WASHINGTON - 5/25/2008
Peace and environmental activists from occupied Baluchistan will join hands with their U.S. counterparts to mark the 10th anniversary of Pakistan testing its deadly Islamic Bomb in occupied Baluchistan on May 28.
The event will be held outside the Pakistan embassy in Washington DC, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The exact address is 3517 International Ct. NW Washington DC. The metro station is Van Ness on the red line.
A noon to dusk hunger strike will also be staged to draw the attention of the U.S. public to the ongoing brutal military operation in Baluchistan.
Baluchistan, a Texas-size stateless region, is divided among Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan and a bloody army operation continues there despite installing of a civilian regime in Pakistan. Pakistan's coup leader Gen. (R) Pervez Musharraf is still the president of the artificial state created by the British in 1947. Musharraf, like other army generals, is directly responsible for the Baluch genocide.
Baluchistan was annexed by Pakistan in March 1948 and a move is afoot to knock the doors of the International Court of Justice.
Last week three Baluch tribesmen were burnt alive in Pakistani-occupied Baluchistan. Several thousand people have been killed since the start of a bloody insurgency in 2005, which the Baluch call the Fifth War of Liberation against Pakistani occupation of their homeland since March 1948.
The Baluch have risen in arms against the occupation of their country by Pakistan in 1948, 1958 and 1962 and 1973-77. The latest uprising started in 2005 and the dead include former governor and chief minister of Baluchistan, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, and member of the provincial assembly Mir Bala'ach Marri. More than 7000 people were jailed and tortured in Pakistan's gestapo-style prisons. Those jailed victims included former chief minister of Baluchistan, Sardar Akhtar Mengal.
Though all nuclear weapons are equally condemnable, Pakistan's weapons of mass destruction is even more dangerous as it is religion-specific. As part of its state ideology, Pakistan considers people from other religions as its enemies and has made clear it will not desist from being the first to use nuclear weapons.
Islamic fundamentalists took to the streets of Pakistan when the nuclear weapons were tested in Chagai 10 years ago. They had missile replicas mounted on trucks with "United States" inscribed on them
A number of U.S.-based Baluch human rights activists will participate in the protest rally in DC. American guitarists will sing peace songs, while U.S. poets will recite poems. Speeches by Baluch and Sindhi activists will deal with the situation faced by the people of Baluchistan and Sindh.
Similar protests are planned in Pakistan and other Western capitals, including Toronto and Oslo.
The event in DC has been organized by the Baloch Society of North America and the American Friends of Baluchistan
http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/8581 |
