UN seeks HRCP help

REPOTED BY BALOCHMEDIA.COM


QUETTA - THE United Nations approached the private Human Rights Commission ofPakistan (HRCP) on Thursday for help in securing the release of a kidnappedAmerican official, the commission said. A two-member UN team met with HRCPrepresentatives in the eastern city of Lahore and expressed concern about thekidnapping of John Solecki, senior HRCP member I.A. Rehman said.They came to us as friends, they wanted us to take interest in securing hisrelease,' Mr Rehman told AFP from his Lahore residence.UN officials were not immediately available for comment.Mr Solecki, head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Quetta, the capital ofsouth-western Pakistan's restive province of Baluchistan, was abducted atgunpoint on Feb 2 while travelling to work. His driver was killed in the ambush.The shadowy Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), which claims to beholding Mr Solecki, has demanded the release of 141 women Baluch detainees theysay are in Pakistani custody, and information about 6,000 men 'missing' inoperations to put down Baluchistan's insurgency.The kidnappers on Monday said they had extended a 72-hour deadline for thegovernment to meet demands for Mr Solecki's release.Hundreds of people have died in insurgent unrest in Baluchistan since 2004, whenrebels rose up demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits fromthe province's rich natural resources.The UN team handed over the BLUF list and also asked the commission's help intracking down the missing people, Mr Rehman said.Mr Solecki's is the most high-profile Western kidnapping in Pakistan since 2002,when US journalist Daniel Pearl was snatched and beheaded by Al-Qaeda militants.A grainy video released by the kidnappers and shown on Pakistani televisionchannels last Friday showed a blindfolded Mr Solecki appealing to the UnitedNations for his release and saying he was unwell.