Petition for Free Balochistan

By Archen Baloch

Availing the opportunity of German democracy, protection and respect for human rights and freedom of expression, many Baloch political activists sought political asylum in Germany. However, they are often regarded as either Iranian or Pakistani due to lack of information about Balochistan’s illegal occupation by Pakistan and Iran. The members of Free Balochistan Movement embarked upon a signature awareness campaign to inform the German public as well the government that ‘Balochistan is neither Iran nor Pakistan’.

The campaign is also to protests against the daily human rights violations in Balochistan perpetrated by both Iranian and Pakistani armies with blanket impunity from international community’s scrutiny. The fanatic states of Iran and Pakistan are not only involved in human rights violations and war crimes in Balochistan but they are also promoting religious fundamentalism around the world.

The voice of Baloch general public against injustices of tyrannical colonial rule of Pakistan and Iran has been muzzled by media blackout in both occupying countries. But in German democratic society, seeing a window of opportunity of freedom of expression, activists of FBM are doing their best to let the world know what is the relationship of the Baloch nation with Iranian and Pakistan.

Currently, the activists of free Balochistan Movement in Germany didn’t limit their activism against only to human rights violence, but they’re highlighting the real objective of the Baloch national struggle for freedom that says we refused to be called Pakistanis or Iranian nationals because our country has been colonised by military means.

“We want to restore our lost sovereignty over our homeland, Balochistan. Currently, our country is arbitrarily divided into two parts between Iran and Pakistan. We are striving to convince German people that Baloch are a separate nation than Iranians and Pakistan. We are separate in every aspect from language to culture, food, music and traditions. Overall we have nothing in common with Punjabis and Persian,” the organiser of Free Balochistan Movement Germany Chapter Mr Elahi Bakhsh told Balochwarna News.

“It has been more than a month our signature campaign, titled ‘Balochistan is neither Pakistan nor Iran’ has been continued in almost all German cities. Our objective is to educate the German nation about the cause of our struggle that both Pakistan and Iran have occupied our country by military aggression. Therefore, it is the moral duty of all freedom-loving nations to come forward and lend their supporting hands so that our nation’s sovereignty is resorted over our motherland, Balochistan”, Mr Bakhsh added.

These campaigners of “Balochistan is neither Pakistan nor Iran” are reporting their activities on their Party page in Facebook, Free Balochistan Movement and other Baloch media outlets. In one such reported they emphasised on Balochistan’s occupation and the consequent division by the British Empire, “English Rulers divided Balochistan by drawing the artificial lines of “Gold Smith” and “Durand” and then provided the chance for the occupiers [Pakistan and Iran] to invade the sovereign state of Balochistan, and it is alarming and has to be denounced.”

On Friday 3rd May 2019, FBM’s activists held two signatory Campaigns simultaneously. One was held in German capital city of Berlin in front of US and France embassies and the other was held in the German city of Wuppertal of Northern Province of Westfalen. The campaigners said Germans and nationalities of other countries overwhelmingly supported and signed their petition of ‘Balochistan is neither Pakistan nor Iran’.

The campaigner also called on their former colonial ruler, the British Raj to correct their historical blunder which denied the Baloch of their sovereignty, in these words, “This will remain a debt on the history and evolution of Great Britain. This has become now the responsibility of Great Britain to support Balochistan’s independence struggle so that the “blunder” they committed is corrected so that the democracy-loving British public is not regretting”.

Mr Hyrbyair Marri, the head of Free Baloch Movement, recently asked the international community especially the US and the western world that “Pakistan and Iran should be blacklisted and given a stern warning to end the Balochocide (Baloch genocide) and their support for terrorism in the world.”

Baloch is a secular nation, striving for their basic rights for freedom and dignity and they think without their own the sovereign independent country of free Balochistan, they will be degraded and their national resources will be exploited by extremist countries, Pakistan and Iran for their nefarious designs.

The Free Balochistan Movement’s awareness campaign is a true representation of Baloch national aspirations and the Baloch narrative that Pakistani and Iranian media has been negatively portraying. It is the moral and national responsibility of all pro-freedom Baloch activists in exile to support and promote the petition of FBM to inform the world about the illegal occupation of Balochistan and Baloch struggle against again occupation.