حزب مردم بلوچستان Balochistan People’s Party بلوچستانءِ اُستمانءِ گــَل
Iran warns it could strike Israel as nuclear tensions mount
20-09-2007 ; http://afp.google.com
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran warned on Wednesday that it could bomb Israel if it was
attacked by the Jewish state, as the international war of words over the
Islamic republic's nuclear drive escalated further.
The declaration by Iran's deputy air force commander Mohammad Alavi was
immediately denounced by the United States, Israel's staunchest ally, which
accuses Tehran of seeking to build an atomic bomb.
"We have come up with a plan that in the event of possible foolishness by
this regime, Iranian bombers can carry out an attack in retaliation against
Israeli soil," Alavi said, quoted by the Fars news agency.
"In addition to our missiles, whose range covers the whole soil of this
regime, we can attack them with our fighter jets and respond to any attack
-- an unlikely event -- with an air attack on their soil.
"This plan is not an empty threat."
Israel said it was taking "very seriously" the threat. "Unfortunately we
hear all too often belicose, extreme and hateful statements out of the
Iranian leadership," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.
The White House denounced it as "almost provocative".
Alavi's comments came after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned
that the world should brace for war against the Islamic republic over its
nuclear activities.
The United States and its ally Israel have never ruled out using military
strikes to punish Iran for its defiance in the standoff and US Defence
Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that "all options are on the table."
There has been speculation in some foreign media that an Israeli air strike
on Syria earlier this month -- which has never been confirmed by Israel --
was a "dry run" for an attack against Iran's nuclear installations.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to the Middle East,
called for diplomatic action "with teeth" against its nuclear programme
ahead of a meeting of Western powers in Washington on Friday to discuss a
new UN Security Council sanctions resolution.
"We believe that the diplomatic track can work but it has to work both with
a set of incentives and a set of teeth," she said.
Iran's military elite has previously warned the United States of the
consequences of any attack, saying US bases in neighbouring Afghanistan and
Iraq are well within the range of its missiles.
The United States and France want tougher sanctions against Iran, which has
has repeatedly denied Western claims it is covertly developing an atomic
weapon and says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at generating energy.
Washington is working on a new draft sanctions resolution to be discussed at
Friday's meeting of the five UN Security Council permanent members --
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany, State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday.
Foreign ministers from the six are to meet in New York, on the sidelines of
the UN General Assembly, on September 28, the spokesman added.
The Security Council has adopted three resolutions against Iran, mostly over
its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process which makes fuel for a
nuclear power plant but which can be diverted to make the core of a bomb.
The French foreign minister pressed the case for tougher sanctions during
talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday, but
he said Russia remains reluctant to back more stringent action.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that more sanctions against Iran
would only increase tensions without resolving the standoff.
Kouchner has also sought to calm a diplomatic storm after his comments on
Sunday on the possibility of war with Iran.
"Someone asked me: what does it mean when you say you are expecting the
worst? I replied: the worst would be war. I didn't say: the best would be
war," said Kouchner, who added that he favoured intense negotiations.
"I am not a warmonger, I am a peacemonger," Kouchner told reporters
following a French cabinet meeting. "The worst is war. So we have to avoid
it, and to avoid it we must negotiate, negotiate, negotiate."
China and Russia criticised the war talk, calling for more negotiations.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana have spoken by telephone about continuing talks on the dispute,
Iran's state media reported.
Larijani and Solana held the last of several rounds of talks in Madrid in
May.
In Vienna, Egypt and Syria urged the UN nuclear watchdog on Wednesday to
pass a resolution condemning Israel, which neither confirms nor denies
reports it has some 200 atomic bombs, for possessing nuclear weapons.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baloch participation in Azerbaijani's Demo
23-09-2007 ; http://gedrosia.blogspot.com/
A
Baloch delegate participated in a low profile demonstration organized by
South Azarbaijanis Association London.
The demonstration was held today 22nd Sep. 07 outside BBC World Service Bush
House. It was drawing attention towards mother languages which are banned
and coincided with the start of new school year in Iran.
A circulation that was distributed by the organizers was stating "23rd
September is the school opening day in Iran; a day which every child of the
country should enjoy, but for non Persian children it is different scenario.
