Lawyer Kachkol Ali says right to independence of Balochistan is recognized under international law‏

By Ahmar Mustikhan
Oslo Wednesday, October 06, 2010
OSLO, Norway: Former fisheries minister and former opposition leader in Balochistan state assembly, Kachkol Ali -- who has been a noted lawyer in his professional life and defended human rights activists--, has said that demanding national liberation is a just right of people under foreign occupation and has stressed that this right is fully protected under international law.

Ali was discussing the issue of national liberation at an informal gathering here in Oslo, capital of Norway.

He grabbed a laptop and referred to the resolution adopted by the United Nations general assembly on December 7, 1987.
The general assembly resolution pertained to measures to prevent international terrorism which endangers or takes innocent human lives or jeopardizes fundamental freedoms and study of the underlying causes of those forms of terrorism and acts of violence which lie in misery, frustration, grievance and despair and which cause some people to sacrifice human lives, including their own, in an attempt to effect radical changes.

Ali specifically pointed out to item 14 of the resolution that reads, that the general assembly "Considers that nothing in the present resolution could in any way prejudice the right to self-determination, freedom and independence, as derived from the Charter of the United Nations, of peoples forcibly deprived of that right referred to in the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, particularly peoples under colonial and racist regimes and foreign occupation or other forms of colonial domination."

Ali said the Baloch in Pakistan and Iran who are determined to have their state on the world map should act in unison and form a unified organization at the international level to lobby for the independence of Balochistan. "Pakistan has made a policy of eliminating Baloch people who are demanding independence and this is state terrorism as per international law. It also is conducting ethnic cleansing and genocide of Baloch people as part of its state policy."

Ali, who turns 52 on October 10, said NATO forces are on the borders of Pakistan in Afghanistan but have become a silent spectator while in Kosovo they took action to stop the genocide of hapless Kosovo people and also in East Timor. "The International Court of Justice upheld the intervention of international community on the grounds of genocide in Kosovo," Ali said about the July decision of the ICJ at the Hague.

"Noam Chomsky termed the success of the Kosovars as the dawn of a new era of enlightenment. The reason behind it is that the West, specially the U.S., intervened there on the grounds of altruism. We Baloch also desire the same norms of new era of humanitarianism."
Ali referred to the definition of International terrorism from the pages of the book titled International Law by Dr. H.O. Agarwal and read out a passage Terrorism Committed by States. It says, "When a state is involved in the act of terrorism, directly or indirectly for the fulfillment of certain objectives, may be a matter of policy, the act is referred to as State Terrorism. Involvement of a state in such acts may be in different ways and varied degrees. For instance, firstly, the act may be committed by the authorities of a State in respect of some of its citizens against colonialism, or against national liberation movement."

In July, the I.C.J. ruled that Kosovo has the legal right to declare freedom from Serbia. The Serb forces killed as many as 10,000 people in Kosovo in the years 1998 and 1999 and Serbia claimed that it must keep the Kosovo region as its integral part..
Hisashi Owada, president of the ICJ declared that international law �contains no prohibition on declarations of independence.�
The former Balochistan minister hailed the ICJ decision as a beacon of hope for enslaved nations, including Balochistan. "This was a glorious judgment for the national liberation movements," said Ali.

Ali contended that in the book "Strange multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an age of diversity" by James Tully and pointed out that in the book Tully contended if there are different species of animals on a boat with conflicting interests and they keep on fighting then the boat is sure to sink.

He said strong cultures are today defined as nations.

Ali, who recently won political asylum in Norway, said he is a staunch believer in the ideology of Baba-i-Azadi, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, and had made this clear to the world in an interview with the BBC even when he was a member of the Balochistan assembly. He described some people in his former National Party as "character less."