Balochistan Expert Ahmar Mustikhan Calls for Human Rights

Press release on the statements of Ahmar Mustikhan – speaking on the need for human rights for the Balochistan people and minorities in Pakistan facing oppression.  Ahmar Mustikhan is a Senior Journalist and Area Expert on Balochistan and writes on such issues for the Baltimore Foreign Policy Examiner.

Ahmar Mustikhan’s entire speech can be seen and heard on YouTube.
It is in two parts: Part 1, Part 2.

Ahmar Mustikhan, Senior Journalist and Area Expert, Balochistan – regarding the oppression and abuse of the Baloch people and Pakistan minorities on Human Rights Day Event 2011

Speech of Ahmar Mustikhan, Senior Journalist, Balochistan Area Expert, and Buddhist Unitarian Universalist on Human Rights Day conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC on December 8, 2011.

Press release

Washington DC, Dec 8, 2011

A senior journalist and Balochistan area expert Ahmar Mustikhan has expressed his serious concerns over reports of a fifth military dictatorship in Pakistan and called upon the world community to discipline the Pakistan army generals.

He was speaking on Human Rights Day conference organized by Jeffrey Imm, formerly of the FBI and founder of the Responsible for Equality And Liberty, at the National Press Club Wednesday.

Imm has been organizing the event three years in a row.

Mustikhan made an impassioned appeal to international powers, including the U.S., the power-hungry army generals of Pakistan must not be allowed to subvert the democratic government in Pakistan.

“It is true the democratic government of President Asif Ali Zardari gave the Baloch 300 bodies in the last four or so years, but still we would support it against the military generals. Democracy does make a difference in the lives of people and we can not remain oblivious to this fact,” Mustikhan said.

There are already rumors of a military dictatorship in Pakistan as under immense mental torture President Zardari was admitted to a hospital in Dubai Tuesday, while the former ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, Husain Haqqani, has been barred from leaving the country.

Zardari and Haqqani “sin” is that they tried to curtail the links between Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence chief Shuja Pasha with the al Qaeda and Taliban in the aftermath of the U.S. Navy SEALs attack that killed global terrorist Osama bin Laden.

“Former Pakistan ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, has literally been made to resign at gunpoint,” Mustikhan lamented. Pakistani generals have been aiming for Haqqani’s scalp ever since he wrote a book Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, but Zardari made him Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. against their wishes.

Mustikhan called upon Pakistan generals to show respect to democracy and immediately withdraw all travel restrictions placed on Haqqani.

Mustikhan, who founded the DC-based American Friends of Balochistan and co-founded the International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, also asked the world community to intervene in Balochistan on the same lines as they did in Libya to stop the genocide there and safeguard the right to self-determination of the Baloch people.

He read excerpts from a letter sent by “Baloch Nelson Mandela” and former chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal, who is president of the Balochistan National Party, to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in which Mengal asked the United Nations to intervene in Balochistan because of the gross human rights violations there.

Mustikhan reminded the U.S. administration about the appeal made by Senator Dr. Malik Baloch, the president of a second large democratic party, National Party, to Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton to intervene in Balochistan to stop the enforced disappearances, execution-style killings and dumping of the bodies of Baloch activists in the wilderness of Balochistan for animals to eat.

He said both the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had castigated Islamabad for their kill and dump policy in Balochistan.

He said scores of Baloch teenagers have been made victims of enforced disappearances and killed.

He narrated the story of a Baloch minor boy Abdul Wahid Baloch, aka Balaach Baloch, who gained fame after his picture showing him clad in a Balochistan flag was posted on social websites last year.

The shirt he was wearing read ‘Jiye Azad Balochistan’ [Long Live Free Balochistan]. He read out from a story about Balaach posted by Shoaib Mengal in the Baluch Sarmachar news web zine. “This picture went viral on social networking sites where it remained the profile picture [avatar] of many people for several days. But no one actually knew that this picture and Balaach’s participation in protests would actually turn out to be the reason for his brutal death. Balaach was abducted on August 8, 2011 from Khuzdar in the presence of several eyewitnesses. Personnel [of secret services] wearing plain clothes in several vehicles abducted him at gun point from a busy market in broad daylight.

“His tiny body had to bear inhumane torture for 62 days before a bullet in his brain ended his sufferings in October.”

Mustikhan lauded the statements on Pakistan issued Wednesday by two senior Republican senators, John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

He read out portions from their statement.

“…. Pakistan army and intelligence officials continue to support the Haqqani network and other terrorist groups in Pakistan that are killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the vast majority of the material used to make improvised explosive devices used against U.S. forces in Afghanistan originates from two fertilizer factories in Pakistan. The time has come for the United States to fully review its relations with Pakistan,” Cain and Graham said in their statement.

The senior Balochistan journalist said Pakistan generals have not only left the Balochistan homeland bloodied, but were also committing crimes against humanity in India, Afghanistan and beyond.

Mustikhan regretted that the Zardari government did not take a firm stand against the killings of the liberal governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer and minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti, neither did it take steps to free Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who was charged with blasphemy and awaits the hangman’s noose in a Pakistan prison.

He called upon Pakistan to end the blasphemy law and free Aasia Bibi without further delay. “Pakistan is getting Christian taxpayers monies and must respect the human rights of Christians,” Mustikhan urged.

He regretted that Pakistan’s constitution only allows a Muslim to become the head of state or the head of government, denying equal status to religious minorities, like Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis.

Mustikhan also warned the Baloch militants not to take international law in their own hands or commit crimes against humanity on their opponents. “You can not become judge, jury, and juror. You have to show reverence towards human life. Without humanism, no movement gains international respect.”

The senior Baloch journalist lauded President Barack Obama and Secretary Clinton statements in support of gay rights on Human Rights Day and called upon the U.S. to become a beacon of light for the rest of the world by recognizing gay marriage in all states.

In a separate appeal, he urged all sane-minded people to support the Balochistan lobbying efforts in Washington DC.

Sincerely,

Ahmar Mustikhan