Ahwaz Human Rights News >>>>>

Concerns are mounting over an oil spill in the Karkeh river, which runs through traditional Ahwazi Arab lands in southwest Iran.

According to the Tehran daily newspaper Etenmad, the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaie reported that 6,000 barrels of crude have spilled into the river.

Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) quoted Rezaie in a seminar on the diversion of the Karoon River to other provinces as saying that the spillage was due to negligence. The Karkeh is Khuzestan's second largest river.

Labels: environment

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11 December, 2008

Iran Health Minister Refuses Ahwazi Water

Iran's Minister of Health refused a glass of Ahwazi water, claiming it to be unfit for human consumption.

Ministry of Health Kamran Bagheri Lankarani was visiting Ahwaz City's Jondi Shapour (medical faculty) during the Student's Day commemorations when he refused an offer of tap water from the students. According to the Salamat News Agency, he said: "We accept that the water in Khuzestan is very dirty and impure and we have reported the issue to the Ministry of Energy."

The indigenous Ahwazi Arab population has complained of poor water quality for years, but nothing has been done to improve the situation. At times, the regime has cut drinking water to villages in the region to collectively punish the restive Arab population.

Ahwazi Arabs have complained that the region's rivers are being contaminated with industrial pollution and sewerage, which is undermining both their health and their livelihoods.

Labels: environment

25 November, 2008

Ahwazi plight highlighted at EU Parliament conference

Environmental degradation and forced displacement in the Ahwazi Arab homeland is as catastrophic as the Niger Delta, said the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) at a recent human rights conference at the European Parliament in Brussels.

UNPO spokesman Andrew Swan told the conference that "the appropriation of land, spillage of oil and harmful chemicals into soil and groundwater, and air borne pollutants from gas flaring all negate the quality of life in these areas and destroy agricultural communities."

He highlighted the lack of compensation for those affected by environmental damage, which, when awarded, "is no substitute for a regular means of income."

He added: "There are still families waiting for their homes to be rebuild in the wake of the Iran-Iraq War ... As a result the lack of respected familial role models and job opportunities for youth in the skilled and low volume hydrocarbon industry is fuelling disaffection and resentment."

The root problems, he explained, lay in the "longstanding policy of 'Persianisation', matched by likely falsification of census records" which have been used "to muddy ethnic identities and disenfranchise Iran's sizeable minorities. This has affected all of UNPO's members in the area, from the Ahwazi to the Azeris."

He added that Ahwazis had a right to self-determination, as set down in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the right to "freely dispose of their natural wealth."

In his concluding remarks, Mr Swan called for greater unity within the opposition to the Iranian regime: "Unifying with other actors within Iran, such as Persian groups calling for women's rights, press freedom, and such like, strengthens any campaign, discrediting state messages portraying those calling for greater regional rights as 'separatist' and demonstrate an outlook that is open and collegial. It carries risks for both sides undoubtedly, but it is important to raise the situation that liberal Persians face on a daily basis. This conference is examining the rights of all Iran's people, Persians included, and there are many common causes to be found.

"I also believe that UNPO has proven its worth in helping its members to look beyond their immediate region to those with similar experiences elsewhere ... This of course also provides an opportunity to inform Iranians of their own compatriots - if not changing positions then at least raising the standard of debate and exposing Tehran's intractability. Such approaches can bring the questions of tolerance, human rights, and democracy to a human level - avoiding the simplistic accusations of separatism and subversion which are the mainstay of Tehran's verbal attacks on its critics."

Labels: environment, EU, poverty

01 April, 2008

Iran cuts drinking water to Arab towns and villages

The Iranian government has cut off drinking water supplies to Arab towns and villages along the left bank of the Shatt Al-Arab, causing social unrest and fears of an outbreak of disease among Arabs, according to a number of independent reports received by the British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS).

Local people have claimed that the cut in drinking water is either in revenge for recent attacks on visitors to the Iran-Iraq War battlefields or in order to pressure indigenous Ahwazi Arabs to leave their traditional lands.

