Mand Forum منتديات مند
هل تريد التفاعل مع هذه المساهمة؟ كل ما عليك هو إنشاء حساب جديد ببضع خطوات أو تسجيل الدخول للمتابعة.
Mand Forum منتديات مند

All about Mand and Balochistan-كل شئ عن مند وبلوشستان
 
الرئيسيةالرئيسية  أحدث الصورأحدث الصور  التسجيلالتسجيل  دخولدخول  

 

 Pakistan tries to crush the people of Baluchistan

اذهب الى الأسفل 
كاتب الموضوعرسالة
شهداء بلوشستان

شهداء بلوشستان


عدد الرسائل : 11
العمر : 54
تاريخ التسجيل : 28/08/2007

Pakistan tries to crush the people of Baluchistan Empty
مُساهمةموضوع: Pakistan tries to crush the people of Baluchistan   Pakistan tries to crush the people of Baluchistan Icon_minitime2007-09-12, 11:31 am

Today Pakistan celebrates its 60th anniversary of independence. But Baluchistan is the dark underside of Pakistan independence, argues Peter Tatchell in this guest post. Pakistan, he says, is now colluding with the Taliban to crush the Baluch people’s struggle for freedom.




Pakistan is escalating its war against the people of Baluchistan. In recent years, thousands have been jailed, tortured or killed. Military operations have included the use of chemical weapons. Nearly 100,000 Baluch people have been made refugees in their own land. Pakistan ignores their plight; refusing to allow the UN and international aid agencies to assist these displaced persons.
Simultaneously, the Islamabad imperialists are stripping Baluchistan of its vast natural resources of gas, oil, coal, copper and gold, which include an estimated 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and six trillion barrels of oil reserves on-shore and off-shore.
Despite this fabulous wealth, the people of Baluchistan live in abject poverty. Much of the population is malnourished and illiterate, living in squalid housing with no electricity or clean drinking water.
To subjugate and pacify Baluchistan, Islamabad is working on a sinister plan to colonise the region with ethnic Punjabis (the largest and dominant ethnic group in Pakistan). The aim is to make the Baluch people a minority in their own homeland, as happened to the Native Americans in the US and the Aboriginals in Australia. This has already been achieved in major cities like Quetta, where colonist settlers, mostly Punjabis, now predominate.
Cultural imperialism is another weapon in Pakistan’s bid to subjugate Baluchistan. Isalamabad believes it has a sacred duty to ‘civilise’ the ‘uncivilised’ Baluch; to transform them into ‘good Pakistani Muslims'. It has imposed an alien language, Urdu, on the Baluchi-speaking people. Urdu is now the compulsory language of instruction in educational institutions.
The cultural conquest of Baluchistan also involves the Islamification of the traditionally more secular Baluch nation. A large number of religious schools have been funded by the Pakistani state, with a view to imposing Pakistan’s harsher, more narrow-minded interpretation of Islam.
This 'colonisation of the mind' through language and religion is a strategy for the erosion of Baluch national identity and aspirations, according to Baluch nationalist, Dr. Naseer Dashti:
“Replacing a traditional belief and social system of a people by an alternative frame of reference often amounts to changing the entire identity of a people,” he suggests. “As the distinct secular identity of Baluch….is a vehicle of nationalist aspirations, these efforts were used as a means of diminishing political resistance to domination and subjugation.”
The Pakistani contempt for the Baluch people is evident in the way they have used Baluchistan - not the Punjab - as their nuclear testing ground, staging five atomic tests at Chagai in 1998. Since then, there have been an unusually high number of deaths of livestock and nomads. Locally-grown food now tastes strange, water supplies have become contaminated and there has been a significant increase in skin diseases, mental disorders and physical deformities in new-born infants.
Pakistan is an oppressed nation turned oppressor nation. A former colony of the British Empire, it now adopts similar imperial tactics to persecute and exploit the Baluch people – and the people of other provinces such as Sindh and North West Frontier. To maintain its iron grip on Baluchistan, the Pakistani military is building three new garrisons at Kohlu, Dera Bugti and Gwader. This expanded military presence is evidence that the Baluch people are putting up serious resistance to Islamabad’s colonial rule.
