July 6, 2007

Re: The World Sindhi Institute meeting with the State Department

Washington: Maqbool Aliani, Rabelle Siddiki and Marshall Sharpe from the World Sindhi Institute met with representatives from the US Department of State to discuss the interests of the Sindhi and Baloch people in light of the current situation in Pakistan . The main issues discussed were: the forced disappearances that continue to occur in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces, the recent cyclone that displaced over two million people, the misallocation of natural resources and the need to end the military regime of Pervez Musharraf.

A representative of the State Department specifically asked if WSI had any information concerning Safdar Sarki, a close friend of WSI and US citizen who was abducted from his home in Pakistan in February of 2006. The State Department representative mentioned that she had circled his name around the department, hoping to find out more information about him, but to no avail.

When asked whether the State Department had decided to send aid to Pakistan after the recent cyclone devastation, a representative mentioned that they could not release funds to Pakistan until aid was specifically requested. However, since this aid was requested a few days ago, the State Department has decided to send $390,000 to Pakistan to help with the relief efforts.

When the US began sending aid to Pakistan in 2005 after the devastating earthquake that shook Islamabad and the surrounding region, the Pakistani approval rating of the US government improved from 23% to 46%. Because of this, WSI expressed its hope that the US would continue to send aid to Pakistan for both the earthquake and cyclone relief.

During the meeting, Mr. Aliani stressed the importance of the demilitarization, denuclearization and deislamization of Pakistan . He mentioned the fact that although there is a Baloch regiment in the army, none of its members are actually from Balochistan. Furthermore, Aliani spoke of the unstable Durand line between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the Afghan interest to reclaim the North West Frontier Province , an area that traditionally belonged to Afghanistan. Because of this, Aliani explained that Pakistan would never support an independent or free Afghanistan.

According to Amnesty International President Musharraf wrote,

the director of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was told by then US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, "not only that we had to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but that if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age."

When asked about this quote, the representatives simply responded that they had no information about what was actually said during such a high security conversation.

The Department representatives were extremely courteous and well educated about Pakistan and expressed interest in exchanging information about the forced disappearances in Sindh and Balochistan. The meeting lasted approximately one hour, and ended with the hope of closer ties between WSI and the State Department.

worldsindhi.org