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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
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PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/054/2006
26 May 2006
UA 150/06 Incommunicado detention/Fear of death penalty/Fear of torture and ill-treatment
IRAN Sa’id ‘Awda al-Saki, Iranian national aged 35
Iranian Arab refugee Sa’id ‘Awda al-Saki was reportedly arrested in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 11 May, apparently at the request of the Iranian authorities. He was reportedly forcibly returned to Iran three days later, and is now held incommunicado at an undisclosed place. Amnesty International fears he may be at risk of torture and ill-treatment, and of being sentenced to death.
He had been an activist with an Arab political group in the city of Ahvaz, capital of the mainly Arab province of Khuzestan, in the south-west of the country. He had reportedly fled Iran in 2000 or 2001, using false documentation, after four other activists from the same political group were arrested and executed. The authorities apparently wanted to question him in connection with his political activities, and he feared that he would also be executed like the other four.
Sa’id ‘Awda al-Saki had been recognised as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Damascus. He had been accepted for resettlement in Norway, and was scheduled to travel there on 25 May.
Eight other Iranian Arab activists were apparently arrested with him (see UA 123/06, MDE 24/037/2006). At least three have since been released, but the other five are believed to be still detained in Syria.
He was arrested by the Syrian authorities in November 2005, raising fears that he would be forcibly returned to Iran, but was later released.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Much of Iran's Arab community lives in the province of Khuzestan, which borders Iraq. It is strategically important because it is the site of much of Iran’s oil reserves, but the Arab population does not feel it has benefited as much from theoil revenue as the Persian population. Historically, the Arab community has been marginalised and discriminated against. Tension has mounted among the Arab population since April 2005, when it was alleged that the government planned to disperse the country's Arab population or to force them to relinquish their Arab identity. Hundreds have been arrested and there have been reports of torture.
Following bomb explosions in Ahvaz City in June and October 2005, which killed at least 14 people, and explosions at oil installations in September and October, the cycle of violence intensified, with hundreds of people reportedly arrested. Further bombings on 24 January 2006, in which at least six people were killed,were followed by further mass arrests. Two men, Mehdi Nawaseri and Ali Awdeh Afrawi, were executed in public on 2 March after they were convicted of involvement in the October bombings. Their executions followed unfair trials before a Revolutionary Court during which they are believed to have been denied access to lawyers, and their”confessions” were broadcast on television.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English, Arabic, Persian or your own language:
- expressing concern for the safety of Sa’id ‘Awda al-Saki, who was reportedly forcibly returned from Syria on 14 May and is now held incommunicado;
- calling on the authorities to release him immediately, unless he is to be promptly charged with a recognizably criminal offence;
- calling on them to ensure that he is given immediate access to lawyers, his family, interpreters and any medical treatment he may need;
- seeking assurances that he is not being tortured or ill-treated;
- reminding the authorities that confessions extracted under duress are prohibited by Article 38 of the constitution of Iran, which says that “All forms of torture for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information are forbidden,” and that Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Article 7 states that “No one shall be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.”
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader,
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 251 774 2228 (mark "FAO the Office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei")
Email: info@leader.ir
istiftaa@wilayah.org
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: http://www.iranjudiciary.org/contactus-feedback-fa.html
(via the feedback form. The text of the feedback form translates as:
1st line: name; 2nd line: email address; 3rd line: subject heading. Type your message into the text box)
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 6 649 5880
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email
Minister of the Interior
Hojjatoleslam Mustafa Purmohammadi
Ministry of the Interior, Dr Fatemi Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: ravabetomomi@moi.gov.ir
Speaker of Parliament
Gholamali Haddad Adel, Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami (Parliament)
Imam Khomeini Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 6 646 1746
and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 7 July 2006.
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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
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From: Ali Naseri
Date: 24th may 2006
Dear director, Mr.Patrick Grazey
I am writing to you regarding the situation facing Ahwazi Arabs in Iran.
The oil-rich province of Khuzestan, located in the southwest of Iran, is the homeland of more than five million Arabs. It was annexed on 20th April 1925 by the Iranian monarch Reza Khan, who overthrew the autonomous goverment of Sheikh Kha'al. In 1936, Iran changed the emirate's name from Al-Ahwaz to Khuzestan and began a policy of Ethnic Clean Sign to reduce the native Arab population.
This plan has been continued by the current theocratic regime. A letter written by former Vice-President Muhamad Ali Abtahi, which was leaked to the media last year, outlined plans for the “ethnic restructuring” of Khuzestan. It stated that the province's Arab population must be reduced from 70% of the total population to 30% by in-migration of “loyal” non-Arabs to racially exclusive settlements and the resettling of Arabs elsewhere in Iran. Government policy has followed the plan contained in the letter.
Khuzestan province, which is still called Al-Ahwaz by Arab inhabitants, has the world's second largest oil reserve outside Saudi Arabia. Arab land ownership is seen as an obstacle to the development of oil fields. A land confiscation programme has been introduced that has targeted Arabs. The Ahwazi Arabs responded on 15th April 2005 with massive but peaceful anti-government protests or “intifada”. The demonstrations focused on the issues of human rights, social justice, political freedom and an end to Ethnic Clean Sign. The intifada has continued since then, despite the use of state terror by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against protestors and their families. As a result, many Ahwazis have been killed by the security force and thousands have been arrested.
These are the main problems facing the Ahwazi Arabs:
1) Expropriation of Arab farmland.
2) Forced migration of Arabs and their replacement with non-Arab peoples.
3) A campaign of slaughter and terror against Ahwazi Arabs.
4) The destruction of protestors' homes.
5) Imprisonment and disappearance of innocent Arabs.
6) The contamination of Khuzestan with dangerous viruses causing widespread sickness among the Arab people.
7) The intimidation of Ahwazi Arabs in exile, including the murder of exiled political leaders.
8) The abduction and imprisonment of the wives and children of Ahwazi opposition activists.
9) The public execution of Ahwazi Arabs as a method of terrorizing the Ahwazi people.
