Baloch leader welcomes HRW report

GENEVA: Mehran Baloch, the Baloch representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, has welcomed the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report entitled “We can torture, kill and keep you for years”, a three-part series of investigations on Balochistan.

The report alleges that hundreds of political activists are being held and tortured by security forces without charge in the Balochistan province and many of the detained are killed later with impunity. The 132-page report is based on 100 interviews by HRW in 2010 and 2011 with relatives of the ‘disappeared’, rights activists, former detainees and witnesses of the abuses.

Mehran Baloch said in a statement: “HRW deserves commendation for exposing the true nature of the atrocities going on in Balochistan. The exposure of the torture cells, the forced disappearances, the inhuman treatment to political prisoners and target killings of the Baloch nationalists is a way of life. HRW has done a bold job in researching to reveal the reality of the bitter conflict in Balochistan. It clearly shows that the nationalists are the biggest target and that there is a state policy which endorses the targeting of the secular nationalists.”

He said that the federal and the provincial governments have rejected the findings of the report without caring to look into it. “Dismissing a report which brings out the gruesome reality is akin to living in the state of denial. The powerless provincial government can only toe the line of the centre and has no answers to the questions raised in this report. They are only puppets, reading from a written script.”

He said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government, especially Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, made false proclamations to hoodwink the world opinion and to deceive the Baloch people. He said the atrocities had increased under the watch of the elected government and it had become “too obvious that the current government is only covering up the crimes against Baloch people”.

Mehran Baloch said that more international organisations needed to bring out studies and research work into the human rights abuses rife in Balochistan. He said the international community must not remain silent any longer and take up the case of the human rights abuses with the Pakistani government.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=60726&Cat=2&dt=8/2/2011