حزب مردم بلوچستان  Balochistan People’s Party  بلوچستانءِ اُستمانءِ گــَل

Iran's "Mad Moment" Fails to Impress UN Indigenous Forum

30 April, 2008

Iran's representatives at the seventh session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) launched a bizarre attack on a delegation of Ahwazi Arab human rights activists, accusing them of responsibility for terrorism in the Middle East.

Iranian delegates banged on the table throughout a speech by a representative of the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO), in a scene reminiscent of Kruschev's shoe banging incident in the UN General Assembly. The Ahwazi delegate detailed Iran's catalogue of human rights abuses against indigenous Ahwazi Arabs. Delegates representing Iran's Balochi and Kurdish populations also adressed the session.

A member of the Ahwazi Arab delegation told the British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS) that as soon as their presentation started "all hell broke loose." The delegation criticised Iran for failing to appoint a member of Iran's national minorities, who comprise over half Iran's population, to represent the country at the PFII. This was proof that the Iranian government "does not aknowlege or recognize the indigenous peoples" of Iran.

The Ahwazi Arab delegate drew attention to the historic marginalisation and discrimination against Ahwazi Arabs by successive governments. He said: "While Ahwazi ancestral lands produces 90% of Iran's vast oil revenue, none of this is allocated to the Ahwazis or to their region. Madam Chair: a proposed legislative bill allocating 1.5% of the oil revenue to the Khuzestan area or the indigenous Ahwazis has been defeated for the fourth year this year.

"Iran indigenous Ahwazis are kept backward, poor and illiterate. The illiteracy rate is four times and unemployment is six times the national average ... Only one out of four Ahwazis graduates from high school. According to government's own data, 80% of the Arab children suffer from malnutrition.

"In the past ten years, as directed by the highest levels of government of the Islamic republic of Iran, over 500,000 hectares of indigenous Ahwazi farmers land have been confiscated and given to non-indigenous Persian settlers, a scheme designed to break up and change the ethnic structure and racial mix of the province ...

"There is a systematic effort by the Islamic Republic of Iran to strip indigenous Arabs of Ahwaz from their national identity, culture, language, and customs and they are faced with assimilation and a lowered status to the ranks of second and third class citizens. Any Ahwazi demands for basic human rights, including education in their mother tongue, sharing of wealth and rights of employment or to protest ethnic cleansing, have often been labeled as 'separatist', 'secessionist', 'Wahabis' or called 'stooges of foreign countries' or 'danger to security and territorial integrity' ...

"In the past 12 months alone, at least 21 Ahwazi human rights and political activists were publicly hanged (three were executed just days after UN Human Rights Commissioner, Ms. Arbour, visited Tehran in September 2007) despite the appeal by the European Union Commission, international Human Rights Organization and in a blatant defiance to an appeal by the independent experts Mr. Philip Alston, Mr. Leandro Despouy, and Mr. Manfred Nowak who issued a 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.'"

The Ahwazi Arab delegation called for the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples to "organise a fact finding trip to the province of Khuzestan to investigate land confiscation, ethnic cleansing and especially the killing of 151 indigenous Ahwazi-Arabs by Iranian security forces" since the April 2005 uprising.

The Iranian delegate responded by saying: "This so-called NGO, AHRO, which is based in London is responsible for many bombings and explosions in Ahwaz. This so called NGO is secessionist and conducted the bombing in Ahwaz that killed many people."

BAFS spokesman Nasser Bani Assad said: "The Iranian response at the PFII session was risible, yet predictable. The regime maintains anyone who supports indigenous rights in Iran is a secessionist and terrorist, without offering any supporting evidence. The fact that AHRO is based in Washington has not stopped Iran from claiming it is supported by British intelligence, which is Tehran's stock answer to any criticism of its treatment of its Arab population. Even if the delegation had sworn allegiance to the Supreme Leader, they would have been denounced as terrorists and separatists for even raising the issue of indigenous rights in Iran.

