Mr. Chairman, at the very outset I like
to draw your attention to the International
Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights.
Article one of the covenant clearly
states all peoples have the right to decide
their own political
future. It says, “By virtue of that
right they freely determine their political
status and freely pursue
their economic, social and cultural
development.” Article One further says that
States Parties shall
promote the realization of the right of
a people to decide their own future, and
shall respect that
right, in conformity with the provisions
of the Charter of the United Nations.
I come from a God-forsaken part of the
world where neither the CNN nor the Al-Jazeerah
TV
networks have a full bureau. I am from
Balochistan, which means the land of the
Baloch, in
southwest Asia. To be honest,
Balochistan needs Wikileaks.
Article 1 of I.C.C.P.R. states “In no
case may a people be deprived of its own
means of
subsistence.” The irony is when natural
floods wreaked havoc on Pakistan in recent
weeks,
Balochistan was ravaged by military-made
floods. There is a humanitarian crisis in
Balochistan
because of this deliberate flooding that
was meant to save F-16 fighter jets at an
airbase.
In addition, the Military, the Military
Intelligence, Inter Services Intelligence,
the paramilitary
Frontier Corps have thrown the Geneva
conventions to the wind. In the last one
month alone they
threw the badly tortured bodies of 20
victims of enforced and involuntary
disappearances out in
the open killing fields of Balochistan.
The latest victims include Baloch
lawyers. Noted lawyer Zaman Marri's tortured
body,with three
bullet holes to his head was recovered
on September 5.
Earlier, Munir Ahmed Mirwani, who is the
secretary general of the Jhalawan Bar
Association, was
kidnapped at gunpoint in Khuzdar on June
17, 2010.
He is among the more than 1,100
documented victims of enforced
disappearances in Balochistan
who are still missing. Habib Jalib, a
senior lawyer, was gunned down by the Muslah
Diffah Tanzim
on July 14. In all these cases, the
common denominator is the same force who
created and are
still nurturing the Taliban in
Afghanistan.
I take this opportunity to thank the U.N
Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary
Disappearances, Special Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary
Executions, Special
Rapporteur on Torture, Special
Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights
Defenders, Special
Rapporteur on Racism and appeal to this
august body a fact-finding mission to
Balochistan is in
order.
