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GENERAL APPEAL (Pakistan): Alarming situation of forced disappearance of political and human rights activists in Balochistan

April 18, 2006

URGENT APPEALS – GENERAL URGENT APPEALS – GENERAL URGENT APPEALS - GENERAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal General

18 April 2006
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UG-003-2006: PAKISTAN: Alarming situation of forced disappearance of political and human rights activists in Balochistan

PAKISTAN: Forced disappearance; absence of effective investigation; impunity; collapse of rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned by the continuous disappearances of political and human rights activists in Balochistan, the southern province in Pakistan. It is alleged that government’s security personnel are involved in these disappearances.

The latest disappearance took place on 7 April 2006. Mr. Munir Mengal, the management director of Baloch Voice, a Balochi-language television station based in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, went missing after arriving in Karachi, Pakistan from Bahrain on April 7. His family alleges that he was arrested by the military intelligence officers at the airport. Mr. Mengal’s wife Mrs. Aziza Mengal said that the victim went to Karachi to recruit technical staff for a TV station, which was scheduled to start its broadcast from Bahrain on June 16. Mr. Mengal’s whereabouts remain unknown. Reporters Without Borders showed its concern about Mr. Mengal’s disappearance saying “Launching a TV station for 10 million Balochi in Pakistan and other parts of the world cannot be considered a crime.” Due to the ongoing military operations in Balochistan, the Government of Pakistan has severely restricted Balochi people’s right to access information. Mr. Ghulam Mohammad, a staff of the Balochistan National Movement said, “When Pakistan has electronic channels of each language, why are Blaochis denied to have their own channel?”

This is not an isolated case. There have been several reported disappearance cases in Balochistan. The whereabouts of most of the missing persons are unknown.  In some cases, the courts ordered that the disappeared be produced before courts but this was ignored by the authorities. Some other disappearance cases are described below:

1. Dr. Haneef Shareef, the prominent poet and writer in Blochi language has been missing for over three months after being picked up by the military intelligence officers in Turbat, Balochistan on 15 January 2006. His whereabouts are not known to his family. Dr. Sareef has written articles and poetry regarding the poor economic and social conditions of the people in Balochistan. Desperate to learn of Dr. Shareef’s whereabouts, his mother and relatives have staged a hunger strike in front of the Karachi Press Club for over 40 days.

2. Mr. Asghar Bangulzai, the political activist in Balochistan, has been disappeared for the last four years since he was abducted by law enforcement agencies on 18 October 2001 in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan. His young children and relatives have staged a hunger strike for the past five months in front of the Quetta Press Club.

3. Mr. Hafiz Saeed Ahmed was also allegedly abducted by law enforcement officers in 2002 in Quetta. His family members have been on a hunger strike for over four months in front of the Quetta Press Club urging the government to locate his whereabouts and release him.

4. Mr. Rauf Sasuli, a member of the central committee of Jamhoori Watan party has been missing since 2 February 2006. Mr. Salim Baloch, the vice-president of the same political party, has been missing since 10 March 2006. He was arrested by the police after holding a demonstration in front of the Karachi Press Club.

5. Seven members of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO), including its president, Mr. Imdad Baloch, were taken by law enforcement officers in March 2005 and detained in a secret place in Punjab province, where they were severely tortured. Three months later, three students including Mr. Lmdad Baloch, who were suffering from severe medical conditions at the time, were thrown on the street in a remote area in Dera Ghazi Khan District, Punjab province. They later told their families and the media that military officers had tortured them while asking information about the Balochistan Liberation Army, which the students claim they knew nothing of. Meanwhile, the remaining four students are still missing and their families fear that they have been killed as a result of the torture inflicted on them.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Balochistan was incorporated into the new state of Pakistan, as the Indian subcontinent was split at the end of British rule in 1947. Since then, there have been continuous insurgencies by Baloch nationalists in the province seeking greater autonomy.

The Pakistan Army started military operations in Balochistan province in 2001 to construct the cantonments and to have full control over the sea port of Gwader and routes connecting Central Asian countries with those in South Asia. During this time, the clampdown in Balochistan has become serious. According to a January 2006 statement by Pakistani Senator Sanaullah Baloch, at least 180 people have died in bombings, 122 children have been killed by paramilitary troops and hundreds of people have been arrested since the beginning of the campaign in early 2005. On 8 December 2005, the federal interior minister stated that some 4,000 people had been arrested in Balochistan since the beginning of 2005.

Baloch people also suffer from great poverty. According to the Karachi-based Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), poverty levels in Balochistan are the highest in the country. Every second person in Balochistan lives below the poverty line. Only 50 percent of the province's 7 million people have access to clean drinking water, only half the children attend primary schools and only a third of children between 12 and 23 months are immunised, according to the SPDC.

