March 02, 2009
Deadline Extended by Captors for American Hostage in Pakistan
We keep getting comments by ethnic Balochs claiming that the Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) is just demanding its "rights" under the Geneva Convention. I'm not sure what those alleged "rights" are, but I'm pretty sure that the Geneva Convention prohibits hostage taking and then threatening to murder the hostage.
I've no idea the extent to which the Punjab dominated Pakistan government oppresses Balochs, but given Pakistan's track record it wouldn't surprise me in the least that their human rights record in Balochistan is horrendous. Nevertheless, taking aid workers hostage and threatening to murder them is not a legitimate form of political protest.
John Solecki must be released now. John Solecki must be released unconditionally. Period.
The United Nations Monday made a fresh appeal for the release of its official, John Solecki, who is being held by Baloch separatists in south-west Pakistan, a day after his captors threatened to kill him if the government did not release more than 1,100 prisoners in four days, officials and media reports said. "We keep appealing for the immediate and safe release of Mr Solecki," said UN spokeswoman Maki Shinohara, while confirming that the world organization had learned about the deadline.Thanks to Stable Hand.A shadowy rebel group, the Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF), in a letter sent to the local Online news agency late Sunday, said that it was extending the earlier deadline, giving the government four days to free the prisoners....
"We are giving the last deadline for meeting our demands," warned the letter, saying the state institutions should be held responsible if Solecki got killed.
The BLUF also urged Solecki's mother, relatives and friends to ask American and international human rights organizations to play a role in the release of 1,109 people who it said were being held by Pakistan's law enforcement agencies.
