The forgotten genocide in Balochistan | A story of violence told by a Baloch refugee in Amsterdam
Background
Balochistan lies at the heart of the Middle East, enclosed by the geographical ends of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s the richest region of natural gas in the area, and the home of the secular nation of Baloch. Long before the British occupation of the Colonial India, which included Balochistan, the country was an independent one with long-standing traditions.
In 1947, eight months after the Indian independence and the British departure, Balochistan was annexed to the newly born Pakistan. A series of insurgencies followed up within Balochistan. The tensions escalated up to the 2000s, when the fifth insurgency started off. In 1999 General Pervez Musharraf seized the civilian government, declaring the state of emergency, and the army brutally took control over the whole country. In 2006, the assassination of the Bugti tribe’s chief and Pakistani opponent Nawab Akbar Bugti, and the attack against the Bugti tribe in the Balochi territory marked the beginning of a new era of conflicts.
In the early 2000s Keyya was entering high school and starting to become more familiar with the struggle for independence of his people. For the first time as a young man, he joined protest groups to raise their voices against the injustices that had been occuring in Balochistan. “In the 9th or 10th class I joined BSO [Baloch Student Organization, Ed.]. We did protests, demonstrations, we arranged seminars in schools, university colleges, and local places. We were having talks and protests against the violations”.
Keyya fled to escape persecution in 2011. First he moved to Oman for five years, working 14 hours a day, until he found asylum in the Netherlands. After settling in, he contacted a group of friends who were living in Europe, and in 2015 they founded the Human Rights Council of Balochistan. “We started collecting the names and contacting the families of the missing Balochi. In 2017 we registered 1800 cases to the UN. But these documents and data we are collecting are only 5% of the missing people.”
Balochistan is not a safe place for its people. Baloch Human Rights Organization revealed in its bi-annual report that 485 cases of enforced disappearances were signalled in the first half of 2018. And that seems to be only a small registered part of the victims. Monthly reports continually reveal tens of enforced disappereances and brutal killings. The government has been condemned for crimes against humanity and BHRO urged the Prime Minister to break the silence on the abducted. But there seems to be no response neither from the government nor from international organizations. The ongoing genocide remains unknown to the world, news can hardly be propagated and no one is admitted inside the country. Several cases of abducted journalists and activists, both local and from abroad, have been reported in the recent years, but the fear to speak and condemn remains high.
In 2009 they abducted the chairman of BSO. “Baloch students came out to protest, and some of our colleagues also got abducted. Some were released, some were killed and [their bodies] were dumped”. Since then, no news about the chairman have been reported. His sister, Farzana Majeed, marched from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, to Islamabad, to plead the release of her brother.
“I don't know why they're so afraid of us, everyone has freedom of expression, and these are peaceful demonstrations, we don't have weapons”. Protesters’ families and friends are often threatened to cut any relation. Keyya, like many other activists, has been isolated from his close relatives so that his power to act is weakened. His uncle was abducted a few days after visiting him in Oman and tortured for eleven months. “He was always supporting me and calling me […] He used to say ‘you are right’, and after this [when he got released] he never spoke to me again”.
Keyya does not contact his family often, because the government has control of all media and phone calls are traced. His father died three years after he left. His mother and sister are still in Balochistan. In January 2018, after nine years, he met his mother in Oman.
I: How has the situation changed from 2006 to now?
“It's the same as before, nothing changed, more checkpoints, more army camps, more houses have been burnt, and more people have been abducted and killed”. Tortured bodies are found on the streets daily and the blood of the victims mixes with the dirt. Italian journalist Francesca Marina defined it a “state-sponsored genocide”. Despite Balochistan makes up for almost half of the Pakistani land, the population is being exterminated under the military forces. What is being carried out in Balochistan is not simply human rights violations, “it is a pogrom undertaken by Pakistan against the Baloch people”.
Inside Balochistan runs no electricity, drinking water or internet; public services, as well as broadcast network, are issued by the military forces. The whole region is under the army: civilians can be blocked and identified at any moment. The people have been living in precarious conditions for years, and basic necessities are often negated.
The Human Rights Council of Balochistan is working with other ethnic groups who also want independence from Pakistan (e.g. Sindhis and Pashtun). Some protesters use violence and weapons, “as a human rights activist I don't accept that. I say to everyone, Baloch or not, that they should demonstrate peacefully. In these wars, the civilians are always the victims”.
The situation is at its worst. Extrajudicial killings are perpetuated every day and the state officials refuse to provide details of the conditions of the missing persons. In 2013 three mass graves were discovered and one more last year. The news was passed on anonymously to the media. In the last grave 169 bodies were found, but only 3 have been identified.
Keyya agreed to tell his story because he thinks knowledge is a powerful tool against violations. The hope is that, by spreading the word more international organizations will mobilize and bring a support against what has long been an ethnic cleansing. If you read this article, share it with your friends and families, through word of mouth and social media. Keep the story going!
To keep updated about recent news you can follow these Twitter profiles or visit the organizations’ websites:
Keyya Baloch, who was the interviewee of this article @keyya_baloch
Taj Baloch, chairman of the Human Rights Council of Balochistan @TajBloch
Baloch Human Rights Organization @BHROrganization , balochhumanrights.org
Human Rights Council of Balochistan @HRCBalochistan , hakkpaan.org
Baloch Student Organization @BSO__AZAD , sagaar.net
Baloch National Movement @BNMovement_ , thebnm.org
Finally, meet us at the panel talk on the 6th of March at @CREA, which will host the chairmen from HR Council of Balochistan and BNM, as well as Professor Harmen van der Wilt, who has a chair in International Criminal Law at UvA, and journalist Suzanna Koster, who specializes in issues related to Pakistan.