Jan 03, 2008

Ahwazi: Appeal To High Commissioner


Ahwazi Arab appealed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, over the continued torture of Arab prisoners in Iran and the repression Ahwazi Arab face are facing.
Ahwazi Arab appealed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, over the continued torture of Arab prisoners in Iran and the repression Ahwazi Arab face are facing.

Below is an excerpt of an appeal published by British Ahwazi Friendship Society:

Dear Madam Commissioner:

After this year's Muslim Eid ul-Fitr prayer on Friday 12 October 2007, residents of the city of Hamidieh, an Arab city in the predominately Arab-populated Khuzestan (al-Ahwaz) province in Southwest Iran, staged a peaceful march against poverty, unemployment and excessive repression and persecution of Arabs. Iranian security forces attacked the demonstrators and arrested hundreds. According to the relatives of those held in custody, the Ministry of Information and Security has refused to divulge any information on their whereabouts, condition and the charges against them. Recently some of the families were told to collect the dead bodies of their family members from morgues in the barrack of Army 92nd Division. We have received reliable reports that they have died under torture. Their names are as follows:

[…]

Families who have recovered the dead bodies of those detained by the Iranian government have been ordered not to have a public burial or any other burial ceremony. Instead, they were ordered to bury the bodies in unmarked burial grounds specified by the government in a remote area called Lanat-Abad […], where animals are also buried.

Madam Commissioner: As you know, in addition to the above, in the past 12 months, at least 19 Ahwazi-Arab activists have been publicly hanged (three were executed just days after your visit to Tehran in September [2007]. Seven others, including Zamal Bawi, Faleh al-Mansouri, Said Saki, Rasoul Mazrea, Ahmad Marmazi, Hissein Asakereh and Abdolhossein Haribi, are in danger of imminent execution[1] [2].

The killing and the executions are in the context of a brutal clamp-down on Ahwazi Arabs protesting against ethnic discrimination and persecution - designed to intimidate them into submission.

Most charges against most Arab activists include requesting autonomy for Khuzestan (al-Ahwaz), converting from Shi'ism to Sunnism and being "Mohareb" or enemies of God, which carries a death sentence. Other unsubstantiated charges allege "destabilizing the country", "attempting to overthrow the government", "possession of improvised explosives", "sabotage of oil installations" and being a "threat to national security."

Although the homeland of the Ahwazi Arabs, who number five million, 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 high levels of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. Ahwazis are subjected to repression, racial discrimination and are faced with land confiscation, forced displacement and forced assimilation.

We appeal to you to condemn the latest torture and wave of execution and call upon Iranian authorities to halt the imminent execution of the others. We also request that you 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 as such as the indigenous Ahwazi Arabs and as outlined in the Iranian constitution and various international conventions to which Iran is a signatory.