Pakistan: mother of abducted UN official appeals for his release
The mother of John Solecki, a United Nations staff member abducted in western Pakistan over two weeks ago, today appealed to the people of Balochistan province, in the south of the nation, to help secure his freedom.
Mr. Solecki, the Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Quetta, was kidnapped on 2 February during an attack in which his driver, Syed Hashim, who had been with the agency for 18 years, was killed.
“John has helped many people in Balochistan and now my son needs your help,” Rose Solecki, 83, said in an audio recording released in Pakistan over the weekend.
UN teams in the South Asian country, New York and Geneva have worked tirelessly to secure his freedom, and UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond said that the UN is hopeful that various initiatives will “create the conditions for John Solecki’s immediate and safe release.”
The previously-unknown Balochistan Liberation United Front claims to be holding Mr. Solecki and has demanded the release the people it says are in Pakistani custody. Since 2004, rebels in the province have called for political autonomy and a larger share of natural resource profits.
Expressing her deep pain, Rose Solecki said that her son “loves his job, helping refugees and others in need in many difficult places in the world.”
Both she and her husband, who is 91 years old, “cannot bear the thought of losing John.”
In spite of their age, the Soleckis, both archaeologists, visited their son in Quetta last year and saw first-hand his work with refugees and the Baloch population hosting them, but happy memories from that trip have since become a nightmare, UNHCR said.
Mrs. Solecki, who worked in Quetta 50 years ago, said that her son’s exposure to his parents’ research in the Middle East and Africa may have piqued his interest in different cultures and peoples.
“I cannot express how happy we were to have the opportunity to get to know again the people of Balochistan, this time through John,” she said, pleading for their help in securing his release.
“John is a very gentle person,” Mrs. Solecki noted, adding that “he loves his humanitarian work.”
Last Friday, the UN voiced concerns over the abducted worker’s health.
“John has a serious medical condition which may now be endangering his life – a development that would do nothing to help the cause of those keeping him or those among us who want John’s safe return as soon as possible,” according to a statement issued in Islamabad.
“The United Nations once again appeals to those having John to contact us, if not directly, then through a trusted intermediary so that the situation can be resolved in a peaceful dialogue.”