They will have to start learning a new language and will have to adapt to a
new identity. Hence their punishment for being non-Persian will start".
They chanted slogans denouncing nuclear Iran and Persian chauvinism and
demanded that all the children including Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Arabs, Baloch
and Turkmans should be thought in their mother languages.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23-07-2007 ; http://www.usatoday.com
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Threats and economic
sanctions will not stop Iran's technological progress, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad warned Saturday at a large parade of missiles and other weapons
aimed at showing off the country's military might.
The parade outside the capital Tehran marked the 27th anniversary of the
Iraqi invasion of Iran that sparked the bloody 1980-88 war. It comes as the
U.S. and its European allies continue discussing a third round of U.N.
Security Council sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium
enrichment. It also comes days before the hard-line Iranian president is to
address the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
"Those (countries) who assume that decaying methods such as psychological
war, political propaganda and the so-called economic sanctions would work
and prevent Iran's fast drive toward progress are mistaken," Ahmadinejad
said.
Iran launched an arms development program during its war with Iraq to
compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own
jet fighters, torpedoes, radar-avoiding missiles, tanks and armored
personnel carriers. Many such weapons were on display at the parade.
Some of the trucks carrying Iranian missiles were painted at the back with
popular slogans such as "Down with the U.S." and "Down with Israel." The
parade also featured flights by two of Iran's new domestically manufactured
fighter jets, known as the Saegheh, which means lightning in Farsi.
"Those who prevented Iran, at the height of the (Iran-Iraq) war from getting
even barbed wire must see now that all the equipment on display today has
been built by the mighty hands and brains of experts at Iran's armed
forces," Ahmadinejad said.
Iran's Defense Minister Mostafa Mohmmad Najjar said the weapons and
equipment shown in the parade were just a "small part of our capabilities."
"With the production of various equipment, sanctions have become
ineffective. We don't need foreigners," state TV quoted Najjar as saying
Saturday.
Ahmadinejad, who is to appear at a forum at Columbia University in New York
on Monday and address the General Assembly on Tuesday, also repeated his
call for foreign forces to leave the region and urged the United States to
acknowledge it has failed in Iraq.
"Nations throughout the region do not need the presence of the foreigners to
manage their own needs. Foreign presence is the root cause of all
instability, differences and threats," he said.
The U.S. has accused Iran of sending arms and fighters to help Shiite Muslim
militias in Iraq that target U.S. troops, and both British and American
commanders have called the fight in parts of Iraq a "proxy war" by Iran.
Tehran denies the accusations.
The U.S. also is calling for more economic sanctions against Iran after two
sets were imposed by the U.N. Security Council for Iran's decision not to
stop uranium enrichment.
Washington accuses Tehran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran denies the charges, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful
purposes, including generating electricity.
Iran has said it has managed to weather a broad U.S. embargo for 28 years,
and while many Iranians acknowledge some hardships, they credit the embargo
with making them more self-reliant.
"Learn lessons from your past mistakes. Don't repeat your mistakes,"
Ahmadinejad said in a warning to the U.S. over its push to impose more
sanctions.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Singapore stops missile parts shipment to Iran
Sep 18, 2007 ; http://www.reuters.com
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore-based cargo
forwarding company has been fined S$22,000 ($14,500) for trying to export
missile parts to Iran without permission, the Straits Times reported on
Wednesday, quoting Singapore Customs.
A Singapore Customs spokesman Victor Seah told the paper that the parts,
worth S$13,599, had arrived in Singapore from Switzerland and were being
shipped to a destination in Iran.
The spokesman said that the company, World Freight Pte Ltd, had pleaded
guilty.
The paper said officers of the Singapore customs intercepted a consignment
of "controlled military electronic connectors" -- electronic parts meant for
missiles.
Under the Strategic Goods (Control) Act, companies must get specific
permission when they export or trans-ship certain types of "strategic
goods", the paper said.
This covers items that could potentially be used to develop weapons of mass
destruction, conventional arms and military equipment, and items used for
both military and civil purposes such as lasers, cameras and chemicals.
($1=1.516 Singapore Dollar)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Florida
Divests From Iran, Sudan
By BILL KACZOR – Sep 19, 2007 ; http://ap.google.com/
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's public employee retirement fund will
divest nearly $1.3 billion invested with 21 companies doing business in Iran
or Sudan, an action state officials hope will be imitated across the nation.
