Press Releases
Declaration of Human Rights
Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA)
Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) is Non-Profit Organization, working to unite and Organize
all Baloch in North America, to expose the Occupation of our land (Balochistan)  and  exploitations of
our resources by  Pakistani and Iranian Governments, and to bring their Human Rights Violations in
Balochistan into the world’s Notice.
URGENT APPEAL: A Letter From Balochisatn

 Dear Friends,

 I just heard a journalist friend, BK Baloch, Bureau chief of a daily Newspaper in Gwadar, and he told me that the
situation of the flood effected people is terrible and is getting worse day by day. The majority of them have received
no aid of any kind so far, and those who had received some aid it consisted of 2 kg of Sugar, one tea packet, 2 kg
rice, and one kg of lentils (daal). People are still living under the scorching Sun or hiding their heads under trees
(there are many pictures available on the Net). In few cases, where the army helicopters went accompanied by
press  photographers, the govt has provided one tent every three or four families at the initial stage to have some
media coverage and attention, as BK Baloch put it, and have not returned back since then. On my enquiry about
international aid agencies, he told me that only the Oxfom (a British based humanitarian organization, I believe) has
sent a team but they are still making preliminary assessments on the damages while people are dying of hunger,
of thirst and of having no shelter to hide their heads. People are drinking muddy waters from river beds with
empty stomachs, or with a little food that local people manage to provide them once a while, and children and
aged people are getting sick with Gastric and other water-born diseases.

 This is the situation everywhere in Balochistan but it is worse in the interior where the media is absent and can not
report on the situation. My aim of writing this URGENT email is that those of you, who know any humanitarian
organization or aid agency, write to these organizations and request them for an urgent action to save the lives of
thousands of helpless people and lessen their sufferings who have lost their homes as well as any meagre
source of an earning. Poor and helpless people are crying for an immediate action so please don't waste time to
give any support that you can. It is good to contribute at individual levels but this is beyond the limits of individuals to
help the victims. This cannot be solved with a donation of one or 200 dollars of any individual. On
the site it might provide a single meal for a shelterless village community, but if it is donated here, and is taken
there weeks or months later, it might get there too late and after a loss of many precious lives and the suffering of
many helpless people. So please write to the humanitarian organizations and aid agencies that you know, and cry
for their help.

With many thanks, AK Baloch, Quetta Balochistan July 8th, 2007
Related Links:
A LIST OF RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS IS AS FOLLOWS;
245 deaths, 186  
missing and over 2  
million affected in  
Balochistan and  
Sindh  >>MAP
Balochistan left hanging after floods

 *Body of 85 NGOs says Rs 200m aid from govt a joke
*Disease outbreak because of slow work
* International community not being allowed to help
* Govt distorting death toll figuresStaff Report

QUETTA: The federal government was strongly criticized Sunday by the Balochistan Coordinating Council (BCC) for
not taking any concrete measures in helping flood survivors and also not allowing the international community to
help.The BCC, a body of 85 non-governmental organizations (NGO) and community-based organizations, held a
joint news conference in which Amir Mohammad Tareen, the BCC chairman, and Mohammad Tehsen, the director
of South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP), accused the federal government of deliberately ignoring the demands of
the provincial government, opposition parties and the civil society at large who all asked to convene a donors
conference to rehabilitate the province. They alleged that the federal government had not shown the same amount
of interest in Balochistan's problems as it had done during the earthquake in the past.

The government has still not been able to reach certain flood-stricken parts of the province. Not only is the
government inefficient in handling the situation but it is also reluctant to allow international NGOs in reaching the
affected areas for immediate relief work, Tehsen said. He also said that the government was politicizing a purely
humanitarian issue. The provision of an amount as low as Rs 200 million for Balochistan was nothing but a joke.
Fourteen districts, ranging from Gwadar to Zhob, have been severely affected. Due to the government's slow
rehabilitation work, there is a possibility that several epidemic diseases will break out across the province. If the
issue is not properly handled, it will soon turn into a much more serious problem, he added.

The representatives of the BCC and the SAP also staged a demonstration in front of the Quetta Press Club against
the slow work taking place in far-off areas of Balochistan. They accused the government of presenting distorted
figures on the number of deaths due to heavy floods. They maintained that there was an urgent need for convening
a donors conference to help Balochistan rebuild because the provincial and federal governments are not capable
of solely providing financial and technical assistance in overcoming the heavy damage caused to the province.
Nosheen Kambarani, a representative of an NGO, told this correspondent that one million people across the
province had been directly affected.

Serious damage has been caused to the communication infrastructure, the telecommunication system and the
livestock and agriculture sectors.Thousands of people are languishing under extreme heat without any shelter. The
government is least interested in their problems. Relief work is slow and NGOs are not being provided access to
the area, she said.She said that the people of Balochistan, and partner NGOs of the BCC expected the government
to show that same extent of interest in these issues as it had done on October 8, 2005.There is a need to
thoroughly probe the devastation caused in each district. Every district has been so badly affected that it is not
possible to generalize for all districts. Different districts have different problems with different needs. NGOs and the
international community should be allowed to conduct surveys to ascertain the actual amount of destruction
caused, she suggested.

