Baloch Freedom March in Germany

By Dr Shahzavar Karimzadi

As a part of a campaign to highlight the violation of human rights in Balochistan, Baloch activists are currently on a long march in Germany. The march was launched from Dusseldorf on 16, July, 2016 and will end in Berlin, the capital of Germany. Soon after the Baloch activists embarked on their peaceful march in Germany, the forces of hate and violence carried out four horrendous attacks against German people within a week. The wave of gruesome assaults began in Wurzburg on 18^th July. This was followed, shortly afterwards, in Munich by a carnage on 22^nd at a shopping centre and two further vicious attacks in Reutlingen and Ansbach, on 24th July 2016.

As a result of these indiscriminate attacks many people were injured, several were killed, including a pregnant woman and children. No sensible person can be unmoved by such horrific events. The choice here is crystal clear. These heartless massacres of innocent people must be condemned in the strongest terms possible. We Baloch stand by the German people in solidarity, share their grief and offer our condolences and sympathies to those who have lost their loved ones and those who have been injured.

Baloch fully understand what the German people are going through because we regularly experience similar attacks by the pro-jihadist fundamentalist states. Baloch are a nation without a state. The British illegally occupied Balochistan in 1839 and subsequently, divided it into three parts. In the twentieth century, Persians invaders occupied western Balochistan in 1928 and the Punjabi Muslim rulers of Pakistan occupied eastern Balochistan in 1948. Since the occupation and division of Balochistan, it has suffered from the same tyrannical forces of violence, darkness and intolerance.

Pakistan and Iran are two colonial theocratic geopolitical structures that live and breathe on extreme Islamic bigotry and violence. The Punjabi Muslim army and rulers of Pakistan are the manufacturer of most of these extremist Jihadist groups, including Taliban, in the world. Their equivalent in scope and scale of brutality is the Shia fanatic rulers in Iran, who are the masters of Hezbollah. These Frankenstein colonial theocratic states are the main source for religious hatred and violence. In essence, ISIL is a mirror reflection of these colonial theocratic states.  There is not any crime that ISIL has committed that these theocratic states have not committed on larger scale against their opponents and against the different nationalities, which have had to suffer under their occupation.

What the German people have experienced in one week is the daily experience of Baloch under occupation of Pakistan and Iran. Thousands of Baloch activists have disappeared or have been killed in occupied Balochistan by Pakistani or Iranian military forces. Just in the Pakistani occupied Balochistan about 20,000 Baloch political and human rights activists have been abducted or disappeared since 2002. Nearly 3000 mutilated bodies of victims have been discovered so far in Balochistan. The entire Balochistan is turn into a military zone, and become a hot spot for Jihadist proxy groups of Pakistan and the Hezbollahi militia of Iran.   Independent journalists are not allowed and most of the information about the Baloch and Balochistan is distorted and disseminated by the occupying states controlled media.

The Baloch freedom march from the platform of Free Balochistan Movement in Germany is an attempt to project the true picture of the plight of Baloch people. The Baloch nation is a secular and peaceful nation. Baloch have been struggling for decades to regain their freedom and to establish a secular and democratic state where the rights of every individual in Balochistan is protected under the law.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of all democrats who believe in human rights; freedom, democracy, freedom of expression and association, justice, equality, peace and the rule of law to support the Baloch freedom movement and to join the march if they can.

The Baloch freedom march is for all Baloch who want a free, democratic, humane and peaceful Balochistan. These activities should be above one’s own narrow political and ideological consideration. Highlighting the violation of human rights in Balochistan is not exclusive to one person or individual group.  Within the next few days the march will come to an end so let us all do our best to support our fellow compatriots in the march. Make sure to join them, particularly, on the last days of the March to show your solidarity, to fight against injustice and for freedom.