Affected villages include Qufbeh Menuuhi and Khosroabad (Khazalabad) around Abadan and villages along the Shatt al-Arab up to Khorramshahr (Mohammareh).

Although the area has many large rivers, such as the Karoon and the Karkeh as well as the Shatt al-Arab, water has become salinated by intensive sugar cane production, making the water undrinkable, particularly at the mouth of the Karoon where it feeds into the Shatt al-Arab. The extent of the river pollution in the area has led Iranian scientists to declare it an environmental "crisis zone."

During the 1990s, riots broke out in the oil town of Abadan, which lies on the Shatt Al-Arab, over the lack of drinking water. The security forces killed dozens Ahwazi Arabs in the water riots. The government eventually responded to the problem by supply drinking water in tanks that served villages and towns in the affected areas.

The halt in drinking water supply is likely to lead to outbreaks of water-born diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Local Arabs have not been informed of the reason for the water cuts. Some believe the cuts have been carried out in revenge for recent attacks on bus convoys taking members of the Rahiyan-e-Nur visiting battlefields from the Iran-Iraq War. The Rahiyan-e-Nur is a section of the hardline volunteer paramilitary force, the Bassij, and its name means "those heading to the light." An Arab secessionist group, the Sa'ad Ibn Abi Waqqas Brigade, has claimed responsibility for an armed attack on buses carrying Rahiyan-e-Nur pilgrims travelling along the Bostan-Howaiza. It has launched the attacks, which it claims have killed four members of the security services, in revenge for the government's "unjust policies". Ethnic riots have also recently broken out in response to the death of Ahwazi Arab leader and BAFS founder Mansour Silawi al-Ahwazi in London.

Ahwazi Arabs also believe that the drinking water has been cut to force them from their villages to expand the Arvand Free Zone, a military-industrial complex being developed along the Shatt al-Arab. Arabs living on Minoo Island, south of Abadan, have already faced state intimidation and expulsion. Most indigenous Arabs in the region believe this is in line with the government's ethnic cleansing programme, which was outlined in a letter written by the then vice-president Ali Abtahi and leaked to the press in April 2005.

Labels: AFZ, environment, poverty

02 September, 2007

Iran deploys scientists to environmental "crisis zone" in Ahwazi Arab homeland

Iran's Department of the Environment is examining the environmental crisis that has hit the Ahwazi Arab homeland, following years of campaigning by Ahwazi activists.

Scientists are to assess the impact of pollutants from both the oil and non-oil industries on the marine environment in the Arab-majority province of Khuzestan as well as Hormozgan and Bushehr on the Gulf coast, said the deputy head of marine environment at the Department of the Environment, Mohammad Baqer Nabavi, in an interview with the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA).

"Pollution from oil, gas and petrochemical industries and other factories located in the south will be assessed," he said, adding the plan will start next month. Nabavi said Mahshahr, Asalouyeh and Bandar Abbas are the three main environmental crisis areas. Special environmental teams and experts will measure the level of pollution of oil and non-oil wastes such as chemical agents.

The British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS) has placed the environment at the centre of its campaign against the economic marginalisation of indigenous Ahwazi Arabs. Many Ahwazis traditionally depend on fishing for their livelihoods and have complained that pollution from oil and petrochemicals industries is poisoning the fish and reducing fish stocks.

In March, two of Iran's leading ecologists claimed that the Bandar Imam petrochemical complex is causing environmental devastation. Research by Dr Abbas Ismail Sari and Dr Bahram Kiaee found that a large area of Khuzestan is seriously affected by pollution from mercury and other dangerous chemicals used in petrochemicals manufacturing (click here for article).

