LIITITZ, PA: March 27, 2011. (PCP) Liltitz in Pennsylvania made history Saturday evening as a church congregation held prayers for the independence of Balochistan from Pakistani and Iranian occupation. Laurie Deamer, presiding council member of the American Friends of Balochistan had turned her birthday party into an event to show soldiarity with the freedom struggle in Balochistan at The Mill -- Seed of Abraham Messaniac Congregation, part of the Lancaster Evangical Free Church.
More Than 50 Americans, many of them members of the Lancaster Evangilical Free Church, were in attendance to listen to the crimes against humanity being perpetrated in Balochistan.
As a mark of respect to the Baloch struggle, the tables were draped in one of three different colors of the Balochistan flag -- blue, green and red. Candles were lit in cases also in the three different colors, while Baloch national and cultural songs and video animation pictures of the main Balochistan independence leaders, other luminaries and scenes of evry day life in Balochistan were shown on the wall.
It was as if a little part of Balochistan has reached Lititz. Laurie Deamer has become a voice for the Baloch people and is helped with the work of the American Friends of Balochistan presiding council and also with the International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, based in Sweden.
"She is a brave American, with a good Christian heart, and we are blessed to have her on our side," said
Ahmar Mustikhan, founder of the American Friends of Balochistan. "Our thanks to her." The A.F.B. pointed out to the close working relationship between the Inter Services Intelligence and the Taliban where a Baloch freedom fighter was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber in Spinboldak in Afghanistan Friday.
Mustikhan recalled the atrocities meted out to the Native Americans in United States two centuries ago in the Trail of Blood and Tears of Cherokee Indians, the Sand Creek Massacre of November 29, 1864 and the massacre of the Yuki of Northern California (1856-1860). "The situation in Balochistan today is an exact replica of those sad chapters of U.S. history and you can help us stop this," he urged the gathering. He narrated the story of a Bugti tribesman.
“We walk 20 days to save our lives, on the way my two children and a 50 year old uncle died; we buried them without coffins, shower and a proper funeral,”Mustikhan quoted a tribesmen who was forced to flee his ancestral town Dera Bugti after Pakistan military launched a massive operation six years ago. "Thousands have perished since then," the A.F.B. said.
Balochistan independence leaders are secular and very young. The youngest among them Brahumdagh Bugti is only 30. Hyrbyair Marri is in his 40s, while Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch is in his late 30s. "In spite of a David and Goliath struggle, we are confident the Baloch shall overcome and prevail and Balochistan shall be free. With the help of all of you guys in this room," the A.F.B. said.
Balochistan means land of the Baloch. The land itself is one of the richest in the world, but the people one of the poorest. It is huge country. The area under Pakistani army occupation is slightly bigger than New Mexico. The area under Iranian mullahs is the size of Nevada, and that under Afghan control is the size of West Virginia.
A sytematic policy of extermination and decimation is being practised in Balochistan -- a scorched earth policy where entire villages are burned down by Pakistan military. U.S. scholar Selig S. Harrison described the situation as a slow motion genocide, the A.F.B. said, regretting that Tom Barmnhart a native of the area agreed. "We hear about Yemen, we hear about Egypt and Libya, but never hear about Balochistan, he said.
Almost daily a couple of bodies of Baloch political activists are being dumped by the Pakistan' Frontier Corps, Military Intelligence and Inter Services Intelligence to punish the Baloch for demanding independence of their homeland.
"Since July of last year upwards of 115 political activists, all of them secular, have been killed by the Pakistan security and intelligence services. Some of the victims were teenagers. They were forcibly disappeared, tortured and then killed execution style and their bullet-riddled bodies dumped in desolate places," Mustikhan said. "Most of the victims belong to a coalition of pro-independence parties grouped in the Baloch National Front. Some belonged to Balochistan National Party."
Balochistan is in the grips of a human rights and humanitarian crisis of horrendous proportions but humanitarian agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross appears to be looking the
other way.
