Petition: Help end Enforced Disappearances in Balochistan

Sign petition to end Enforced Disappearances in Balochistan

Our campaigns are aimed at securing the basic human rights of the people of Balochistan, including their right to self-determination.

Our ongoing campaign is aimed at seeking justice for thousands of victims of Enforced Disappearances and their families in Balochistan.

As part of the campaign, we have launched an online petition addressed to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and heads of more than two dozen countries, including U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

To participate in the campaign fill in the brief form given below and click to send:

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Excellencies: [recipient name will go here]. [recipient position will go here] of the [recipient country go here].

Dear [recipient title will go here] [recipient position will go here].

I am writing this to you as under the Responsibility to Protect clause of international law, you are under an obligation to help save the people of Balochistan from war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The brutal scorched earth policy adopted a half-century ago by the Pakistan army in what is now Bangladesh has been re-enacted in Balochistan. The reasons remain much the same: Just like the Bengalis did in 1971, the Baloch are protesting Pakistan’s political and economic injustices and are demanding their basic human rights, including their right to self-determination.

Largely ignored by the outside world, 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.

Excellencies, one of the most heinous crimes perpetrated by Pakistani soldiers is Enforced Disappearances. This 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.

Upwards of 20,000 Baloch, including women and children, have been disappeared by Pakistan soldiers in the last one and half decades. The victims belong to all walks of life— political activists, students, writers, lawyers, doctors, poets, singers, and ordinary citizens. Hundreds of mutilated bodies of the Baloch victims were dumped on roadsides in what has been called the kill-and-dump policy. Mass graves, with skeletal remains of the victims of enforced disappearances, have also been uncovered in different Balochistan towns.

Excellencies, the fate of at least 5,000 Baloch victims remain unknown and their family members have been protesting for years outside press clubs in Pakistan, but their wails have fallen on deaf ears. New cases of enforced disappearances are also being reported almost on a daily basis.

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.

The silence of global leaders has allowed the Pakistan army, which calls the shots in the country, to show utter disregard and contempt for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Geneva Conventions in Balochistan.

Excellencies, I urge you to act urgently under the R2P to uphold the basic human rights of the Baloch people.

Pakistan army must end its policy of enforced disappearances and immediately free all victims of enforced disappearances.