The State Board of Administration authorized the divestiture Wednesday.
"You will be telling every one of these companies that from this day forward
we won't invest another dollar, Florida's public dollars, in those
companies," state Sen. Ted Deutch, the law's sponsor, told the board.
At least six other states have similar bans on investing in companies doing
business in Sudan but Florida is the first to pass such a law applying to
Iran, Deutch said.
The law bars investing pension money in any company doing business in Sudan
or in Iran's energy sector because both countries are on the State
Department's list of terror-sponsoring nations.
Iran is suspected of trying to develop nuclear weapons and Sudan for
genocide in its Darfur region.
The 21 companies are among 57 the state has listed as off-limits. Florida
does not currently have investments with the other 36 companies. Several
other companies remain under investigation and could be added later.
Deutch said opponents have argued it would be too difficult to identify
companies — possibly hundreds — doing business in the two countries. The
number is not nearly so large and Florida already has identified them, he
said.
The state relied mainly on research and findings by four outside
organizations — the Sudan Divestment Task Force, Institute Shareholder
Services, KLD Research & Analytics and the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee.
None of the 57 companies listed are based in the United States. The state's
largest investment — $303 million — is with Royal Dutch Shell PLC,
headquartered in London, which operates in Iran but not Sudan.
Shell spokeswoman Darci Sinclair said the company is monitoring Florida's
law and similar proposals in other states and Congress to assess their
potential affect on the company's operations.
"Royal Dutch Shell does have a presence in Iran (although currently only
limited interests) and, like other energy companies, takes a long-term view
of its operations," Sinclair said in an e-mail.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lebanese MPs Go Into Hiding
Agencies —
http://www.arabnews.com ; Friday, 21, September, 2007
BEIRUT, 21 September 2007 — Jittery members of Lebanon’s ruling coalition
have gone into hiding, many of them abroad, for fear of meeting the same
fate as an anti-Syrian MP who was blown up just days before a key
presidential poll.
“There are instructions for us not to move, not to have a fixed agenda, not
to use the same vehicles,” said lawmaker Marwan Hamadeh, who survived an
assassination bid in October 2004, the first in a string of attacks against
prominent anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon.
“We stay put, we don’t go out, we only receive people, and everything is
filtered,” he said.
A special wing of the high-security luxury Phoenicia Hotel on the Beirut
seafront has been reserved for about 40 MPs who began moving in after
Wednesday’s assassination of MP Antoine Ghanem, a source at the hotel said.
Vehicles have been banned from parking near the hotel wing, now an
off-limits bunker subject to close security sweeps, said the source, who did
not wish to be identified.
Several lawmakers from the ruling coalition blamed the attack, which killed
Ghanem and four other people, on Lebanon’s powerful neighbor Syria and said
it was aimed at reducing the slim majority they hold ahead of Tuesday’s
vote. Parliament Speaker and leading opposition figure Nabih Berri insisted
yesterday that the session to choose a successor to President Emile Lahoud
would go ahead as planned.
“I am going to the Parliament on Tuesday because we will not let the
criminals achieve their goal,” Berri told the leading An-Nahar newspaper.
“There is a big plot threatening Lebanon but we will not remain idle and we
will pursue our initiative.” The coalition’s ministers, deputies and
political leaders have virtually disappeared from public life, many of them
hiding out in highly secure locations surrounded by walls, barbed wire and
tanks. Others have gone abroad, to France, Egypt and the United Arab
Emirates.
Ghanem was the eighth member of the anti-Syrian majority to be blown up or
shot dead since the three-year extension of Lahoud’s mandate by a
Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment in late 2004.
The ruling majority launched a “deputies protection plan” since the June
assassination of MP Walid Eido, sending dozens to safe residences abroad.
Many Cabinet ministers also reside at the prime minister’s compound in
downtown Beirut which has been surrounded by thick walls and tanks since the
start of an opposition sit-in in December.
Ghanem was killed just three days after his return from Dubai. His colleague
in the parliamentary majority, Gibran Tueni, was also killed in December
2005 just a day after returning from Paris.
