Item 3: (General Debate) Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
ITEM 3: INTERVENTION BY MEHRAN BALUCH
Honorable President,
At the very outset allow me to thank the members of the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance, led by Rapporteur chair Professor Olivier de Frouville and Professor Osman El-Hajje, who are on a 10-day fact finding mission to Pakistan, with special focus on Balochistan. Balochistan, as many in this council are fully aware, is today the world capital of enforced disappearances.
These enforced disappearances in Balochistan pose the most serious challenge to the rights and freedoms promised by the U.N. to peoples of the world under Item 3.
Mr. President,
The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance had requested a meeting with the chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. I am sad to inform this council the chief judge of Pakistan refused to meet the U.N. team under the pretext that the issue was being heard in the Pakistani Supreme Court. As if to add insult to injury, a second judge justice retired Javed Iqbal reportedly told the U.N. team that only 26 persons have been forcibly disappeared. The Pakistan judges’ attitude towards the U.N. mission only reinforces the fears of the people of Balochistan that there is little hope for justice for them as Pakistan judges take dictation from the military G.H.Q.
Mr. President,
To mislead the world and its own people, a cacophony of opposition voices has been raised by front offices of the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency such as the Diffa-e-Pakistan Council and the so-called Punjab Forum who have described the U.N. mission as an international conspiracy against Pakistan led by Zionists, Christians and Hindus.
In this backdrop, in spite of appeals by the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Asian Federation Against Enforced Disappearances and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Islamabad has continued with the systematic practice of enforced disappearances against the people of Balochistan. Last month on August 17, 2012, Baloch political activists Samad Bilal, Razaq Paliri, Jalil Murad and Ramzan Yaqoob were forcibly disappeared. Samad Bilal was killed and his body was dumped on August 26 while Ramzan Yaqoob was killed and his body was dumped on September 8, just 40 hours before the U.N. team set foot on Pakistan soil.
Honorable President,
This shows Pakistan is carrying out Adolph Hitler’s night and fog policy of enforced disappearances, coupled with the kill and dump policy, in Balochistan with impunity.
Thank You
Baluch Sarmachar 