Daily Times

Last August 3,000 rock-drill operators of Lonomin platinum mine at Marikana demanding a wage raise stopped work; some miners opposed and this led to clashes. On August 12, the workers on strike infiltrated production areas and assaulted three on-duty employees, fatally wounded one and torched six motor vehicles. Between August 12 and 14 eight people, four miners, two police officers, and two security guards were killed. On the16th police officials ordered thousands of striking miners to leave Marikana mine or face action; later, they opened fire killing 34 and injuring 78 striking miners. This massacre was likened to the March 21, 1960 Sharpeville Township massacre where some 5,000 and 7,000 people converged on the local police station offering arrest for not carrying pass books. In police firing 69 people, including eight women and 10 children were killed, and 180 including 31 women and 19 children injured. A state of emergency was declared, almost 11,000 people detained and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) and African National Congress (ANC) outlawed. March 21 is now celebrated as the Human Rights Day in South Africa.

The Marikana massacre inquiry later exposed that firing on miners was premeditated but this was not the only abomination and travesty in course of justice. On August 30, the South African authorities in utter disregard for justice and humanity decided to charge the 270 arrested workers with the murder of 34 of their colleagues shot dead by police. They booked the striking miners under the Doctrine of Common Purpose accusing them of charging at the police with the purpose of having fellow miners killed.

In English law, the Doctrine of Common Purpose derives from R versus Swindall and Osborne (1846) 2 Car & K 230 where two cart drivers engaged in a race. One of them ran down and killed a pedestrian. It was not known which one had driven the fatal cart, but since both were equally encouraging each other in the race, it was irrelevant which of them had actually struck the man so both were held jointly liable. Thus, the parties must share a common purpose and make it clear to each other by their actions that they are acting on their common intention so that each member of the group assumes responsibility for the actions of other members in that group. When this happens, all that flows from the execution of the plan will make them all liable. (Wikipedia).

There was an outcry over this absurdity of charging arrested miners for murder of their colleagues. The apartheid regime had used this doctrine often to keep the black population intimidated and in shackles. The cases were however soon dropped after outcry. Use of this regressive and tyrannical doctrine just showed how states use different Machiavellian ploys to ensure their unchallenged domination.

The Pakistani government using Machiavellian tactics is willfully stopping aid to the quake-affected people of Balochistan. The docile and powerless Chief Minister Dr Malik had appealed for international help twice but was countermanded by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chief. He also formally wrote a letter to the federal government for allowing international aid but that too fell on deaf ears. October 8 saw a convoy of UNO, WHO, WFO, UNICEF stopped from proceeding to Awaran via Karachi by NDMA. Anyone with a trace of spine would have resigned but then Dr. Malik is different. Ironically, even 16 days after quake the NDMA admits that not even half of victims had got any relief , yet the establishment sees it fit to continue to refuse international aid.

Pakistan is implementing a policy corresponding to the Doctrine of Common Purpose in Awaran for persecution of if not prosecution of the Baloch. The two cart drivers here are the Baloch Sarmachars led by Dr Allah Nazar and the people of Awaran with common purpose of struggling for Balochistan’s freedom. The establishment wants to demoralise and intimidate people of Awaran by denying them aid. This denial of aid is a crime against humanity because it is genocidal in intent and effect but apparently a majority here is unmoved by Baloch plight and the repulsiveness of establishment’s apparent decision to punish quake victims. There is not only a deafening silence but victims are also being castigated for resisting injustices.

The dignity of the victims is violated when conditions are put for providing relief. In Awaran the army and FC personnel after distributing relief goods exact their proverbial pound of flesh by asking people to raise ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogan. The 500 persons gathered at Labach were asked but none did. However, the lady reporting this incident found a person who said they did not do so because of fear of the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF). It seems she did not bother to ask or report others who had not for different reasons. Maligning the Sarmachars is the favourite past times of many a reporter here.

When the cyclone ‘Bhola’ with wind speed of 222 km/h and tidal surge of10.6 m struck Bangladesh on November 11, 1970, the chronically apathetic Pakistani establishment responded listlessly; consequences were devastating, even the officially acknowledged death toll was above 500,000. More than 20,000 fishing boats, 400,000 houses and 3,500 educational institutions were destroyed, cattle losses exceeded one million and a vast acreage of crops destroyed. ‘Bhola’ means ‘a simpleton’ but it made Bengalis wiser to the real intentions of the Pakistani establishment and signalled the end of Pakistani rule in Bangladesh.

Aid is willfully being denied to people of Awaran and any that manages to trickle in is definitely insufficient and distribution discriminatory in nature because religious outfits are preferred and others hindered. Denial of aid for any reason tantamount to premeditated intent of committing genocide and this is exactly what is happening in Awaran. Ironically, the army that the people there see as an adversary is now asking the Sarmachars to join hands to pull Balochistan out of impoverishment on the plea that conflict had given nothing to the people of Balochistan. The army conveniently forgets that the impoverishment is not because of the conflict but because of the warped state policies, which for the last 65 years have only seen Balochistan’s resources but never factored people as important. The Baloch are no longer bhola to be hoodwinked by empty gestures; the brutal ground reality that they have experienced for 65 years has made them wise enough.

The writer has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He tweets at mmatalpur and can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.com