“Ghanem had personal bodyguards with him, but the bodyguards assigned to his
protection by state security were not there at the time of the explosion,” a
police spokesman said. “He had sent them on another mission, maybe for
diversion. Everything indicates that the killers are professionals who are
taking advantage of the weakness of security apparatus in the country,” he
added.
Hamadeh said that no ministers or deputies dare use their special license
plates to avoid drawing attention to themselves. “We have no social life
anymore. We stopped going out, going to meetings, conferences, condolences,
seminars or any other social occasion,” he said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nationalists
condemn Quetta arrests
http://www.dawn.com
QUETTA, Sept 27: Leaders of nationalist political parties and student
organisations have condemned the arrest of hundreds of people in the Killi
Ismail locality of the provincial capital.
A house-to-house search was conducted after a senior police officer and his
two guards were killed on Wednesday night.
Addressing separate press conferences at the press club here on Thursday,
Mir Hasil Bizenjo, secretary-general of the National Party, and Mohammad
Sadiq Raisani, organiser of the Baloch Bar Association, said the arrest of
the Baloch and the insulting way in which women were treated during the
search operation could trigger a strong reaction.
Mir Bizenjo said the occurrence of any incident in any locality did not mean
that the whole community was involved in it.
Armed people had targeted police officials who escaped from the crime scene
but the police besieged the entire area, unduly harassing the people.
Terming the action unlawful, he said that police had arrested about 500
people who had nothing to do with the incident, adding that if security
forces continued to commit such excesses, the Baloch people might be
provoked to take extreme steps against the state. He said the National Party
believed in a political and constitutional struggle but police had arrested
dozens of party activists from Killi Ismail.
The NP leader announced that his party would hold a protest demonstration
against the illegal acts on Friday at the press club.
Sadiq Raisani, organiser of the Baloch Bar Association, claimed that at
least two people had been arrested from every house in the locality, adding
that even students and critically ill people were not allowed to leave the
area. Meanwhile, members of the Baloch Students Organisation (Mohiuddin
faction) staged a demonstration near the press club to condemn the arrests.
Mahmood Baloch said that Baloch people would not be subdued by the use of
brute force and they would not be forced to give up their struggle for their
legitimate rights.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US federal
Iraq plan approved
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2007 ; http://english.aljazeera.net
The US senate has approved a plan to limit the power of Iraq's central
government and give more power to its ethnically divided regions.
The non-binding resolution proposes separating Iraq into Kurdish, Shia and
Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad in charge of border
security and oil revenues.
The plan, which was inspired by the settlement that ended the Bosnian
conflict in the 1990's, offers Sunnis a share of oil revenues, boosts
reconstruction aid and debt relief.
Critics, however, said Iraqis should shape their future and that
partitioning Iraq could encourage sectarian killings.
The plan's advocates say it offers a solution to the crisis in Iraq that
could allow US troops to leave without leaving chaos behind.
The plan was agreed by 75 votes to 23 and Republicans only agreed to back it
after it was amended to say that George Bush, the US president, should press
for a federal system only if Iraqis want it.
Strong reservations
Turkey, a US ally, would oppose such an initiative, fearful of unrest among
its Kurdish population. Ankara feels that a partitioned Iraq would lead
outside powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia to boost rival ethnic armed
groups.
The Iraq Study Group, a US bi-partisan body, which delivered its
recommendations in December, warned that dividing Iraq could trigger mass
population movements and the collapse of Iraq's fragile security forces.
Harry Reid, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US senate, said on
Wednesday the vote "reflects the important recognition by the US senate that
political reconciliation must remain Iraqis' primary goal".
"Implementing the political solution envisioned in this legislation will
help redeploy American troops from the Iraqi civil war, more effectively
fight terrorism and make America more secure," Reid said.
While Republican politicians have mostly backed Bush's "surge" of additional
troops in Iraq, many remain frustrated by the political stalemate among the
country's rival factions.
"We have a flawed political design that we are pushing currently in
Baghdad," Sam Brownback, a Republican presidential candidate and senator and
one of 11 co-sponsors of the bill, said before the vote.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican senator, referred to the Dayton Peace
Accords in former Yugoslavia which led to the creation of a semi-autonomous
Muslim-Croat federation and a Bosnian Serb republic.