10) Revolutionary courts have been ordered to ensure that all those accused by the state of sedition or “war against God” are prosecuted, without the right to legal defence.
11) The Baseej militias have been ordered to shoot people in the streets.
12) The province is under martial law.
13) Place names are being changed from Arabic to Persian to remove the Arab identity of the province.
14) Arabic clothes such as keffieh and dishdasha are banned.
15) Bodies of those kidnapped by the government have been found in the rivers Karoon and Karkhe.
16) Water supply has been cut due to the diversion of river flows, changing the province from a fertile area to a wilderness.
17) High levels of unemployment are designed to force Arabs to leave the province.
18) The regime is forcibly expelling one million Ahwazi Arabs from their traditional lands along the border with Iraq as part of its militarization programme in order to dominate the southern Iraqi Basra province.
19) The regime in addition to the security force using the foreign militias same as Hezbolla of Libenon and Iraqin Badr militias to repression the Ahwazi Arab people.
20) Those countries which have been allied with Iran like Syria for satisfying Iranain regime has been arresting several Ahwazi politician and submitted some of them to brutally Iranian security force. Those people are at risk of persecution.
Today, the Ahwazi Arab people is facing extinction. They are deprived of human rights, democracy, social justice and freedom. We are asking the United States of America to consider the appropriate actions needed in order for the the Ahwazi Arab people to lead a normal life again. Ahwazi Arabs, who are victims by the regime, are ready to cooperate fully with the United States of America and all the democratic countries to overthrow the sabotage and terroristic regime of Iran.
We are constantly worrying about those continual vengeance attack of Iranian regime to civilian Arab people and requesting the protection from you with the following suggestions:
1) forbbiden flight area on all territory of Al-Ahwaz if Iranian regime wants to attack the people by air force; this is an important issue to us as there might be plans arranged by Iranian regime to do so in the near future. The setting up of this protection in our air space over the territory of Arab people is very urgent for the citizens there.
2) Assistance to the people if the war does happen by cooperation with UN organizations.
3) Setting up safe places for refugees.
I am asking here for your help to our people, to stop the Ethnic Clean Sign of the Ahwazi Arabs people by the Iranian regime in order to avert a human disaster. I am also asking here for your immediate help to work on the release of political prisoners. Enclosed are some documents for your reference.
Thank you, in advance, for your prompt attention to our requests.
Ali Naseri
Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz
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Saturday, May 27, 2006
Following is an article written by AMW chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi and published in the March/April 2006 issue of British-Arab magazine Sharq.
A young Iranian Arab, released from jail, spoke in January of the abuse he experienced and witnessed at the hands of Iranian guards after his arrest during demonstrations in Ahwaz City in November 2005.
Yes, you read it right. Iran’s indigenous Arabs are one of our best-kept secrets, so well kept that many, if not most of us, do not know they exist. Just try finding any information about them on the Arab League website.
Nonetheless, due to current internal and external factors, we may be hearing a lot more about them in the near future.
It is difficult to accurately know how many there are because Iran does not release official ethnic statistics, but estimates reach as high as 5 million, larger than the populations of almost half the Arab states. There are an estimated 3,000 in Britain.
Perhaps the most prominent contemporary Iranian Arab, and certainly the highest-ranking in government, is Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani, who also served in the previous administration.
Ahwazi Arabs, as they are also called, are mostly located in the south-western province of Khuzestan, where they form the majority of the population. Fertile and water-rich in a mostly arid region, it was an autonomous Arab emirate protected by Britain and known asArabistan or Al Ahwaz until it was over-run by Iranian forces in 1925.
Bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf, it is perhaps the most strategically and economically important of Iran’s 30 provinces, as it contains up to 90% of the country’s oil reserves and 10% of the output of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
For the same reason, it is also potentially the country’s Achilles heel. Some analysts speculate that, were the US and UK to attack Iran over its alleged nuclear ambitions or plan to shift its petrodollars into a euro-based bourse – with potentially disastrous effects for the US economy – they could strike a knock-out blow by capturing the province.
“With control of the oil of Khuzestan and Iraq and, by proxy, Saudi Arabia, the US will have what [former US President] Richard Nixon called ‘the greatest prize of all’,” says award-winning journalist John Pilger, who believes that “an American attack on Iran…is very real and probably imminent.”
Iran blames Britain for a string of bomb blasts in Khuzestan since last year, and for fomenting unrest among its ethnic Arabs. Britain denies this, but the claims have nevertheless aroused fears among Iraqis, particularly the Shia majority, that their occupied country could be used as a staging ground against their Shia neighbour.
Khuzestan is also integral to the sabre-rattling between Iran and the West concerning the nuclear issue. In December 2005, Iran announced it was planning its second nuclear reactor to be built in the province, raising serious concerns among the population there due to the earthquake-prone nature of the region.
“The government claims that a nuclear power station in Khuzestan is essential to achieve its goal of meeting electricity demand with nuclear power supply, yet Khuzestan is one of the most oil-rich places on the planet,” says Nasser Bani-Assad, spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society, fearing that the province “could witness a Chernobyl-scale disaster.”
If a military strategy is being contemplated by the US and UK, they would be advised to learn from the experience of Saddam Hussein, whose country has periodically laid claim to the province – in 1969, Iraq’s deputy prime minister declared that the “dispute with Iran is in connection with Arabistan, which is part of Iraq’s soil.”
In 1980 Saddam invaded Khuzestan to capture it, initiating the Iran-Iraq war. He had counted on support from the Ahwazi Arabs, but they put up staunch resistance against the invasion, which was ultimately repelled. As a result, the province took the brunt of the devastation from the eight-year war.
Having said that, resentment among Ahwazi Arabs over their maltreatment in Iran, despite their also being predominantly Shia, has increased over the decades, and particularly since last year.
“Historically they have been marginalised and discriminated against, for instance being denied the right to an education in their own language,” Amnesty International said in a December 2005 report. In October that year, the organisation said this “has fed civil unrest…and an atmosphere of anger and mistrust.”