Human rights defenders are also being targeted by a front office of the Inter Services Intelligence called Baloch Musalla Diffah Tanzim. The same fundamentalist outfit is involved in attacks on NATO tankers that transport fuel to US and Western troops in Afghanistan. It is led by son of a federal petroleum minister, Mir Naseer Mengal. This outfit is allied with Taliban.
Balochistan is the scene of a bloody military operation, fifth of its kind since the forceful annexation of Balochistan on March 27, 1948.
"Due to total blockade of Marri and Bugti areas by the Pakistani army, about 8,000 to 10,000 tribesmen allegedly died during the exodus, because of malnourishment, lack of shelter and disease. They had been reportedly living in deplorable conditions in the makeshift camps with no access to potable water, food, and other basic necessities.
Baloch sources estimate the number of Internally Displaced Persons to be about 250,000. More then 10,000 families are living as refugees in Afghanistan.
"Villages of unarmed Baloch nomads are being bombed indiscriminately by Pakistan’s army by U.S.- supplied jets and helicopters. It is a terrifying situation where innocent victims are desperately searching a path for safety, but their painful tragedy is blacked out by Islamabad's control on the media," the A.F.B. said.
Whiole denying the Baloch their rights, Pakistan conducted deadly nuclear tests in the Raskoh district Chaghai in Balochistan. The nuclear tests destroyed the pastoral lands of the Baloch nomads for good. "People of my tribe called Gorgej have also been affected," Mustikhan said. "There have been widespread reports of skin disease, cancer, hepatitis and mothers giving birth to babies born without limbs."
These nuclear tests were rape of Baloch land and a crime against humanity as the Baloch were collecticely against nuclear tests. While the rest of Pakistan celebrates the day, Baloch patriots stage protest rallies and mark May 28 as black day all over Balochistan. The A.F.B. urged the United Nations to deploy its forces in Balochistan to stop further ongoing genocide. You guys can help us on this.
"There is a checkpost of the paramilitary Frontier forps for every 500 people. There are four mega military cantonments, 52 paramilitary cantonments, five naval bases including Jinnah naval base in Gwadar and six missile-testing ranges in Balochistan," the A.F.B. founder said. The situation in Iran occupied Balochistan is no better. Baloch are routinely hanged by Iran in public as enemies of God. Even during the 1973-77 Baloch uprising, the Shah of Iran sent 30 U.S.-supplied Huey Cobra helicopters, many of them manned by Iranian pilots to defeat the baloch freedom fighters in Chamalang.
"Please help us end the human rights violations in Balochistan by supporting the freedom movement," the A.F.B. said. "Please write to your lawmakers to stop aid to Pakistan immediately under the Kerry-Lugar Bill.
Additionaly, the A.F.B. requested the Lancster Evangilical Free Church members and other good Christians to write to the U.S. government and lawmkers to remind them that the Patrick Leahy Amendment prohibits the U.S. from doing business with entities such as Frontier Corps, Inter Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence.
"The Baloch are predominantly Muslim but they do not mix religion with politics. Just yesterday, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked the home of a Baloch freedom fighter who had taken refuge in Spin Boldak in Afghanistan.," Mustikhan said, adding, "The Taliban suicide bomber was dispatched by the Inter Services Intelligence to go to Afghanistan to kill the Baloch. Pakistan as you know is headquarters of al Qaeda. Please bear my French, but I call it Cluster Fuckistan."
Laurie Deamer also cooked fish biryani she learned from Noorbibi Baloch of the American Friends of Balochistan, and Balochi sajji, she made out of simple recipe she got from Zaffar Baloch, president of Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada.
Baloch activists from Philadelphia, Virginia and Maryland also attended the event. "You must never give up, whatever the odds," said Roger Martz, who once worked for the National Security Agency.
http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/headlinenewsd.php?hnewsid=2711
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