Khan of Kalat - asylum case UPDATE

Ruling expected in two or three weeks
Threats from Pakistan Embassy alleged
London and Cardiff - 1 December 2008
“The asylum appeal of the Baloch monarch, His Highness Beglar Begi, Suleman Khan Ahmedzai, concluded in Newport, Wales, on Friday 28 November,” reports human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell.
“The judge will now deliver a written judgement in two to three week’s time.
“I am hopeful that the Khan of Kalat will be granted refugee status, but the British asylum system is notoriously harsh. It is very difficult for anyone to be granted asylum nowadays. The government’s priority is to reduce asylum numbers. Often claimants with a well-founded fear of persecution are refused and deported back to their home countries.”
“Suleman Khan Ahmedzai says that he has received threats from phone numbers that he alleges are traceable to the Pakistani Embassy in London. It is definitely not safe from him to return Pakistan. There is a serious risk that he would be jailed or assassinated,” said Mr Tatchell.
A report about the Khan’s asylum hearing last Friday, from the South Wales Echo newspaper, follows below.
Further information contact:
The Khan of Kalat, Suleman Ahmedzai - 0786 4033 185
Peter Tatchell - 020 7403 1790
Royal leader fears death if deported to Balochistan
29 Nov 2008 - South Wales Echo
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/11/29/royal-leader-fears-death-if-deported-to-balochistan-91466-22368125/
The Royal leader of a Pakistani province told an asylum appeal hearing yesterday he feared assassination if he was deported.
His Highness Beglar Begi, Suleman Khan Ahmedzai, says he fled his homeland in Balochistan for South Wales to escape persecution by the Pakistani military and intelligence services.
Mr Ahmedzai, who is referred to as the Khan of Kalat, opposes Pakistan’s annexation of Balochistan in 1948. He arrived in Britain in June 2007 following the killing of another Baloch national leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in a military raid in 2006.
In October 2007, the Khan’s application for asylum in the UK was refused.
At yesterday’s appeal hearing, the 45-year-old father-of-three, who now lives alone in Cardiff, said despite sometimes having up to 100 armed bodyguards with him in Balochistan, his safety could not be guaranteed there.
“If the government wants to get rid of you, it will get rid of you,” he said.
He claims several death threats have been made to him directly and indirectly by telephone since he came to this country.
He claims these calls were made from the Pakistani embassy in London.
At the appeal hearing in Newport, Irwin Richards, the Home Office’s presenting officer, disputed the threats were ever made.
He told Immigration Judge A Cresswell: “Even if in the alternative you are inclined to accept these phone calls were received and made of a threatening nature there is no evidence to link such calls with the Pakistani embassy in this country.”
The appeal hearing’s decision is due to be handed down within the next few weeks.
Outside the appeal hearing, the Khan said: “I have three palaces, a house on five acres and other houses. Whatever I have is there (Balochistan). Other people come into this country on banana boats or on containers or underneath trucks but they become refugees for a better life.
“My everything is there and I have come to this country for my own safety.
“I want to make the international community aware of what is going on over there.”
He claims thousands of his people have “disappeared” over the years because of their opposition to the Pakistani authorities.
“There is a carrot and stick approach,” said the Khan. “I didn’t take the carrot because of my conscience.
“I was told whatever was taken from my grandfather in 1958, which was millions of acres of land, I could have some back.”
His cause is being supported by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
“The Khan is seen by many Baloch people as their head of state,” said Mr Tatchell.
“Suleman Ahmedzai is the direct descendant of the Khan of Kalat, the monarch of the state of Kalat, who signed a Treaty with the British government in 1876, making what is now Balochistan a British Protectorate.
“His grandfather was head of state when Balochistan secured its brief period of independence in 1947, before it was invaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948.
“He attended the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, with other world leaders, as the honoured guest of the British government.
“Refusing Suleman Ahmedzai asylum is symptomatic of a pattern of harassment of Baloch refugees by the UK authorities.
“Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have threatened to end all cooperation with the UK unless our government cracks down on Baloch dissidents exiled here.”
echo.newsdesk@mediawales.co.uk
Background to the Khan’s asylum case
Baloch royal leader seeks asylum
Khan of Kalat appeals this Friday
London - 27 November 2008
His Highness Beglar Begi, Suleman Khan Ahmedzai, the Khan of Kalat, aged 45, will appeal for asylum in the UK this Friday, 28 November, at a tribunal in Newport, Wales.
Regarded by many Baloch people as their monarch and head of state, he was refused asylum in October 2007.
Fridays appeal hearing will take place at 10am at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal Newport, Columbus House, Chepstow Road, Langstone, Newport , NP18 2LX (0845 600 0877).
Suleman Ahmedzai is head of the royal household and a national leader in Balochistan, where Pakistan is waging a war against the Baloch people - a war that has been condemned for its widespread human rights abuses by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (see the links to human rights reports below).
In June 2007, he sought sanctuary in the UK, fearing arrest and murder, following the killing of another Baloch national leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, by Pakistani forces during bombing raids in 2006. Bugti was former Pakistani Minister of Defence, and former Governor and Chief Minister of Balochistan.
Suleman Ahmedzai’s fears are well founded. A fellow nationalist leader, Balaach Marri, was murdered by Pakistani government agents in November 2007.
His asylum appeal is supported by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell:
“The Khan is is seen by many Baloch people as their head of state. His treatment by the British government has been squalid and disrespectful,” said Mr Tatchell.
“Suleman Ahmedzai is the direct descendant of the Khan of Kalat, the monarch of the state of Kalat, who signed a Treaty with the British government in 1876, making what is now Balochistan a British Protectorate.
“His grandfather was head of state when Balochistan secured its brief period of independence in 1947, before it was invaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948. He attended the Queen’s coronation in 1953, with other world leaders, as the honoured guest of the British government.
“Refusing Suleman Ahmedzai asylum is symptomatic of a pattern of harassment of Baloch refugees by the UK authorities.
“Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have threatened to end all cooperation with the UK unless our government cracks down on Baloch dissidents exiled here. This may be part of the reason why Suleman Ahmedzai has had such difficulty in gaining asylum.
“The government wants to appease the Pakistanis, in order to secure their continuing cooperation in the ‘war on terror’. It is embarrassed by the Khan’s presence in the UK and is trying to make things difficult for him.
“The UK government aided and abetted the illegal dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf, selling him military equipment used to prosecute Pakistan’s illegal war in Balochistan - a war that has involved the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Under threat of arrest and imprisonment, in 1948 Suleman Ahmedzai’s grandfather signed the treaty of accession which surrendered the independence of the Kalat state (Balochistan) and incorporated it into Pakistan. Both houses of the Kalat parliament - and Baloch public opinion - opposed the incorporation. The Baloch people have always been refused a vote on self-rule by successive Pakistani regimes. Ever since, for 60 years, Balochistan has been under military occupation and its people crushed by five bloody wars launched by Islamabad,” said Mr Tatchell