Baluchistan and the coming war on Iran

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Analysis

Baluchistan and the coming war on Iran
By Luciana Bohne

Online Journal Contributing Writer

Aug 31, 2006, 01:08

Akhbar Khan, a nationalist/independence leader in Baluchistan
has recently been killed by the Pakistani military, in a massive operation
that is seriously destabilizing military dictator Pervez Musharraf's regime
[1].

Why should the news from Baluchistan interest us? I'll let you
connect the dots by presenting a bit of context and concluding with an
article from the Carnegie Endowment [2], which, I think, will underline the
significance of the event for the prospected US attack on Iran.

The military dictator's regime is very unpopular in Pakistan.
Pervez Musharraf, as Bush's ally on the "war on terror," has had to do
unpopular things, like deploying 70,000 troops to the North-West autonomous
tribal regions (among them Waziristan) to hunt down "terrorists" and such.

He hasn't been successful, but American aerial attacks from
nearby Afghanistan have killed alleged "leaders" and sundry civilians,
causing a flood of refuges and displacements. Serious Pakistani military
casualties have not increased his popularity and neither has the charge that
he's allowing American forces to violate Pakistan's sovereignty. Musharraf's
campaign in Waziristan has failed so thoroughly that the region is now
virtually off limits to government forces.

Baluchistan is contiguous with the Waziristan region.
Baluchistan is a western province of Pakistan, constituting about 40 percent
of Pakistan's national surface. Its capital is Quetta, accused by
Afghanistan's Karzai (which really means Washington) of being a Taliban
stronghold supplying and fueling the Taliban armed resurgence in southern
Afghanistan. Musharraf's regime denies it.

Nevertheless, Musharraf has reopened hostility in Baluchistan
against the decades-long separatist forces, which he's accused of provoking
into taking up arms again. Musharraf has come under intense criticism by
British, American, and Afghan officials for not doing enough for the "war on
terror." The trouble is that if he complies with his allies in the "war on
terror," he comes under attack from domestic critics, of which he has
legions, including the majority of the people.

The latest developments in the murder of the Baluch leader,
Bugti, is a case in point: Pakistan is in an uproar and calling for his
resignation.

Why would the axis-of-evil crusaders want to destabilize a
crucial ally? They don't "want" to, but they have bigger plans.

The US has three military bases in Baluchistan. They say they
are fighting Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the region. Perhaps. But,
Baluchistan borders with Iran to the west. Baluchistan, too, is rich in
natural gas and minerals. China is helping the Pakistani government to build
a natural gas pipeline from Baluchistan's port of Gwadar to China, a project
the Bush administration opposes. The port of Gwadar just happens to be
geographically located to overlook the Straits of Hormuz, which the Iranians
intend to block if they are attacked. Hormuz is the crucial sea route for
internatinal oil distribution.

Coincidence that the US should be interested in "terrorism" in
Baluchistan and urging Musharraf to be more zealous at the same time that it
is planning an attack on Iran?

An article by the Carnegie Endowment entertains the same
thought, albeit to deny it: "The Baluch and the Pakistani think that
Washington would like to use Baluchistan as a rear-guard base for an attack
on Iran, and Iran is suspected of supporting Baluch [independence] activists
in order to counter such a Pakistani-US plot. . . . Some Pakistanis perceive
the US using its Greater Middle East initiative to dismantle the major
Muslim states and redefine the borders of the region. Some Baluch
nationalists charge the US with conspiring with the Pakistani government to
put an end to Baluch claims. So far nobody has been able to prove any of
these accusations."

No? No matter, the Iranians have been mining their side of the
Baluch borders, just in case, and Bugti, Baluch independence leader, has
been killed by the diplomatically besieged Musharraf, catapulting the
country into a political crisis.

Coincidence? Or are plans for an Iranian attack well on the way?

I remind you that Seymour Hersh, in The New Yorker, has
confirmed that US commandos have launched penetration initiatives across
Pakistani Baluchistan into Iran.

Notes

[1] Bomb blast damages Pakistani government build amid protests
over tribal chief's killing, International Herald Tribune, 27 Aug. 2006

Bugti's killing is like the hanging of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, New
Kerala, 27 Aug. 2006

Pak Oppn slams govt. for Bugti killing, The Hindu, 29 Aug. 2006

In the afterlight of the Bugti episode, Dawn, 29 Aug. 2006

[2] Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism, Carnegie
Endowment, 26 Jan. 2006

Luciana Bohne teaches film and literature at Edinboro University
of Pennsylvania.
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