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Special consultative status with ECOSOC

7th session of the Human Rights Council: 3rd to 28th March 2008

Honorable chairman,

The Baluch nation has been facing unabated brutal repression and has persistently been subjugated, enslaved, repressed, oppressed and colonized by the monolithic Pakistani army, and is sidelined from the country's politics, snatched of control over their resources and deliberately deprived of the basic necessities of life, including secular education. Pakistan's treatment of the Baluchistan is no less than a clear violation of economic, social and cultural rights.

Mr. Chairman,

Over 150,000 regular army are actively carrying out a massive military operation


throughout Balochistan, killing thousands of women, children and residents, to establish the military’s stranglehold over Balochistan’s coast and natural resources and to subdue the aspirations of the Baloch nation which is struggling to sustain the survival and protection of its national and cultural identity.

The government has spent billions on the construction of military garrisons; to penetrate into the Baluch system in order to exploit oil and gas, encourage madrassahs and Islamic fundamentalism, provide a safe haven to extremists, and also to restrict the Baluch from having the freedom of movement.
The Baluch have had no say in the construction of a mega deep-sea port, Gwadar, seen as a conspiracy against the local population, which will convert to a minority in their homeland after an influx of non-Baluch, encouraged by the government, migrate and settle in Gwadar, furthermore giving them the opportunity elect a non-Baluch from the constituency. The Chinese government, which has assisted Pakistan in the construction of the port, has apparently also contributed to exploitation of the Baluch wealth, and Baluch alienation.

Mr. Chairman,

The Pakistani intelligence agencies have launched an aggressive campaign to neutralize, defame, criminalize and victimize any soul that talks about the rights of the Baloch people through foreign governments and organizations such as Interpol. The prime example of this is the apprehension and detention of two Baloch human rights activists, Hyrbiar Marri and Faiz Baloch by British authorities at the behest of Musharraf in December 2007.

A former Chief Minister of Baluchistan Akhter Mengal has also been languishing in prison since November 2006 for speaking out against the Pakistani army’s military operations, exploitation of natural resources and the disappearance of nearly 7000 political activists, who are mercilessly tortured in secret Pakistani prisons. Many have either been killed in the process or if released, have been maimed for life.

Mehran Baluch, who regularly presented the case of human rights violations committed by Pakistan to this august forum, was asked to be extradited from Britain in a swap deal for the alleged trans-Atlantic airline bomber Rashid Rauf. Such illegal attempts by the despotic Pakistani regime in collaboration with democratic western governments are regrettable and should be condemned by the UN Human Rights Council and the special representative.

Mr. Chairman,

The world seems to have turned a blind eye because it thinks that Musharraf will remedy terrorism not acknowledging the fact that he and the tyrannical Punjabi Pakistani army are the facilitators and promoters of terrorism in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the rest of the region.


Thank you, Mr. chairman