Baloch Genocide and Silence of UN
Author: Saeed Baloch
On August 11, 1947, the British acceded control of Baluchistan to the ruler of Baluchistan, Mir Ahmad Yar Khan the then Khan of Kalat. The Khan immediately declared the independence of Baluchistan, and Mohammad Ali Jinnah (the representative of Pakistan) signed the proclamation of Baluchistan’s sovereignty under the Khan in presence of a representative of Crown – British government.
The New York Times reported on August 12, 1947: “Under the agreement, Pakistan recognises Kalat as an independent sovereign state with a status different from that of the Indian States. An announcement from New Delhi said that Kalat State in Baluchistan, has reached an agreement with Pakistan for the free flow of communications and commerce, and would negotiate for decisions on defence, external affairs and communications.”
The next day, the NY Times even printed a map of the world showing Baluchistan as a fully independent country.
On August 15, 1947, the Khan of Kalat addressed a large gathering in Kalat and formally declared the full independence of Baluchistan. The Khan formed the lower and upper houses of Baluchistan’s parliament, and during the first meeting of the Lower House in early September 1947, the Assembly confirmed the independence of Baluchistan. Jinnah tried to persuade the Khan to join Pakistan, but the Khan and both Houses of the Baluchistan’s Parliament (Kalat Assembly) refused. The Pakistani army then invaded Baluchistan on march 28th, 1948, and imprisoned all members of the Kalat Assembly.
India stood silently by Lord Mountbatten, Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, and Maulana Azad, the then president of India’s Congress Party said nothing about the injustices to Baluchistan or later of the N.W.F.P.
Till date, Baluchistan has been the victim of human rights violations, all the major human rights organisations agree that there are instances of gross human rights abuses in Baluchistan, which are being committed by Pakistan Army and ISI. Hundreds of Baloch political leaders and activists have been assassinated in different parts of Baluchistan by Pakistani security forces. since 2001, more than 23,000 Baloch political activists, journalists, writers, and children have gone missing, “illegally abducted” by the Pakistani state security forces and the victims of enforced disappearances are being “tortured and executed” in custody. More than 5,000 Baluch have been dumped in various parts of Baluchistan by Pakistani state security forces.
The number does not include those who were killed during the military attack and air strikes on their homes by Pakistan Air Force fighter jets and cobra helicopters, the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) has registered 667 cases of enforced disappearance and 116 of recovered mutilated bodies in 2016 alone.
The situation is getting worse and the genocide of Baluch nation is on the rise in different names and forms such as enforced disappearance, custodial killings, indiscriminate bombardment of Baloch houses, target killing of the most educated and learned section of Baloch society and economic deprivation of Baloch people in Gwadar to pave way for Chinese funded multi-billion dollar project China-Pakistan Economic Corridor – CPEC. Many people have migrated from different parts of Baluchistan to safer places because of the bloodshed and military attacks by Pakistan army across Baluchistan.
Recently, Pakistan army’s special forces target killed and abducted hundreds of Baluch civilians in Dasht, Dera Bugti and Bolan under the pretext of ‘war against insurgency’, but major casualties were the innocent civilians including women, children, and elders who were brutally massacred, and many women were taken into custody and imprisoned for several weeks. Nobody can exactly tell what those imprisoned women have gone through.
Pakistan is systematically committing a genocide in Baluchistan to maintain its illegal occupation over Baluch land and to loot the resources of Baluchistan to feed, sustain and prosper Punjab. Baluchistan is blessed with unexplored natural resources that have potential to serve whole region. Geological surveys proved that Baluchistan is rich in minerals like Metallic minerals, Aluminum, Chromium, Copper 2inc, Gold, Iron, platinum, and Uranium. Nonmetallic minerals: asbestos, barytes, Fluorspar, Gypsum, limestone dolomite.
Despite being the owners of a naturally rich land, the inhabitants of Baluchistan live in abject poverty. They are deprived of employment, quality education and clean drinking water. Humans and Animals use the same water and there are no proper Healthcare facilities in Balochistan. Recently, several very educated Baloch youths including Rehan Rind Baloch and Noor Bibi Baloch died of cancer because Balochistan doesn’t have a single cancer hospital. Whereas, Punjabis and its brutal army are rapidly exploiting the resources of Baluchistan along with Chinese imperialists. The ongoing exploitative project known as China Pakistan Economic Corridor has become another cause of the acceleration of Baloch genocide. The people who live near CPEC route are being massacred on daily basis by security forces.
In the beginning of this year, the Frontier Corps (FC), a Pakistani paramilitary force, has put various areas into the military siege which includes Gwadar, Awaran, Kech and Panjgoor. The deployment of Frontier Corps (FC) has already resulted in the formulation of dozens of armed proxy groups (military death squads) and forced disappearances of innocent Baluch civilians. The Pakistan army plans to establish the second FC headquarter in Turbat, Kech areas which will be under an IG Command. This is another expansionist design of Punjabi army to strengthen its grip over the occupied territories of Baluchistan. Moreover, many settlers will move towards Baluchistan in name of the completion of this project (CPEC), which will be enough to convert the Baluch nation into a minority in Baluchistan.
The history unveils the fact that the effective way to keep a nation slave is the conversion of the population, in which the occupier states settle their preferred populace in the land of the subjugated nations to convert their local population into a minority. The world history is full of such examples. Let’s take U.S and Australia, where the local communities were converted into minorities, and today they are deprived of their own national identity and language. There is not only a human genocide going on in Baluchistan but Pakistan is also methodically committing the cultural and economic genocide of the Baluch nation.
It Is time that united efforts must be made to help the Baluch Nation to get rid of this trauma and miserable situation.
In 1948, the General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was not only considered a milestone in the human history, but was also deemed a light at the end of the tunnel, drafted by a committee headed by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s widow, Eleanor and the French lawyer Rene Cassin. The document proclaims basic civil, political, and economic rights common to all human beings. However, it was the same year when Pakistan trespassed the document of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by invading a sovereign state (Baluchistan) and conducted massive military offensives in every nook and cranny of Baluchistan which resulted in many deaths and enforced abductions of Baloch political leaders and common civilians.
Despite the existences of such type of the historical fact and ample evidence against the state of Pakistan, the United Nations continues to ignore the Baloch genocide. The Baluch nation – men, women, children, and elderly are increasingly asking that how many Baluch must die before the UN takes notice of the Baluch genocide and holds Pakistan accountable forcrimes against humanity and war crimes? The UN and international community ignored the genocide of Bengali people by Pakistan and now it seems the UN is waiting for Baluchistan to be turned into another Rwanda. Pakistan so far has succeeded in concealing its genocidal policies against Baloch nation because the UN and rest of the civilised world remain silent on Pakistani war crimes in Baluchistan.
In 1971, Pakistan killed more than three million Bengalis and raped millions of Bengali women but the UN has failed to even pass a single resolution against Pakistan. UN and civilised world’s criminal silence on the genocide of the Bengali people has encouraged Pakistan to repeat the same in Baluchistan. On the other hand, from 1967 to 1989 the UN security council adopted 131 resolutions directly addressing the Arab-Israel conflict, moreover, Israel had been condemned in 45 resolutions by United Nations Human rights council since its creation in 2006 which is the only democratic country in the middle East. This brings to light the fact that there is a serious deficiency in The United Nations which strongly violates the UN charter and its values, which ought to be fixed before it makes Baloch nation lose hope towards the United Nations.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Balochistan Post or any of its editors.