreign
Secretary
Foreign
& Commonwealth Office
King
Charles Street
LONDON
SW1A 2AH
18 December 2007
Dear David Miliband,
URGENT ACTION
Pakistan
military offensive and human rights abuses against the people of
Balochistan
Arrest
of Baloch human rights activists in the UK and their possible
extradition to Pakistan
I am writing to
you at the request of the Baloch communities in the UK, including the Balochistan
Action Committee (UK), the Balochistan Rights Movement and the Sindhi
Baloch Forum.
I respectfully request your
urgent intervention to help saves the lives of the people of Balochistan,
who have been subjected to a barbaric, bloody military offensive by the
Pakistani army of occupation, since 6 December.
I
urge you to take the following action:
·
Press
the Pakistan government to cease its military operations in Balochistan
·
Halt
all military, economic and diplomatic support for the dictatorship in
Pakistan, which is deploying state terrorism against the Baloch people
·
Lobby
the Pakistan government to stop the use of torture and detention without
trial, and to release all Baloch political prisoners and human rights
activists
·
Initiate
efforts for intentional community observers to visit the war-torn areas of
Balochistan on a fact-finding mission, to establish the facts about the
atrocities committed by the Pakistani
armed forces
·
Urge,
via EU and UN institutions, the international condemnation of Pakistan’s
military offensive in Balochistan and affirm the right of the Baloch
people to self-determination
Britain
has a long-standing, close relationship with Balochistan. It was
previously a British Protectorate. The UK granted the Baloch people
independence in 1947. The following year, Pakistan invaded and annexed the
country
against the wishes of the people. Balochistan has been suffering under
Pakistani military occupation ever since.
Here
is the background to the current dire suffering of the Baloch people:
1.
Over the last three
years a fully-fledged Pakistani military offensive has been taking place
in Balochistan. The most modern artillery and air power is being used
against innocent Baloch civilians. This has resulted in huge loss of life,
including the deaths of hundreds of women, children and elderly folk.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced; being forced to
flee their homes and eke out a living as destitute refugees. This is a
humanitarian crisis of immense proportions.
2.
Since 6 December, the
military operation has been intensified. Civilian areas in the Kahan and
Dera Bugti regions of Balochistan have been carpet bombed by the Pakistan
air force. More than 200
houses and other buildings, such as schools and medical units, have been
destroyed and more than 500 people,
many of them women and children, have been kidnapped
and put into what amounts to
concentration camps, where
some of them have been tortured and others ill-treated. In addition, over
100 civilians have been killed in the recent Pakistani bombardment of
Kahan.
3.
President Musharraf
and the military leaders of Pakistan have time and again made their
intentions clear: to physically eliminate the Baloch national leadership.
Nawab Akbar Bugti, the veteran Baloch national leader and former Chief
Minister of Balochistan, was assassinated by the Pakistani army in 2006.
On 21 November this year, another nationalist leader, Mir Balach Marri,
was murdered in a Pakistani military operation.
4.
Hundreds of
democratic, secular Baloch political activists have been either kidnapped
and disappeared, or are being illegally detained and inhumanely abused, by
Pakistan’s military agencies. President Musharraf forcibly removed the
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan after he challenged the
human rights abuses in Balochistan. The political parties of Balochistan,
the civil society and human rights movements, the international human
rights organisations such as Amnesty International and the judiciary,
including the Supreme Court of Pakistan, have demanded that Pakistan’s
regime produce the disappeared people and release everyone who is
illegally detained, but all such appeals have been ignored.
I
urged you to use your good influence to press the Pakistan Ambassador, and
the UN and EU, to help stop these terrible abuses against the Baloch
people.
On a separate but related matter:
We would like to express our concern about the fate of the Baloch nationalists and human rights
activists, Mr.
Herbiyar
Marri and Mr. Faiz Baluch, who were arrested on 4 December in London.
They appeared in Westminster Magistrate’s Court on 11 December on
“terrorism” charges, for which they remain remanded in custody. I
believe they are innocent of the charges against them and that their
arrest is probably at the behest of the Pakistani government and its
intelligence agencies.
Mr Marri is a former Balochistan MP and was a Government Minister in the
1990s. I am shocked and surprised that he has been arrested.
For
many months, the British media has reported that the government of
Pakistan is demanding a prisoner swap deal, whereby alleged terrorists
held in Pakistan and wanted by the UK police for alleged terror crimes in
the UK (such as Rashid Rauf) would be exchanged for the Baloch human
rights activists exiled in the UK who are wanted by Pakistan (on false
charges).
In the light of the above information, it appears that Pakistan is
determined to get all the Baloch political
and human rights activists exiled in the UK extradited so that they can
put them on trial on trumped-up evidence and, at the best, jail and
torture them and, at the worst, execute them.
I understand that the arrests of Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch
are likely to have been based on requests and misinformation by Pakistan.
At a minimum, Pakistan wants these two Baloch nationalists locked away in
Britain to halt their campaigning on behalf of the Baloch nation. I
believe that if these men are extradited they will never get a fair trial.
They would be tortured and they could face a death sentence.
These arrests in London look like part of a bigger
Pakistani plan to silence or eliminate
the national leadership of Balochistan, in order to maintain Islamabad’s
hegemony over Balochistan and steal its vast natural resources.
This
could have potentially serious consequences for regional and global
security and peace. In particular, it will undermine the democratic and
secular traditions of Balochistan and facilitate the spreading and
imposition of Pakistani-style religious fundamentalism on the Baloch
people.
The indiscriminate military attacks on civilian areas in Balochistan -
coupled with Pakistan’s assassinations, torture and extra-judicial
killings - constitute state terrorism and crimes against humanity. They
contravene international human rights laws, such as the Geneva Convention
and the Convention Against Torture.
Therefore,
in the light of your government’s commitment
to universal human rights and the international rule of law, I
respectfully request you to not give in to pressure from the
Pakistani regime to extradite Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch, which would
result in their torture, imprisonment and possible execution.
I
ask for your assurance that they will not be extradited to Pakistan.
I
believe that your urgent intervention and decisive action can save the
lives not only of Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Baluch but also of thousands of
innocent people in Balochistan.
This
would have the positive, desirable side effect of helping to weaken the
Pakistani dictatorship that is secretly colluding with terrorism and
fundamentalism, creating threats to regional peace and global security.
I
look forward to hearing from you concerning what action the British
government intends to take to press Pakistan to halt its human rights
abuses in Balochistan.
My
appreciation.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Tatchell
Human Rights
Campaigner
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