This saga began in 1993 when Balochistan government signed an agreement with Australian mining company BHP Billiton on preposterous terms, with BHP holding 75 percent and the government 25 percent share on a joint-investment basis, with 2 percent royalty.

However, in April 2000, another Australian company called Mincor Resources took over BHP’s operations, which was then acquired by Tethyan Copper Company’ (TCC) in 2006. Interestingly, the TCC shares were bought by a consortium of a Canadian mining company Barrick Gold Corporation and Chilean company Antofagasta in 2006.

In February 2011, the Balochistan government demanded the agreement be revised, thereby denying TCC the mining rights. TCC filed an appeal before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), seeking a compensation of $11.43bn. And in January 2013, Pakistan’s Supreme Court annulled the agreement. The ICSID awarded TCC $5.976bn (Rs950 billion) in damages and at the same time Pakistan was fined $4 billion in July 2019 by the London Court of Arbitration.

The Pakistan government, desperate to escape the penalty which it did not have the means to pay, signed a new agreement with Barrick in March 2022, under which the penalty stood lapsed and Barrick promised a $10 billion investment. Chilean firm, Antofagasta, was sidelined with a payment of $945 million. It was decided that this sum would be paid by the three State Owned Enterprises: Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), and Government Holdings Pakistan (GHPL) – and for that they would get 25 percent share of the project.

Barrick wanted a legal and parliamentary cover to the deal and the Pakistani government was happy to oblige. The Supreme Court okayed the deal last month, and the present government bulldozed the law on foreign investment through the Parliament, giving overriding authority to the Centre to decide what to do with provincial resources. After protests from Balochistan, however, the federal government reluctantly amended the bill to limit it to Reko Diq alone, but there is no guarantee that they would abide by it. Balochistan’s resources remain under threat.

There is not just gold and copper in Reko Diq, but rare earth metals too which are equally precious. Pakistan wanted Barrick to start the project immediately, which is why the Supreme Court of Pakistan, during hearing of the case on November 23rd, accepted the Barrick counsel’s claim that Reko Diq has no rare earth elements. There has been no independent survey of the area to find out the truth.

Barrick Gold’s history of misdemeanors

Barrick Gold has a history of misdemeanors in the mining industry, but I will mention only a couple of them. On September 17th, 2020, the First Environmental Court of Antofagasta, Chile, ruled that Barrick Gold’s controversial Pascua Lama project be “definitively and totally closed”. Barrick was fined 7 billion Chilean pesos. It was held guilty of destroying glaciers and contaminating water resources there.

In April 2020, Barrick had to stop operations at the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG) because the then government declined permit renewal. Since acquiring that mine in 2006, Barrick had garnered a notorious reputation regarding environmental degradation. In 2009, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund divested its roughly US$184-million position in Barrick because of the environmental problems there. In the new deal signed in April 2021, PNG’s stake was increased from five percent to 51 percent and Barrick had to give guarantees for social responsibility. Given this track record, one can only imagine how it will handle the Reko Diq project.

In the old agreement between Pakistan and Barrick, the terms providing airport land free of cost and a 400 km Reko Diq-Gwadar road were accepted. The new deal is so opaque that no one seems to know what exactly has been agreed. It appears that politicians and bureaucrats of all hues – and Barrick itself – will benefit, while the people of Balochistan will eternally wait for the trickle-down effect.

Projects that deprive people of their resources and produce hazardous waste in return should be unequivocally condemned.

If the ore is pumped via pipeline to the port, no one will ever know how much was taken. Saindak, too, was not monitored and hence brutally depleted. If the ore is processed here then the environmental hazards have terrible consequences for the people. This is because a huge amount of waste is created while refining gold. The gold used to make a single gold ring produces 26 tons of mine waste. If a ring of a tola produces that much waste, imagine how much waste and arsenic emissions would result from use of cyanide during extraction of the expected 41.5 million ounces of gold (1058 tons) at Reko Diq. A ton has 87111 tolas and 1058 tons are 92,163,438 tolas so the waste produced at Reko Diq would be 2,396,249,388 tons.

Sale and exploitation of precious resources of the people for a pittance by corrupt politicians and venal state functionaries and the resulting destruction carried out in the name of development ought to be opposed. Projects that deprive people of their resources and produce hazardous waste in return should be unequivocally condemned.

I anticipate this piece will prompt accusations of my being anti-development. However, the Sindhi adage, “Gold that begets grief is better forsaken.” may explain my perspective better. If such projects are not going to benefit the people, the natural resources are then better left untouched.

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

The writer has been associated with the Baloch movement since 1971. He tweets @mmatalpur and can be reached at mmatalpur@gmail.com.

The post Balochistan’s Resources Are Being Stolen By The Centre With Impunity appeared first on Dissent Today.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s use of force to make Khan accede forever forfeited civilians’ say in Balochistan’s matters and gave unchallenged dominance to the military. This injustice also resulted in the Baloch people’s eternal mistrust in Pakistan; prompting resistance which to date has not only continued but intensified in proportion to atrocities and injustices against the Baloch people.

FORCED UNIFORMITY

Oblivious to the different social ethea they were confronted with within physical boundaries of what became Pakistan, the extremely insecure Pakistani elite and establishment decided to impose uniformity in the name of religion and enforce conformity by force. For them, the universe itself was created on 14th August and histories of the nations that existed for eons before did not matter. Bengalis suffered immeasurably but luckily broke free in 1971 while in Balochistan the cost of this unnecessary tragedy in human, social and economic terms has been catastrophic and continues to rise.

