In Geneva, Bugti hopes Balochistan flag will fly inside UN

GENEVA — A leader of what might become world’s newest secular republic in southwest Asia — mirror image of Israel and India–, called Balochistan, has expressed optimism his Baloch people will one day have an independent state.

Nawab Brahumdagh Bugti, president of the Baloch Republican Party, visited the six-day awareness camp set up by his party at the Broken Chair, right across from the Palace of Nations, in Geneva Thursday. After the visit, Mr Bugti tweeted, “I hope we will raise our flag inside the UN.”  He called the six-day awareness campaign a great effort by his colleagues to raise the profile of Balochistan in the international arena.

The BRP’s Swiss chapter in a statement Friday said Baloch blood was being shed as “if it was water” in the killing fields of France-sized Balochistan, adding  that the objective of the camp was to expose Pakistani state atrocities, Baloch genocide and tsunami of human rights violations before the eyes of the international community.  The BRP statement was signed by Swiss chapter president, Sher Baz Bugti, vice president Qadir Bugti and secretary general, Mohammad Nawaz Bugti,

Thousands of pamphlets were distributed to human rights activists and tourists from different countries who visited the BRP awareness camp and learned about the Pakistani atrocities against Baloch people and the fragile Balochistan situation.

The BRP statement said, “Human rights violations by Pakistan’s armed forces in Balochistan are escalating on a daily basis; Baloch civilians are being slaughtered during military operations and indiscriminate bombardments continue. Baloch youth, and even women and children, are being abducted and shifted to Pakistan military torture cells, and they are being murdered under custody. Baloch blood is being shed as if it was water.”  The BRP said the silence of responsible human rights bodies was inexcusable. Brahumdagh Bugti also urged the human rights organizations including the United Nations to take urgent notice of the human rights violations in Balochistan and take immediate, practical and effective steps to stop the Baloch genocide.

The BRP chief did hold out an olive branch to Islamabad in fall of 2015 but hawks in the Pakistan military establishment apparently believe any talks with exiled Balochistan leaders are useless and the liberation movement can be wiped out by surge of Pakistan state brutalities.

At the BRP camp in Geneva, people from different parts of the world condemned the Pakistan’s barbarism against Baloch people and expressed their solidarity with the Balochistan struggle.

The Baloch are engaged in a David-and-Goliath struggle against Pakistan security forces, who have an annual budget of $8 billion. Pakistan army. Frontier Corps, Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence, who are accused of committing crimes against humanity in Balochistan, enjoy complete military support of China which is taking over the key, strategic port of Gwadar.  Islamabad also get arms and ammunitions from the US and other Western powers in the name of fighting the Taliban but use it against secular forces in Balochistan without any questions being raised about the end use of such US and allied weaponry.

The campaigns led by the BRP and other groups and activists have led to some degree of taking notes in Washington DC. The premier United States Institute for Peace, widely believed to be a sister arm of the U.S. State Department, in a report did criticize the state forces. However, the report neither mentioned the existence of mass graves in Balochistan, nor did it have any words the security agencies, including the infamous ISI, are committing war crimes there.

The present uprising in Balochistan, which the Baloch call a war of liberation, is the fifth of its kind since Pakistan’s forcible occupation of Balochistan country on March 27, 1948. The assassination of the spiritual leader of the present revolt, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, 79, — Brahumdagh Bugti’s grandfather– on the orders of army dictator general Pervez Musharraf on August 26, 2006, has pushed Balochistan to the point that no Baloch is willing to accept anything but independent statehood. Though the assassinated leader had some tribal rivalries, even his worst Baloch opponents felt insulted by his killing.

The BRP is asking the international community, including Israel, to help Balochistan. Just like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed support for a free Kurdistan two years ago, the Baloch hope Israel will support the creation of free Balochistan.

https://www.israelsvoice.org/ 2016/07/01/geneva-bugti-hopes-balochistan-flag-will-fly-inside-un/