Light a Candle for Baluchistan

A joint endeavor of American, Baluch, Sindhi and Kurdish people who believe liberation is a fundamental right of all nations.

August 14 is a dark day for Baluchistan. Baluch, Kurdish and Sindhi people will be observing that day as a day of mourning by lighting candles for Baluchistan.
“Light a Candle for Baluchistan” will honor the victims of torture, missing persons, the Baluch killed and the loot and plunder of their natural resources in Pakistan’s areawise largest province called Baluchistan.

In Iran too there are Baluch, who have a province named Seistan-o-Baluchistan. But there public executions are routine and only this month 16 Baluch were hanged as “enemies of Allah.”
Baluch are a stateless people just like the Kurds. Their homeland is divided among Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

Disappearances and tortures are almost a daily happening in Pakistani-occupied Baluchistan [PoB] and the government tortures all those sympathetic with the Baluch liberation movement. At least 2,000 Baluch are still missing in PoB, according to Pakistan’s largest newspaper Jang.

Pakistan has to respect the rights of Baluch individuals who are demanding independence.
A number of speakers from U.S. civil society, Baluch, Sindhis and Kurds will attend and speak about Baluchistan’s trail of blood and tears.

The event will be held at St. Stephen and The Incarnation Episcopal Church at 3 p.m. The address is:1525 Newton Street NWCorner of 16th & Newton StreetsWashington DC 20010

Background: International Crisis Group reported that since December 2005, at least 84,000 people, mostly from the Marri and Bugti tribes, were displaced in the districts of Dera Bugti and Kohlu alone.

Aid agencies were repeatedly denied access to the displaced, although supplies of food and medicines lay in warehouses in the provincial capital Quetta. Local officials helped the agencies monitor conditions, but more senior provincial and federal officials refused humanitarian requests or blocked them with bureaucratic hurdles.

Please also see:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4373http://www.alrc.net/doc/mainfile.php/alrc_st2009/542/

Source: http://baluchsarmachar.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/light-a-candle-for-baluchistan/