From the moment Iran captured Arabistan, it embarked on a campaign to forcibly settle nomadic Arab tribes and ‘Persianise’ the province, which is the only one not to be named after its ethnic population, unlike Kurdistan, Azerbaijan and Balochistan.
It is forbidden to publish local newspapers in Arabic, the province’s authorities – including the mayor – are not Arab, and Arab opposition parties are illegal.
Nevertheless, there are political parties and solidarity groups in exile such as the BAFS, the US- and UK-based Democratic Solidarity Party of Al Ahwaz, the London-based Al Ahwaz Arab Peoples Democratic Popular Front, the Netherlands-based Ahwaz Liberation Organisation, the Ahwaz Studies Center and the Ahwaz Human Rights Group.
To this day, the province is struggling to repair the extensive damage done by the Iran-Iraq war, with little support from the central government. “After the end of the war, the government didn’t carry out reconstruction in Khuzestan as it did in other provinces,” a high-ranking Iranian Arab official told the Asia Times last April.
Surveys suggest that around 50% of Ahwazi Arabs live in absolute poverty and 80% of their children suffer malnutrition, while illiteracy and unemployment levels are well above the national average. Arabs say this is due to discrimination in getting jobs, education and healthcare. This has caused particular resentment because they do not benefit from the province’s wealth.
Iran’s government has consistently refused to allocate just 1.5% of oil revenues to Khuzestan, as demanded by the province’s representatives in the Majlis [parliament]. “Khuzestan has provided 100% of its oil production and revenue to Tehran,” says representative Abdullah Kaabi. “Is allocating 1-2% of its own oil back to its inhabitants too much?”
In an official visit to Khuzestan in July 2005, UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari said: “In deprived neighbourhoods you can actually see the towers of the oil refineries and the flares and all of that money, which is a lot, and it’s going out of the province. Even a small percentage would significantly improve things in terms of development.”
In December last year, MPs from Khuzestan signed a petition protesting government plans to divert water from the Karoon River, an important source of water for farmers there. “The Iranian government has responded with indifference and hostility,” says Bani-Assad, adding that it “would have a catastrophic effect on the Ahwazi Arabs’ economic security and the ecology of their homeland.”
BAFS Chairman Daniel Brett points to “an aggressive policy of land confiscation, forced migration and a long-term programme of permanently eliminating Arab influences from Khuzestan,” comparing the situation there to apartheid South Africa. “Ahwazi Arabs are among the world’s most disadvantaged and persecuted ethnic groups.”
In September 2004, the homes of 4,000 Arab residents of Sepidar district were destroyed and bulldozed, “an action almost universally ignored in the West, in contrast to the furore that rightly surrounded [President Robert] Mugabe’s adoption of a similar policy in Zimbabwe,” says Brett. Simultaneously, he adds, the government began a large housing project to resettle ethnic Persians from northeastern provinces to Khuzestan.
He also says up to 500,000 Arabs could be displaced by the construction of the Arvand Free Zone, a military-industrial complex along the Khuzestan-Basra border.
The situation boiled over last year. The ‘April intifada [uprising]’ saw demonstrations in several of the province’s cities. Some estimates put the death toll at over 160, including children and a pregnant woman, with hundreds injured and thousands arrested, many imprisoned to this day.
An Amnesty report that month referred to Iranian forces reportedly cutting water supplies, sealing Ahwaz City and operating a ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy, “excessive use of force, unlawful killing and possibly…extra-judicial executions of protesters,” and “alleged violations of human rights.”
The organisation called on Iranian authorities “to abide by international standards of conduct of law enforcement and, in particular, to respect and protect the right to life, freedom from torture and ill-treatment and freedom from arbitrary arrest.”
Addressing the European Parliament, Commissioner Jan Figel, speaking on behalf of Benita Ferrero-Waldner (European commissioner for external relations), expressed “deep concern” at the “excessive use of force to suppress unrest” in Khuzestan.
There was even disquiet within Iran’s parliament. A petition signed by 180 MPs was sent to then-President Mohammad Khatami, condemning the anti-Arab crackdown and discrimination that led to the unrest.
The ‘April intifada’ was followed by a series of car bombings, and further clashes in November between Arabs and Iranian police.
Brett says the situation of Ahwazi Arabs has become “perceptibly worse” since the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in June 2005, despite his stated desire to improve relations with Arab states. Sharq was unable to get a response from Iran’s embassy in London, despite three attempts.
The continuing deterioration is perhaps because the Arab world has failed to take up their cause and, according to Brett, “their plight goes unaddressed in the West…their voice is silenced,” and “the international response…has been weak.”
He adds that human-rights reports “have been ignored by legislators, who have placed emphasis on ‘normalising’ relations with Iran. No Ahwazi is calling for a foreign invasion, but they do have a right to the same kind of solidarity extended to the Palestinians.”
He says there is “no British interest” in the Ahwazi issue, and the failure of politicians here to take it up “is a sign of moral and political weakness that can only strengthen the hand of the opponents of democracy and progress in the Middle East.”
In words reminiscent of Ahmadinejad’s now-infamous statement on Israel, Brett says: “If the Iranian regime is to be prevented from driving the Ahwazi people literally off the map, then it’s vital that their predicament be placed firmly on the ‘political map’ here in the West.” The same should be true in the Arab world.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
just as the modern Egyptian consider Ancient Egypt part of their hisorical heritage so the Arabs of Ahwaz consider the Elamite civilisation as part of
their historical heritage
Choga Zanbil
According to Mesopotamian texts the Eastern part of their land - Elam - was occupied by a people called the Elamites. Indigenous to the country, and speaking a language still not well understood to this day. Ahwaz (Khuzestan) was the center of their loosely organized federation of states which stretched north into Lurestan, south to Fars and as far as Bushehr on the Gulf.
Susawas always the pride and joy of the Elamites a city that stood for 5000 years until totally sacked and raised to the ground by the Mongols in the 13th Century AD, maybe a reason why we have to refer to the Mesopotamian texts for the history of Elam.
