Congressional hearing on Balochistan

The US Congressional hearing on the issue of Balochistan has created quite a buzz all over the world, particularly in Pakistan and the US. Apart from the Foreign Office’s ‘concern’ that has been conveyed to the US, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman also raised this issue with the US administration. “Pakistan views this hearing with serious concern and considers it unacceptable in no uncertain terms. This kind of an exercise constitutes interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs,” said Ms Rehman. Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher convened the hearing on Balochistan and said that it was certainly not a ‘stunt’. He was quite critical of Pakistan’s role in the province and said that the human rights violations in Balochistan are being conducted “by regimes that are against US values”. Lieutenant-Colonel (retd) Ralph Peters, who is quite infamous for his article titled ‘Blood borders: How a better Middle East would look’, said: “The Pakistani government is not our friend…Pakistan’s borders make no sense and do not work.” In the said article, he had written: “In each case, this hypothetical redrawing of boundaries reflects ethnic affinities and religious communalism — in some cases, both.” He is applying the same kind of logic when it comes to Balochistan. It is an idealistic notion because states tend not to be willing to give up territory for the sake of so-called ethnically homogenous boundaries. Amnesty International’s T Kumar requested the US to “apply the Leahy Amendment without waivers to all Pakistani military units in Balochistan”. This law states: “none of the funds made available by this Act may be provided to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if…such unit has committed gross violations of human rights”. Pakistan Director of Human Rights Watch Ali Dayan Hasan said that in many ways [the Pakistan military] behaves like a brutal occupying military. He also pointed at the killings of settlers in Balochistan.

In 2010, there were many target killings of settlers in Balochistan. This was condemned by the Baloch leaders and others. Underlying the criticism was the idea that the Baloch insurgents must distinguish between the state and ordinary people. Even if the Pakistani security establishment is dominated by Punjabis, ordinary Punjabis do not have anything to do with the state’s cruel policies. Partly these killings took place because of the frustration and anger at the atrocities being committed by the Pakistani military establishment in Balochistan and partly because, unlike the past struggles — particularly the movement in the 1970s — the current struggle is informed by a narrower nationalistic approach. These killings did decline after criticism and in the past two years, there have been very few such cases. The Baloch realise that if a resistance movement sinks to the same level as that of its oppressors, it loses the moral high ground. It cannot be ruled out that in order to defame the Baloch movement, the intelligence agencies themselves are indulging in Machiavellian manoeuvres by targeting the settlers.

The Baloch are being hounded in their own land and outside Balochistan by the military and its proxies. This is the fifth time that the Baloch have waged a struggle against the Pakistani establishment since 1948. Instead of giving them their due rights, the Pakistani military establishment has left no stone unturned to brutally terrorise the Baloch. The ongoing military operation has left thousands of Baloch missing and hundreds of them have died a horrific death at the hands of the military. What is needed is a political solution instead of the military’s heavy-handedness. If we do not make any effort to hold discussions with the Baloch leaders in the mountains and in exile, the danger to the unity of the federation cannot be ignored. Now that the Baloch issue has been raised on a global platform, it is hoped that instead of knee-jerk reactions by Pakistan, we would see our politicians stand united against the military and demand that the military operation be ended immediately so that a political solution can be found.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20122\11\story_11-2-2012_pg3_1