"The unruly behaviour by the Iranian delegation went down poorly in the PFII session, which is usually a sober affair. Indigenous groups from across the world saw for themselves that the Iranian delegation wanted to silence and intimidate Ahwazi Arabs by banging on tables and making wild accusations. As a result, the Ahwazi delegation was applauded and received a warm response from NGOs and representatives of foreign governments. Iran's hysterical reaction backfired badly."

Iran is represented on the UNPFII by Paimanach Hasteh, a US-educated environmental scientist who served as Director of the Department of Air Pollution Control of the Traffic Control Company in Tehran before taking up a career in the foreign ministry.

http://www.ahwaz.org.uk/2008/04/irans-mad-moment-fails-to-impress-un.html

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India-Iran gas pipeline "infeasible" for now: US expert

3 May, 2008, IANS
CHICAGO: The proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline is "absolutely infeasible" in the foreseeable future because financial, political, legal and security circumstances do not support it, a well-informed American expert says.

"None of the three countries involved in the talks has the resources to fund the pipeline. There are serious security concerns, especially because it passes through Baluchistan in Pakistan. Virtually no public or private consortiums would want to build it because there is now also the issue of Iran's nuclear quest," Christine Faire, a senior political scientist at the think tank Rand Corporation, told reporters.

Asked why then there is such a sanguine mood in India, Iran and Pakistan about the pipeline, Faire said, "It is posturing about the future. From India's point of view it is about locking in price and access in the future when Iran will have normalized its relations with the world. "She said when even former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, "the sanest of them all", could not normalize relations with the world, it will be unrealistic to expect the current President, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, or his future successor to do so that easily.

She also pointed out other seriously inhibiting factors such as the festering tensions between Pakistan and its province of Baluchistan. "No one believes that Pakistan will be able to deal with Baluchistan fairly," she said. That, in her judgment, creates serious security challenges to the pipeline. "No fool would want to invest in such a project," Faire said.

Other experts quoted on the National Public Radio also seemed to underscore either the unfeasibility or the unlikelihood of the pipeline in the foreseeable future. Some of them say perhaps even Iran itself will stall the pipeline project eventually.

Robert Johnston of the Eurasia Group was quoted as saying that the deal between Iran and India may not happen for at least a decade or two given the rising domestic demand in Iran. He said Iran will also have to take a strategic decision on how it wants to expand its gas production and which projects bring in most money. "Ultimately Iran will find better projects for its gas. Two other options which are most attractive are either developing pipelines to Western Europe via Turkey or developing the LNG (liquefied natural gas) market in Asia," Johnston said.

Asked why despite all the uncertainty over it, the US was so anxious about the pipeline, Faire told IANS, "It is the symbolism of it all that rankles the US. The US has been wrestling with India's relations with Iran." In this context, she said while the Bush administration had decided to go ahead with the civilian nuclear deal with New Delhi by making a country-specific exception to the US non-proliferation laws, Congress was not convinced about it.

"Congress expects India to be sensitive to US concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions," Faire said.

Mike Green of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), was quoted as saying, "Quiet diplomacy will be effective. If we are going to be too loud about it we would risk giving the opponents of close US-India ties a nice weapon to beat up the (Indian) government."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

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The beginning of a people’s war in Balochistan, Iran

By Reza Hossein Borr - 5/3/2008

When the Islamic Republic of Iran hanged two Sunni Baluch leaders in the morning of 9 April 08, the Baluch people knew that a new era has began in the relationship between the Shia fundamentalist regime of Iran and the rising Sunni Baluch people. As the Baluch culture requires, the Baluch people offered plenty of advice to the regime to stop its atrocities in Baluchistan and if they did not, then, they would face severe consequences. As usual, the Iranian regime underestimated the inner strength of the Baluch people and continued the execution and hanging of Baluch people. Now a widespread military movement has began in Baluchistan that goes far beyond the borders of Baluchistan, well into the heart of the country, in the cities of Shiraz and Kashan in the middle of the country.

