Ahwaz Human Rights News >>>>>

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

permalink
keywords: ahvaz ahwaz ahwazi arabistan khuzestan khuzistan khuzestani arab arabistan iran iranian human rights security oil news ahmadinejad ethnic cleansing
.......................................................................................

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

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

24 April, 2007

Iran's anti-Arab separation wall

The US and Israel have faced international condemnation for the construction of separation walls in the West Bank and Baghdad, but the world continues to turn a blind eye to Iran's construction of walls around Arab ghettoes in Ahwaz.

Separation walls in Ahwaz such as the one pictured above are designed to segregate the indigenous Arab population from wealthier non-Arab districts built on land confiscated from Arabs. In 2003, the regime bombed hundreds of homes in the Arab populated Sepidar district of Ahwaz City, displacing thousands of indigenous Ahwazi Arabs to make way for homes for ethnic Persians. Ethnically exclusive residential developments such as Shirinshahr and Ramin have been built in recent years to house Persians from Yazd and Fars provinces who have been brought into the area to take up jobs denied to Arabs (click here for details).

Following a visit to the traditionally Arab province of Khuzestan in July 2005, UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari said that Arab districts endured "very adverse conditions" with "thousands of people living with open sewers, no sanitation, no regular access to water, electricity and no gas connections. I think that the kind of question that arises is, why is that? Why have certain groups not benefited?" (click here for an interview with Kothari)

He criticised the "attempt being made by the government to build new towns and bring in new people from other provinces", singling out Shirinshah for criticism (click here to view a documentary on Shirinshahr).

Nasser Bani Assad, spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society, said: "Ahwazi Arabs are constantly demonstrating against the separation walls in their homeland and the creation of ethnically exclusive settlements. [click here to download a video of a demonstration near a separation wall]

"Iran is enforcing its system of ethnic apartheid by constructing physical barriers. But no-one is listening and there is no media coverage, even when the UN's own experts condemn Iran's actions.

"When the Americans create such barriers in Baghdad for security purposes, there is outrage. When the Iranians create barriers to keep Arabs in their deprived neighbourhoods and prevent social mobility, there is absolute silence from the UN Human Rights Council.

"The Iranian regime's separation walls are no different from the walls the Nazis created around Jewish ghettoes in Warsaw. Time and time again, the Iranian regime is shown to be essentially fascist in nature, yet some still call it a democracy and place their faith in 'reformists'. Fascism cannot be reformed, it can only be overthrown."

Labels: land, poverty

19 February, 2007

Misappropriation and theft of ethnic Arab lands in South Iran

By Mrs Pooran Saki

Major General Mohsen Rezai, ex-Commander of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has declared that the government is going to take over land in Dashte Azadagan (Bani Torof) in order to use it as a War Museum.

Dashte Azadagan is in the South of Iran and is populated by ethnic Arabs, who lived here before Iran was formed as a state. During the Iran-Iraq war, this area suffered very heavily - the warfare caused massive damage which destroyed most of the city's buildings, and contaminating the air and water with chemical pollution. The region is still shockingly deficient in educational levels and facilities, in health provision and farming resources, but the Iranian government deliberately ignores the problems.

Now a new deception is to be perpetrated on this region - the government state that they want to seize the land in order to control the area, thereby forcing the ethnic Arab citizens to move from their local region to other parts of Iran.

The government carried out this fraud in 1990, when they demanded that all Arab farmers sell their land, compulsorily and at an unjustly low price. The government stated that they were going to grow sucrose in this area. Of course what they really want is to have a monopoly on oil production, which is also known to be there.

Eventually all the farmers left, without their jobs or livelihoods, and without sufficient funds to purchase new lands. Later, the government changed the traditional system of irrigation and polluted the water. This had a catastrophic effect, for many diseases spread around the region, and this led to many ethnic Arabs moving away from their local area.

I, as an Arab from Ahwaz, protest against this underhand exploitation and misappropriation of ethnic Arab, which is impoverishing and driving out the people, and amounts to no less than theft. Why is Mr Razaiye considering a new War Museum? The local population, who have been victims of the war have a greater need to have the region cleared of mines and chemical pollution, and they need to be safe and secure.

Why do we continue to hear about children being killed by mines or dying slowly from mysterious diseases? This is unacceptable. Are these people being made to suffer because of their minority ethnic Arab status?

Labels: features, poverty

08 January, 2007

Ahwaz trade official attacks government policy

The Director of the Ahwaz Chamber of Commerce has condemned central government policy for hindering industrial development in the Arab-majority Khuzestan province.

According to the Mehr News Agency, the trade official accused state-owned companies of seriously damaging the local economy and the environment. He added that Iranian industries in the province were unable to compete with countries like Turkey on the neighbouring Iraqi market due to excessive government interference, which was undermining the quality of industrial products.

The official's attacks on government policy come just days after a four-day tour of the province by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed that he had endorsed a number of projects for industrial development. The vote of no confidence indicates that few industrialists have faith in the Ahmadinejad administration's economic policies.

Ahwazi Arabs have also accused the government of economic mismanagement and racial discrimination, which have created African levels of poverty in one of the world's most oil-rich regions.

Labels: poverty

22 October, 2006

Poverty leads to massive rise in female Ahwazi pavement sellers

The number of female pavement sellers in the Arab majority cities of Khorramshahr (Mohamareh) and Abadan is soaring, according to a report published by Iran's Fars News Agency (download original report).

According to the news agency's report, the female roadside hawkers are the sole income earnings due to non-payment of wages by state corporations and endemic unemployment and under-employment among Ahwazi Arab men.

The age of female Ahwazi Arab hawkers, who sell food and handicrafts from the villages as well as smuggled goods such as cigarettes and chewing gum, is also falling.