"I think what we have seen in Bosnia is a lessening of tensions when there
is a capability for the security forces, the educational and the religious
sects to have their own ability to govern within themselves," she said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran Labels CIA 'Terrorist Organization'
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI ; 29-09-2007 ; http://ap.google.com
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's parliament voted
Saturday to designate the CIA and the U.S. Army as "terrorist
organizations," a largely symbolic response to a U.S. Senate resolution
seeking a similar designation for Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
The parliament said the Army and the CIA were terrorists because of the
atomic bombing of Japan; the use of depleted uranium munitions in the
Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq; support of the killings of Palestinians by
Israel; the bombing and killing Iraqi civilians and the torture of
imprisoned terror suspects.
"The aggressor U.S. Army and the Central Intelligence Agency are terrorists
and also nurture terror," said a statement by the 215 lawmakers who signed
the resolution at an open session of the 290-member Iranian parliament. The
session was broadcast live on state-run radio.
The resolution, which urges Ahmadinejad's government to treat the two as
terrorist organizations, would become law if ratified by the country's
hardline constitutional watchdog but probably would have little effect as
the two nations have no diplomatic relations.
Ahmadinejad's government was expected to wait for U.S. reaction before
making its decision. The White House declined to comment Saturday.
The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday in favor of a resolution urging the State
Department to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist
organization. Charged with defending the system put in place after Iran's
1979 Islamic Revolution, the Guards answer to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
and are revered by many for their defense of the country during the 1980s
war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
The terrorist designation, the first such move against a foreign government
entity, would cut the Revolutionary Guards off from the U.S. financial
system and freeze the assets of its members or subsidiaries have in U.S.
jurisdictions. It would also allow the Treasury to move against firms
subject to U.S. law that do business with the Guards, which have vast
business interests at home and abroad.
While the proposal attracted overwhelming bipartisan support, a small group
of Democrats said they feared that labeling the state-sponsored organization
a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of
military action in Iran.
Back home after a tour of the U.S. and Latin America, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said the hostile reception he received at Columbia University
failed to damage Iran's image and instead hurt America's prestige abroad.
University President Lee Bollinger said before an Ahmadinejad speech at his
university that the hard-line leader exhibited "all the signs of a petty and
cruel dictator" who was "brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated"
for his denials of the Holocaust.
Ahmadinejad, who appeared shaken and irate but did not reciprocate the
insult, said that the world had witnessed "the greatness of the Iranian
nation" in the face of "insults" by its American host.
"With the grace of God, the Columbia University issue revealed their
aggressive and mean-spirited image. ... It backfired. What happened was
exactly opposite of what their shallow minds had presumed," Ahmadinejad said
late Friday in comments broadcast Saturday on state television. "I believe
they made a big mistake. ... They sacrificed the prestige of their whole
system."
The harsh reception boosted Ahmadinejad's image at home during a time of
high tensions with Washington over U.S. allegations that Iran is secretly
trying to develop nuclear weapons and supplying Iraq's Shiite militias with
deadly weapons that have killed U.S. troops. Iran denies both claims.
After Ahmadinejad told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in New
York that his country would defy attempts to impose new sanctions by
"arrogant powers" seeking to curb its nuclear program, accusing them of
lying and imposing illegal penalties on his country.
Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic ties since Iranian students took
American diplomats hostage in Tehran following the 1979 overthrow of
U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Iranians have a long list of grievances against the United States, including
a CIA-backed coup in 1953 that overthrew democratically elected Prime
Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and put Pahlavi back on the throne.
More recently, there are fears in Iran that either the U.S. or Israel will
carry out a military strike against it — something Iranian officials have
said would provoke retaliation against Israeli or U.S. bases in the region.
Washington has said it is addressing the situation through diplomacy but
refuses to rule out the use of military action.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Urgent Appeal: Halt the Imminent Execution of 4 more Ahwazi-Arabs
P.O. Box 679, Lorton,
Virginia 22199 USA
asc@ahwazstudies.org Fax 703.266.0330
www.ahwazstudies.org
To: Ms. Louise Arbour , High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the United Nations
UNOG-OHCHR, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
We are writing to inform you of the imminent execution of four more ethnic Arab-Iranians (Ahwazi-Arabs) in Ahwaz, provincial capital of Khuzestan in southwestern Iran - homeland to 5 million Ahwazi-Arabs. The news of their impending executions has come from their families, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty International, the Human Rights & Democracy Activists and from Mr. Musa Pirbani, Khuzestan’s prosecutor in an interview with the Iranian News Agency on Wednesday, September 13, 2007.