Balochistan has in fact very rich mineral resources. However, all the resources in the province are controlled by the federal government and no royalty or compensation has been paid to people in Balochistan. Also, the country's most populous province, Punjab, is controlling the military, the administration and utilises of all the resources. In addition, the government has provided little resources towards social welfare in comparison with other provinces. People in Balochistan blame the federal government for their plight and point out that the benefits derived from the province's natural wealth have not been returned to it.


SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please send your appeal letters to the central and local government authorities of Pakistan and urge them to locate the whereabouts of Mr. Munir Mengal and release him immediately. Please also urge them to take prompt action to locate all the missing persons allegedly taken by law enforcement officers and immediately inform their whereabouts to their families. Please also urge them to respect the right to access information of the Balochi people and halt the ongoing military operation in Balochistan and take genuine steps to consult with people in Balochistan to restore peace. Please also write to the relevant UN agencies listed below and request them to pressure the Government of Pakistan to intervene in this matter.

Suggested letter:

Dear ______________,

PAKISTAN: Alarming situation of forced disappearance of political and human rights activists in Balochistan

I am writing to bring to your attention the disappearance of Mr. Munir Mengal, the management director of Baloch Voice, a Balochi-language television station based in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, who has been missing since 7 April 2005 after allegedly being taken by military intelligence officers at the airport in Karachi, Pakistan. Mr. Mengal’s whereabouts remain unknown. He arrived in Karachi from Bahrain to recruit technical staff for a TV station, which was scheduled to start its broadcast from Bahrain on June 16. It is believed that he was arrested due to his plan to launch a TV station for Balochi people, while the Government of Pakistan has severely restricted Balochi people’s right to access information due to ongoing military operations in Balochistan.

I am very concerned that this is not an isolated case. I have been informed of the continuous disappearance of political and human rights activists in Balochistan, who were allegedly taken by the government’s security personnel. Some of the disappearance cases are as follows:

1. Dr. Haneef Shareef, the prominent poet and writer in Blochi language is missing after being picked up by military intelligence officers in Turbat, Balochistan on 15 January 2006. Dr. Sareef has written articles and poetry regarding the poor economic and social conditions of the people in Balochistan. 
2. Mr. Asghar Bangulzai, the political activist in Balochistan, has been disappeared for the last four years since he was abducted by law enforcement agencies on 18 October 2001 in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan.
3. Mr. Hafiz Saeed Ahmed was also allegedly abducted by law enforcement officers in 2002 in Quetta.
4. Mr. Rauf Sasuli, a member of the central committee of Jamhoori Watan party has been missing since 2 February 2006 and Mr. Salim Baloch, the vice-president of the same political party, has been missing since 10 March 2006. Mr. Baloch was arrested by the police after holding a demonstration in front of the Karachi Press Club.
5. Four members of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) remain missing after being arrested by military officers in March 2005. According to the president of BSO, Mr. Imdad Baloch, who was taken together with the said four students and later released, they were all severely tortured by military personnel in a secret place in Punjab province. Families of the victims fear that those not yet released may have been killed as a result of the torture inflicted on them.

The whereabouts of all of these missing persons are unknown.  I was also informed that the courts ordered that the missing be produced before them, but this was ignored by the government authorities.

In light of the above, I strongly urge you to take immediate action to locate the whereabouts of Mr. Munir Mengal and release him immediately. Launching a TV station for Balochi people in Pakistan cannot be considered a crime and the right to access information of the Balochi people should be respected. I also urge you to take prompt action to locate all the missing persons mentioned above and immediately inform their whereabouts to their families. The orders of the courts with regards to producing missing persons before courts should be observed by the concerned authorities. I further request you to halt the ongoing military operation in Balochistan and take genuine steps to consult with people in Balochistan to restore peace, and ensure the social welfare of the Baloch people, who suffer from great poverty.

I look for your urgent intervention into this matter.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. General Pervez Musharraf
President
President’s Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1422, 4768/ 920 1893 or 1835
Email: CE@pak.gov.pk 

2. Mr. Muhammad Wasi Zafar
Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights,
S Block,
Pakistan Secretariat,
Islamabad,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-Mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk

3. Mr. Awais Ghani
Governor of Balochistan
Governor House,
Quetta,
Balochistan,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 81 920 2178/ 2992

4. Mrs Rifat Iqbal
Ambassador of Pakistan,
Embassy of Pakistan,
Ailesbury Villa,
1B Ailesbury Road,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4
U.S.A
Tel: +1 261 3032 / 01 261 3033
Fax: +1 261 3007

5. Prof. Manfred Nowak
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
Attn: Safir Syed
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9230
Fax: +41 22 917 9016 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR TORTURE)
E-mail: ssyed@ohchr.org

6. Ms. Hina Jilani
Special Representative of the Secretary General for human rights defenders
Att: Melinda Ching Simon
Room 1-040
C/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 93 88
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS)
E-mail: MChingSimon@ohchr.org


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal General
Document ID :
UG-003-2006
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.