The Elamites' mountainous land gave them wood, marble, alabaster, lapis lazuli, metal ores, precious stones all of which were sought by the Mesopotamians who were rich agriculturally but short on raw materials. Susa soon became a trading center with routes stretching as far as Sistan, Balouchestan, Afghanistan and India.....
Elamite history can be divided into three main phases: the Old, Middle, and Late, or Neo-Elamite, periods. In all periods Elam was closely involved with Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria.
Old Elamite Period
The earliest kings in the Old Elamite period may date to approximately 2700 BCE. Already conflict with Mesopotamia, in this case apparently with the city of Ur, was characteristic of Elamite history. These early rulers were succeeded by the Awan (Shustar) dynasty.
The 11th king of this line entered into treaty relations with the great Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2254 - c. 2218 BCE). Yet there soon appeared a new ruling house, the Simash dynasty (Simash may have been in the mountains of southern Luristan). The outstanding event of this period was the virtual conquest of Elam by Shulgi of the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2094 - c. 2047 BCE). Eventually the Elamites rose in rebellion and overthrew the 3rd Ur dynasty, an event long remembered in Mesopotamian dirges and omen texts. About the middle of the 19th century BCE, power in Elam passed to a new dynasty, that of Eparti. The third king of this line, Shirukdukh, was active in various military coalitions against the rising power of Babylon, but Hammurabi (c. 1792 - c. 1750 BCE) was not to be denied, and Elam was crushed in 1764 BCE. The Old Babylon kingdom, however, fell into rapid decline following the death of Hammurabi, and it was not long before the Elamites were able to gain revenge. Kutir-Nahhunte I attacked Samsuiluna (c. 1749 - c. 1712 BCE), Hammurabi's son, and dealt so serious a defeat to the Babylonians that the event was remembered more than 1,000 years later in an inscription of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. It may be assumed that with this stroke Elam once again gained independence. The end of the Eparti dynasty, which may have come in the late 16th century BCE, is buried in silence.
Middle Elamite Period
After two centuries for which sources reveal nothing, the Middle Elamite period opened with the rise to power of the Anzanite dynasty, whose homeland probably lay in the mountains northeast of Khuzestan. Political expansion under Khumbannumena (c. 1285 - c. 1266 BCE), the fourth king of this line, proceeded apace, and his successes were commemorated by his assumption of the title "Expander of the Empire." He was succeeded by his son, Untash-Gal (Untash (d) Gal, or Untash-Huban), a contemporary of Shalmaneser I of Assyria (c. 1274 - c. 1245 BCE) and the founder of the city of Dur Untash (modern Chogha Zanbil).
In the years immediately following Untash-Gal, Elam increasingly found itself in real or potential conflict with the rising power of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria (c. 1244 - c. 1208 BCE) campaigned in the mountains north of Elam. The Elamites under Kidin-Khutran, second king after Untash-Gal, countered with a successful and devastating raid on Babylonia.
In the end, however, Assyrian power seems to have been too great. Tukulti-Ninurta managed to expand, for a brief time, Assyrian control well to the south in Mesopotamia, Kidin-Khutran faded into obscurity, and the Anzanite dynasty came to an end.
After a short period of dynastic troubles, the second half of the Middle
Elamite period opened with the reign of Shutruk-Nahhunte (c. 1160 BCE). Two equally powerful and two rather less impressive kings followed this founder of a new dynasty, whose home was probably Susa, and in this period Elam became one of the great military powers of the Middle East. Tukulti-Ninurta died about 1208 BC, and Assyria fell into a period of internal weakness and dynastic conflict. Elam was quick to take advantage of this situation by campaigning extensively in the Diyala River area and into the very heart of Mesopotamia. Shutruk-Nahhunte captured Babylon and carried off to Susa the stela on which was inscribed the famous law code of Hammurabi. Shilkhak-In-Shushinak, brother and successor of Shutruk-Nahhunte's eldest son, Kutir-Nahhunte, still anxious to take advantage of Assyrian weakness, campaigned as far north as the area of modern Kirkuk. In Babylonia, however, the 2nd dynasty of Isin led a native revolt against such control as the Elamites had been able to exercise there, and Elamite power in central Mesopotamia was eventually broken. The Elamite military empire began to shrink rapidly. Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylon (c. 1124 - c. 1103 BCE) attacked Elam and was just barely beaten off. A second Babylonian attack succeeded, however, and the whole of Elam was apparently overrun, ending the Middle Elamite period.
It is noteworthy that during the Middle Elamite period the old system of succession to, and distribution of, power appears to have broken down. Increasingly, son succeeded father, and less is heard of divided authority within a federated system. This probably reflects an effort to increase the central authority at Susa in order to conduct effective military campaigns abroad and to hold Elamite foreign conquests. The old system of regionalism balanced with federalism must have suffered, and the fraternal, sectional strife that so weakened Elam in the Neo-Elamite period may have had its roots in the centrifugal developments of the 13th and 12th centuries BCE.
Neo-Elamite Period
A long period of darkness separates the Middle and Neo-Elamite periods. In 742 BCE a certain Huban-nugash is mentioned as king in Elam. The land appears to have been divided into separate principalities, with the central power fairly weak.
The next 100 years witnessed the constant attempts of the Elamites to interfere in Mesopotamian affairs, usually in alliance with Babylon, against the constant pressure of Neo-Assyrian expansion. At times they were successful with this policy, both militarily and diplomatically, but on the whole they were forced to give way to increasing Assyrian power. Local Elamite dynastic troubles were from time to time compounded by both Assyrian and Babylonian interference. Meanwhile, the Assyrian army whittled away at Elamite power and influence in Luristan. In time these internal and external pressures resulted in the near total collapse of any meaningful central authority in Elam. In a series of campaigns between 692 and 639 BCE, in an effort to clean up a political and diplomatic mess that had become a chronic headache for the Assyrians, Ashurbanipal's armies utterly destroyed Susa, pulling down buildings, looting, and sowing the land of Elam with salt.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 13/053/2006 (Public)
19 May 2006
Iran:
Last executor of child offenders: Amnesty International condemns the first reported execution of a child offender in 2006
In the wake of the first reported execution of a child offender in 2006, Amnesty International expressed its dismay that Iran should be the only country that currently executes child offenders- those under the age of 18 at the time of their offence.
