Baluchistan 'fuels Afghan insurgent

Baluchistan 'fuels Afghan insurgents'
By Farhan Bokhari, Pakistan Correspondent
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: September 14 2006 03:00 | Last updated: September 14 2006 03:00


The conflict in Pakistan's south-western Baluchistan province and the death last month of a nationalist tribal leader are fuelling the insurgency in southern Afghanistan where Nato forces are fighting the Taliban, the International Crisis Group has warned in a report to be released today.

The report comes as General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, visits Brussels this week on a trip that also takes him to Havana for the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, then to the US and the UK.

The report by the ICG, a Brussels-based non-governmental organisation, criticised Gen Musharraf's handling of the conflict in Baluchistan, where a struggle is under way for greater economic and political rights for the gas-rich province.

It also said the international community, particularly the US, had failed to recognise "the price that is involved for security in neighbouring Afghanistan" if the Baluchistan conflict continued. The ICG said Gen Musharraf had sidelined Baluchistan's regional leadership - its nationalist parties and tribal chiefs - and his "attempt instead to consolidate central control through military force has left little space for a negotiated settlement".

The death on August 26 of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, a provincial political leader, has sparked further unrest in the area. While the government said Bugti was killed in an unexplained explosion, opposition politicians have demanded an inquiry into allegations he was targeted in a military operation. Bugti supported a nationalist group known as the Baluchistan National Army, which was accused by the government in Islamabad of attacking natural gas pipelines. Pakistan saw its worst ever gas shortages last winter, when supplies were disrupted by such attacks. Pakistan moved more troops to the region late last year.

But the ICG report said Gen Musharraf should withdraw the military and allow elections to be held in the province next year. "The conflict could be resolved easily," it said. "Free and fair elections in 2007 would restore participatory representative institutions, reducing tensions between the centre and the province, empowering moderate forces and marginalising extremists in Baluchistan.

"The military government should recognise that it faces conflict not with a handful of sardars [tribal leaders] but with a broad-based movement for political, economic and social empowerment. The only way out is to end all military action, release political prisoners and respect constitutionally guaranteed political freedoms."

Samina Ahmed, Pakistan country director for the ICG, said: "The hope is that this is still a movement for provincial rights and not a larger movement for secession. But you have to take this situation very seriously."

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani commentator, said: "The long-term outlook with this conflict looks bleak. Even if using coercive power to restrain the situation works for the time being, there is no assurance that the anger across Baluchistan would die down."