From time immemorial the Baluch people have always used wisdom of negotiation for resolving their disputes with their neighbours and enemies. Most of the time the wisdom of negotiation succeeded and when it did not succeed, it was usually when the other side assumed itself as superior in finance, arms and army. But the Baluch people never counted much on finances, arms or armies; as they relied most of the time on their courage, resilience, toughness, tactical and strategic manoeuvring of power. They always knew that the arms will be finished, the armies would be broken and their finances would run out. What remains, they thought was human dignity that manifested unlimited resilience. There were many times that they were temporarily flat on the ground but they never allowed the idea of defeat to overshadow their inspiring dignity for life building freedom.

The love for freedom in the Baluch people has been so deep that they were prepared to make everything else subordinate to it. Freedom first they thought, the rest must follow. Freedom is the supreme value of the Baluch people. It is not something that they can trade with anything else. But at the same time, because they are honest people, they get cheated time to time as they were cheated by the founders of Pakistan when they were brought to this conclusion that the union with Pakistan is for their best interest. They never knew that there were leaders who can be so mean to deceive the other side. Today they realised that they have been cheated for being honest as they extended their idea honesty to some people who proved to be by nature dishonest. They are paying the price for that but there will come one day when they will regain what they have lost because of honesty. If honesty pays, they will get their land one day soon.

As the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenaei, had lived in Baluchistan for many years, he happened to know a lot of Baluch people. The Baluch people look very ordinary. They do not engage in boasting and bluffing. They do not get involved in praising the authorities. They want their own free lives, free of influence of authorities. Khamenaei of course could not understand the psychology of the people that have simple lives and complicated culture and history. He thought that he knew the Baluch people and therefore, he thought that he can eradicate them quite easily. What he didn't know was that the Baluch people were products of toughest conditions that could have destroyed many societies.

It was his orders that the two religious leaders of Baluchistan shall be hanged to make example of them. In fact, in a few days they became example of a struggle that has caused immense embarrassment for the Iranian regime.

Four days after the hanging of the two religious leaders, on13 April 08, a huge bomb destroyed a religious conference hall in Shiraz in which at least 12 people were killed and more than 200 people were injured. The embarrassed authorities claimed that the explosion was caused by the storage of some mines from an exhibition which was held few years ago. The leader of this place rejected this claim and said that the exhibition place was intact and it was not the cause of the explosion. He claimed the explosion was so strong that it removed a large part of the hall and threw it about 100 meters away. (1) To cover their inefficiencies for protecting the hall, the security forces tried to put together some excuses which did not convince anybody.

The Shiraz fire brigade announced that they investigated the matter very carefully and concluded a bomb destroyed the centre that has been turned into a centre of promoting hatred and conflict among the ordinarily Shia people against the Sunnis and other religions. (2) The leader of the centre was a capable orator that could attract 3 to 4 thousand people on Saturday evenings. The focus of his preaching was the justification of elimination of Sunnis. The centre was financed by the security forces and the office of the supreme leader. It was an official centre that promoted hatred against Sunnis in a province which had a large number of Sunni populations.

One day after that, on 14 April 08, mob burned alive a Bahai in Shiraz but the regime did cover it. Shiraz is also the birthplace of the Iranian prophet Bahaollah and therefore, he has some followers in the city. Bahais of Shiraz have been the subject of cruel treatment since the revolution.

Three days later, on the 16th of April, a new organization, Sunni Jehadi Movement, took the responsibility for the explosion of bomb in Shiraz and claimed that it has acted in revenge for the killing of the two religious Sunni leaders of Baluchistan. They warned the regime that they have the capability of acting all over Iran if the government did not stop oppressing the Sunni people. They did not publish any new statement after that. But another Baluch Group, Forghan, who had several confrontations with the Iranian regime, also indicated indirectly that it has planted the bomb. (3)