Amnesty International said that the world is in complete agreement that the execution of a person for a crime committed when they were under 18 years of age is unacceptable. During the last decade, the judicial killing of children has all but stopped. Only a handful of countries now threaten to carry out such executions and in 2005 Iran was the only country to do so after it lost its main ally on this issue: the United States of America.
By carrying out the execution of a child offender, Iran is in violation of international law and its obligations under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
The organization expressed its deep concern for the many other child offenders reported to be under sentence of death in Iran, and called on the Iranian government to take immediate steps to prohibit capital punishment for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age, and stop executing child offenders.
On 13 May 2006, an unnamed 17-year old male and an unnamed 20-year old male were executed by hanging in Khorramabad, the capital of Lorestan province. According to reports, they were sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 12-year old boy, and were tried in an extraordinary session.
This is the first known execution of a child offender in 2006. In 2005 Amnesty International recorded eight executions of child offenders in Iran, including 2 who were under the age of 18 at the time of their execution. The execution is particularly alarming in light of reports that many other child offenders have been sentenced to death in Iran, and are awaiting execution.
· 18-year old Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi (f) was sentenced to death after she reportedly admitted stabbing to death one of three men who attempted to rape her and her niece in a park in Karaj in March 2005. She was 17 at the time. During her trial, she reportedly told the court “I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help”.
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Ne'mat, a 17-year-old boy, is facing imminent execution for murder. He was sentenced to death by a Criminal Court in Esfahan, after he confessed to killing his sister's husband in a fight. In April 2006 it was reported that his sentence had been upheld by the Supreme Court
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At the beginning of January 2006 the Supreme Court rejected the appeal of 19-year-old Delara Darabi (f), who was sentenced to death by a court in the city of Rasht for a murder committed when she was 17. Delara Darabi initially confessed to the murder, but subsequently retracted her confession. She stated that she had admitted responsibility for the murder at the request of her 19-year old co-accused, to help him escape execution, because he mistakenly believed that she could not be sentenced to death as she was under 18 at the time.
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In March 2006, 18-year-old Mehdi (m) was reportedly sentenced to death for killing a man in Robat Karim, Tehran Province, about two years previously, when he was aged either 16 or 17. His brother was imprisoned for his involvement in the killing.
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Mohammad Mousavi (m) aged 18, was sentenced to death for a murder allegedly committed when he was 16. The sentence has been upheld by the Supreme Court and it is feared that he is at risk of imminent execution.
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Hamid Reza (m) is reported to be at risk of execution for a murder allegedly committed when he was 14 years old.
Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities of governments to bring to justice those suspected of committing recognizably criminal offences, but the organization is unconditionally opposed to the use of the death penalty as the ultimate violation of the right to life.
For approximately four years, it has been reported that the Iranian authorities have been considering passing legislation to ban the imposition of the death penalty for offences committed by persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crime. However, comments by a judiciary spokesperson suggest that the new law would in any case only prohibit the death penalty for certain crimes when committed by children. He stated that “qisas” crimes (crimes which carry a sentence of ‘retribution’, for example murder) were a private, not a state matter.
In its Concluding Observations to Iran’s second periodic report to the Committee of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in January 2005, the Committee noted that the Iranian delegation had stated, in the course of the public consideration of Iran's report, that Iran had suspended executions of persons who had committed crimes before the age of 18.
It is time for the Iranian government to live up to its promises. The first known execution of a child offender in 2006 underlines the urgent necessity that the government impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and pass without delay legislation that prohibits the execution of child offenders.
Friday, May 19, 2006
 The administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come under severe criticism from Amnesty International in a report entitled "New government fails to address dire human rights situation", which was published this week.
Amnesty focusses on the treatment of ethnic minorities, particularly the Ahwazi Arabs, Kurds and Azeri Turks, but notes that Balochis, Turkmen and nomads also face persecution.
Sections of the report relating to Ahwazi Arabs have been reproduced below.Click here for the full report.
Despite constitutional guarantees of equality, individuals belonging to minorities in Iran, who are believed to number about half of the population of about 70 millions, are subject to an array of discriminatory laws and practices. These include land and property confiscations, denial of state and para-statal employment under the gozinesh criteria and restrictions on social, cultural, linguistic and religious freedoms which often result in other human rights violations such as the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience, grossly unfair trials of political prisoners before Revolutionary Courts, corporal punishment and use of the death penalty, as well as restrictions on movement and denial of other civil rights.
Some of the problems currently confronting Iran's minority groups were brought to international attention by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, when he visited the country in July 2005. In his preliminary findings he noted that minorities were subject to discrimination in the distribution of state resources, in access to and the quality of housing, water and sanitation provided in the areas of the country where they reside, and are disproportionately affected by policies of "land grabbing".
The mainly Shi'a-Muslim Arab community in Iran constitutes between 3 per cent and 8 per cent of the total population. The Arab community lives mainly in Khuzestan province (known as Ahwaz by the Arab community) adjoining Iraq, the location of much of Iran's oil resources. Members of Iran's Arab community have a long-standing grievance against successive governments, claiming that Arabs have been overlooked in terms of the distribution of resources aimed at social development. Frustration and economic deprivation has spilled over in recent months into a cycle of violent protest and repression which seems likely to continue unless the Iranian authorities take the measures necessary to address the social, economic and other grievances that gave rise to the unrest.
Economic, social and cultural rights: The Arab population of Iran is one of the most economically and socially deprived in Iran. Even where the majority of the local population is Arab, schools are reportedly not allowed to teach through the medium of Arabic; illiteracy rates are reportedly high, especially among Ahwazi Arab women in rural areas. Arabs have also reportedly been denied state employment under the gozinesh criteria. Many villages and settlements reportedly have little or no access to clean running water, sanitation or other utilities such as electricity.