In December, a conference Azad University in Ahwaz City heard that the Iranian regime's industrial policies are causing environmental chaos in Khuzestan. At the conference, Dr Hormoz Mahmmodi Rad, the head of Khuzestan's environmental organisation, described situation affecting the province's natural environment as "worrying" and "chaotic" with serious consequences for human health. He emphasised the need for planned industrial development with action to stop the industrial pollutants from pouring into the Karoun River. The Karoun is an essential water source for agriculture as well as fishing, which together provide the largest source of income for indigenous Ahwazi Arabs. Dr Mahmmodi Rad warned that the province's natural environment was in a perillous state, with biodiversity in the marshlands severely threatened and some animal species could face extinction as a result of industrial pollution (click here for more details on the conference).

Earlier in 2006, controversy erupted over pollution from the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of the state-owned National Petrochemical Company, following the death of thousands of fish off the Mahshahr (Mashour) coast. Some Gulf states banned seafood imports from Iran due to radioactive contamination, indicating that marine pollution is a long-term industrial disaster (click for further information).

BAFS film on river pollution in Ahwaz

Labels: environment

25 June, 2007

Iran government in denial over Karoon diversion project

Iran's Minister Parviz Fatah has rejected the United Nation Environment Plan's (UNEP) concerns over the environmental impact of the government's Karoun River diversion project, despite concerns that it will create an environmental disaster on the scale of the Aral Sea in Central Asia.

According to local media reports, Fatah said that the government would instead step up its river diversion programme, claiming that it "will not damage any part of the country and will not reduce the quota of water of any province." He said that Khuzestan would benefit from hydroelectric power stations that form part of the river diversion project.

UNEP has officially warned the Iranian Environment Association that the southwest of Iran, which is the homeland of the Ahwazi Arabs, and south of Iraq are facing a situation similar to the environmental catastrophes that have affected the Aral Sea in Central Asia and the Amazon jungle. The region contains extensive marshes and rivers that support endangered species of fish as well as migratory birds. Ahwazi farmers and fishermen also depend on the waters for their livelihoods.

According to the UNEP, the Hor al-Azeem marsh has transformed from one of the biggest marshes in the Middle East to a barren wasteland with soil that is too salty to sustain any plants. The marsh lies at the mouth of the Karkeh River on the Iran-Iraq border and also receives water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Dam projects in Turkey and Iraq as well as river diversion projects such as Iraq's Saddam Canal have decimated the marshland, reducing it to a tenth of its original size.

Iran's current project of transferring the waters of the Karoun River to Rafsanjan, Isfahan and other desertified Iranian provinces will have major consequences for the marshland, according to environmental activists. They point to the impact of river diversion on the Aral Sea, which has seen thousands of people lose their jobs in the fishing industry, a lack of drinking water, high rates of infant mortality, still births and deformities, high cancer rates, respiratory illnesses and skin problems. Ahwazi Arabs in Khuzestan already suffer from poor health, low life expectancy, high rates of unemployment and pollution from the oil and petrochemicals industries. The diversion of the Karoun would spell disaster for their livelihoods and well-being.

In January 2006, local members of parliament threatened to resign their seats in protest at the diversion of the Karoun. They claimed that it would seriously undermine water security and the livelihoods of many farmers in the Arab-majority province. In December 2005, the MPs launched a petition to impeach Fattah over the project.

Water quality is a major problem for residents of Khuzestan. In most of the province's towns and cities, water is polluted with industrial wastes and open sewers run through the middle of the streets. In Khafjieh, in the western part of the province, the situation has become so bad that schools are failing to provide safe drinking water to children and have closed. Meanwhile, the river diversion project along with the construction of dams is already making the situation worse. The Karoon River is also an important source of water supply for farmers. The diversion project will hit the province's Arab majority hard, exacerbating endemic poverty in the region by reducing water availability.

Ahwazi Arab representatives have long been campaigning against river diversion, but the Iranian government has continued to press ahead with the scheme. At a session of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in May-June 2005, Karim Abdian, Director of Ahwaz Education and Human Rights Foundation, drew attention to the diversion of water from Karkhe River, which passes through an entirely indigenous Ahwazi Arab area of Howizeh and Boustan, to Kuwait and the diversion of the Karoon's water to central Iranian provinces.

