More than 10,000 people from all over the world have petitioned global leaders, including President Joe Biden and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in June and July to help end enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
These leaders have been asked to take direct action to protect human lives under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) clause of international law in Balochistan as the state of Pakistan has failed to do so.
The DC-based Baloch American Congress, which had launched the Global Campaign to End Enforced Disappearances, on Saturday thanked people from around the world for taking part in the ongoing campaign and appealed to others to sign the online petition.
A tally of the global petitioners, for the months of June and July, showed 41 pc were from the US, 27 pc from India, 17 pc from Europe, 11 pc from Pakistan, and four percent from the Middle East.
In addition to Secretary-General Guterres and President Biden, those who received the petition were:
President Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan; Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia; Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Austria; Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh; Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Belgium; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada; Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Denmark; Prime Minister Sanna Marin, Finland; President Emmanuel Macron, France; Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany; Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Iceland; Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Ireland; Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India; Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy; Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Japan; Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Netherlands; Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand; Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway; President Andrzej Duda, Poland; President Vladimir Putin, Russia; Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, Sweden; President Guy Parmelin, Switzerland; President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan; and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, United Kingdom.
The petition reminds these world leaders that under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) clause of international law, they are under an obligation to help save the people of Balochistan from war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It accuses the Pakistan military of re-enacting the brutal scorched earth policy they adopted in Bangladesh in 1971.
“Pakistan army and secret services have been carrying out a secret, dirty war in Balochistan since 2005. Tens of thousands have perished in the slow-motion genocide. The dire situation has further exacerbated since Chinese president Xi Jinping, in partnership with the Pakistan army, launched the multi-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (C.P.E.C). The aim of the project is to connect Xinjiang province with Balochistan’s strategic port city of Gwadar, on the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz,” the petition reads.
It says Enforced Disappearances is the same policy used by Adolf Hitler—called “Night and Fog”—during World War Two to leave the family and population in despondency over the fate of the victim. The BAC petition said upwards of 20,000 Baloch, including women and children, have been disappeared by Pakistan soldiers in Balochistan, “New cases of enforced disappearances are also being reported almost on a daily basis.”
The BAC petition says, “Pakistan military is also using enforced disappearances to silence other national groups like Pashtuns and Sindhis. Good Samaritans from the dominant Punjab province, who dare to raise their voice against enforced disappearances, are themselves disappeared and forced to flee the country.