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A Memorandum delivered to the UK Prime Minister’s residence By Ms. Suraiya Makhdoom and Mr. Mehran Baloch (Sindhi Baloch Forum) |
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19
February 2005
Ref.: SBF/02/01/2005 Right Honourable Tony Blair MP Prime Minster to Her Majesty’s Government 10 Downing Street, London SW1 1AA Re:
help REQUESTED oF HER MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT to stop PAKISTAN’s military
atrocities against Baloch and sindhi people Dear Prime Minister, We,
the British-Balochs and British-Sindhis, demand that Pakistan stop
committing ongoing atrocities against our peoples in Pakistan. Over the
last six months, Pakistan’s military and paramilitary forces have once
again started a widespread operation using heavy air and ground artillery
in various parts of Balochistan. This violent and illegal operation was
started to suppress the legitimate demands of the Baloch people.
We
also demand that Pakistan stop the construction of anti-environmental and
anti-humanitarian projects in the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh. We
have gathered here at 10 Downing Street to seek the support of the British
public, Her Majesty’s Government, and the UK administration. Most
recently, the Balochs have demanded justice for a female physician who was
gang raped in Balochistan by military officers. The Pakistani military has
interfered with the investigation by threatening the local police who
collected DNA and blood samples and by forcing the release of witnesses
under interrogation. The military has responded to protests against this
tyranny with characteristic brutality: they have shelled Baloch towns,
bulldozed homes, and blocked the access of local Baloch to their
traditional water supplies. Pakistani
military, in the past, has committed crimes against humanity by killings
millions in Bangladesh and hundreds of thousands in Balochistan and Sindh.
The proofs of these crimes are well recorded. The military-dominated
establishment of Pakistan, coming from a narrow and minority ethnic base
of Punjab want to create situation in Balochistan to start a widespread
killing of the people. The Pakistani military want to punish the people of
Balochistan and all other nations now living in Pakistan who want a
rightful jurisdiction on their natural resources and a better political
future. The civil world should not allow this to happen in 21st
century. We, therefore, need your urgent attention, to stop Pakistani
military committing atrocities against Baloch people and bringing down
suffering to the people of Balochistan.
Balochistan
and Sindh, currently the provinces of Pakistan, have long been the victims
of their so called federal government’s violence and plunder. Pakistan
exploits their natural resources, including their waters, gas, oil, and
lands, in order to support its bloated military at the expense of the
local people. The Pakistani government has been building a number of
mega-dams that have drastically reduced the flow of water to Sindh, and
they now propose to build another mega-dam that will further devastate
Sindh’s agriculture and ecology. Pakistan has also encouraged
demographic changes that threaten to reduce the Baloch and Sindhi people
to a minority in their own provinces. Like
many of Pakistan’s past regimes, General Musharraf’s non-democratic
government has also adopted policies that blatantly discriminate against
Sindh and Balochistan. One constant policy of the Pakistani government has
been to deny Sindh and Balochistan the right to development. This assures
the dominance of Punjab province over Sindhis and Balochs, which have
always been on the forefront of democratic and secular movements in the
country. Gwadar
Port – A Project to convert Indigenous Balochs into a minority in their
own land Pakistan began constructing the Gwadar Port on the southern coast of Balochistan without consulting the representatives of the Baloch people. Balochs have had no involvement in the design or implementation phases of this project. The companies, the agencies, and even the labour used in this project do not include the local people of Balochistan, and the land is being sold to non-Balochs. Continuation of this project would result in a heavy influx of non-Baloch people into Balochistan, converting the local people into a minority. Military authorities have major stakes in this project. In fact, military personnel have purchased most of the prime land at very low prices. According to local officials, over 80% of the land in the Gwadar Singhar Housing Scheme has been arbitrarily allocated to outsiders, many of them senior army or civilian officials. Greater
Thal Canal (GTC)– A Case of Greater Water Theft Agriculture remains the major source of income in Sindh, but the region’s agricultural industry has fallen victim to the central government’s theft of water from the River Indus, especially through the on-going irrigation project called Greater Thal Canal (GTC). The government and people of Sindh, as well as many other local and international NGOs, rejected the GTC project and expressed their deep concerns about the social and ecological impact of this massive water redistribution in Sindh. Since early 2001, millions of people have peacefully protested with thousands of marches and hundreds of hunger strikes and signature campaigns. Some of these protests encountered police aggression. In June 2001, the police fired on protesters and killed one activist. In same month, the government imprisoned more than 600 environmental activists. Kalabagh
Dam – an Anti-humanitarian Project Pakistan has built several mega-dams and barrages that have impeded the flow
of the Indus River and its tributaries to Sindh, resulting in massive
deforestation. Without the protection of the mangrove forests, seawater
has inundated 1.2 million acres of agricultural land, uprooting residents
of 159 villages. Poverty levels, malnutrition, and disease throughout
Sindh now match those in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, Pakistan proposes to build another mega-dam, the Kalabagh Dam,
which would obstruct even greater amounts of water upstream. The
construction of the Kalabagh Dam has been denounced by environmental and
irrigation experts and by Sindh, Balochistan, and Pakhtunkwa (North-West
Frontier Province), three of the four provinces of Pakistan, as it will
adversely affect all of these provinces. Our
Appeal to Her Majesty’s Government On the basis of the facts stated above, we hope that your good self will
help the Baloch and Sindhi peoples and impress upon General Musharraf and
the Pakistani establishment to respect the universal principles of
justice, liberty, and peace. ·
We appeal to Her
Majesty’s Government to influence the Pakistani government to stop the
ongoing atrocities against Baloch and Sindhi peoples. ·
We ask Her
Majesty’s Government that all the relevant departments ensure that human
rights, environmental, and water issues are amicably and lawfully settled
prior to the release of any aid packages to the government of General
Musharraf. ·
We appeal Her
Majesty’s government to impress upon the military government of Pakistan
to conduct a fair judicial inquiry into the rape of a young female doctor
by military officers, punish the culprits and compensate the victim and
her family. Generally
speaking, Pakistan’s military should be asked to behave. ·
We appeal to Her
Majesty’s Government to pressure the government of Pakistan to change
its policy of constructing large dams and canals and instead to create a
comprehensive water plan for Pakistan based on the following principles: (i)
Fair Indus River
water policies should be developed and implemented based on the
Sindh-Punjab agreement of 1945. These policies should ban the construction
of any large structure, including Kalabagh Dam, Greater Thal Canal and
similar projects. (ii)
A study should be
conducted to investigate all environmental and ecological consequences of
reduced water flow downstream from the Kotri Barrage. The study must
establish water needs downstream (Kotri) for human consumption, protection
of mangroves, prevention of sea-water intrusion, sustenance of fisheries,
and maintenance of groundwater quality. Yours sincerely, On behalf of World Sindh Congress and Sindhi Baloch Forum |
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Ms. Suraiya Makhdoom UK/EU Organizer World Sindhi Congress Member Sindhi Baloch Forum Member Labour Party |
Dr. Lakhu Luhana Secretary General World Sindhi Congress Member Sindhi Baloch Forum |
Mehran Baloch Member Sindhi Baloch Forum Balochistan Rights Movement |
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About
the World Sindhi Congress (WSC):
WSC is a UK, USA and Canada based human rights advocacy organization. The
main objective of WSC is to create a better understanding among the
international community about the persecution of Sindhis in Pakistan and
about Sindhi people’s struggles for their human rights, including the
right to self-determination. WSC is a registered company in England and
Wales, and Louisiana, USA, organized to carry out non-profit activities
only. For more information visit http://www.worldsindhicongress.org. |
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