Labels: environment

24 May, 2007

Iran admits underdevelopment in oil-rich Arab province

By Redha Amini and Ali Bani Torfi

The Arab-majority province of Khuzestan is suffering from long-term political negligence and economic deprivation, despite being rich of oil and gas and serving as a hub for industrial and exoports, according to the Farsi language Karoon newspaper.

In an article entitled "Khuzestan is the richest province, but ..." published on 6 May, the newspaper states that out of a population of 4.35 million, 1.46 million live in the countryside where there are problems of under-employment while official unemployment in the province is up to 20 per cent. Despite the province's fertility and potential in agriculture, farms are suffering from a lack of investment and are under-performing, leading to rural poverty.

Dr Nasser Soudani, the parliamentary representative for Ahwaz City, was forced to concede the problems with unemployment in the region. He also highlighted the problem of drinking water, which is contaminated and regularly cut off despite the region's large rivers and reservoirs. He laid the blame on the demand for water from sugar cane plantations, which were established after the government confiscated thousands of hectares of land from Ahwazi Arab farmers.

Ahwazi NGOs believe that poverty is far worse than the government is prepared to admit, with unemployment estimated at up to 50 per cent in Arab-populated cities such as Abadan and Mohammerah (Khorramshahr). Iranian politicians are also unwilling to address the root cause of water shortages: the diversion of water to Isfahan and Rafsanjan.

Soudani identified three main problems in Khuzestan: "first there is insufficient development spending, second there is no developed and comprehensive plan and third there is no effective management ... The region's level of educational attainment is lower than other regions and the Education Ministry and the Ministry of Science, Research and the Environment should pay special attention to this region to tackle these problems."

He also talked of an outbreak of untreatable skin and blood illnesses which he said were getting out of control.

Labels: environment, poverty

20 March, 2007

Healthcare discrimination in Ahwaz

By Pooran Saki

Arab people in Khuzestan are suffering immensely from unnecessary deaths and subsequent bereavement as a result of the non-availability of basic health facilities. People in Khuzestan still do not have basic essential such as a sufficient number of doctors, if any at all, and medicines and hospitals.

In most of the cities in this province, like Bostan, Hovazeh and Dasht Azadegan, the local people do not have any hospitals or specialist Doctor. In these cities, sick people frequently die needlessly during emergencies such as accidents or in childbirth.

In Ahwaz, the capital city of Khouzestan province, there are two kind of hospitals some are private, and the others are state-supported, free for people on low incomes. The latter hospitals are unhygienic, without sufficient Doctors or medicines and the death rates, are unacceptably high.

In the Iran-Iraq war, numerous people contracted the HIV virus through being injected with infected blood which came from other countries. This category of patients are living in hospitals without any facilities or medicines and the government doesn't disclose the death rates, so no bady knows the exact figure of patients who have been attacked by this virus.

The area is still very contaminated by chemicals from wartime chemical gases and diseases increasing in this area.

In the area of Women's Health, many women go through childbirth without specialist doctors and unnecessary deaths occur far too frequently. Few women are allowed by religious law to be attended by a male Doctor, and there are not enough female doctors.

Children's Departments are empty of any specialists and lack many essential medicines so that child mortality is common.

Throughout the province, the e sewerage system is very old and not up to the required standard. All sewerage is dumped into the main River Karoon which supplies all the Ahwaz Citys water. This has polluted the water and many diseases are caught through the water.

Labels: environment, features, women

07 May, 2006

Water, water everwhere, but not a drop to drink in Ahwaz

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 (right-click here and save to view film).

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 river along with the government's refusal to invest in de-siltation 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.

Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Karoon has faced more than 400 incidents of serious contamination. Last year, the government paid 700 billion rials (US$76.5 million) for a pistachio cultivation programme in Rafsanjan province, but just 100 billion rials (US$10.9 million) for water management in Khuzestan province.