As the regime was trying to confuse the public about the source explosion in Shiraz, the Iranian Press news announced that the Shia religious leader of Fahraj, a Sunni city in Kerman Province, has been abducted on 22 April 08 by the People's Resistance Movement of Iran, Jondollah. A weblog of which is closely related to Jondollah announced that in an armed clash that the Jondollah had with the Iranian security forces, 15 members of the guard have been killed near Zahidan when they were transferring the Fahraj religious leader to their bases. It also said that Jondollah has been capable of moving the religious leader from Kerman province into the mountains of Baluchistan. The statement said that he may be hanged in revenge for the hanging of two Sunni religious leaders.(4)

At the same time some other armed groups in Baluchistan began their armed struggle against the government. The regime did not give the fatalities of their own side. But to create more fear in the Baluch people, they hanged four innocent Baluch in Kerman and killed 4 Baloch on 26 April 08 in Balochistan. (5) According to the sources of the Iranian regime, there are more than one hundred armed groups in Baluchistan. This shows the depth and breath of discontent in Baluchistan. In spite of the killings of the Baluch people, the number of organised armed groups is growing. They learn from their mistakes and become extremely complicated in their tactics and strategies.

The Iranian media announced on 26 of April that another Shia religious leader, HojatoslIslam Bejari, has been shot by the Baluch armed groups in Zahedan. Although he did not die in the incident, it created immence fear among the Shia religious leaders in Baluchistan. They immediately demanded a meeting with the governor of the province and asked for more security.(6)

The fear among the Shia radicals and agents of the regime intensified when another Baluch warrior Dorra Khan began his war against the regime by arresting four Shia clerics who had close contacts with the security forces. It was announced that he had captured such one cleric from Kashan, centre of Iran and transferred him to Baluchistan. Kashan is hundreds of km away from Baluchistan. He captured one cleric from Kerman, one from Zahedan and one from Sarawan. It seems that he has a huge operational capability that can act in such a short time in such a wide area not only in Baluchistan but in the whole country. (7)

While the operations of the security forces continued to expand around Zahedan after their unsuccessful attack on the fighters of Abdolmalek Rigi on 27th of April 08, the news of an armed conflict in Sarawan was spread on 30 April 08. It was reported the five security forces were killed and one Baluch fighter was slightly injured. It is likely that some of the security forces were captured by the Baluch forces. In the meantime, yesterday, 29 of April, Mohammad Mehdi Afras, Deputy Manager of OIL Comany was attacked by two young Baluch in Zahedan. He was taken into hospital.

The elite security guards in Baluchistan that have proved their inefficiencies in quelling insurgency in Baluchistan began arresting innocent people in Zahedan and other main cities of Baluchistan. According to some reports, hundreds of young men have disappeared. Zahedan, the capital of Baluchistan, looks like a military garrison. Security forces could be seen everywhere and yet, in one corner of the city, confrontation between the Baluch fighters and the security forces suddenly erupts. This is the nature of people’s war. Nobody knows who is a fighter.

The arbitrarily execution of the Baluch people and regime's destructive policies in the region has created a people's war in Baluchistan in which every Baluch can become a soldier. The Baluch people are fighters by nature. None of the top fighters of Baluchistan have received any official training in gorilla wars but yet, Abdol Malek Rigi, the leader of People's Resistance Movement of Iran has achieved 100% success in his military operations.

Everybody who has underestimated the unlimited strength and power of the Baluch people has faced fatal consequences. Among the first cases is when Esfandyaar, the son of the king of Parsia, underestimated the strength and wisdom of Rostam, the great legendary hero of Central Asia and India. As was the tradition of the Baluch culture at that time and it is the tradition of code of honour of the Baluch today, Rostam advised Esfandyaar to return back to the capital and avoid confrontation with him. Esfandyaar who was a great warrior thought that he can take on the Baloch man, the greatest and the most powerful warrior of all times, Rostam. Ferdowsi, in his Book of Kings describes the confrontation between the two men with great details and shows how Rostam used his fair and just attitude and advised Esfandyaar to go away; and when he refused, the battle between the two began and ended in the death of Esfandyaar.

