According to the details provided on the official website of BSO-NA, the conference agenda will revolve around Balochistan’s case and prospects; human rights violations; Baloch IDPS (internally displaced persons) and disappearances; Baloch target killing and genocide and Balochistan’s geo-strategic importance of peace and security in South Asia.
This is indeed a very timely decision taken by BSO-NA to create awareness at an international forum about the actual situation in Balochistan. There has been a growing demand within Balochistan from different political parties and civil society groups that the international community should take notice of the growing human rights violations in the province. It has not happened so because the rest of the world barely knows anything about Balochistan and the events unfolding here.
In most of the conferences held in the United States and Europe about South Asia, the topic of Balochistan is often excluded for various reasons. With the changing geopolitical situation in the region, international governments, media circles and human rights organizations tend to show more interest in Balochistan.
In today’s globalized age, every nation has the right to assert its identity and highlight the problems it is confronted with before the developed world. While Punjabi, Sindhi and Pashtun international conferences regularly take place at different destinations, Baloch conferences, on the other hand, have still not been acceptable to the Pakistani Establishment. It is very unfortunate that Islamabad has exhibited zero tolerance toward any effort by the Balochs to represent themselves. For instance, political leaders and activists who have stood for the Baloch rights have been systematically killed, tortured and subjected to enforced disappearance whereas media that sought to speak the truth from Balochistan was arrogantly restricted. Therefore, it is understandable, how the ruling elite in Islamabad reacts to every such effort initiated by the Balochs in this age of digital revolution.
Whenever, educated Balochs make an effort to speak for their people who have remained victims of an eight-year long brutal military operation, the Establishment opts for desperate methods to discredit the Balochs.
For instance, weeks before the conference, a pro-Islamabad news portal Asia Tribune, termed the conference as a “US and India joint venture” which, according to it, was “aiming at (1) supporting rebels Baloch leaders for storming terrorism in Pakistan (2) Incorporating Iranian and Afghanis’ Baloch areas in purposed Greater Balochistan, (3) Declaring Pakhtune region as Al-Qaida dominated areas and targeting Gas pipeline.”
The article added, “Actually, American, Western and Indian media are deliberately playing up with Balochistan region for guarding their strategic interests of containing China and capturing CARS’ resources. In this connection US, UK, India, Afghanistan and to some extent Afghanistan directly or indirectly are rendering assistance and platforms to the rebels for launching their nefarious activities in the region.”
No doubt, the Baloch movement is an indigenous and legitimate one. Balochs have been mistreated by successive military and democratic governments in Islamabad besides having their enormous natural resources usurped. Now that what Amnesty International calls a “kill and dump” policy has been unleashed under which more than 120 Baloch political workers and professionals have been killed allegedly by the state intelligence agencies, it is the time for Baloch civil society to stand up and educate the rest of the world what the true situation inside Balochistan is. Media in the resource-rich province has been controlled so strictly that even people living inside Pakistan do not have a the slightest clue what actually is transpiring inside the militarized province.
Besides the armed groups and political parties, the Baloch civil society and the media have had an enormous role in speaking on the behalf of people who have suffered immensely over the past so many years. Therefore, it is important that the Baloch political parties should back initiatives like the conference in Washington DC in the collective interest of the people.
A recent statement attributed to Nawabzada Bramdagh Bugti about the conference seems to be the outcome of some misunderstanding between him and the Khan of Kalat. We urge both the leaders to take this conference as an opportunity to sink their minor differences and work together at a time when the blood-riddled dead bodies of Baloch youth are being found every day from garbage, rivers and under the bridges. Leaders should respect the blood of these teenage Baloch children and rise to the occasion. Unity, mutual respect and unconditional support is what the Baloch masses expect from their leaders at this crucial time of the history.
http://www.thebalochhal.com/2011/04/editorial-a-timely-balochistan-international-conference/
No comments:
Post a Comment