No Flotilla for Balochistan
By Tarek Fatah
March 14, 2012
Western media ignore
this ongoing, slow-motion genocide
A terrible war is unfolding in a faraway land
called Balochistan. Almost daily, bodies of young men, kidnapped and tortured
to death by the Pakistan occupation army, end up in ditches. Others, still
alive, are thrown from helicopters into the arms of the rough mountain terrain
below.
Yet, not a single
western journalist covers this ongoing, slow- motion genocide of the Baloch
people.
Compare that to Gaza:
Even a single Palestinian death at the hands of the IDF results in banner
headlines.
But no one notices the
daily massacres of the Baloch, not even the Palestinians.
A few years ago, a
similar slaughter of Muslims by fellow Muslims dragged on for years before the
world woke up to the Darfur genocide, where black-skinned Africans were
decimated by the Arab Janjaweed of Sudan.
No flotilla sailed for
Darfur, and none will likely leave harbour for Balochistan.
For Muslims,
especially the victimhood-obsessed Islamists in the West, the lives of the
Baloch and Darfuri are of less value to Allah than those of the Arab.
The irony is the
Baloch are strong backers of the Palestinian movement in a relationship that
has triggered absolutely no reciprocity.
Last week, I attended
a workshop at the UNHCR in Geneva on Baloch Human Rights and witnessed
first-hand how not a single Muslim state from the 56-nation Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was willing to pay even lip service to the tragedy of
the Baloch.
When Mehran Marri, the
Baloch spokesman, wanted to make an intervention to register the ongoing
killings of his people, the Pakistan delegate rudely interrupted him, demanding
the chair cut off his speech; she dismissed the interruption and allowed Marri
to continue.
Marri is the youngest
son of Balochistan’s elder statesman, the octogenarian Khair-Bux Marri (with whom
I spent time in a Balochistan jail as a political prisoner).
With anger blazing in
his bluish-green eyes, he asked: “Why do Islamic countries support the
independence of Palestine, but not the independence of Balochistan? Don’t we
have a stronger case than them for a national homeland? While we have a
distinct language, culture and a history going back thousands of years and a
state since the 1500s, they don’t.”
Balochistan (the size
of France) is currently occupied by Pakistan and Iran, with part of it in
Afghanistan. The Pakistan part secured its independence from Britain on Aug.
11, 1947, three days before Pakistan came into existence. Its independence was
recognized by Pakistan for nine months, before the Pak Army invaded and
occupied it in March, 1948. Since then, four armed insurrections have taken
place with considerable loss of life.
As the third
generation of Baloch youth fight, they have turned to the West for help, with
some success at hearings in the U.S. Congress led by Brad Sherman (D-CA) and
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).
I asked Marri if it
was wise to seek help from the U.S.
“If East Timor,
Kosovo, South Sudan and Eritrea can get help from the West to gain their
freedom, why not Balochistan?” Marri asked, as he savoured a meal of Pakistan
tikka masala in a Geneva restaurant. “As you can see I love Pakistani cuisine,
but I am not a Pakistani; I am a Baloch, seeking a dignified life for my people
as free men and women.”
Source: Toronto Sun
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