Siltation of the river also means that during heavy rains, large areas of farmland are flooded with the contaminated water, killing livestock and ruining crops which the indigenous Ahwazis rely on for a living.

Added to the problem is the government's river diversion programme, which involves the construction of a series of dams to take water to provinces such as Yazd where water is scarce. The result is that when the floods recede, farmers have to deal with drought conditions. The Ahwazis are in a perpetual cycle of flood and drought, exacting a huge toll on their livelihoods and health.

Anger over water management has fuelled anti-government sentiment among Ahwazi Arabs. In the documentary, one Arab tells the interviewer: "We went to the provincial governor, but the government doesn't care. They are feeding the Palestinians, but forgetting about us." Another says: "If we are Israelis, then kill us. But we are Iranians, so why are we treated like dogs?"

The level of anger has prompted a rare display of opposition to the government from local members of parliament, who are normally loyal to the regime. In December 2005, Khuzestan's Majlis members lodged a petition for the impeachment of Energy Minister Parviz Fattah (click here for report).

Labels: environment, poverty

21 February, 2006

Iran floods Ahwaz Arabs out of their homes

The Iranian regime is allowing the flooding of land in Khuzestan, making it impossible for Ahwazi Arabs to farm or live there.

The Karoon and Karkhe rivers that flow through the province have flooded, although there has been no rain. A 170 km stretch of land from Ahwaz to Mohammara (Khorramshahr) is now under water, according to local politicians. The flooding has devastated crops just one month ahead of the harvest. Already suffering high levels of poverty due to racial discrimination and forced displacement, Ahwazi Arab farmers are facing hunger and homelessness as a result of the regime's refusal to prevent flooding. Most flood-affected Ahwazis are now either stranded on the roofs of their homes or living on roadsides.

Mohammad Said Ansari, a Conservative Majlis (parliament) representative for the Arab city of Abadan, said that the flooding has devastated Ahwazi Arab farms and attacked "bad policies". He alleged that the authorities had deliberately caused the flood by refusing to dredge and desilt the Karoon and Bahmanshir rivers. The government is trying to create the impression that the province has enough water reserves to divert water to dry provinces such as Rafsanjan, he said. Ansari has called for an immediate investigation into the cause of the rising water in Karoon and Karkhe and compensation and housing for those affected.

Reformist Majlis representative for Abadan, Abdullah Kaabi, is also campaigning for assistance for those made homeless by the floods. The Ministry of Energy and Power has ignored his repeated calls for the dredging of the Bahmanshir river and repairs to levees to prevent flooding. Kaabi concludes that the ministry is therefore directly responsible for the humanitarian disaster. He has also attacked emergency services for failing to intervene to alleviate the problems facing Ahwazi Arabs affected by floods.

Khuzestan Majlis members have already called for the impeachment of the Minister of Energy and Power Parviz Fattah over the diversion of the Karoon River to Rafsanjan. Click here for further details.

Ahwazi Arab representatives have long been campaigning against river diversion, but the Iranian government has continued to press ahead with the scheme. At a session of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in May-June 2005, Karim Abdian, Director of Ahwaz Education and Human Rights Foundation, drew attention to the diversion of water from Karkhe River, which passes through an entirely indigenous Ahwazi Arab area of Howizeh and Boustan, to Kuwait and the diversion of the Karoon's water to central Iranian provinces.

Labels: environment, land

29 January, 2006

Khuzestan MPs threaten mass resignation over river diversion

Majlis (parliament) representatives for Khuzestan have threatened to resign if the project to divert the waters of the Karoon River to the provinces of Rafsanjan and Isfahan continues.

Khuzestan's Majlis members have been fiercely critical of the water diversion scheme, claiming it would seriously undermine water security and the livelihoods of many farmers in the Arab-majority province. In December, the MPs launched a petition to impeach Energy Minister Parviz Fattah over the transfer of Karoon waters.