Amnesty International has received reports that the water supply in Ahwaz City is subject to frequent and irregular cuts, apparently resulting from the diversion of water from the Karoun River to cities such as Esfahan and Sanandaj. In December 2005, the situation was reportedly so dire that people were unable to shower more than once a week, and were being forced to buy drinking water from tankers in the street. Also in December 2005, members of the Majles representing Khuzestan province reportedly launched a petition to impeach the Minister of Energy over the continued diversion of water from the Karoun River to Rafsanjan and Esfahan provinces and in January 2006 reportedly threatened to resign en masse if the diversion continued. It has also been reported that, despite the province's water shortages, water from the Karkhe River, which passes through the Ahwazi Arab area of Howizeh and Boustan, is diverted for sale to Kuwait.
Furthermore, land expropriation by the Iranian authorities is reportedly so widespread that it appears to amount to a policy aimed at dispossessing Arabs of their traditional lands. This is apparently part of a strategy aimed at the forcible relocation of Arabs to other areas while facilitating the transfer of non-Arabs into Khuzestan and is linked to economic policies such as zero interest loans which are not available to local Arabs.
In October 2005, a letter came to light, dated 9 July 2005, in which the Arvand Free Trade Zone Organization outlined plans for the confiscation of 155 sq km, including Arab land and villages, to provide for the establishment of the Arvand Free Trade Zone between Abadan and the Iraqi border. All those living within this area will have their land confiscated. Under Iranian law, no challenge can be made to the confiscation, only to the amount of compensation offered, which in other schemes is reported to have been as little as one fortieth of the market value.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing said in an interview following his visit to Iran in July 2005:
... when you visit Ahwaz ... there are thousands of people living with open sewers, no sanitation, no regular access to water, electricity and no gas connections ... why is that? Why have certain groups not benefited? ... Again in Khuzestan, ... we drove outside the city about 20 km and we visited the areas where large development projects are coming up - sugar cane plantations and other projects along the river - and the estimate we received is that between 200,000 - 250,000 Arab people are being displaced from their villages because of these projects. And the question that comes up in my mind is, why is it that these projects are placed directly on the lands that have been homes for these people for generations? I asked the officials, I asked the people we were with. And there is other land in Khuzestan where projects could have been placed which would have minimised the displacement.
He also referred to attempts by the government to transfer non-Arabs into the area, as in the case of Shirinshah, a new town mainly populated by non-Arab inhabitants from Yazd province, and highlighted the discrepancy between the wealth generated from the oil resources of Khuzestan and the very deprived Arab neighbourhoods he saw.
Use of force: Since President Ahmadinejad's election, several people have been killed and scores injured by security forces possibly using excessive force, in the context of ongoing violent unrest in Khuzestan Province. This began in April 2005 and has included bomb explosions in Ahwaz city in October 2005 and January 2006 which killed at least 12 people and injured hundreds, and attacks on the economically important oil installations in September and October 2005. The Iranian authorities have accused the United Kingdom (UK) government of involvement in the blasts, which the UK has denied.
In mid-September 2005, Iranian security forces were reported to have used live ammunition, tear gas and beatings with batons to suppress stone-throwing demonstrators. At least two people were reported killed and many injured. The authorities were later reported to have cut off the water supplies to some villages of the al-Bughobeysh tribe, possibly in reprisal for the inhabitants having participated in the demonstrations.
On 4 November 2005, Id al-Fitr, possibly partly in protest at earlier arrests (see below), several hundred Arab Iranian demonstrators began marching towards the centre of Ahwaz city, where they met Iranian security forces. Scuffles may have broken out. Iranian security forces reportedly fired tear gas grenades at the crowd. Two Arab youths affected by the tear gas, which is said to have caused a temporary paralysis, reportedly drowned after falling into the Karoun River. Scores, if not hundreds, of demonstrators were arrested. Amnesty International wrote to the Iranian authorities urging that these deaths be investigated, and asking for clarification of the rules governing the use of force and firearms by Iranian law enforcement officials and whether in this instance there were attempts made to disperse the crowd by non-violent means and whether the crowd was warned before tear-gas was used. By early February 2006, no reply had been received.
At least three men were reported killed, and around 40 injured, on 11 and 12 January 2006 in clashes in Khuzestan between Iranian security forces and members of the Arab Ahwazi community. The clashes followed an initially peaceful demonstration on ‘Id al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice. The demonstrators were reportedly demanding an end to Arab persecution, poverty and unemployment, and the release of political prisoners arrested since April 2005.
Detention: Hundreds of Arabs have been arrested since President Ahmadinejad's election and many are feared to have been tortured or ill-treated. The prisons in Khuzestan province, and particularly the capital Ahwaz, are reported to be extremely overcrowded as a result of the large numbers of arrests. One ex-detainee is said to have estimated that during his time in detention, there may have been over 3,000 prisoners held in Karoun Prison, reportedly designed to accommodate about 800 and that the cells were so crowded that detainees were forced to sleep in shifts, as there was insufficient space for them all to lie down at once. This degree of over-crowding reportedly led to extremely unsanitary conditions. Children as young as 12 are reported to have been detained with adult prisoners. Some of those detained are believed to have been sentenced to imprisonment or death after grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts.
Of those reported detained since the election of President Ahmadinejad, Amnesty International has received the names of over 250. Some illustrative cases are outlined below.
In August, Hajj Salem Bawi, an Arab tribal leader and businessman, his five sons, nephew and two other members of his extended family were detained. Hajj Salem Bawi was later released, but two of his sons, Imad and Zamel, were reportedly sentenced to death in October 2005. The precise charges of which they were convicted are not known to Amnesty International. Hajj Salem Bawi reported after his release that he had met three of his sons in Amaniya prison in Ahwaz city and could see that they had been ill-treated or tortured in detention. By December 2005, none of those still held were known to have had access to lawyers or their families.
Hamid Gate'Pour, the manager of education in Area 2 of Ahwaz city, was arrested on or around 15 September 2005 in Area 2 of Ahwaz city. Mohammad Hezbawi, the editor of Hamsaye, a regional newspaper, was arrested on 18 September 2005, possibly in connection with an article he had published about the arrest of Hamid Gate'pour, and released after several days.
