Mr. Chairman,

One of the continuing human rights problems which should be presented before the Human Rights Council is the demands of the Baluchi people vis à vis the Pakistan government. The area of Baluchistan does not receive much attention of the Council but nonetheless its problems relate to a strategic area of the world noted for its oil and gas. Within its area is also included the important Indian Ocean port of Gwadar. The widespread Baluch peoples are included in three state members of the United Nations: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The complaint of the Pakistani Baluch is that, although they are the original inhabitants of Baluchistan, the Pakistan government is exploiting their resources, especially gas, and their port of Gwadar, without sufficiently sharing the resources with the local Baluch population.

There have been uprisings against the oppressive policy of the Musharraf government and in August this year the Pakistani army killed one of the main tribal leaders of the Baluch, namely the 79-year old Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti , a former governor of the province. This assassination has been condemned widely in South Asia.

In April of this year Mr. Munir Mengal of the Baloch Voice TV station was abducted by Pakistant secret agencies at the Karachi International airport after his in-flight from Bahrain. He has since disappeared. In Karachi last week his family filed a suit in the High Court about his disappearance. Mengal's TV station would allow free expression of the Baluch voice in South Asia.

Moreover, the leader of another main tribe of Baluch leaders, the over 80-year old Marri leader, Khair Bux Marri , was house detained this year a few days by the Pakistani army in order to harass the Baluch rights movement. The High Court, however, has acquitted him of all cases presented against him. He is still under house arrest. He is a progressive, secular leader of the Baluch and was a member of the Pakistan National Assembly in 1970.

The Pakistan Human Rights Commission has raised the issue of Baluch rights but the government of Pakistan has turned a deaf ear to such interventions. The government is very well aware of the strategic importance which the province of Baluchistan represents and is cracking down on all opposition to its hegemonistic policies. But in this connection, the government in Islamabad should not escape its responsibility to respect human rights by branding the Baluch 'terrorists' which epithet does not describe the true situation. The Baluch people, an ethnic group with a long history, have different customs and legal systems from the majority Punjabis virtually ruling Pakistan but these differences of culture should not give occasion to call the Baluch merely 'under-developed tribals' as is often heard from Pakistani officials.

Because of its intent on harassing or even decimating the tribal leaders of Baluchistan, the government of Pakistan should be convinced that the issue concerns a matter of human and peoples rights. The Pakistani government's methods of dealing with the popular manifestations in Baluchistan should be under careful scrutiny by the international community.

Thank you Mr. Chairman