Subject: Land confiscation and settling non-Baloch in Balochistan

Dear Sir/Madam,

On behalf of BPP (Balochistan People’s Party) we would like to draw your attention to the deteriorating Land confiscation situation in (Western or Irani) Balochistan where the security forces have arrested 12 people including a woman, in the suburb of Parah (Iranshahr).

In the persistence of the chauvinistic policy of changing the demographic ratio in Balochistan in order to turn Baloch into a minority in their own ancestral land, the Iranian government is destroying houses belonging to poor Baloch people and confiscating their fertile lands to distribute among the immigrants.

The confiscation of land near the city of Pahra (Iranshar) in West Balochistan in Iran, causing tension among Baloch and none Baloch mostly from Persian ethnicity that are being settled and supported by the Iranian Government.

The Iranian regime uses the immigrants in Balochistan for political purposes, causing tension between Baloch and immigrants in pursuing the policy of divide and rule. While the favoured immigrants are protected, Baloch are oppressed and discriminated in land distribution, job market and education opportunities

Baloch people are resisting these policies especially land confiscation and house demolition in different ways. In the latest event of land confiscation and distribution, due to people long standing resistance and protest, the security forces have arrested 12 people including a woman, in the suburb of Parah (Iranshahr).

The arrest of a woman angered some witnessing young men who have in response clashed with the security forces and unfortunately Mr Abbas Davari (an immigrant) following this continued tension lost his life.
Balochistan People’s Party regrets this loss of life, which is the result of the Iranian government's oppressive policies.
In order to defeat regime's divide and rule policy, it is necessary for the all ethnicities and communities to distance themselves from the chauvinistic and discriminating policies, and encourage peaceful co existence of different ethnic groups in a multicultural society.

The tyrannical policies of the government have more increasingly intensified the presence of the security forces all over the Balochistan Province since Ahmadi Nezhad came into power.

To place the Security Forces in the port City of Chahbhar in the summer of the 2005 regime destroyed thousand of poor people’s homes in an area covering many kilometres to make place for a new base and residence area for Iranian security forces without compensating or providing alternative accommodation to poor families with children, elderly men and women.

In the recent months the number of arrest and intimidation of Baloch cultural, social and religious activists by the intelligence services have sharply increased. People that have been arrested in Pahra are still in the prison and many others are under persecution.

Balochistan People’s Party is concerned for the detainee’s lives and request human Right organisations and democratic governments to pressurise Iranian government for the release of the arrested people and to stop confiscating people's agricultural and residential land, making more people homeless through destroying houses and the environment and importing immigrants to change the demographic of Baloch areas to make Baloch a minority in their ancestral land.

Dated: 30th of January 2006

Nasser Boladai
Spokesperson for Balochistan People's Party

Source: Balochistan People's Party