RELEASE
Balochistan campaigners in the frame
Peter Tatchell accuses Gordon Brown's
government of collusion with Pakistani attempts
to frame human rights activists on terrorism
charges
Tribune – Labour's left-wing weekly - 19 September
2008
The Labour government, security services and
police have been involved in high-level collusion
with the recently ousted dictator of Pakistan
, Pervez Musharraf , according to human rights
campaigners in Pakistani-occupied Balochistan.
They claim British authorities bowed to Musharraf's
demands to arrest, on false terrorism charges,
leading Baloch nationalists exiled in the UK.
It is alleged that last year Musharraf threatened
to cut all cooperation with Britain in the "war
of terror" unless our government arrested the
Baloch activists. The UK authorities appear to
have complied with the Pakistani dictator's demands.
Acting
on allegations by Musharraf's regime concerning
an alleged terror plot in Pakistan, two leading
Balochistan human rights campaigners, Hyrbyair
Marri and Faiz Baluch, were arrested by police
in London last December, on charges of preparing
acts of terrorism abroad. They are due to stand
trial at Woolwich Crown Court in November.
The police and security agencies in the UK have
pursued these terror charges based on evidence
provided to them by Musharraf's dictatorship – a
dictatorship that the arrested men campaigned
against. Our government has ignored the fact
that Musharraf's henchmen in the Pakistani intelligence
agency , the ISI, are notorious for framing political
opponents, especially Baloch activists.
Human rights campaigners believe Marri and Baluch
have been set up by Musharraf's agents because
of their highly effective exposure of Pakistan's
war crimes and crimes against humanity in annexed
Balochistan.
This belief has been reinforced by the acting
Interior Minister of the new democratic government
of Pakistan , Rehman Malik. He recently announced
that all terror charges against Marri in Pakistan
have been dropped; stating that the case against
him had been politically motivated. This discredits
the whole basis on which Marri and Baluch have
been charged in London.
Marri's and Baluch's arrest came just a few
months after Musharraf demanded that the British
government arrest Baloch activists in London.
In exchange, Musharraf offered to hand over Rashid
Rauf , implying that action against the Baloch
activists was a condition for surrendering Rauf
to the UK. Rauf is wanted in this country in
connection with the 2006 Islamist terror plot
involving liquid explosives, which resulted in
the conviction of three men in London in September.
The arrest in London of Marri and Baluch took
place two weeks after Pakistani government agents
assassinated Marri's brother, Balach Marri ,
a prominent Baloch nationalist leader.
Prior to Marri's arrest, Musharraf's regime
made repeated representations to the UK government
that he was wanted on terrorism charges in Pakistan
(charges that have now been dropped). When Musharraf
met Gordon Brown in London in January this year,
he held a press conference for Pakistani journalists
where he allegedly denounced Marri as a terrorist
and praised the British government and police
for cooperating with his regime.
Claims of connivance are credible. For nine
years, our Labour government supported Musharraf's
dictatorship politically, economically and militarily,
despite him having overthrown Pakistan's democratically-elected
government in 1999. Labour even sold him the
military equipment that his army used kill innocent
Baloch people .
Marri is an unlikely terrorist. He is a former
Balochistan MP (1997-2002), and was the Minster
for Construction and Works in the provincial
assembly in 1997-1998. He fled to Britain in
2000, fearing arrest, torture and possible assassination
by Musharraf's men.
Marri comes from a distinguished Baloch family.
His father, Nawab Khair Baksh Marri, a renowned
Baloch national leader, attended Queen Elizabeth
II's coronation in 1953.
His uncle is Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the UN Special
Representative to Sudan and the former Pakistan
Ambassador to the United States, and his wife
is the great grand daughter of the first Prime
Minister of Iraq (1920-1922), Abdul Rahman al
Gillani.
One of his brothers is Mehran Baluch. Also exiled
London, he is the Baloch Representative to the
UN Human Rights Council. He was the subject of
an attempted extradition plot last year by Musharraf's
regime, on trumped up charges.
The arrest of Marri - together with the murder
of one brother and the attempt to frame another
brother - looks like a systematic attempt to
target his family and crush three leading voices
of Baloch dissent.
A former British Protectorate, Balochistan was
granted independence in 1947 but was invaded
and forcibly annexed by Pakistan in 1948. The
Baloch people did not vote for incorporation.
They were never given a choice. Ever since, Balochistan
has been under military occupation by Islamabad.
Baloch demands for a referendum on self-rule
have been rejected.
Pakistan, a former victim of colonialism, has
turned into a colonising power, subjecting the
people of Balochistan to political, economic,
cultural and military subjugation.
The Asian Human Rights Commission reports that
Pakistani army raids have resulted in 3,000 Baloch
people dead, 200,000 displaced and 4,000 arrested.
Thousands more have simply disappeared.
ENDS
--
Peter Tatchell is the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Oxford East
www.greenoxford.com/peter and www.petertatchell.net
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