Ferdowsi also narrated how later the great king of Sassanid dynasty, Ardashir, fought the Baluch people and how he was defeated by the Baluch people. After him, Anoushirwan followed his mission and massacred a large number of Baluch people but the Baluch people rose again from their ashes and began fighting the successors of Anoushirwan and defeated them.

During the Arab invasion of Iran, the Arabs defeated Persian army regularly but when they faced the Baluch they were defeated. The commander of the Arab army contacted Omar, the second Caliph and reported that they couldn't defeat the Baluch and it is better to enter with them in agreement. Omar ordered negotiations with the Baluch people and signed an agreement which is still exists and Malekolshouraye Bahar has written in detail about this confrontation and agreement.

200 years after the occupation of Iran by the Arabs, it was Yaqoub Leith, a successor of Rostam Baluch that defeated the Caliph of Baghdad and announced the independence of Iran for the first time after Arab invasion. There are hundreds of other examples of how the ruthless rulers of the region have tried to subjugate the Baluch people but they have failed.

When the Baluch people rise, they begin people’s war against the enemy. Every Baluch turns into a soldier and every soldier can handle dozens of the soldiers of the enemy as the Baluch soldiers fight for their survival and the enemy's soldiers fight as mercenaries.

Today is the beginning. The Iranian regime would use its most ruthless operations in Baluchistan. They will kill a lot of innocent people but for every person that dies hundreds will rise. Nobody has benefited from the war with the Baluch and Islamic Republic of Iran will not benefit either. This is the people with the most resilient sense in their minds and bodies. They strive in the war.

Reza Hossein Borr is a leadership consultant and the creator of 150 CDs and 14 Change management models. He is also the author of Manual Success, Manual of Coaching and Mentoring, Motivational Stories that Can Change Your Life, and a New Vision for the Islamic World. He can be contacted by email: balochfront@ aol.com

Source: Balochi_Culture Yyahoo Group

Footnotes:
1. http://www.tiknews. net/display/ ?ID=59617&page=1,,,28. 4.08????? ??? ?????? 1.
2. <http://www.tiknews. net/files/ 2128535194? ?????.jpg>
3. ttp://taftaan. blogsky.com/ ?PostID=1881
4. http://taftaan. blogsky.com/ ?PostID=353, ,26.4.08
5. http://www2. irna.ir/fa/ news/view/ menu-155/ 8702037440170110 .htm
6. http://www.rasanews .com/Negaresh_ site/FullStory/ ?Id=29945
7.http://mybalochista n.page.tl/ 140.htm,30. 4.08
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Iran's wild east is on the boil

By Amir Taheri, Special to Gulf News ; Published: May 07, 2008

Already facing ethnic revolts by Kurds and Turkmen in three provinces, Iran appears to be facing an even greater rebellion by Baluch tribesmen in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.

The Baluch have been in a state of low intensity rebellion against the Islamic Republic ever since the mullahs seized power in 1979. However, the rebellion has gained greater intensity in the past two years, provoking major armed clashes between tribal fighters and Iranian security forces.

The latest clashes came on April 25 when a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) raided what was reported to be a hideout of the rebels in the remote village of Javanabad.

The immediate aim of the IRGC was to liberate an ayatollah abducted by unidentified gunmen a week earlier in Fahraj, in the neighbouring province of Kerman. The size of the force set from Tehran, and its heavy equipment including helicopter gunships, showed that this was no run-of-the-mill ayatollah.

For the captive is Ayatollah Sayyed Javad Tahiri, the special representative of the supreme guide for southeastern Iran, an area the size of France.

According to Iranian media reports dozens of rebels as well as IRGC men were killed in the clashes and many more injured. One hospital in Zahedan, the capital of the province, reported more than 200 wounded.

Spokesmen for Baluch rebels claim that the ayatollah was abducted in retaliation for the execution of two Baluch religious leaders last months.

