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Baloch shadow over China-Pakistan
ties
By B Raman
The
decision
by Pakistani and Chinese authorities to cancel
the program for the formal inauguration of the
newly constructed Gwadar port by Chinese Prime
Minister Wen Jiabao during his recent visit to
Pakistan gave a clear indication of the further
deterioration in the situation in Balochistan.
The first stage in the construction of the
Chinese-aided port had been completed ahead of
schedule by the Chinese engineers after the death
of three engineers in a terrorist explosion by
suspected Uighur terrorists last year. Its formal
inauguration was one of the principal functions
planned by the two countries during the visit of
Wen.
However, on the eve of his
arrival in Pakistan, the authorities of the
two countries decided to cancel the function.
Though the Pakistani authorities have attributed
the decision to serious damage to the roads in the area
due to the recent heavy floods in some parts
of the province, Pakistani media have reported
that the cancellation was for security reasons.
It is said that the Pakistani authorities
were worried that the Baloch nationalists, who
have been opposing the port, might stage a
spectacular incident during Wen's visit to the
province to draw world attention to their
opposition. On the other hand, the Chinese were
reportedly worried that the Uighur terrorists, who
have been sheltered by the Taliban in its camps in
the province, could pose a threat to Wen.
It has been indicated by the Pakistani
authorities that the port would now be
commissioned by President General Pervez Musharraf
or Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz after three or four
months. It is not clear whether the 450 Chinese
engineers who were working on the first stage of
the project continue to stay there to participate
in the construction of the second stage or whether
they have all left the province due to security
concerns, as claimed by the Baloch nationalists.
The News of April 14 reported as follows:
"The port has been constructed at a cost of US$248
million. China has paid $198 million while
Pakistan has contributed $50 million. China also
offered expertise in the form of technical staff.
Plus they have given the bulk of the equipment.
Their work done, most of the 450 Chinese personnel
have left for home. Phase 2 of the port will be
constructed adjacent to Phase 1. It will be
bigger. But for now, some ships have already
started berthing at this port. Pakistan Petroleum,
which is exploring off shore gas, is using the
port loading and off-loading equipment fairly
regularly."
Details are only now available
of the 10-hour-long battle between the Frontier
Corps (FC) troops and Balochi nationalists
belonging to the Bugti tribe on March 17.
Twenty-eight members of the Bugti tribe and 33
Hindus living under the protection of the tribe
were killed during the exchange of fire. Of the
Hindus killed, 19 were children.
Since
this incident, there has been an exodus of Hindus
from Balochistan into Sindh. Even earlier, the
military-intelligence establishment had forcibly
removed a large number of Hindus and some Sikhs
who were living in the Gwadar and other areas on
the Mekran coast, since it viewed them as a
possible threat to the security of the port. The
number of Hindus living in Balochistan has further
thinned down as a result of the latest exodus, but
the numbers involved are not available.
The prestigious Friday Times of Lahore has
reported as follows in its issue for the week
ending March 31: "Because of the clash, a large
number of Hindu residents of Dera Bugti have
reportedly migrated to Sindh's Khandkot, Kashmore
and Jacobabad towns ... Hundreds of Hindus and
Sikhs have migrated to the towns and villages of
Sindh and Balochistan adjacent to Dera Bugti.
There are still many who have sent off their
families, but stayed back themselves, to lend
support to Akbar Bugti [leader of the tribe],
whose ancestors have protected them for over 400
years."
While the Baloch nationalists have claimed
to have killed 35 FC personnel in the clash,
the FC has asserted that it lost only eight.
According to the Baloch nationalists, during
the clash of March 17 and thereafter, the Pakistan
army and the FC have diverted to Balochistan
from South Waziristan in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas some of the
troops deployed there for operations against
anti-US foreign mercenaries and much of the
equipment given by the US for use against the
remnants of al-Qaeda, such as helicopter gunships
and communication equipment. This equipment is now
being used to crush the Baloch nationalists.
To enable it to focus on its campaign
against Baloch nationalists, the Pakistan army has
reached a ceasefire agreement against the leaders
of the pro-al Qaeda tribes in South Waziristan,
after paying them large amounts as bribes in
return for a promise by them that they would not
indulge in any violent incidents in South
Waziristan when the army was engaged in its
counter-insurgency operations in Balochistan.
The army has further strengthened the
iron curtain that was already there in the province
to prevent details of the situation from spreading
to other parts of Pakistan and the rest of the
world. Despite this, many details have started
coming out as a result of tours of the area
undertaken by members of parliament and intrepid
journalists. Salient points from their reports
given in the following paragraphs give an idea of
the situation prevailing there after March 17:
The recent gun battle between the FC
and the tribesmen seems to have delivered a coup
de grace to whatever little element of stability
was left in the province. While the FC spokesman
claims that the Bugti tribe attacked an FC
convoy at Sangsila with automatic weapons, the
Jamhoori Watan Party [JWP, of which Nawab Akbar
Bugti is the leader] and Bugti tribal leaders
blame the FC for opening fire by launching
mortar and rocket attacks on the fort of Nawab
Akbar Bugti.
- Hasan Mansoor in the Friday
Times for the week ending March 31.
FC
sources now report that Marri tribesmen have
also reached Dera Bugti to join hands with the
Bugtis in a war against the paramilitary force.
