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Reporters Without
Borders/Reporters sans frontičres
Press release
11 December 2008
PAKISTAN
Balochi TV station
director says he was held incommunicado for 16 months and tortured on Pervez
Musharraf's orders
Government urged to investigate Military Intelligence
Pakistani businessman Munir Mengal, a member
of the Balochi minority who was arrested for planning to launch a Balochi
satellite TV station and was held for 22 months by Military Intelligence and
the police, has talked to Reporters Without about his ordeal. He was
interviewed in the European country where he has found refuge.
Mengal told Reporters Without Borders that, while held incommunicado, he was
taken to see the then president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who asked him to
abandon his TV station project in return for his release.
"On the evening of 26 October 2006, when I had been held incommunicado for
six months, I was taken to the Saddar barracks near Karachi," Mengal said. "Pervez
Musharraf was waiting for me in a room with Gen. Azeem and Maj. Gen. Bajwa.
After apologising for the way I had been treated, the president asked me, in
English, to give up my TV station project. He promised to release me if I
pulled out of the media domain. He also offered me a copy of his book so
that I could appreciate his commitment to Pakistan. After refusing his deal,
I was taken back to my cell and was tortured by MI agents again."
Mengal also claimed that Musharraf aide Tariq Aziz offered him a political
job and money in return for abandoning the planned TV station, called Baloch
Voice.
"Munir Mengal's shocking and damning account should prompt Pakistan's
civilian authorities to open an immediate investigation into the case,"
Reporters Without Borders said. "It is inconceivable that those responsible
for this political abduction should be allowed to go unpunished."
The press freedom organisation added: "Mengal was arrested, physically and
psychologically tortured, humiliated and robbed by members of the security
forces, above all Military Intelligence. If Pakistan wants to put an end to
such illegal and barbaric practices, justice must be done in this case,
which has been the subject of a great deal of comment by the media and by
leading figures in Pakistan and abroad."
Mengal was arrested after landing at Karachi international airport on 4th
April 2006. A military officer in civilian dress confiscated his passport
and took him to a military detention centre. "I was physically and
psychologically tortured in the Malir barracks by Col. Muhamad Raza and
majors Nadim and Atta," he said.
"After not letting me sleep for 72 hours, they stepped up their questioning:
'Why do you want to create this TV station' and 'Who gave you the idea and
who is supporting you.' Then they threw me in a small underground cell. I
spent several months blindfolded and handcuffed (Š) The first three days of
torture were terrible. I still have back pain from the kicks I received. At
the same time, the long interrogation sessions during the first five months
were exhausting mental torture."
Mengal witnessed many human rights violations in this military-run prison.
"A young Balochi woman, Zarina Marri, was used as a sexual slave by the
officers and, to humiliate me, they even once threw her naked into my cell.
I did not know what happened to this mother of a family, who was arrested by
the army in our province."
Mengal said he was also interrogated in June or July 2006 by Iranian agents,
who wanted to know about what he had done to promote the cause of the Baloch,
the inhabitants of a mountainous region that includes parts of Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Iran.
The intelligence services released him on 4 August 2007, after he had been
held incommunicado for more than 16 months. As a result of a public campaign
and court decisions in his favour, the military were forced to smuggle him
out of Sindh province, where they had been holding him.
His ordeal should have ended on 10 September 2007, after the high court of
the Pakistani province of Balochistan ruled that he had committed no crime
and ordered his immediate release.
But he was arrested two days later and was placed in Khudzar prison in
Balochistan. Qalat police chief Abdul Aziz Jhakrani said he was being held
under the Maintenance of Public Order Act. But as his lawyer asked at the
time: "How could he be disturbing public order if he was already being held
by the security forces?"
Balochi policemen finally helped him leave Khudzar prison on 23 February as
the military were trying to arrest him. "As I was still rejecting their
blackmail, an officer came to the prison to threaten to kill me," said
Mengal, who was finally able to rejoin his family. He went into hiding for
several weeks and then managed to leave country from Turbat airport.
Mengal had the idea of creating a TV station for the Balochi minority in
November 2005, at a time when many human rights violations were being
committed in Balochistan. "I was a prominent accountant and fairly
prosperous businessman," he said. "President Musharraf even named me 'Legend
of the Year' in August 2005. But I wanted to set up a TV station that would
give the Baloch their own voice so I sold all my properties and shares to
put together the 13 million rupees necessary to start up the station. The
army stole all this money while I was held. They emptied my 14 bank
accounts."
A TV station for the
Baloch
The Baloch are Pakistan's only ethnic minority that do not have a private TV
station in their own language... Baloch Voice was to have started satellite
broadcasting in June 2006 after being duly registered by Mengal in the
United Arab Emirates. He had planned to reach the six million Baloch living
in South Asia and the Middle East.
Mengal had announced the station's launch to more than 3,000 people at a
public event in Quetta in February 2006. Knowing he was in danger, he moved
to the United Arab Emirates, which was already the station's main
operational base. But on 28 March 2006, he received a call from an official
with the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), who invited
him to come to Karachi to discuss his request for a licence for Baloch
Voice.
Many Balochi civilians have been arrested and held incommunicado or
summarily executed by the Pakistani security forces at part of their efforts
to combat Balochi separatism.
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Iran closes
human rights centre
BBC news ; 21/12/2008
Iranian police have raided and closed the
office of a human rights group led by the Nobel laureate, Shirin Ebadi.
Judiciary officials said the centre was acting as an illegal political
party, and had contacts with local and foreign organisations, local media
reported.
The raid came shortly before the centre was to host a celebration for the
60th anniversary of Human Rights Day.
Ms Ebadi, who has repeatedly criticised Iran's human rights record, said it
would not stop her supporters' work.
"We will meet again somewhere else and will continue to support the rights
of activists and political prisoners," she told the Associated Press.
In a statement, the judiciary said it had ordered the closure of the Human
Rights Defenders Centre in Tehran because it did not have the required legal
permits, the Mehr news agency reported.
It had also been "promoting illegal activities such as issuing statements on
different occasions, sending letters to domestic and foreign organisations,
holding press conferences, meetings and conferences" which created an
atmosphere "of media publicity against the establishment in recent years",
the statement added.
Ms Ebadi became the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003
for work that included promoting the rights of women and children in Iran
and worldwide.
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