Baluch guerrillas pose tough challenge

June 11, 2013 - 13:45,  NOTE: This story is being withdrawn by Reuters http://reut.rs/1a0sheE )

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's new government aims to end a long-running insurgency in the strategically important province of Baluchistan by persuading the army to check human rights abuses and opening peace talks with a fractious set of armed groups fighting for an independent Baluch homeland.

Laying out his peace plan in an interview with Reuters, Abdul Malik, the new chief minister of the south-western province, has pledged to introduce "confidence building measures" during the first 100 days of his government, including an end to the enforced disappearances and the immediate return of missing persons allegedly held by security forces.

The new chief minister says only once these measures are in place can he approach main insurgent leaders for talks.

"We have to create an environment in which we are in a position to invite insurgents for negotiations," Malik said.

"Before I go to them, we have to take certain measures to prove that we want change."

The main figures Malik plans to approach include Allah Nazar Baloch, the leader of the Baluchistan Liberation Front, Brahamdagh Bugti, the Swiss-based chief of the Baluch Republican Party, and Harbiyar Marri, an exiled nationalist who leads the Baluchistan Liberation Army.

Separatist insurgents have killed several senior members of Malik's National Party and tried to kill him twice during the muted campaigning in Baluchistan ahead of the May 11 general election.

In the eyes of the Baluch Liberation Front, one of the main armed groups, Malik has betrayed the region by joining parliamentary politics rather than pursing the goal of an independent homeland.

Overshadowed by a U.S.-funded campaign against Taliban militants on the north-western frontier with Afghanistan, the armed conflict in this parched land of broken hills endowed with reserves of copper, gold and natural gas receives scant outside attention, even within Pakistan itself.

The separatists attack teachers, government officials and members of other ethnic groups who they see as unfairly exploiting their province's resources.

In response, death squads that human rights groups and Baluch activists say are organised by the security forces have rounded up and killed hundreds of Baluch, a tactic the rights groups call "kill and dump" operations.

The military has repeatedly denied involvement.

In one of his first moves since taking office, the week-old prime minister Nawaz Sharif has demonstrated his resolve to crack down on abuses by appointing a new chief minister whose middle-class credentials and independent politics signal at least a symbolic break with the corrupt and inept administrations of the past.

A veteran Baluch politician, Malik is the first head of the provincial government who does not hail from the ranks of tribal overlords traditionally used by the army to exert control in the province.

But most believe there is little chance of progress in Baluchistan unless Sharif, who has a long history of clashes with the powerful army, can become the first civilian leader to wrest control of Baluchistan policy from the security establishment -- a daunting task.

"I cannot do this alone," Malik said. "We will all together, me and Nawaz Sharif, tell the security establishment that these things have to end."

On Sunday, the day Malik took oath as chief minister, five more bodies were recovered from different parts of Baluchistan.

The province was recently on the verge of securing Pakistan's largest foreign investment -- a $3.3 billion copper and gold mine planned by Barrick Gold of Canada and Antofagasta of Chile -- until the project became mired in legal wrangling with authorities in 2011.

China too has invested heavily in Baluchistan, including building a deep water port at Gwadar on the Arabian Sea to give it access to Gulf oil supplies.

And yet, Baluchistan remains a microcosm of Pakistan's wider woes, exhibiting a litany of state failure, corruption and missing economic opportunities.

"He cannot do anything good but will just participate in killing more Baluch," the Front said in a statement.

But Malik says he is optimistic about Baluchistan's future in inspite of the odds.

"I may succeed, I may fail," Malik said. "But this is the first time that Pakistan's public at large is thinking that maybe, Baluchistan might just be fixed."

(Editing by Randy Fabi)

Reuters