Dreadful human rights situation in Pakistan – Joint responsibility for violence in Afghanistan

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has asked the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier during his visit tomorrow to the Pakistani leaders to discuss the dreadful situation of the ethnic and religious minorities. "The Sunni Beluchi are suffering from heavy attacks of the Pakistani security forces and the Christian minority is not given enough protection from attacks coming from the Moslem majority”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. "A particular problem is caused by the role of the military secret service ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), which is not only involved in severe breaches of human rights in Pakistan, but is also held to be responsible for violence in neighbouring Afghanistan.”

In July and August alone more than one hundred civilians were killed in attacks of the Pakistani army in Beluchistan, which lies in the west of the country. 250 people are missing and more than 20,000 Beluchi have fled their villages as a result of the violence. Torture is widespread. On 5th April 2008 four Beluchi were arrested and burnt in barrels of tar because they had refused to identify suspected supporters of a Beluchi liberation movement. The Beluchi have been fighting since 1948 for an independent state. 3,000 Beluchi have died since the outbreak of the fifth Beluchi conflict in 1994, 4,000 members of the minority have been arrested and 200,000 driven out.

While the Beluchi have been actively persecuted by the army and the secret service, two million Christians have been complaining on the insufficient protection from the security forces. The situation of the minority is particularly difficult in the southern Punjab. In September 2008 Christians were again threatened with death in the village of Shantinagar if they did not convert to Islam. In other villages also Christians have been receiving death threats. More than 800 houses of Christians in Shantinagar were destroyed in 1997 following such threats from angry Moslems.

"Much of the violence is the responsibility of the ISI”, said Delius. It forms a state within the state, which systematically withdraws all control by civilian structures. It was only in July 2008 that an attempt of the Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, failed to place the ISI under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. The notorious secret service is held responsible for the attacks in Afghanistan and India, for the support of the Taliban and radical forces in Indian Kashmir. As long as the ISI is not brought under civilian power there is potentially a great danger for the German army in Afghanistan as well. There has been no change in the situation with the change of the head of the ISI as a result of pressure from the USA and with a new military man, General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, now being in charge.