The policy of repression in Balochistan has always been indiscriminate, but now it is the students who bear the brunt. Hafeez, Faheem, Sagheer Baloch among many others were abducted in broad daylight. Many have been tortured during illegal incarceration.

Disappearances have been rife in Balochistan since long with a few lucky ones returning alive, but their mental and physical health is shattered for good. Sadly, neither high courts nor the so-called nationalist politicians of Balochistan dare to challenge this culture of impunity surrounding enforced disappearances.

The policy of repression in Balochistan has always been indiscriminate, but now it is the students who bear the brunt.

A reign of terror prevailed in Balochistan during 2008-2013 when the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) ruled at the centre and in Balochistan. Death squads operated with impunity and thousands of Baloch activists became victims of the ‘abduct, kill and dump’ policy. Many dumped bodies had ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ carved out on them. Professor Saba Dashtyari was killed on June 1st 2011 by assassins. The Tutak mass-grave was discovered in January 2014. The list is too long, and the situation hasn’t improved since then.

When Sangat Sana Baloch was found dead on 13th February 2012, there were 28 bullet wounds on his body. Jalil Reki, son of Mama Qadeer, the Vice Chairman of Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), had received three bullets in his heart. Hearts they couldn’t subdue were vengefully shot multiple times.

Víctor Jara, the leftist Chilean poet-singer, was arrested when Pinochet overthrew Allende in 1973. His hands were crushed and was tauntingly asked to play the guitar. He definitely sang Venceremos (“We will prevail”). Beaten brutally again, he was then machine gunned and dumped in Santiago’ outskirts. His body had 44 bullet wounds. What songs Sangat Sana and Jalil Reki sang we may never know, but they with their unconquerable souls died defiantly unbowed to the very end, as did all those who never returned.

FAKE ‘ENCOUNTERS’

A new brutal method has been adopted wherein every time there is an attack by the Sarmachars anywhere, the so-called Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), in retaliation, kills abducted Baloch activists, declaring their murders to be ‘encounters’ –- the same way the Iranian state hanged prisoners in custody after 1988 Mujahideen-e-Khalq attacks. These brutal acts happen in public glare and at this injustice too, the courts and politicians remain silent spectators. What goes on in Marri, Bugti areas and Awaran away from the public eye is difficult to imagine.

Dissidents who go abroad for relative safety can now be targeted even in exile, as cases of Karima Baloch and Sajid Hussain amply prove.

Peaceful protests by the relatives of the victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings are either completely ignored or given a lukewarm response. In 2013-14, Baloch human rights defender Mama Qadeer marched from Quetta to Karachi and then on to Islamabad in 106 days, but only garnered harassment and threats for himself and those who accommodated and assisted him. Mama Qadeer’s protest outside press clubs since July 28th 2009, is now nearly 5000 days old, but remains unheeded.

In December 2021, relatives of Baloch missing persons held a protest camp out in the open in freezing cold at Islamabad’s D-Chowk for 10 days. A federal minister visited them, but could only offer halfhearted assurances. The then opposition which is now the ruling coalition showed sympathy, but they have also ignored the plight of the affectees after coming into power.

In mid-2022, the relatives of Baloch missing persons and victims of extrajudicial killings held a similar protest in Quetta that continued for nearly two months. It was after two months that a couple of ministers came to visit the protestors, again with false assurances, and the issues remained unresolved.
The Commission on Enforced Disappearance is toothless. After a missing person is released, the commission does not even bother to find out why they were abducted in the first place and who the abductors were. These commissions are simply a placebo treatment for a fatal disease.

Disenfranchisement and disempowerment of the Baloch go side by side. Politicians who are obedient to the military establishment are chosen to rule Balochistan. On their watch, gross human rights abuses and exploitation and loot of Baloch resources are carried out. Saindak copper and gold mines productive life is nearly over, and only China has benefited, because Balochistan’s share was just 2%. Balochistan and Chagai’s people didn’t benefit and now they are forced to cope with the environmentally hazardous cyanide laden sludge mountains, which contaminate air as well as ground water.

The contract for Reko Diq, which is much richer than Saindak, has been given to notoriously predatory Barrick Gold Corporation whose record of involvement in pollution and human rights abuses is disgraceful. The organisation was recently under fire from the UN over toxic spills from Veladero mine in Argentina and faces a lawsuit from Ontario, Canada, for alleged killings and abuses at Tanzania North Mara mine. Such a notorious company’s involvement means more suffering for people of Balochistan, but bounties for corporations, politicians and bureaucrats.

The repression, oppression and exploitation in Balochistan is multi-faceted and multi-layered. Conflicts occur and need resolution, but the Pakistan establishment considers conflict necessary in Balochistan for it believes that it will be able to impose its will on the people through force. Use of force by the state has continued for the last 75 years, but so has resistance against this injustice.

The Pakistan establishment has bombed, killed, disappeared, maimed, imprisoned and sanctioned Baloch people in a bid to break their spirit, but these attempts have always failed. And If 75 years of repression hasn’t deterred people from fighting for their rights, the struggle shall continue until the victims are served justice.

The views expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect Dissent Today’s editorial policy.

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

The writer has been associated with the Baloch movement since 1971. He tweets @mmatalpur and can be reached at mmatalpur@gmail.com.

The post Why The Baloch People Can Never Trust Pakistan’s Establishment appeared first on Dissent Today.