At least 81 people were arrested on 3 November 2005 during the week preceding the end of Ramadan, Id al-Fitr, whilst attending an Arab cultural gathering called Mahabis which traditionally takes place during the iftar (breaking of the fast). Those arrested included Zahra Nasser-Torfi, director of the Ahwaz al-Amjad cultural centre who was reportedly tortured in detention; Hamid Haydari, a poet; and six members of the same family: Mohammad Mojadam, Hamid Mojadam, Mehdi Mojadam, Rasoul Mojadam, Khaled Bani-Saleh and Hassan Naisi. On 14 November 2005 a number of those people were reportedly released on bail to await trial, including Zahra Nasser-Torfi.
Scores of people, including at least three children, were arrested on 11 January 2006 following clashes with security forces following an initially peaceful demonstration (see above), led by Sheikh Saleh al-Haydari, the Imam (prayer leader) of Da'ira mosque in Ahwaz. He was among those detained and reportedly began a hunger strike on 25 January 2006 to protest at his detention. The next day, 12 January 2006, scores more were detained in the city of Hamidiya, after a demonstration against the arrests which had taken place the previous day.
Amnesty International is concerned about the violation of economic, social and cultural rights of persons belonging to minorities in Iran. Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as well as to the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) which require the immediate prohibition, and steps towards the elimination of discrimination against minorities, in the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights to free choice of employment, to housing, to education, to equal participation in cultural activities and to social services. Reports of huge disparities between minority communities and majority groups in literacy, access to education, basic services such as adequate water supplies, sanitation and electricity, as well as reports of "land grabbing" which appears to target minority communities, all suggest that Iran is failing to comply with these international obligations.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated in paragraph 14 its concluding observations in 2004: "The Committee takes note with concern of the reported discrimination faced by certain minorities, including the Baha'is, who are deprived of certain rights, and that certain provisions of the State party's legislation appear to be discriminatory on both ethnic and religious grounds.
The Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights has stated in relation to Article 11(1) of the ICESCR, which provides the right to adequate housing, that forced evictions from a place of habitual residence without consultation, due process or assurance of adequate alternative accommodation are prohibited. The Human Rights Committee (HRC), has stated in relation to Article 12(3) of the ICCPR: "the right to reside in a place of one's choice within the territory includes protection against all forms of forced internal displacement It also precludes preventing the entry or stay of persons in a defined part of the territory."
Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian government to take urgent, concrete measures to address the longstanding pattern of human rights violations and to ensure that all the fundamental human rights of all persons in Iran are protected irrespective of their gender, ethnicity, religious faith or other such defining characteristics. In particular, Amnesty International urges the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take the following steps:
- End any policy of deliberate land expropriation or population transfer aimed at dispossessing minority populations from their traditional lands;
- Cease any practice of forced evictions: that is evicting people from land or housing without consultation, due process of law, and assurances of adequate alternative accommodation;
- Cease forced internal displacement linked to forced evictions and "land grabbing";
- Take immediate steps towards the elimination of de facto discrimination in the exercise of economic, social and cultural rights such as rights to education, adequate housing, water and sanitation as well as in access to utilities such as electricity adopting special measures, such as multilingual education, as necessary.
Friday, May 19, 2006
TAWA (AFP) - The Canadian and Australian prime ministers expressed concern at unconfirmed reports that said Iran may force non-Muslims to wear colored badges in public so they can be identified.
Friday, citing human rights groups, that Iran's parliament passed a law this week that sets a public dress code and requires non-Muslims to wear a special insignia.
Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes, according to the newspaper.
"Anything of that kind would be totally repugnant to civilized countries, if it's the case, and something that would just further indicate to me the nature of this regime," Australia's Prime Minister John Howard told reporters during an official visit to Ottawa.
"It would be appalling," he added.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he had "only seen reports" about the law but commented he would not be surprised by them.
"Unfortunately, we have seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action," he said.
"It think it boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany," he added.
"The fact that such a measure could even be contemplated, I think, is absolutely abhorent."
Earlier, Harper's parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, told the House of Commons that Canadian officials were trying to verify the claims and said Ottawa is "deeply concerned".
"Should these reports turn out to be true, this government will condemn in the strongest terms possible this kind of revisiting of the darkest period of the last century. It is something that the entire civilized world should condemn," Kenney said.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
By Ali Hussein,
Ya Libnan Volunteer
Beirut & Ahwaz - According to The British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS) more Ahwazi Arabs have been arrested in Syria, including the leader of the Al-Ahwaz Liberation Organization, and at least one Ahwazi political refugee has been deported to Iran.
 ALO leader Faleh Abdullah al Mansouri (60) has lived in exile in Maastricht in the Netherlands since 1989 and is believed to have Dutch nationality. He was arrested along with a colleague from his party, Abdulrasoul Ali Mazraeh (51), who is registered with the UNHCR as a refugee and lives with his six children in Damascus.
Saeed Owdeh Saki, also registered with the The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as a refugee, has also been arrested and BAFS has received reports that he has been deported to Iran where his life is in danger.
Al-Mansouri, Mazraeh and Saki are among eight Ahwazi men known to have been detained by the Syrian authorities. The others five according to Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization ( UNPO) are:
Mousa Sawari - Student at Damascus University, 32 years old, single
Issa Alyassin - Student at Damascus University, 30 years old, married
Gamal Obaidy - Student at Damascus University, 34 years old, single, Chair of Ahwazi Student Union in Syria
Ahmad Abiat - Student at Damascus University, 20 years old, single
Taher Ali Mazraeh - Married, 40 years old and brother of Abdulrasoul Ali Mazraeh
The ALO was formed in 1990 by a number of Ahwazi Arab organisations campaigning for a separate state of Al-Ahwaz. The ALO's Ahwaz Revolutionary Council (ARC) regards itself as the Ahwazi government in exile with Al-Mansouri as its President, although there are many Ahwazi groups that do not accept the ARC's assumed leadership of the Ahwazi movement.
