Human rights abuses: US committee hears grievances of Balochistan

WASHINGTON: In the packed Room 2200 of the Rayburn Office Building, members of the House Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations began hearing human rights activists and scholars detail human rights abuses in Balochistan.

The hearing chaired by Congressman (R) Dana Rohrabacher, who last week introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to award Dr. Shakil Afridi with US citizenship. In his opening remarks, Rep. Rohrabacher said that Balochistan is a turbulent land marred by human rights violations “by regimes that are against US values”.

Rep. Rohrabacher outlined the history of Pakistan’s creation, and highlighted Balochistan’s grievances vis a vis natural resources, said that the province’s wealth was being taken by dominant Punjabi elite.

Addressing the committee, scholar Christine Fair said that while she understood emotions ran high, targeted killings were also being carried out by the Baloch.

In his submitted testimony to the committee, Amnesty International’s Advocacy Director T. Kumar called on the US to “apply the Leahy Amendment without waivers to all Pakistani military units in Balochistan.”

Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan director for Human Rights Watch, in his submitted remarks, said that cases documented by the HRW show that Pakistan’s security forces and its intelligence agencies were involved in the enforced disappearance of ethnic Baloch. The HRW representative asked the US government in his recommendations to “communicate directly to the agencies responsible for disappearances and other abuses including the army, ISI, IB, Frontier Corps, police and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies, to demand an end to abuses and facilitate criminal inquiries to hold perpetrators accountable.”

Hasan dubbed the military’s role in the province as brutal, and an occupying one. He clarified that the HRW took no position on the issue of the independence of Balochistan.  He argued that the US and UK had made enforced disappearances possible by allowing them during the war on terror, which has led to the military doing the same. Christine Fair added that Pakistan’s abuse of human rights have served the US’ interests.

In his testimony, analyst Ralph Peters called Pakistan a supporter of terrorism, and said that Pakistan had made the US complicit too by launching attacks against India such as the Mumbai attack.

The hearing, which lasted a little over an hour, came to an end as congressmen decided to go to the floor for a vote. In his closing remarks, Rep. Rohrabacher declared that the hearing was no stunt, and that they wanted to start a national dialogue on what US policy should be in that part of the world.

State Department distances itself from Balochistan hearing

When asked about the Congressional hearing on Balochistan, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said that their view on Balochistan remains unchanged. “Congress holds hearings on many foreign affairs topics. These hearings don’t necessarily imply that the US Government endorses one view or another view. I’d underscore that the State Department is not participating or involved in this hearing today.”

The spokesperson referred to comments she had made recently on Balochistan on Twitter, “We emphasise that the United States engages with Pakistan on a whole range of issues, including ways to foster economic development and expand opportunity in Balochistan.”

When asked whether the US supports a demand for an independent Balochistan, Nuland said, “Our view on this has not changed, and you know where we’ve been on Balochistan. We encourage all the parties in Balochistan to work out their differences peacefully and through a valid political process.”

M Hossein Bor, a Baloch lawyer and witness at the hearing, said that according to Baloch sources, nearly 4,000 people have disappeared in the province since 2001. In his submitted remarks, Mr Bor called on the US to support an independent Balochistan “in case Pakistan or Iran or both collapsed from within”.

The hearing, which lasted nearly 75 minutes, came to an early and somewhat abrupt end as the congressmen were summoned to the House floor for a vote.

A Massive Earthquake expected in Kashmir any time after next 3 months(american scientist)

Fake and poor quality anti-malarial drugs are threatening efforts to control the disease in Africa and could put millions of lives at risk, scientists say.

The counterfeit medicines could harm patients and promote drug resistance among malaria parasites, warns the study, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Malaria is believed to kill about 800,000 people a year.

Some of the fake tablets are said to have originated in China.

The researchers, from the Wellcome Trust-Mahosot Hospital-Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Collaboration, published their work in the Malaria Journal.

They examined fake and substandard anti-malarial drugs that were found on sale in 11 African countries between 2002 and 2010.

They discovered that some counterfeits contained a mixture of the wrong pharmaceutical ingredients which would initially alleviate the symptoms of malaria but would not cure it.

Some of the ingredients in the tablets could cause potentially serious side effects, the study found, especially if they were mixed with other drugs a patient might be taking, like anti-retrovirals to treat HIV.

Drug resistance

The malaria parasite can, after a period of time, develop resistance to the drugs being used to treat it.

This has happened in the past with medicines such as chloroquine and mefloquine.

The researchers warn that the fake drugs could lead to the same effect on artemisinin, one of the most effective drugs now being used to treat malaria.

They say small quantities of artemisinin derivatives are being put in some of the counterfeit products to ensure that they pass authenticity tests.

However, at the level it is present, these drugs are unlikely to rid the body of malaria parasites, but could enable them to build up resistance to artemisinin, the study warns.

The Asian origin of the fake drugs was identified using traces of pollen found in some of the tablets.

The lead researcher on the study, Dr Paul Newton, called for urgent measures from African governments to tackle counterfeit anti-malarials.

"Failure to take action will put at risk the lives of millions of people, particularly children and pregnant women," he said.

"The enormous investment in the development, evaluation and deployment of anti-malarials is wasted if the medicines that patients actually take are, due to criminality or carelessness, of poor quality and do not cure."

Mohmand Agency: Dunya News correspondent killed

Dunay News correspondent Mukarram Khan has been killed by firing of unknown miscreants in Shabqadar.

As per details, Mukarram Khan was going to offer prayer in the evening when suddenly unknown armed men started indiscriminate firing on him.

 As a result, he was severely injured and shifted to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries.

 It is worth mentioning that Mukarram Khan had been receiving life threats from unknown people.