Subject: Wrong translation of Balochi as Iranian language to Farsi

04-11-2006

First Let me thank you for the publishing of article written by Mr. Selig S. Harrison, " Pakistan’s Baluch insurgency"; 'A sophisticated armed fight for a province’s autonomy' which appeared on October 2006 edition of your much appreciated journal (http://mondediplo.com/2006/10/05baluchistan).

Mr. Harrison as always has given an accurate and balanced account of recent events in Balochistan. However in the Persian translation which has appeared recently (http://ir.mondediplo.com/article1008.html) and translated by Mr. Vaeda Amir Makri. He has translated foot note incorrectly perhaps due to lack of his knowledge about Balochistan and Balochi language.

In the foot note number 1 Mr. Harrison explains that “The Baluch speak an Iranian (Indo-European) language and are Sunni Muslims” it is a correct assumption, Balochi language is regarded as an Indo- European language a member of Iranian language group like Kurdish, Pashto, and Farsi or Persian. Linguistically, Balochi is different from Farsi and Balochi is a language by its own right.
Unfortunately the translator Mr. Vaeda Amir Makri has translated Balochi as “an Iranian language" to Farsi, which is wrong the difference between Balochi and Farsi is as wide as it is between French and Italian which also belong to Latin group of Indo-European languages.

Baloch in Pakistan beside their struggle for self rule, economical right are also fighting to use Balochi as medium of instruction for schools, they are not fighting to use the Persian as their first language or school medium.

In Iran due to Iranian states chauvinistic polices, the Balochi language is practically band and there are no publication in Balochi language in Iran. The Iranian state is perusing a policy to assimilate Baloch into the Persian national features. In its propaganda Iranian state considers Balochi and other languages spoken in Iran even such as Arabic and Turkish as dialect of Persian, to make it justifiable to deny none dominant nationalities (Azeri Turk, Ahwazi Arab, Baloch, Kurd and Turkmen) the right to use their language as school medium and assimilate them into Persian national identity.

It is important for Le Monde Diplomatique as an international journal with good reputation not to present false information that a fascist and theocratic regime uses and spread about an oppressed nation. I kindly ask you to correct this information in the foot note, if possible by a note in your next journal and to try to avoid this kind of mistakes in the future.

Unfortunately such misinformation is widely used by tyrannical states such as Iran to suppress Baloch nation by denying it the right to use its mother tongue as education medium.

Nasser Boladai
Spokes person of Balochistan Peoples Party
Nasser.boladai@balochpeople.org
www.balochpeople.org/eng

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Replay and Rectify from Le Monde Diplomatique

From: Persaf <persaf@monde- diplomatique. fr>
Date: 07-Dec-2006 15:20
Subject: Re: Fwd: [Fwd: Wrong translation of Iranian language to Farsi]
To: nasser.boladai@ balochpeople. org
Cc: Dominique Vidal < dominique.vidal@ monde-diplomatiq ue.fr>


Dear Nasser BOLADAI
Let us to be grateful for interest that you have shown for our work. In
fact this mistake at the footnote was rectify yesterday. Would you please
accepted our regret for this error and don't hesitates to contact us for
any kind of mistakes in future.
Best regards
le monde diplomatique Persan
Persaf