 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\07\09\story_9-7-2007_pg7_12

 Balochistan death toll reaches 160

 By Saleem Shahid

QUETTA, July 8: The death toll from recent rains and floods climbed to 160 after 24 more bodies were found in
different flood-hit areas of Balochistan, official sources said on Sunday.The sources said that rescue teams were
looking for 157 missing people.Meanwhile, the road link to the blocked coalmine fields of Degari, Marwar and other
areas was restored and relief goods were despatched to stranded coalmine workers on Sunday.Reports reaching
here from Jaffarabad district speak of pathetic situation there because authorities concerned had still not plugged
the 240-foot-long breach in the Khirther canal. Water gushing out of the canal inundated a large area of the
Jaffarabad district, marooning thousands of people. Provincial Home Secretary Tariq Ayub told newsmen that flood
situation had started improving in badly-affected areas of Jhal Magsi and Jaffarabad districts as floodwater was
receding. Floodwater blocked in the Jaffarabad area because of construction of an embankment around Shahdad
Kot, a town along the Sindh-Balochistan border, had started moving towards the Manchar Lake, he said, adding
that the Sindh government and officials concerned had been asked not to block the natural course of water.The
dangerous situation in Jaffarabad area is over, he said, adding that the water level had remained three to four feet
after allowing its natural flow. However, he said, the Jhal Magsi area was still under deep water and there was no
access to the township and its surrounding villages through the road. He said that necessary machinery and other
equipment had been sent at the site to start work on roads.In reply to another question, he said that power supply
to coastal town of Pasni would resume from Iran in a couple of days.

 http://www.dawn.com/2007/07/09/nat2.htm

 Disaster mitigation and development programme

 By Syed Fazl-e-Haider

Balochistan is reeling under the devastating impact of the recent heavy rains and flash floods which have caused
widespread destruction, leaving hundreds of dead and missing, besides displacing over 400,000 people. Almost
the entire life-supporting system has been disrupted. The present disaster has also thrown up issues relating to
the planning, management and the need to integrate disaster prevention and mitigation efforts with development
programmes.

The cyclone, more devastating than the torrential rains of 2005 has exposed some serious flaws in designing at
some locations of Mekran Coastal Highway where it was washed away by floods. It seems that coastal highway
project had been undertaken without proper planning. According to an estimate, the rehabilitation cost of the
coastal highway will be in the range of Rs250-300 million.Makran Coastal Highway was considered to be a marvel
of road engineering when it was inaugurated in December 2004. It was first damaged by floods in 2005 and the
National Highway Authority had carried out a detailed survey of the entire area. Satellite images of catchment areas
were studied and a number of measures taken to improve the drainage system in the event of another monsoon
catastrophe. But all efforts fizzled out last month when cyclone hit the coast.After 2005 rains, Rs150 million were
spent on repairing the highway, plugging of breaches and adding new culverts at various locations. Re-designing
of the coastal highway will now need more funds.

The communication ministry had reportedly allocated an additional amount of Rs850 million for re-designing and
to construct more culverts.Hill torrents triggered by heavy rains wreaked havoc in 15 districts, disrupting rail and
road communications between Quetta and Zahidan and causing breaches in the main railway line. The Mula River
was also in high flood following intermittent rains in its catchment area of Khuzdar and Kalat districts. Paddy and
cotton crops were under more than two feet of water in Jhal Magsi and Jaffarabad. Hundreds of electricity poles
have either fallen or have been swept away plunging almost the entire province into darkness. The worst-affected
area was Turbat in Mekran.

The disaster posed new challenges to sustainability and viability of the development process being carried out at a
cost of Rs140 billion in the calamity-hit province. The worst aspect of the situation is that the most impoverished
and the least developed areas like Jhal Magsi, Kalat, Awaran, Ormara, Pasni, Gwadar and Jiwani along the coast
have been the worst hit.. Heavy losses have been suffered by the people whose crops had been destroyed, homes
washed away and cattle perished. Agriculture in Balochistan has always remained exposed to the threat of natural
calamities like drought and eavy rains. The monsoon rains in July 2003 had damaged 34 per cent of standing
cotton crop, killed 49 people, damaged 30,000 houses, resulted in a loss of 38,000 livestock and washed away
dams in several areas.Before 2003, the eight-year long spell of drought had brought disaster to agriculture and
livestock in the province. All the districts except two were officially declared calamity-hit regions.

Agriculture and horticulture received a disastrous blow increasing the rate of unemployment in the rural areas.
Nearly 1.2 million fruit trees were totally destroyed and 0.8 million dried up partially. The population in rural
Balochistan living below poverty line has gone up from 50 to 70 per cent after the drought.In 2005, the provincial
cabinet asked the federal government to declare province a calamity-hit area. In 2003, Balochistan Assembly had
passed a similar resolution.

Suggestions: The economic planners and policy-makers should include disaster prevention and mitigation in the
development agenda. The federal government should help the province build a permanent technical and
operational capacity to manage risk reduction more effectively. The government’s disaster-related policies
mainly focus on emergency response, which results in a serious under-investment. What is needed is a more
strategic and rapid response to disasters. A `national disaster management fund needs to be established for
financing relief work.

The degradation of natural resources increases the risk of disaster. The current increase in the frequency of
disasters may reflect changing climate pattern. It is a short term-approach to merely treat its symptoms when
disasters happen. There is a need to break the cycle of destruction and reconstruction and address the root
causes of vulnerability.Key issues related to the disaster management include lack of strategic directions,
inadequate infrastructure to handle disaster and lack of coordination of different agencies. What is needed is a
more pro-active and comprehensive approach encompassing both pre-disaster risk reduction and post-disaster
recovery.It has been observed that poor households and communities are more vulnerable to natural hazards, and
they take a long period to recover from them. The government must take special steps for supporting the poor
affected by the disaster.

 http://www.dawn.com/2007/07/09/ebr8.htm