Geneva: Baloch, Sindhi and other International Human Rights activists from the UK, USA and Canada have come together to address a conference and to protest against Pakistan’s atrocities in Sindh and Balochistan, on the 13th Session of the Human rights Council in Geneva. In alliance with Interfaith International, UNPO has helped plan and co-ordinate the events to high light the Human Rights Violations in Balochistan.

The first of these events took place on11/3/2010 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Representatives from Sindh and Balochistan spoke on different prospects of the ongoing Human Rights Violations in their perspective occupied territories. Speakers included Senator Sanaullah Baloch a former Pakistan Senator and Mr. Mehran Baloch a prominent Baloch activist and Baloch people’s representative in the UN, Mr. Peter Tatchell a British human rights activist, Mr. Jacob Rothing an international expert on forced displacement in the South Asian region, Mr. Marino Busdachin, Dr Lahku Luhana, Dr Haleem Bhatti from World Sindhi Congress, Laurie Dreamer of American friends of Balochistan, Dr Zafar Baloch of BHRC Canada and several other Baloch and Sindhi representatives & activists were also present at the event.

Karachi: Decision-making in Balochistan lies firmly in the hands of those who were in command before the February 2008 elections, and it is the military that still calls the shots, claimed a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) report on Balochistan titled ‘Pushed to the Wall.’

The report contains observations of an HRCP fact-finding mission led by Chairperson Asma Jahangir, which spent over a week in the province. The fact-finding mission began its work on October 5, 2009 and tried to meet with as many people as it could from different schools of thoughts and political and ethnic groups.

His Excellency Ban Ki Moon
Secretary-General
The United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017-3515

February 1, 2010
Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

Subject: Brutal method of torture of Baloch Political workers by Pakistani Army

We are writing to express concern on the reports of the gross human rights violations against the Baloch nation in Pakistan. We would like to draw your attention on the brutal methods of torture practiced by the Pakistan Army and its spy agencies against Baloch political and human rights activists to extract information as well as to de-humanize them to break their will.

It is little surprise that Baloch nationalist leaders have rejected the latest peace package proposed by Islamabad

A series of massacres of peaceful protesters by Pakistani security forces look set to sink hopes of a settlement deal between the government in Islamabad and Baloch nationalists who are campaigning for self-rule. There are fears that the sinister, shadowy Pakistani military and intelligence agencies are behind these killings, in a deliberate attempt to sabotage the reconciliation package put forward by the government of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

On 15 January, at least two Baloch political activists were shot dead and four others seriously wounded after Pakistani security forces opened fire on a peaceful protest organised by the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan. The rally had been called to protest against the recent murder of Baloch citizens in Karachi and the launching of a new military crackdown in Pakistani annexed and occupied Balochistan.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-157-2009
July 24, 2009
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

After Pakistan’s accusation of Indian involvement in subversive activities with the nationalist movement in Balochistan province, the law enforcement agencies reacted heavily against the students of the province who have sympathies with nationalist movement. The Para-military forces, particularly, the frontier constabulary (FC) started arresting people, keeping them in incommunicado in unknown places. There are reports of arrests of dozens of young persons, but due to poor communication problems, the AHRC was not able to collect all the details. Some cases are as follows;

An activist of the Baloch Student Organisation-BSO (Azaad), Mr. Sami Baloch, was abducted at midnight of July 19 and 20. He was returning home from a tuition center near the Satellite Town of Quetta. He was abducted by Frontier Constabulary, a Para- military force of the Pakistani Army. Mr. Sami Baloch is a M.A. student in Geology in Balochistan University and a member of the organizing body of BSO (Azaad) Balochistan University unit. His whereabouts are still unknown and it is feared that he is undergoing brutal torture in a Pakistani army camp.

Balochistan: The Key to Regional Security


Tuesday, 09 June 2009

On the 8th of June 2009, over 50 people from UN Permanent Missions, various International NGOs and representatives of the Balochi people gathered in the Palais des Nations in Geneva to discuss the role of Baluchistan in the security of the region and the gross human rights violations that have taken place there due to this pivotal role.

The region of Balochistan is not only located in a key strategic position in relation to conflicts in the region, but is also rich in natural resources. Despite, or rather perhaps because of these factors, the Baluchi people have suffered continued marginalization and victimization, locally, domestically and internationally.

This event is designed to raise awareness of the challenges faced by the Balochi peope, as well as initiate a dialogue on potential solutions.

There is still a possibility to attend this ongoing conference until Thursday. For more information, please make use of the contact details in the press release below

Interfaith International
Human Rights Council 11th Session
Item Agenda: 4, General Debate
Intervention: By Mehran Baluch
Dated: 8th June 2009


Mr. Chairman,

Baluchistan was a sovereign independent state which was forcibly occupied in 1948 by neighboring Pakistan . Since occupation the Baluch have been struggling for their national liberation. Hoverer the occupying power has used every method to enslave the Baluch, exploit and plunder Baluchistan 's resources in order to sustain - "the occupying Nation".


Mr. Chairman,

The level of international deception by the occupying power is not only regrettable but extremely shameful. I say this because it presents it-self in the international community as a strategically important and viable nation where as it's neither without Baluchistan 's landmass and its resources.

NTERFAITH INTERNATIONAL
C.P. 32, 1246 Crosier, Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: 0041 22 751 23 45; Fax 0041 22 751 23 48
e-mail: charlesgraves@vtx.ch; web-site: www.interfaithonline.org
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 arrest in London of exiled Baluch human rights activists looks like a bid by Musharraf to frame his opponents and silence critics

A former MP and government minister from Pakistan-occupied Baluchistan, Hyrbyair Marri, has been languishing in Belmarsh prison for the last two months. He was arrested at his west London home in early December on charges of plotting terrorist acts abroad (it is assumed in Pakistan). His next pre-trial hearing is today at the central criminal court.

Marri was minister for construction and works in the provincial assembly of Baluchistan from 1997 to 1998.

Baluch leaders and Pakistani opposition figures believe the charges against him are without substance and have condemned Marri's arrest and imprisonment. They claim that the Pakistani dictator, President Pervez Musharraf, has a vendetta against the Marri family, who are leading nationalists in the province of Baluchistan - a formerly independent nation that was invaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948. They cite leaks that Musharraf has privately vowed to crush the Baluch self-determination movement and destroy its leaders. They also highlight the fact that the Pakistani authorities have been pressing the British government to arrest and extradite Marri and several other Baluch nationalists who live in London.

By Isambard Wilkinson, Pakistan Correspondent

Britain has been accused of taking the first step towards a "prisoner swap" by arresting two nationalist separatists after coming under intense pressure from Pakistan.

The Metropolitan Police said two men, aged 25 and 39, were held under the Terrorism Act following raids in London on Tuesday morning.

The men were named as Faiz Mohammed Baluch and Nawabzada Hyrbiyar Marri, according to Lakhumal Luhana, a Baloch human rights campaigner living in London.

Britain has been engaged in secret negotiations with Pakistan to hand over a terrorist suspect who is wanted for questioning over the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airlines last summer.