Water quality is a major problem for residents of Khuzestan. In most of the province's towns and cities, water is polluted with industrial wastes and open sewers run through the middle of the streets. In Khafjieh, in western part of the province, the situation has become so bad that schools are failing to provide safe drinking water to children and have closed. The Iranian government has requested World Bank funding to clean up the province's water supply, although it continues to profit from oil revenue extracted from lands confiscated from Ahwazi Arabs. Meanwhile, the river diversion project along with the construction of dams is already making the situation worse.

The Karoon River is also an important source of water supply for farmers. The diversion project will hit the province's Arab majority hard, exacerbating endemic poverty in the region by reducing water availability. The Arab population is highest in the areas most affected by the river diversion. River diversion could lead to a significant deficit in water in the Ahwazi region, threatening the agricultural sustainability and creating an ecological disaster zone.

Ahwazi Arab representatives have long been campaigning against river diversion, but the Iranian government has continued to press ahead with the scheme. At a session of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in May-June 2005, Karim Abdian, Director of Ahwaz Education and Human Rights Foundation, drew attention to the diversion of water from Karkhe River, which passes through an entirely indigenous Ahwazi Arab area of Howizeh and Boustan, to Kuwait and the diversion of the Karoon's water to central Iranian provinces.

Labels: environment

19 December, 2005

Majlis members protest at Karoon River diversion in Ahwaz

Members of the Iranian parliament representing Khuzestan province have launched a strong protest against the government's Karoon River water diversion project, with a petition to impeach Energy Minister Parviz Fattah.

According to Tehran Times, Majlis Energy Committee Chairman Kamal Daneshyar said on Sunday that MPs from Khuzestan, the homeland of the Ahwazi Arabs, have signed a protest petition. He said: "The people and the parliamentarians of the southern province of Khuzestan have strongly protested about the transfer of water from the Karun River to the city of Rafsanjan for agricultural use."

Daneshyar said that the energy minister will have to give "satisfactory" answers to the complaints lodged by the Majlis members or an impeachment motion will be presented to the Majlis Presiding Board.

The Karoon River is an important source of water supply for Ahwazi farmers. The diversion project will hit the local Arab population hard, exacerbating endemic poverty in the region by reducing water availability. Already, the construction of dams along the Karoon River is causing a decline in the quality drinking water in a land renowned for its rivers. River diversion could lead to a significant deficit in water in the Ahwazi region.

Ahwazi Arab representatives have long been campaigning against river diversion, but the Iranian government has continued to press ahead with the scheme. At a session of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in May-June 2005, Karim Abdian, Director of Ahwaz Education and Human Rights Foundation, drew attention to the diversion of water from Karkhe River, which passes through an entirely indigenous Ahwazi Arab area of Howizeh and Boustan, to Kuwait and the diversion of the Karoon's water to central Iranian provinces.

Nasser Bani-Assad, spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS), said: "Ahwazi Arab leaders have been protesting against the proposed river diversions for a long time, warning of the negative impact on the local population and ecological damage. The Iranian government has responded with indifference and hostility. The diversion of water from the reservoirs created by the dams to other parts of Iran would have a catastrophic effect on the Ahwazi Arabs' economic security and the ecology of their homeland.

"We welcome the move by the Majlis members, but are cautious over their motives. These politicians should have acted sooner if they had such strong concerns over the impact of river diversion, which will be an extension of the massive hydroelectric dam projects in the area.

"It is highly probable that the impeachment move is a political ploy to influence President Ahmadinejad's choice of cabinet members, rather than a serious attempt to stop river diversion. It is a repeat of the controversies surrounding the appointment of the Oil Minister, with Ahmadinejad's choices for the post being rejected by the Majlis. Majlis members from Khuzestan are mostly aligned with the so-called 'reformists', so they are likely to seek to use local grievances against hardliners in Tehran for the sake of gaining political leverage. However, their protests were notably absent during the administration of President Khatami, Ahmadinejad's predecessor."