BAFS and its allied groups, including the Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz, do not recognize Al-Mansouri's leadership, but are concerned for his welfare and the welfare of other Ahwazis currently in Syrian custody. BAFS activists are appealing to the Syrian embassy in London to explain the charges against all those detained in the past week and are calling on the Syrian government to respect the Geneva Refugee Convention and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. If Al-Mansouri has EU citizenship, any attempt to deport him to Iran could have a negative impact on Iran-EU relations.
Saki's deportation could pave the way for further deportations of Ahwazi Arabs from Syria, which has for many years been regarded as a sanctuary for Ahwazis fleeing persecution in Iran. Ahwazi refugees in Middle Eastern countries are facing increased insecurity as Iran seeks to stamp out all opposition to its regime, both inside and outside the country. Iranian agents are known to have assassinated an Ahwazi opposition leader Ra'ad De'ayer Al-Bestan Banitorfi in Iraq's Basra province. Refugees in Kuwait and the UAE have also received death threats and are now in the process of being relocated. The Iranian government now appears to be expanding its state terror tactics against opposition activists outside Iran.
Many Ahwazi activists in the UK now fear that Iran may try to carry out assassinations in Europe in an attempt to halt the growing Ahwazi Arab uprising in Iran. Some Austrian politicians have accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of involvement in the assassination of Iranian Kurdish leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou and two of his associates in Vienna in 1989 during peace negotiations with the Iranian government. At the time, Ahmadinejad was an engineer serving with a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards specializing in extra-territorial activities; some organizations claim he gave logistical support to the assassination campaign in Austria. Now he is President, many fear he is seeking to step up violence against exiled dissidents.
Deportations from Syria and the assassination in Iraq, along with reports that Ahwazi Arab refugees are being expelled by the Iranian-influenced Iraqi government, indicate that the Iranian regime is prepared to export the kind of terror tactics it has used against Ahwazi Arabs in their homeland in Khuzestan.
BAFS spokesman Nasser Bani Assad said: "The Syrian authorities need to explain why they are suddenly arresting Ahwazi Arabs who have been resident in Syria for many years and are legally recognized as refugees. Due to Saki's deportation, it appears that the Ahwazis are being detained on the request of the Iranian government rather than any allegation that they have broken Syrian law.
"If the Ahwazis are being charged with any crime committed in Syria, then we request the Syrian authorities to ensure the accused are guaranteed a free, fair and transparent trial that meets international standards. If they are not being held in connection with any alleged crime, then they should be released immediately.
"We would like to remind the Syrian and Iraqi governments that any assassination or kidnap of residents and citizens of other countries is illegal and in our view constitutes an act of terrorism. Syria's deportation of Saki, who has not to our knowledge broken any Syrian law, indicates that the Syrian government is a participant in Iran's terror tactics against Ahwazis.
"If this is all about creating a good impression with the Iranian regime, then Syria is playing a dangerous game. Al-Mansouri's detention could prompt interest in the arrests by EU officials as he is a permanent Dutch resident and possibly a EU citizen. If he is not released, then Syria's involvement with Iran's repression of Ahwazi groups will come under scrutiny by the Dutch government and the European Commission.
"It remains to be seen whether Syria is willing to heighten diplomatic tensions with the EU over the Ahwazi issue at a time when President Bashar al-Assad is facing mounting pressure over the assassination of former Lebanon's prime minister Rafik Hariri."
Not a Drop of water to Drink in Ahwaz
According to Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization ( UNPO) "A documentary about the Karoon River has highlighted one of the Middle East's most serious environmental problems, which has developed into a major crisis as a result of neglect by the Iranian government and is threatening the lives of thousands of Ahwazi Arabs".
"The Karoon River runs through the predominantly Arab city of Ahwaz City in the south-west Iranian province of Khuzestan (Al-Ahwaz), providing an important source of irrigation and drinking water. However, the failure to treat raw industrial and human waste being pumped into the has created a hazardous environment".
"Disruptions to water supplies force many Ahwazis to rely on contaminated water from the Karoon, which contains high levels of human sewage and industrial pollutants. Fishermen are reporting outbreaks of disease in fish and a sharp decline in fish numbers, indicating that Iran's mismanagement of water resources has devastated river life."
Ahwazi Arabs
Ahwaz , Ahvaz or Naseriyah ( as known by the Arabs) , is the capital of Khuzestan, one of 30 provinces of Iran. It lies in the southwest of Iran and is its oil Capital. The people of this province are bilingual…they speak both Arabic and Persian.
The Arab people of Ahwaz are referred to as Ahwazi. They are proud Arabs and they agitate for the right to preserve their cultural and linguistic distinction and more provincial autonomy but instead they have been facing discrimination by Iran for a long time. In 1980 , Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein tried to exploit the situation when he invaded Iran, but the Ahwazi Arabs did not support him. They want to be an independent state but not part of Iraq.
Khuzestan area produces about 80 % of Iran's oil.
Arabs call the province of Khuzestan Arabestan or Arabstan. Even though most speak Arabic , the majority cannot write or read Arabic, because the Iranian government refuses to recognize Arabic as another language in Iran, and does not allow the schools to teach the Arabic language.
I recall a very sad incident in Ahwaz. During one of my trips, I met by accident one prominent Arab Ahwazi and found out later that he is a poet. Unfortunately I discovered later that none of his poetry was ever documented , because he could not write or read Arabic. He was so happy when I was able to write down one of his poems as he recited it. The poem was about Gamal Abd el Nasser and only a true Arab could have ever written such an emotional poem about an Arab leader .
During the Iraqi / Iranian war only Syria of all the Arab countries supported Iran. As we see now Syria again is siding with Iran against the Arabs of Ahwaz.
It is about time for the Arab League to step in and support the Arabs of Iran. Arab League Secretary General should immediately call for a summit to chastise Syria for its actions against the Arabs of Ahwaz. The question is : Will he ?
Top Picture: Ahwazi Liberation Organization flag
Map of Iran. Ahwaz is northeast of Abadan
Source: Ya Libnan, UNHCR,BAFS, UNPO |