Unemployment among Ahwazi Arabs is running at 50 per cent. Meanwhile, those employed by the state-owned ship-building and port companies are owed months of back-pay, leading to mass demonstrations and strikes (click here for more information). Women are now feeling the effects of the employment crisis, but most are illiterate and are only able to work in the informal sector. Yet, the Ahwazi Arab homeland is one of the most oil-rich in the world, with more oil reserves than Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates combined.

High poverty rates are the result of racial discrimination in employment. Ahwazi Arabs are denied jobs, while the government confiscates their land for residential developments to house non-Arabs brought enticed from outside the province with incentives such as zero-interest loans.

Labels: poverty

16 October, 2006

Iran: Ahwazi family die in search of clean water

Although mighty rivers such as the Karun and Karkhe flow through the Ahwazi Arab homeland in Khuzestan, many are struggling to find fresh water to survive in the dryer areas of the province.

The Fars News Agency has reported that members of the Sharifat family living in Chah Salem in Omidieh (Al-Amedeya) died due to a lack of clean water. While desperately digging for water, family members inhaled poisonous gas escaping from the ground. Four family members died and three others were hospitalised. A member of the emergency crew sent to rescue the family was also overcome by the fumes.

The news agency's reporter claimed that there was a lack of rescue facilities in the area and that the rural population was suffering drought and severe under-development.

The region is one of the most oil-rich areas in the world, producing around 80 per cent of Iran's oil output. However, absolute poverty rates are around 50 per cent among the indigenous Ahwazi Arab community, which represents the majority of people in Khuzestan (Al-Ahwaz).

Click here for original article

Labels: poverty

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

09 February, 2006

Ahwaz MP warns Iran oil minister of impeachment

Majid Naasseri-Nejad, a member of parliament representing the Arab populated area of Fallahieah (Shadegan), called on Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh to ensure equitable employment practices in the oil-rich Arab-majority province of Khuzestan or face impeachment, according to reports.

Naasseri-Nejad claimed that the Oil Ministry had been placing recruitment advertisements in Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Tehran and other cities and provinces, but was not actively recruiting from the local Arab population. Some Arab districts are enduring unemployment rates of up to 90 per cent, he claimed.

The practice of moving non-Arabs into the area to fill job vacancies is highly controversial among the impoverished local Ahwazi Arabs. Discriminatory employment practices are rooted in the government's long-term programme of reducing the proportion of Arabs in the province from 70 per cent to around a third through "ethnic restructuring". This was outlined in a top-secret letter written by the then Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi which was leaked last year. The Abtahi letter led to an Ahwazi uprising that was crushed by the regime, killing more than 160 people.

Last month, Portuguese Socialist MEP Paulo Casaca, who heads the European Parliament's delegation to NATO, condemned the Iranian government's policies in Khuzestan as "ethnic cleansing".

Links
Abtahi's secret letter on ethnic restructuring
Paulo Casaca's condemnation of ethnic cleansing against Ahwazis - BAFS, 19 January

Labels: labour, land, poverty

03 February, 2006

Iran: Don't forget human rights and poverty

The British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS) Arab rights lobbying group has called on the international community to put human rights abuse and economic mismanagement at the top of relations with Iran.

Opposition groups feel that Iran's deteriorating domestic situation has been neglected due to the controversies surrounding the nuclear issue. The first few months of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration have seen a rise in human rights abuses, while the problems associated with high levels of poverty go unaddressed. However, this is occurring with little or no criticism.

The situation facing the Ahwazi Arabs is particularly bad. Since Ahmadinejad's election last June, human rights groups such as Amnesty International and the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation have recorded the imprisonment of a large number of peaceful pro-democracy activists, including tribal leaders, imams journalists and teachers (see www.ahwaz.org.uk/reports.html). Traditional Arabic dress has also been banned following mass public prayers in Ahwaz by Arabs wearing the kuffiyeh in a sign of their resistance to ethnic oppression.

In its latest urgent action, Amnesty International has highlighted the incarceration of two children - 11-year-old Reza Haidari and 14-year-old Kazem Sayahi - following demonstrations during Eid-al-Adha in January. The organisation fears that they, along with scores of other Ahwazi Arabs held in custody, could be facing torture at the hands of Iranian security officials.

BAFS spokesman Nasser Bani Assad said: "Iranians would rather have the huge resources spent on the nuclear programme directed towards poverty alleviation. The Ahwazi Arabs feel particularly aggrieved as the oil revenues generated by land confiscated from them are being squandered on this project. In contrast, legislation to redistribute just a fraction of these revenues to Khuzestan was overturned for a third time in January.

"The regime is building a nuclear plant in earthquake-prone Khuzestan. A containment failure in the event of a natural disaster would devastate not only the Ahwazi homeland but also Kuwait and parts of Iraq. This nuclear facility comes at the expense of Ahwazi Arabs' security and economic well-being.

"Experts say it will be years before Iran can develop nuclear weapons, if that is the regime's intention. But the ethnic cleansing of Ahwazi Arabs from their homeland and their deliberate impoverishment by the regime is happening today. It is an emergency situation that is being eclipsed by the nuclear issue. The international community should not abandon those oppressed by the Iranian government.

"Only a federal democratic Iran that respects human rights can ensure long-term stability and security in the Middle East and prosperity for the people. This is what many Iranians, particularly Ahwazi Arabs, are demanding."

Labels: human rights, poverty

25 November, 2008

01 April, 2008

24 May, 2007

24 April, 2007

19 February, 2007

08 January, 2007

22 October, 2006

16 October, 2006

07 May, 2006

09 February, 2006

03 February, 2006