Share:

Support Baluchistan\'s Right to Self-Determination

Support Congressman Dan Rohrabacher Introduced Bill Recognizing Baluchistan's Right to Self-Determination

Washington, D.C. ? Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) introduced a House Concurrent Resolution that the Baluchi nation has a historic right to self-determination. Baluchistan is currently divided between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan with no sovereign rights of its

own. In Pakistan especially, the Baluchi people are subjected to violence and extrajudicial killing. The bill states that the Baluchi people?have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country; and they should be afforded the opportunity to choose their own

status.?



?The Baluchi, like other nations of people, have an innate right to self-determination,? says Rohrabacher. ?The political and ethnic discrimination they suffer is tragic and made more so because America is financing and selling arms to their oppressors in Islamabad.?

Historically Baluchistan was an independently governed entity known as the Baluch Khanate of Kalat which came to an end after invasions from both British and Persian armies. An attempt to regain independence in 1947 was crushed by an invasion by Pakistan.



Today the Baluchistan province of Pakistan is rich in natural resources but has been subjugated and exploited by Punjabi and Pashtun elites in Islamabad, leaving Baluchistan the country?s poorest province.Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Steve King (R-IA) have also signed on as original co-sponsors of the bill.



Rep. Rohrabacher is Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.



>> http://rohrabacher.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=281121





112TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. CON. RES. ____



Expressing the sense of Congress that the people of Baluchistan, currently divided between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, have the

right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country.



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES



Mr. ROHRABACHER submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on _______________________



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION



Expressing the sense of Congress that the people of Baluchistan, currently divided between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country.



Whereas the people of Baluchistan have maintained a proud and distinctive national, cultural, and religious identity dating back to ancient times;



Whereas in 1666, the Baluch Khanate of Kalat was founded which functioned as an independent, sovereign country;



Whereas in the 19th century, the Baluch people were conquered and divided by the imperialist expansion of Persia (Iran) and the British Empire;



Whereas on August 15, 1947, the Khan of Kalat declared independence, only to have Baluch aspirations crushed by an invasion by Pakistan in April 1948 followed by 2 years of a bloody campaign to stamp out popular resistance;



Whereas revolts in 1958, 1973, and 2005 indicate continued popular discontent against rule by Islamabad, and the plunde