Like Ahmadinejad, Parviz Fattah has served with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), but has no experience in the areas relevant to his post. Majlis members have reacted strongly against the appointment of former IRGC militants. Many fear that the choice of cabinet does not adequately reflect the vested interests represented in Iran's complex political system, with too much power given to those associated with the IRGC.

Bani-Assad added: "As few Ahwazi Arabs have faith in the Majlis to protect their best interests, we call upon the international community to intervene in the Karoon dam project to ensure that it does not lead to the diversion of river waters which would jeopardise the livelihoods and well-being of local inhabitants. There have been international campaigns against massive hydroelectric schemes elsewhere in the world - such as Brazil and India - due to concerns over indigenous rights and the impact on local ecology. Ahwaz should be no exception."

Labels: environment

05 December, 2005

Iran to build nuclear facility in Ahwazi Arab homeland

The Iranian government decided on Sunday to construct a new nuclear power station in the Arab-majority province of Khuzestan, amid controversy over the country's nuclear programme.

Iran is accused by many governments of using nuclear power stations to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons, whereas the Iranian regime claims that its intentions are peaceful. The plan for a Khuzestan nuclear power station comes after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be wiped off the map. There is also mounting evidence that he intends to use the province as a primary base for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's operations abroad. This week, Bassij militias are conducting military exercises in Khuzestan's Dasht-e Azadegan (Susangerd) district.

Khuzestan is home to some 4.5 million Ahwazi Arabs, many of whom have been forced off their land for industrial projects and military installations. The government's plans to forcibly remove thousands of Ahwazi Arabs from the borders for the 155 square km military-industrial Arvand Free Zone project, situated along the Shatt Al-Arab dividing Khuzestan and Iraq's Basra province, have generated anxiety within the EU. Last week, delegates from the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran, comprised of Kurdish, Arab, Balochi, Azeri and Turkmen groups, met with senior officials of the European Parliament, Council and Commission - the EU's three main decision-making bodies - to discuss ethnic oppression in Iran, including the impact of the militarisation of the Shatt Al-Arab.

Many Ahwazis and others living near sites for future nuclear power plants in Ahwaz and Bushehr are concerned about safety in this earthquake-prone region. The nuclear power station currently under construction and the source of international controversy is being located near Bushehr city, which has been destroyed by earthquakes on three occasions and is near the same geological faultline as the earthquake that destroyed Bam in 2003. Any tremours on a Richter Scale of 7 could destroy the Bushehr power station and any nuclear facility located in Khuzestan. But we can be sure that of these power plants go ahead, any earthquake on the magnitude of the recent earthquake in Pakistan, which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale, would be of major consequence to the people of the Gulf region.

Nasser Bani-Assad, spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society, said: "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.

"In terms of addressing the country's energy balance, it makes little sense to build a nuclear power station in Khuzestan instead of utilising the abundant local oil resources. Why is the regime not locating the station in the country's energy-poor areas or nearer the most urbanised and populated areas? This would reduce costs and improve transmission. There is just no economic justification for a civilian nuclear power station in Khuzestan, where less than a tenth of the total population lives.

"Neighbouring countries should be concerned over safety issues, as Khuzestan is an earthquake-prone area. The planned power station is being built using local expertise, but nuclear reactors built in earthquake zones need highly skilled engineering to minimise risks. If the nuclear power station is built without the supervision of world-class engineers, Khuzestan could witness a Chernobyl-scale disaster.

"Given that the province is heavily militarised and under de facto martial law, it seems likely that the planned station will have some military use. We have been warning the international community for months over the developments in Khuzestan and the negative impact militarisation this is having on the welfare and human rights of local inhabitants. The international community must act now to stop ethnic cleansing and militarisation in order to support human rights and peace in the region. The last thing the Ahwazi Arabs want is a nuclear power station with possible military uses in their homeland."

Labels: environment, nuclear

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