[An] FC spokesman said: "We are using helicopters
to provide supplies to our people ... Tribesmen
have dug more than 40 trenches and have taken up
positions in the hills."
- Hasan Mansoor.
There is a war-like situation in Dera
Bugti. [Parliamentary] Delegates saw burned cars
and fired shells scattered everywhere.
- The
News of March 26
The Sui-Bugti area is
bristling with the grim rumble of intermittent
war, scarred on many sides with the bleak
indicators of a weapon saturated conflict zone.
The majority of the tribals are united under the
banner of the Sardar [Akbar Bugti] and the JWP.
The once abstract notion of long-term
deprivation and random grievances has been
institutionalized into a hardcore resistance
movement that can seriously damage the security
and existence of the federation as we know
it.
- Sherry Rehman in The News of March 26
Vital parts of the huge province are in
the grip of an open civil war.
- Sherry
Rehman
The pipelines are vulnerable to
any member of the Baloch resistance movement,
who can easily blow a vital installation up with
one bomb and no particular resources ... The
road convoys [of the army] are completely
exposed to tribe pickets posted at key junctures
on the passes, able as they have been to
roadblock and cripple all traffic on the
critical supply line to troops and the FC posted
in the valley of Dera Bugti.
- Sherry Rehman
Anybody who has followed the tortuous
history of the Afghan resistance against the
Soviets can see the parallels with the Salang
highway bottlenecks and the negotiating power of
the warlords, who routinely bartered their
control of the supply route for political and
fiscal exchanges. The only difference here is
that the Baloch field commanders cannot be
broken by cash and compromise, so they remain
committed to their political objectives and, in
this case, they are engaged in battle against
their own government, not a foreign power.
-
Sherry Rehman
For the FC and the army
battalion now posted there, the situation is
untenable. They have to fly in their supplies
from Sui to Dera Bugti because their approach to
the valley is now blocked.
- Sherry Rehman
The Balochs are now so alienated from
the federation that they see no reason to
negotiate on issues they would have done in the
past ... He [Akbar Bugti] kept saying: Islamabad
must come to me.
- Mansoor Akbar Kundi in The
Nation of March 26. The Nation of
March 26 quoted Musharraf as having told the
leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League
(Qaide Azam, PML-QA) as follows: "The government
strongly desires to resolve this issue once and
for all, but not on the terms and conditions of
Baloch nationalist Akbar Bugti. Bugti at present
harbors his private army of 7,000 people; Marri
[Khair Bux Marri] 9,000 and Mengal [Ataullah Khan
Mengal] 10,000. Who is funding them and providing
ammunition they are using to meet their nefarious
designs? The situation is very alarming. The
government cannot be cowed down by the threats
being hurled by Akbar Bugti."
Musharraf
told a public meeting in Kasur (Punjab) on April
11 that only one worthless tribal leader (his
reference apparently was to Akbar Bugti) in Sui
was creating problems and the government would
protect all national installations at all costs.
He warned that any attack on the FC or military
would invite swift retaliation.
While thus
ostensibly taking a strong line, a concerned
Musharraf has been encouraging Chaudhry Shujjat
Hussian, leader of the PML-QA, who enjoys his
confidence, to negotiate with Akbar Bugti to find
a solution to the grievances of the Bugti tribe in
matters such as an increase in the payment of
royalties to the tribe for the gas extracted from
their areas. Under an agreement reached with
Bugti, the tribe as well as the FC have already
withdrawn many of the armed pickets set up by them
after the March 17 clash.
Musharraf has
embarked on a three-pronged strategy. First, to
remain firm in his determination to go ahead with
the construction of new military cantonments in
Balochistan and Gwadar and other projects
involving non-Baloch labor to which the Baloch
nationalists are opposed. Second, to show
flexibility in settling the grievances of the
individual tribes in matters relating to their
tribal rights with regard to issues such as
payment of royalties for the utilization of the
natural resources found in their territory by
entering into separate negotiations with the
leaders of each tribe. Third, to refuse to
negotiate with the Baloch fighters and to crush
them through the army and the paramilitary forces.
He is emulating the policy of divide and
rule followed by the Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto
government in the 1970s when it crushed the Baloch
freedom struggle, which had erupted after the
liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, by creating
differences between the Bugti tribe on the one
side and the Marris and the Mengals on the other.
Bhutto then used the Bugti tribe to crush the
Marris and the Mengals.
Now, the Baloch
fighters, wise from the experience of their
predecessors of the 1970s, remain determined that
they will not allow Musharraf to succeed in his
policy of divide and rule. They know that this is
a "now or never" struggle for them and their
success will depend on their remaining united.
Musharraf has not only been trying to create
differences among different tribes, but he has
also been trying to drive a wedge between the
Baloch Sunnis, who are in a majority, and the
Shi'ites.
"Remain united. Don't betray the
Baloch cause." That is the call reverberating
across the hills and valleys of Balochistan.
Remaining united and resolute in the pursuit of
their objective is the sine quo non of
their new freedom struggle. But that alone may not
be adequate. They need to strengthen their
capability for waging a relentless struggle inside
and outside their homeland.
B
Raman is additional secretary (retired),
cabinet secretariat, government of India, New
Delhi, and currently director, Institute for
Topical Studies, Chennai, and distinguished fellow
and convener, Observer Research Foundation,
Chennai Chapter. E-mail itschen36@vsnl.com.
(Copyright 2005 B Raman.) |
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