By Aziz Baloch
On behalf of the Balochistan Human Rights Council of Canada, the Baloch community of Vancouver would like to inform the peace loving people of Canada gathered here today and the human rights organizations about the atrocities and human rights violations unleashed upon Baloch nation by the army, paramilitary units and fascist clerics in Pakistan and Iran.This is not the first time that the Pakistani and Iranian governments have jointly conspired and conducted military operations against the Baloch people in the Iranian and Pakistani occupied Balochistan.
During the bloody military operation of 1973, Pakistani occupied Balochistan went through a phase of genocide with a loss of 5000 civilians including women and children. During this particular military operation, that lasted four years – 1973 – 1977, Iranian fighter jets and pilots were used to bomb the villages inside the Pakistani Balochistan territory.
While the Pakistan army's military operation is on full swing in the Pakistani Balochistan, Iranian fascist clerics are busy hanging Baloch youth on the streets in Iran. Thousands of Baloch youth have disappeared, tortured and killed and more than a million tribal Baloch families from Bugti and Marri areas have been displaced and their livelihood destroyed. According to an HRCP report that recently came out in the press, 1.5 million internally displaced people are living in inhuman conditions in refugee camps on the very soil of their motherland.
Today a young Baloch, Gholam Haider Raisani is in a Quetta Jail (capital city of Pakistani Balochistan) and the present govt of Pakistan wants to extradite him to Iran where he will be hanged publicly. He will face torture before being hung by Iranian regimes without a trial. Therefore Baloch people are sitting in a hunger strike in front of the press club in Quetta, to stop the extradition of Gholam Haider Raisani Baloch to fundamentalist regime of
Iran. Hundreds of Baloch youth had been hung in public and thousands more are waiting for the orders of execution in Iranian jails.
In March 2005, Pakistani army officers in Sui, Balochistan raped Pakistani female physician Dr. Shazia Khalid by an army captain. A Baloch leader, a former governor and premier of Balochistan and powerful tribal chief of Bugti tribe, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti demanded that military that the officer should be brought to the court and justice should be served. But President Pervez Musharrraf (He is still president of Pakistan) himself acquitted the rapist army officer without any trial. Such undemocratic rulers, which forcefully occupied Balochistan in March 1948, are involved in oppressing the Baloch nation for the last 60 years.
General (retired) Pervez Musharrraf started the 5th military operation in Balochistan against the Baloch nation and the Pakistani generals used United States military aid, which was clearly meant to be used against "war on terror", but instead they were used against the Baloch people. Prominent Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, former governor/premier of Balochistan, and later Mir Balach Marri (former provincial assembly members of Balochistan) both were assassinated by the Pakistani army. From March 2005 till today more than 7000 political, social, and human rights activist have disappeared, been kidnapped, tortured and are being killed. Just recently in June 2008 Pakistani intelligences arrested 70 Bugti tribesmen in Chaman, Balochistan and 200 more Bugti tribesmen have disappeared since the 18 February 2008 general elections in Pakistan.
As I speak right now there are three hunger strike camps in front of Quetta Press Club in Balochistan demanding the release of their loved ones. The undemocratic state of Pakistan is exploiting the rich natural resources of Balochistan for the last sixty years at gunpoint. Baloch people are tired of living under such tyranny and atrocities; Balochistan is the most backward and deprived province of Pakistan. Therefore, a young Baloch senator Sanaullah Baloch last Friday June 2008 resigned from his post as member of senate due to the Pakistani government's continued oppression against its people.
In May 28, 1998 Pakistan tested its nuclear weapons in Chagai, Balochistan, a deadly nuclear test destroyed that region facing the worst draught there were no crops to be grown. Baloch families, particularly newborn babies, were born with serious health problems in those regions. Native Baloch tribesmen's were displaced without any compensation - they have lost their homes, livestock and lands.
The situation is similar in Iranian occupied Balochistan. Since 1928 till today Baloch genocide is going on at all levels – cultural, economic, and political and of human lives because their cultural, social, religious, economic, and political rights are being denied. There is a systematic discrimination against Baloch and other minorities such as Kurds, Azaris, Arabs, Bahais, Christians, Jews and other minorities in Iran. Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan and military generals are clearly involved in transferring nuclear weapons technology to Iran where after Pakistan; the second Islamic nuclear bomb is secretly being built to further erode the peace and stability in the region.
According to Amnesty International reports an eye witness saw Roya Sarani, (innocent Baloch girl) aged 11 being shot dead on the streets of Zahedan at about 05:30 pm on 16, May 2007 after leaving for a school examination by the Law enforcement force (LEF)… Ladies and gentlemen here is the picture of the innocent 11-year-old girl. The second story is about a young Baloch human rights activist from "Voice of Justice of Young People's Society"
… Yaqub Mehrnehad, who was arrested on May 2007 after attending a meeting at a provincial office of culture and Islamic guidance where governor of Zahedan himself was present. Today Yaqub Mehrnehad is facing the death sentence in an Iranian jail.
Both the Islamic states of Iran and Pakistan are collaborating with each other, suppressing the Baloch in both the occupied parts of Balochistan. Baloch people are appealing to the international community to take a notice of these atrocities and oppression, they have been ruling Balochistan from the barrel of the gun, treating Balochistan as their colony where Baloch nation is treated as a third class citizen on their own native soil.
Behalf of the Balochistan Human Rights Council of Canada we appeal to our democratic government of Canada, the honorable Prime Minister Mr. Stephen Harper, human rights organizations and the United Nations to intervene and save the Baloch nation from genocide and annihilation in Pakistan and Iran. Help us by stopping military aid to Pakistan and putting an end to Iran's nuclear weapons program, which we believe will be used against Baloch civilians, and neighboring countries. Thank You
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