URGENT APPEAL

by Mehran Baluch

Baluch representative in the UN Human Rights Council

It is important to bring to your attention another grave and extremely unfortunate situation that has arisen in Baluchistan. I wish to inform everyone that a fresh intensive military offensive has been launched in Kahan (Kohlu) and Dera Bugti Districts of Baluchistan, by the tyrannical and oppressive Punjabi-Pakistani Army since the 6 th of December 2007. The Western-backed Punjabi army has been sent into the town of Kahan where it is operating with full force against the poor, peaceful and innocent Baluch civilians, surpassing the ethics of conventional warfare and setting a new example of despicable and atrocious war crimes. The condemnation of these crimes is a duty of the civilized world.

The corrupt Musharraf - Kayani Regime has had over 500 Marri Baluch's abducted from the town of Kahan, the ancestral headquarters of the Marri tribe since Friday. In addition to this hundreds of homes have been burnt to rubble, schools destroyed and livestock killed. The army is carpet bombing the area and scores of Baluch have been killed by indiscriminate bombardment and air strikes using gunship helicopters and fighter jets. The army is operating under shoot-to-kill orders from the Islamabad, resulting in hundreds of people fleeing to the mountains. The occupiers have set up temporary concentration camps where all those abducted are being ill treated. The code of conduct of this operation is undoubtedly the same as Adolf Hitler's Nazi's holocaust of the Jews. We request all human rights organisations to visit the areas and witness the slaughter for themselves. We also strongly recommend and request the human rights council to send a fact finding mission to Baluchistan.

Pakistan is fully determined in the genocide of the Baluch nation and has deployed its entire state mechanism to eliminate the Baluch nation, therefore it qualifies as state terrorism and is in contravention to international human rights laws under the Geneva convention as well as all internationally recognized humanitarian laws. We hope that the international community will not ignore this situation in Baluchistan the way it did in Rwanda.

We now firmly believe that be it the regime of General Musharraf or General Kiyani, the people of Baluchistan shall always be treated as the enemy. The right to self-determination is the only solution for Baluchistan.

It should be noted that the killing of Legendary Baluch Patriot Balach Marri in the Sarlat area of Naushki in a military operation and the arrest of his younger brother Hyrbyair Marri and Faiz Muhammad Baluch in London and the escalation in military offensive within a fortnight is no co-incidence, but in fact a pre-planned strategy to eliminate the Baluch.