The pro-independence American Friends of Balochistan that works closely with the Baloch National Front inside Balochistan is spearheading a campaign to stop military aid to Pakistan. The A.F.B. believes in the leadership of the Three Shining Stars of Balochistan, Mir Hyrbyair Marri, Nawab Brahumdagh Bugti and Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch.
By Ahmar Mastikhan
Just as a Pakistani son of an air force general with links to Islamic terrorists was planning to wreak mayhem on New York, two Americans told a gathering of the pro-independence American Friends of Balochistan in the U.S. capitol that Pakistan was a kleptocracy and the U.S. administration must talk to the Baloch resistance leaders in stead.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, who tried to blow up Times Square last weekend is a son of Pakistan air vice marshall (R) Baharul Haq and was an operative of the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan; but incredibly the law enforcement officials in New York said they know nothing about the terrorist's links with the Pakistani terror outfit.
However, at a meeting the same day in Washington DC, David Dienstag and Andrew Eiva, formerly of the Federation for American Afghan Action, put Pakistan on the mat while speaking at an event organized by the A.F.B. to draw attention to the plight of morethan 1,0000 missing Baloch in Balochistan.
The event entitled "Spring returns, but more than 1,000 Baloch missing person have not" was held at the DC Cafe in the heart of the U.S. capital. The meeting brought together U.S. nationals from diverse backgrounds gather for a brainstorming session and talks over the future of the Afpak region and the the re-emergence of Balochistan as a free nation on the world map.
Balochistan was a free country before the morally corrupt white men of Great Britain enslaved and colonized the region and then left India divided in 1947. Pakistan conquered and annexed Balochistan at the point of gun nearly eight months later in March 1948.
The Texas-sized territory has been in turmoil since then and a heroic struggle is being waged by the Baloch freedom fighters or sarmachars against the Pakistan military -- the fourth largest in the world and one armed with nuclear weapons.
David Dienstag and Andrew Eiva, formerly of the Federation for American Afghan Action, who had helped get the mujahideen stinger missiles and other advanced weaponry to confront Soviet ioccupation, expressed their disgust over the U.S. policy regarding Pakistan and Balochistan and said they felt vested interests were undermining U.S. national interests by continuing to do business with the Pakistan military in stead of talking with the Baloch leaders.
The duo denied they had any links with the Central Investigations Agency, though their opponent's portrayed them as such. Andrew Eiva read passages from George Crile's bestselling book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History where the author said the C.I.A. believed Eiva was a foreign agent.
Eiva narrated his ordeal when he was abducted by Pakistani intelligence officials and described Pakistan as "the most ungrateful recepient of U.S. aid."
Says Dienstag, "Our foreign policy stewards still haven't come to grips with the real string pullers of Ossama, the Taliban, Lashkar and both versions of the old Hezbi Islami. That would be the Pakistani intelligence services and the Punjabi racket hiding behind the veil of Pakistani civil government."
Fauzia Deeba of the World Sindhi Institute rebuked Pakistan for its continued atrocities against the people of Balochistan and said the fate of as many as 140 Baloch women who were abducted by the Pakistan military and state agencies was still unknown.
Suzanne Buchanan, a conflict resolution and communications specialist, who has worked in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as Iran attended the meeting and shared her success story about updating the curriculum for some religious schools in Pakistan.
Carmen Radu, a volunteer activist of the Amnesty International, Susan Fraser of the Freedom for Sudan committee, among others, attended the meeting.
A representative of the A.F.B., which calls itself the voice of the Baloch resistance in the U.S. capital said, "We are a secular people while both Pakistan and Iran are Islamic republics where only a Muslim can become the head of state or head of government even in this day and age," adding, "The Baloch want Pakistani and Iranian troops to withdraw from their homeland."
He said, "As I speak, I can feel the pain being inflicted to freedom activists from Balochistan who are now languishing in Gestapo-style dungeons of the Pakistan military in secretive places. Imagine their nails being pulled out and their skin being burned with cigarette butts.
"Imagine their family not knowing where their loved ones are."
The involuntary and forced disappearances number at least more than one thousand in Balochistan. As such Balochistan is facing is one of the world's largest human rights crisis.
The A.F.B. representative said the Baloch are as different from the Punajbis as the Germans are from thr English.
"Just this example may be an eye opener: Punjabis fart with pride in public, while for the Baloch it is such a shameful taboo that even today a male would go and commit suicide if he farts in public.
He said the Baloch wanted Pakistan and shall never become Pakistanis. "As educated people, you guys will agree nationality can not be enforced on a people against their wishes."
The 2006 Convention for Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearance states in Article 1, Section 1, that “no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance,” and in Article 5 that “The widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity as defined in applicable international law and shall attract the consequences provided for under such applicable international law.”
Baloch political and freedom activists meet the Convention’s criteria.
Many of the missing have been detained in unknown places for months, in some cases years, without having criminal charges brought against them. Multiple sources state that detainees endure routine mental and physical torture as part of interrogation about the Baloch insurgency.
Families of the disappeared are suffering the intense distress of being ignorant of their loved ones’ whereabouts, and of being economically deprived by the absence of male relatives.
At least two military-controlled intelligence agencies, the Military Intelligence and the Inter Services Intelligence, are the alleged perpetrators of involuntary, enforced disappearances, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
The 2006 Convention for Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearance declares that “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.”
As Americans you guys can make a huge difference. I urge you to please write to your law makers, congressmen and senators, to help end the atrocities being perpetrated on Balochistan.
Suzanne Buchanan, a conflict resolution and communications specialist, who has worked in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as Iran attended the meeting and shared her success story about updating the curriculum for some religious schools in Pakistan.
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