The official media in Tehran claims that the ayatollah was taken by a group of drug smugglers with roots in neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan. Baluch sources, however, insist that the motive was political.

According to them two groups are involved the so-called Jundallah (Army of God), an armed group that has been fighting the IRGC since 2006, and the Society of the Combatants of Sistan and Baluchistan (SCSB), a more broadly based political group opposed to the Khomeinist regime in Tehran.

The Baluch number some 1.8 million in Iran but are spread in a vast area from the Gulf of Oman to Central Asia. They are part of a greater Baluch community that is also present in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Gulf states, numbering almost 20 million.

According to the Baluch opposition, the abducted ayatollah is currently on trial for allegedly giving orders to government forces to arrest, try and execute Sunni militants.

Tehran accuses Jundallah and the SCSB of having a secessionist agenda, and working with Baluch tribal leaders in Pakistan who promote the dream of a Greater Baluchistan encompassing areas in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Another theory is that the Baluch rebels in Iran are manipulated by Islamabad's secret services in retaliation for Iran's support of rebels operating in the Mirpur area of Pakistani Baluchistan.

Jundallah and SCSB spokesmen, however, deny the charges and insist that both organisations are committed to Iran's territorial integrity.

Rebel activity

One thing is certain: rebel activity has managed to render vast chunks of southeastern Iran unsafe for travel. Since last March all visits by foreign tourists have been cancelled and government officials' movements take place under heavy armed escort.

Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have had to cancel their planned visits to the province. SCSB spokesmen claim that neither man would be able to travel to the area in the foreseeable future.

Baluch grievances in Iran are not limited to religious issues, although this is important. The central authorities do not allow the building of Sunni mosques in many parts of the province.

Seminaries training Sunni clerics have been shut in most cities while a well-financed campaign to convert more people to Shiism is led by mullahs sent from Tehran.

Iranian Baluch religious scholars who have trained abroad, including at the Al Azhar Islamic University in Cairo, are barred from returning home to Iran. The Baluch are allocated very few places in the Iranian quota for the Haj pilgrimage to Makkah.

Baluch spokesmen claim that Tehran is using monetary and other "worldly inducements" to persuade the natives to change their religious faith.

Religion, however, is not the only source of discontent in Baluchistan. The Baluch claim that they are excluded from the best government posts. There is not a single Baluch in any high position in central government or local administration.

Life expectancy in the Sistan and Baluchistan province is a full 10 years lower than the average for the rest of Iran. Illiteracy is estimated at over 80 per cent, compared to 37 per cent nationally. Annual income per head in the province is less than a quarter of the national average.

At the same time, Baluch spokesmen claim that Tehran has tried to alter the ethnic character of their land by encouraging large numbers of non-Baluch to settle in the province's main cities. In the 1990s many Iraqi Shiite refugees were settled in the province, along with Shiites fleeing the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Repeated promises to invest in new projects to revive the province's moribund economy have not materialised. And pre-revolution hydroelectric projects on the rivers Sarbaz, Jakegovar and Mashkid have been abandoned, killing all hope of an agricultural revolution in the region.

The coastal area of the province, known as Makran, has been transformed into a restricted zone as the IRGC has built a string of bases on the Gulf of Oman as part of a grander scheme to control navigation in and out of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The situation has become more complicated by the presence of well-organised and heavily armed smuggling gangs that have set up bases and safe havens in some of the region's remotest villages.

The rugged nature of the terrain, a dry high plateau dotted with volcanoes, makes effective control by the central authorities difficult. For at least a decade the region has been dubbed "The Wild East", a lawless land where the gun is the ultimate authority.

The contraband network pumps an estimated $12 billion in smuggled goods and drugs into urban Iran via Sistan and Baluchistan each year.

As the second largest source of employment in the province, after the government, the network has every interest in perpetuating tension and uncertainty, thus preventing the central government from imposing its authority.

The mullahs' political mistakes, and their blindness to local religious and cultural sensitivities, have played into the hands of the contraband network.

http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/region/10211189.html