Pakistan has launched a new military offensive against the people of Baluchistan, using US-supplied weapons.
The Guardian – Comment Is Free – 11 February 2008
Just days after being feted by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Downing Street, Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf intensified his war against the people of occupied Baluchistan.
“After blind (indiscriminate) bombardment by Pakistani helicopter gunships, jetfighters, and the firing of long-range missiles by land forces, the dead bodies of men, women and children are lying in the open fields, becoming prey to wild animals,” stated a Baluch tribesman from Kohistan Marri, Baluchistan, on a satellite phone to Radio Gwank. This latest military massacre has also been reported by Radio Balochi FM.
http://www.gwank.org/vob/news/news_20080202.ra
http://www.radiobalochi.org/BH_Rights/May_day_call_baloch080203.html
Pakistan was once a colony. Now it is a coloniser. In 1948, it invaded and annexed Baluchistan; subjecting the briefly independent nation to neo-colonial rule. The people of Baluchistan were never asked, and never agreed, to join Pakistan. Ever since 1948, they have been subjected to military occupation, ethnic persecution, cultural hegemony and mass impoverishment by the Pakistani state. The current military offensive is the latest of many attempts to crush the Baluch people.
According to information that I have received, which originates from the recently bombed areas inside Baluchistan, the new attacks began two weeks ago. The reports state that the Pakistani army and air force, using US-supplied F-16 jet fighters and Cobra helicopter gunships, are strafing and bombing tents, houses and livestock – not military targets.
These are war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Many Baluch men, women and children have been killed and injured. Pakistani forces have ransacked the houses and tents of tribespeople, often beating, and sometimes torturing, the inhabitants. Around 600 innocent civilians – mostly women and children – have been arrested by the army and taken to an unknown place.
In what looks like a scorched earth policy, Pakistani soldiers are destroying people’s homes and killing or confiscating their farm animals (sheep, goats, camels and horses). Some of these animals are being killed to feed the invading Pakistani army; depriving nomads of their only source of subsistence. Looting is widespread. Soldiers are reportedly plundering the belongings of Baluch people; stealing carpets, cloth, gold ornaments and money.
“They (Musharraf’s colonial army) are attacking us in just the same way that they did during the Bhutto regime from 1971 to 1975,” a tribesman told Radio Gwank.
“Vast areas of Kohlu, Dera-Bugti, Zain-Koh, Bhambor, Dode Wadh, Daho, Hampur, Sohreen Koh and Tranne have been cordoned off by huge Pakistani military forces. The civilians cannot find any way to flee from the area to save their own lives. They are arresting and killing innocent people travelling by road, and they (the military) have established scores of check-points on each and every road junction.”
“The harsh winter, along with the cordoning off the whole area and brutal attacks by Pakistani army, has left the innocent civilian population in an immensely miserable situation – as has the absence of food and lack of medical care to those who have been injured in attacks by the Islamic Pakistani Army.
“There are no terrorists here. By collectively punishing the non-combatant Baluch nomad tribes, the Pakistani military is clearly violating the Geneva Convention,” he added.
Dictator Pervez Musharraf has banned journalists from going to the scene of the military attacks to witness first-hand the carnage. Pakistani news media have been threatened with closure if they report the massacres or portray the army in a negative light. Journalists filing “hostile” reports risk being arrested and jailed.
Baluch radio stations have broadcast appeals to the Red Cross, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and western aid agencies to investigate the Pakistani atrocities and provide humanitarian relief to the victims.
Baluch human rights activists have called for United Nations peace-keeping forces to be deployed in Baluchistan; and for Baluchistan to be declared a no-fly zone for Pakistani gunship helicopters and jetfighters.
They also want an end to western support – especially arms sales – to the Pakistani regime. In 2006 alone, the US sold Musharaff weapons totaling a value of $3.6 billion, including F-16 attack aircraft. Previous US sales included Bell and Cobra attack helicopters.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/pakarms.pdf
Britain has sold more modest amounts of weaponry to Musharraf, such as small arms, artillery, helicopter components and military communications equipment.
We know for certain that US fighters and helicopters have been used to bomb and attack Baluchistan. It is very likely that some British weapons have also been deployed in the latest military operations.
Baluch human rights campaigners say the Musharraf dictatorship is claiming that the current military offensive is part of the “war on terror.” But they insist the Baluchs are neither terrorists, fundamentalists, pro-Taliban nor al-Qaida sympathisers. These allegations are just propaganda by Musharraf to justify his occupation and persecution of Baluchistan.
In truth, Baluchistan – unlike much of the rest of Pakistan – has a strong democratic and secular tradition. The people want a separation of religion from the state. They yearn for the restoration of independence, self-government, democracy and human rights. We should support them.