On 10 September, three Ahwazis were executed in defiance of the UN and international law, just days after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, visited Iran and on the first day of Ramadan. At least six more Ahwazi political prisoners are facing imminent execution. Four of them are being moved to a cell in Karoon prison in Ahwaz reserved for imminent execution of prisoners. Their names are as follows:
1. Hamzah Sawari, 20 years old
2. Zamel Bawi
3. Abdulemam
Zaeri
4. Nazem Boryhi
The charges against them include organizing Arabic/Quran lessons , hoisting the Ahwazi flag, naming their children Sunni names, converting from Shi'ism to Sunnism and preaching Wahabbism and being “Mohareb” or enemies of god, which carries death sentence. Other charges are “destabilizing the country”, “attempting to overthrow the government”, “possession of improvised explosives”, “sabotage of oil installations” and being a “threat to national security”
Last week, Mr. Emadeldin Baghi, a leading Iranian human rights activist, in a letter to the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, has argued that the trials of Ahwazi Arabs were flawed, the charges baseless, and that the sentencing was based on a spurious interpretation of law and that no evidence has been presented. Mr. Nkbakht, a prominent defense lawyer in Iran, made a similar statement. Others such as Presidency of the European Council, the UN general Assembly, 48 British MPs, the EU Parliament, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned their trials as unjust and unfair and appealed for a halt to further execution.
This new wave of execution is the latest in a series of barbaric hangings, designed to intimidate and terrorize the indigenous Ahwazi-Arab population into submission.
On 10 January 2007, independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Mr. Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr. Leandro Despouy, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and Mr. Manfred Nowak, the Special Rapporteur on torture, issued a joint statement urging the Iranian Government to "stop the imminent execution of seven men belonging to the Ahwazi Arab minority and grant them a fair and public hearing “. Despite that plea, on 14 February, 2007 Ghasem Salami, 41, married with 6 children, Majad Albughbish, 30, single, were executed in Ahwaz by public hanging and a day later Mr. Risan Sawari, a 32 years old Ahwazi-Arab teacher was killed under torture in Karoon prison.
This is in addition to four executions on 24 January 2007 (Mohammad Chaabpour, Abdolamir Farjolah Chaab, Alireza Asakereh and Khalaf Khanafereh) and three on 19 December 2006 (Malek Banitamim, Abdullah Solaimani and Ali Matorizadeh). This brings the number of executions of Ahwazi Arab political and human rights activists in the past 9 months to at least 13.
The executions are in the context of a brutal clamp-down on Ahwazi Arabs protesting against ethnic discrimination and persecution. Although the Ahwazi Arab homeland in Iran's Khuzestan province is one of the most oil-rich regions in the world and represents up to 90 per cent of Iran's oil production, the community endures extreme levels of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. Ahwazis are subjected to repression, racial discrimination and faced with land confiscation, forced displacement and forced assimilation.
We appeal to you to condemn the latest wave of execution and call upon Iranian authorities to halt the imminent execution of the others. We also appeal to you to call upon Iran to ensure due legal process in accordance with internationally recognized standards and to uphold its obligations with regard to civil and political rights, including the provision of equal rights to ethnic, religious and minority groups in Iran- such as the indigenous Ahwazi-Arabs.
For further information, please see a dossier of other human rights violations against indigenous and ethnic Ahwazi-Arabs in Iran:
Sincerely,
Karim Abdian, Executive Director
Organization Ahwaz Human Rights
More Ahwazi-Arab Political Refugees are in danger of extradition by the Syrian regime to Iran.
To: Mr. António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Cc: Ms. Erika Feller, Assistant High
Commissioner; Mr. George Okoth-Obbo, Director, Division of International
Protection Services.
Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt, Switzerland
In recent years, ethnic-Iranian Arabs
(Ahwazi-Arabs) have been seeking safe heaven in Syria after the Ahwazi mass
uprising of April 15, 2005, where more than 5,000 Ahwazis were detained, at
least 131 were executed and over 150 “disappeared and believed to have been
tortured and secretly killed by Iranian security forces. Systematic
oppression and denial of human rights inclding government policies of
oppression such confiscation of Ahwazi Arab farmland, forced displacement,
ethnic cleansing and ethnic “restructuring” have caused the flux of Ahwazi
Arabs political refugees to other counties in the region such as Syria(one
of the few countries that Iranian nationals can secure entry visas with
relative ease).).
As you know, last
year the Syrian government extradited 5 Ahwazi-Arabs back to Iran, Mr.
Rasool Ali Mazra (55), Mr. Jamal Obaidawi (32), Mr. Said al-Saki (45),
Falleh Abdullah al-Mansouri (85, a citizen of the Netherlands), and Mr.
Taher Mazrea (40). These men were all known opponents of the Iranian regime
and all UNHCR mandate holder political refugees awaiting resettlement to a
3rd country. Four out five of these dissidents are still in Iranian prisons
( Mr. Obbeidi has recently been released on an extremely heavy bail) and are
being shuttled between Ward 209 of Evin prison in Tehran and Karoon prison
in Ahwaz City. They are being subjected to torture resulting in permanent
and sever body injuries like the loss of limbs, eye injury, among others.
They are not provided with necessary medical attention. At least 3, Mr.
Mansouri, Mr. Saki and Mr.Rasoul Mazrea is evidently are facing imminent
execution.
Currently, there are about 111 other ethnic Ahwaz-Arabs UNHCR-recognized
political refugees and asylum seekers in Syria who are awaiting
resettlement. Some are also face imminent extradition to Iran by the Syrian
government. Their names and their UNHCR case #s are as follows:
1- Ali Cheldawi Ghafeli ;
06-6145 ; Accepted by Australia
2- Fatimah Jame'i (Ali Helali Majd) ; 06-4691 ; Accepted by Australia
3- Abdallah Sayyahi ; 07-0029 ; Accepted by Australia
4- Adnan Fazeli ; 07-6466 ; awaiting resettlement
5- Hamid Soltani ; 07-6440 ; awaiting resettlement
6- Abdelkazem Sawari ; 07-4637 ; awaiting resettlement
7- Kazem Buroshak ; 07-6433 ; awaiting resettlement
8- Seyyed Hassan Mousawi ; 07-6438 ; awaiting resettlement
These refugees and their families live in constant fear of arrest, imprisonment and illegal deportation by the Syrian authorities.
Additionally, at least 2 other Ahwazi refugees, Mr. Ali Bouazar (accepted by Sweden) and Abdilrahim Ahlilshakha (accepted by Australia) have been jailed for unknown reasons by the Syrian security authorities since April of 2007.
Out of 111, there at least 31 families that have been
accepted and processed by Australia and have been awaiting resettlement for
the past 6 months (some as long as 11 months). Almost all of these families
have run out of money and literally face starvation. Their schools aged
children are not allowed in schools and they are deprived of medical and
other basic social protections. At least one of these refugees who was
accepted and has been awaiting resettlement to Australia, Mariam Shovilly, a
young mother of 3, died while waiting to be admitted to a hospital in
Damascus earlier this year.
As you know, local integration and/or voluntary
repatriation are not feasible due to close security arrangements between
Syria and Iran which qualifies Ahwazis for Resettlement to a third-country.
However, unfortunately currently there is no one specifically assigned to
the Ahwazi refugees and process their cases at the UNHCR office.
While some West European, Canada and the
U.S. have accepted a few families each, some countries such as the
Netherlands refused to consider Ahwazi refugees (although they will consider
other Iranian refugees).
We request that the Office of the UNHCR require that:
1. The Syrian and Iranian governments to respect the international
humanitarian treaties and return the extradited political refugees to
counties of assigned resettlement.
2. The Syrian government release Ahwazi
political refugees now spending time in Syrian prisones without charges.
3. Syrian government stops handing over Ahwazi political refugees to Iran.
4. Expediting resettlement-especially by Australia and waving of other
discriminatory policies by other countries such as the Netherlands
5. An immediate action be taken to prevent the executions of Ahwazi refugees
forcibly returned to Iran.
Sincerely,
Karim Abdian, PhD
Executive Director, Ahwaz Human
Rights Organization