What has been the response of the international community and the Left? Only silence and inaction. No solidarity. They have allowed the Baluch people to be suppressed; ignoring their right to self-determination. Since the US is not doing the killing, the anti-war movement doesn’t care. If westerners were massacring Muslims, the Islamists and their far Left apologists would be up in arms. But when Pakistani Muslims slaughter Baluch Muslims, they don’t give a damn.
Pakistani repression is nothing new. After a century as a British protectorate, Baluchistan declared its independence in 1947. It was a short-lived freedom. Within a year, Pakistan invaded and annexed the new nation.
When the British granted independence to India and Pakistan on 14 August 1947 Baluchistan secured its independence as a separate entity from Pakistan, as it was never a part of the British Indian Empire. Both houses of the Baluchistan Parliament rejected the idea of joining Pakistan. But under threat of being arrested by Pakistan Army, as some of his ancestors had been arrested during the British colonial era, Baluchistan’s ruler, Mir Ahmedyar Khan, signed an Instrument of Accession on 27 March 1948 with Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah. This controversial accession, which Khan was not mandated by the Baluch people to sign, promised semi-autonomy to Baluchistan. Alas, genuine self-government never happened.
Despite six decades of Pakistani military occupation, the Baluch people have never given up their quest for independence. A recent Baluch grand jirga, or assembly, decided to approach the International Court of Justice at The Hague to force Pakistan to honour its autonomy commitments under the 1948 Instruments of Accession. Their legal case is strong but realpolitik may deny the Baluch the justice they deserve.
The West’s attitude towards Baluchistan’s quest for the resumption of its brief 1947-48 sovereignty has been less than honourable. Because Britain and the United States want Pakistan as an ally in the so-called “war on terror,” they have armed Pakistan and acquiesced with its suppression of the Baluch.
This is short-sighted political manoeuvring. Pakistan’s war against Baluchistan is strengthening the position of the Taliban, who have exploited the unstable, strife-ridden situation to establish bases and influence in the region. From these bases, the Taliban terrorise the more liberal and secular Baluch people and seek to enforce the Talibanisation of Baluchistan. The Pakistani government tolerates the Taliban, on the grounds that its presence acts as a second force to crush the Baluch people and weaken their struggle for independence.
The Taliban bases in Baluchistan are also hide-outs from which they mount military operations to overthrow the imperfect but democratically elected government of Afghanistan. This campaign to usurp power in Kabul and reimpose a fundamentalist regime seems to be taking place with the tacit collusion of key figures in the Pakistani government, military and intelligence services. The Pakistanis are talking no serious action to stop the Taliban using Baluchistan as a base for its war against Afghan democracy and human rights.
If the Foreign Secretary, David Milliband, wants to strike a blow against the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalism he should press for UN and EU initiatives to end the repression in Baluchistan and secure self-government for the Baluch people.
More information on the Baluch freedom struggle: [url=javascript:ol('http://www.balochvoice.com/');]www.balochvoice.com[/url] , [url=javascript:ol('http://www.sarmachar.org/');]www.sarmachar.org[/url] and [url=javascript:ol('http://www.balochwarna.org/modules/news/');]www.balochwarna.org[/url]
الرجوع الى أعلى الصفحة اذهب الى الأسفل
 
Pakistan tries to crush the people of Baluchistan
الرجوع الى أعلى الصفحة 
صفحة 1 من اصل 1

صلاحيات هذا المنتدى:لاتستطيع الرد على المواضيع في هذا المنتدى
Mand Forum منتديات مند :: Balochistan بلوشستان :: News and Views أخبار وآراء-
انتقل الى: