Balochistan

Happy Independence Day, Balochistan!

Actually, not so happy--Basque journalist Karlos Zurutuza explains why in his newest dispatch from the stormy province in western Pakistan.

Zurutuza had to sneak into Balochistan, because Pakistan does not allow journalists in there without a permit.

One of the reasons they don't want journalists poking around is that they might investigate what's happened to the Baloch who live in and around the mountain where Pakistan's been testing its nuclear arsenal:

The Baloch are the new Kurds

The Baloch people are smack in the middle of everything: Iran's turmoil, Pakistan's breakdown, Afghanistan's ongoing tribal wars.
From The Guardian:

President Ahmadinejad is intensifying his repression of the Baluch minority, with 19 campaigners executed since last month

  Read more…

The "Disappeared" of Balochistan

Most Americans have no idea where or what Balochistan is. And the news that 14 Baloch activists were hanged by the Iranian government on July 14th after a monkey court trial for alleged terrorism has largely escaped the notice of the U.S. media.

It would have escaped my notice, too, but I have a personal connection to the Baloch, whose ancestral territory overlaps the borders of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In 2006, I travelled with friends to Quetta, Pakistan.

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