 His Excellency Ban Ki Moon
Secretary-General
The United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017-3515
February 1, 2010
Dear Mr. Secretary-General,
Subject: Brutal method of torture of Baloch Political workers by Pakistani Army
We are writing to express concern on the reports of the gross human rights violations against the Baloch nation in Pakistan. We would like to draw your attention on the brutal methods of torture practiced by the Pakistan Army and its spy agencies against Baloch political and human rights activists to extract information as well as to de-humanize them to break their will.
BHRC (Canada) has learnt through reliable sources about the brutal methods of torture by Pakistani security agencies on Baloch political activist, that includes injecting a chemical called Truth Serum (Sodium Pentothal) and psychological methods such as ‘sleep deprivation’. Recently, in an interview to leading English news paper in Pakistan dated, February 1, 2010, Mr.Wahab Baloch the President of Baloch Rights Council disclosed his nightmariesh experiences with Pakistani intelligence agencies where he was injected the Truth Serum.
Mr Wahab Baloch is a human rights activist who is raising awareness locally and internationally against the forced disappearances of Baloch Political workers in Pakistan. There are at least 8000 Baloch political workers including women and children under the age of twelve years who were made disappeared by the Pakistani Security Agencies.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=221861
The above report describes that "The intelligence agencies in Pakistan are using drugs to extract information from political activists, while doctors on the payroll of the state are believed to be playing a role in this unethical practice".
Prof. S. Haroon Ahmed, an eminent psychiatrist and a freind of Balochistan, told the press that the drug is also called Sodium Pentothal. Prof. Haroon added that there are various kinds of methods used to extract information from people suspected of anti-social or so-called anti-state activities. Besides physical torture, psychological methods are keeping a person in incognito and keeping him awake for a long time and altering all normal expectations.
Since the Pakistani occupation of Balochistan on March 28, 1948, the systematic torture, detention, and extra judicial killing of Baloch political leaders and activists by the Pakistani Military and its intelligence agencies has been an official policy, under military as well as civilian governments. Torture is not only limited to acts practiced during interrogation, or within prisons and detention centres by the Pakistani Army but also it is being applied comprehensively on different levels in Baloch society on various groups and individuals.
Baloch has been denied its very existence as a historic nation by the state of Pakistan. Unfortunately, the international community has accepted Pakistan as an occupier of Baloch lands and its resources by looking the other way and allowing it to commit atrocities on the Baloch populace for the last 60 years.
Baloch Human Rights Council calls these brutal acts of torture, the violation of:
-convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment 1948;
-the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948;
-the UN Charter 1945;
-the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966;
-the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949; and other relevant international conventions and treaties.
BHRC is asking all international human rights organizations to intervene and investigate the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army on Baloch nation.
Sincerely,
Zaffar Baloch
President
Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada
bhrccanada@gmail.com
CC:Your Excellency
Mr. Francis Deng,
United Nations Secretary General's Special Advisor
on the Prevention of Genocide
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