His Excellency Barack H Obama
President United States of America
The White House
Washington
United States of America
Subject: Appeal for US Intervention in Balochistan to Stop Killing of Baloch People
Dear Mr. President,
We would like to draw your kind attention towards the gruesome violations of human rights by the Pakistani security agencies in Balochistan for the last many years.
This letter is to request you to take immediate and practical efforts to investigate and address widespread internationally documented human rights abuses that have occurred and are ongoing in Pakistani controlled Balochistan.
Over the past few years, the people of Balochistan have witnessed immense and brutal measures from the State of Pakistan in response to the legitimate demands of the Baloch people for fundamental human rights of civil liberty, justice and right to freedom. The Pakistani state has responded with the brutal attacks committed by its military, intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces.
Pakistani military is conducting a ruthless operation in Pakistani controlled Balochistan for the last 10 years in which thousands of innocent men, women and children have been mercilessly killed, hundreds of thousands have been displaced and thousands are missing. Whereabouts of thousands of the Baloch civilians are still unknown. Pakistani govt. officials have accepted of more than 1000 missing person themselves last year and we genuinely believe that their lives are in grave danger. In addition, the Pakistani military establishment has created numerous religious terrorist organizations as proxy “Death Squads” comprising of drug peddlers, dacoits and convicted criminals. These are working with different nomenclatures and are given the task of physically eliminating the secular Baloch intellectuals, political and human rights activists.
The graphic details of human rights violation in Balochistan have been published by international human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The role of Pakistani army in the killings and abduction of the Baloch activists has been highlighted in the detailed reports from these organisations.
There has been a significant rise in the magnitude of the abduction of the Baloch by Pakistani secret agencies for the last many months. From July 2010 Pakistani intelligence agencies have killed more then 200 Baloch political, human rights and social activists and intellectuals, writers and academics and then dumped their bodies in open fields. The most recent report of Human Rights Watch report on 28 July 2011 says that more then 100 bodies have been found in Balochistan http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/07/28/pakistan-security-forces-disappear-opponents-balochistan The recovered bodies of all victims, without exception, bear signs of extreme torture and they all have been killed and dumped in open air in the same way in different parts of Balochistan. They all bear the hallmark of professional torturers. The policy of killing and dumping is premeditated, organized and systematic.
Excellency,
These acts implicate serious violations of Pakistan’s obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other applicable norms of international human rights law. These acts also violate peremptory norms of international laws, such as the prevention and prohibition of torture and crimes against humanity, from which no derogation is permitted. Moreover, decisions by the Pakistani State to prevent foreign journalists from entering or reporting in Balochistan has created the frightening scenario where the Pakistani state continue to violate human rights on a massive scale without transparency or accountability.
The Baloch are living a life at the gunpoint in the shadows of inhuman atrocities by the most atrocious state establishment in the contemporary world. Their very survival as a nation is threatened by the distortion of their history, occupation of their land and systematic efforts and designs aimed at submerging them in an artificial Pakistani-Islamic culture. To strangulate the Baloch national aspirations once and for all, the Pakistani army is waging a war with no regards for humanitarian laws. The war against the Baloch is being waged without witnesses. They are refusing access to foreign observers, journalists and humanitarian organizations.
Honourable President,
The victims of Pakistani atrocities in Balochistan have waited long enough for genuine justice and for those responsible to be held accountable. In the light of actions taken by the United States in collaboration with international community in various other regions of the world with respect of human right situations, we genuinely believe that your government has the power and authority to investigate claims of human rights abuses in Balochistan.
The situation for the Baloch is alarming. We believe that we are justified in asking for the immediate intervention of United States in order to bring about an immediate end to genocide acts being committed in Balochistan.
We strongly request you to press up on the Pakistani army establishment to stop all atrocities against the Baloch political, social and human rights activists and civilians.
We will be grateful if the Government of United States could initiate the process for the establishment of an international commission to investigate the heinous crimes against humanity committed by the Pakistani State establishment in Balochistan.
Yours Sincerely,
Samad Baloch
General Secretary
Baloch Human Rights Council (UK)
smdbaloch@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Baloch-Human-Rights-Council/153593348036053
Dr Lakhu Luhana
General Secretary
World Sindhi Congress
http://www.worldsindhicongress.org/
lakhuluhana@yahoo.co.uk
http://balochistanhcr.blogspot.com/2011/08/letter-to-president-obama-for-us.html
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