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Remarks by Asad Rahman
Delivered at the Baluchistan International Conference, Washington, D.C., Nov. 21, 2009

Statement on Balochistan

A situation akin to 1971 is brewing in Balochistan. Radical nationalists advocating a separate state of Balochistan are steadily gaining popularity at the expense of those who continue to look for a solution within the federal framework.

The reasons for this surge in separatism are quite apparent. The people of Balochistan have a long list of grievances, and next to none have been addressed over the last 60 years. Instead of negotiations and redressing the wrongs, successive Pakistani governments have resorted to brute force in the form of five military operations starting as early as 1948.

The 1973 constitution provided for complete provincial autonomy within ten years. To date, this remains a meaningless promise on paper.

In fact, Balochistan continues to be ruled as a colony, its resources benefiting the federal government and dominant provinces. Grueling poverty and deprivation defines much of the province. 88% of the population of Balochistan is under the poverty line. Balochistan has the lowest literacy rate, the lowest school enrollment ra-tio, the lowest educational attainment index, and the lowest health index relative to the other provinces. 78% of the population has no access to safe drinking water or electricity, and 79% has no access to natural gas. The federal government’s presence is made apparent not through public welfare activities, but through violence and aggression. A large number of military and paramilitary troops (upwards of 37,000) have been stationed in different parts of the province and state-perpetrated violence has become a common feature of the political landscape of Balochistan. Disappearance of political activists and extrajudicial killings has become all too common. It is stating the obvious that such a situation has given rise to alienation, extreme resentment, and a feeling of enslavement to the Pakistani state.

As the injustices, crimes, rapes and genocide of 1971 unfolded before our eyes, too many Pakistanis and the international community were silent. Today, as Balochistan treads down the same path, we are again silent. We are, as were then, beneficiaries of the economic exploitation. Sui gas is available in our homes but there is none in most of Balochistan. Revenues collected from goods and services originating in Balochistan are spent elsewhere.

As conscious citizens who recognize the injustice, and indeed the danger, in this, we demand that the following steps be taken by the federal government so as to end the oppression of the people of Balochistan.

1. An immediate and complete cessation of military and paramilitary actions in all parts of Balochistan, withdrawal of the military and paramilitary forces to their barracks, and reduction of military and paramilitary forces to the level of the year 2000. No more cantonments should be built in Balochistan.
2. An immediate end to the torture, harassment, abduction and murders of the activists of Balochistan. All activists must be released unconditionally, and total amnesty should be declared for those who took up arms to defend their right and honour. Over 1300 people of Balochistan have been ‘disappeared’ – they must be produced in court as per the directives of the Supreme Court, and judicial inquiry made into their ‘disappearances’, their conditions during the period of ‘disappear-ance’, and the legality or illegality of these acts.
3. The provisions of 1973 constitution pertaining to provincial autonomy should be enacted immediately, giving Balochistan and all other provinces control over all but four areas of governance (defense, communications, currency, and for-eign affairs). The Concurrent Lists should be abolished.
4. The people of Balochistan should be the first beneficiaries of their resources. Oil, gas, gold, copper and silver originating in the province should first benefit the people of the province and then the rest of the country. A formula for sharing re-sources should be worked out to the satisfaction of all provinces.
5. Comprehensive public infrastructure including schools, colleges, hospitals, water supply systems, roads, etc, must be built. Special attention must be given to creating a skilled labour force among the people of Balochistan that is capable of assuming professional responsibilities at every level.
6. Land owned or acquired by the armed forces for ‘strategic’ purposes should be handed back to the provincial government. Construction of all new cantonments should cease immediately. Likewise, all large ‘development’ projects, including Gwadar, should be put on hold until the conflict is resolved and reservations of the people of Balochistan have been addressed.
7. The 80,000 or so people reportedly displaced by successive military opera-tions should be rehabilitated immediately.
8. Political manipulation at all levels by the federal government and intelli-gence agencies, including pitching tribes and political groups against each other, should cease immediately.
9. Priority should be given to the people of Balochistan in staffing all institu-tions, particularly government, in Balochistan. The federal quota for the people of Balochistan should also be increased.
10. The people of Balochistan should be compensated for the economic exploita-tion that they have been subject to for the past 60 years.

The Baloch, who are facing political oppression, cultural, socio-economic exploi-tation, ethnic discrimination, ecological destruction, arbitrary arrest, torture and ex-ecutions at the hand of the Pakistani rulers are no exception. For more than 60 years the Baloch have continuously appealed to the international community asking them to seriously consider their grievances, desires and demands. But the interna-tional community paid no heed. As a result, many young Baloch, in their hopeless-ness, frustration and desperation have abandoned the path of non-violence in order to draw the attention of the internal and international community. This shows that the current understanding and interpretation and application of the principle of self- determination have proven inadequate in preventing both major and minor conflicts.

The right to self-determination is a fundamental right enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the International Covenant of Human Rights and the Covenant of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. These instru-ments state that “all peoples have a right to self-determination” and that “by vir-tue of that right they are free to determine, without external interference, their political status to pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” The United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, which took place in Vienna in June 1993, affirmed that the right to self- determination is a part of international law on human rights. At the same time, it is recognized that com-pliance with the right of self-determination is a fundamental condition for the enjoyment of other human rights and fundamental freedoms, be they civil, political, economic, social or cultural. Despite these seemingly clearly agreed upon definitions, there is no agreement on the content, applicability and implementation of the right to self-determination.

Self-determination has its roots in and continues to be inseparably linked to the core concept of democracy, understanding this to mean the right to choose one’s rulers and to participation in decision-making. Self-determination should not be viewed as a one-time choice, but as an ongoing process, which ensures peoples participation in decision-making and control over their own destiny, culture and natural resources.

The exclusion and actions by government against these ethnic minorities is nothing short of ethnocide.  At stake is their economic and cultural survival.  Poverty, malnutrition, mortality, illiteracy and unemployment are markedly higher among the tribal peoples than among the rest of the populations of Pakistan.  The state policies of assimilation and national integration, including education and linguistic policies, are all contributing to this ethnocide.

The situation in Balochistan is grave and demands for independence are growing stronger. The above steps are the minimum that must necessarily be taken if justice is to be done. If they are not taken, then self determination will be the logical and justified demand of the people of Balochistan. It is high time that Pakistan and the international community woke up.

Asad Rahman: Asad Rahman is program director at the Sungi Development Foundation. He had taken part in the Baluch resistance against the Pakistan military occupation of Baluchistan along with the Marri guerillas in 1973-77. He was the youngest but fittest in the popular London Group, when at the age of 21, he used to ambush the Pakistani military convoys and take away ammunition from them to sustain the Baluch liberation movement. An eyewitness to the “genocide” of the Baluch in the 70s, Rahman alias Chakar Khan, is still an ardent supporter of an independent Baluchistan. He recalls Pakistan military brutality saying Baloch women were used as ‘comfort women’ in military custody and male fighters were captured and thrown down from flying helicopters.

See also: Revisiting the Che Guevara-like days of Baloch resistance movement with Asad Rehman, 21 October 2009; The Crisis in Balochistan, by Asad’s brother, Rashed Rahman.

Page Source: The Baluch

Go to Statements by:
Selig Harrison | Robert Selle
Wendy Johnson | Laurie Deamer| Andrew Eiva
Hyrbyair Marri | Asad Rahman
For other speakers see links at TheBaluch website