STANDING CONFERENCE ON REFUGEES
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The following paper has been prepared by WAR ON WANT:
THE CASE FOR HUMANITARIAN RECOGNITION OF BALUCH REFUGEES IN AFGHANISTAN
REFUGEES FROM PAKISTAN IN AFGHANISTAN
Background of the problem of Baluchistan
The Baluch people are one of the tour majer nationalities in Pakistan. with a population of 3 million the Baluch live in a large land area comprising 57% of the total land area of Pakistan. The terrain is mountainous and desert and has an extremely severe climate. They are a tribal, nomadic people who have their own culture, language and national identity. Their main economic livelihood is the grazing of sheep and goats.
The Baluch people have had a history of resistance to the repression of the Pakistani state. The first war of resistance took place in 1947-8 when Pakistan forcibly annexed Baluchistan into the new Pakistani state without allowing a referendum for the Baluch people. The second war of resistance was in 1959 against Ayub Khan's usurpation of power in the imposition of martial law. The third war of resist.nco was 1963-69, against the formation of one unit, which completely denied. fundamental domocratic, economic and cultural rights to the Baluch. These three wars of resistanco always resulted in pdomises by the government in power to rodress the wrongs done and a full amnesty to the fighters. Each amnesty was always broken and the loaders of the resistance were invariably either hanged or jailed. The most recent war of resistance was against the Bhutto rogine from 1973-77.
The 1970 elections in Pakistan had rosulted in the National Awami Party (a broad based, secular, nationalist party) winning a majority of soats in Baluchistan and Pushtunistan (North West Frontier Province). Aftor the defeat of the Pakistan army in 1971, Bhutto gave the provincial governmonts of Baluchistan and the N.W.F.P. to the National Avami Party. However after only nine months in power and whole series of provacations by the Central Govern- ment, these Provincial administrations wore thrown out and martial law was declared in Baluchistan, All the NAP leaders wore jailed and later the Party itsolf was banned by the Suprema Court. Troops ware sent into the tribal areas of Daluchistan, blocking the mountains and allowing no food to enter. A spontaneous resistanco by the Baluch people was met with by six Army divisions, aorial bombardment, a permanent blocade and help from the Shah of Iran in the shape of monoy and thirty holicoptors and their crows. protracted war has boon the bloodiost in it's history. soldiers were killed or wounded in the five years and thousands of Baluch fighters and their families were killed.
homeloss.
For Pakistan this Over 6000 Pakistani
Thousands more were wounded or made
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