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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Monday, March 19, 2012

Anti-Arab propaganda on Iran’s Press TV





Ahwazi activists have voiced their outrage against a documentary broadcast by Iran’s Press TV that used televised forced confessions by political prisoners to construct an outlandish conspiracy theory.

The Iranian government’s propaganda mouthpiece Press TV broadcast a documentary on 14 March  claiming Ahwazi Arabs were “simple people with simple minds” and therefore vulnerable to mysterious “mind termination” brain washing techniques that turned them into violent unthinking killers.

Using theories of cult indoctrination devised by American Jewish psychologist Steve Hassan, the documentary claims that  cult-like brain-washing techniques were used by individuals living in Denmark and Canada to involve Ahwazi Arabs in armed separatist groups. The ideology of the former Iraqi Ba’athist regime is cited as a method of attracting Ahwazis into psychological mind manipulation. The documentary implies that Arab social backwardness and psychological vulnerability makes them vulnerable to brain-washing and manipulation.

The documentary goes further, 
suggesting the foreign-based commanders are also themselves victims of ‘mind termination’ by higher powers and implying the involvement of the US and Israel. Moreover, it states that missions are not complete until they are publicised by a compliant and credulous foreign media, in particular the BBC Persian Service.

The narrator talks of the ideas instilled by Saddam being “grounded firmly into the Arab psyche”, implying that Arabs are an enemy within and inherently untrustworthy. Such racist assumptions have underpinned the regime’s policy of discrimination against Arab citizens. The documentary infantilises Arabs, suggesting that unrest in the region is due to Arab tribes fighting each other “to secure their interests” rather than the regime’s often violent persecution of the 
Arab population. Prisoners interviewed and accused of indiscriminate murder or as accessories to murder include Idan Beit-Saddah, Kaled Obeidawi, Sajjad Beit Abdullah, Maher Chabi, Hassan Abayat, Ahmad Dabat and Jasem Saedi, all of whom have been arrested over the past few months and detained without charge. The regime claims to have miraculously “deprogrammed” the individuals within weeks of incarceration.

The documentary is not the first Press TV has broadcast parroting the regime’s bizarre conspiracy theories about the Ahwazi Arabs and the reasons for increasing unrest. Last December, before it was taken off-air in the UK for violating the broadcasting code, Press TV aired forced confessions from three Ahwazi Arabs following months of incarceration in a secret Ministry of Intelligence detention centre. One of the men is now scheduled for execution on the basis of the report.


Saturday, March 17, 2012

Ahmedinejad failed to deliver on indigenous Arab problem

 

London -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s four-day visit to Khuzestan last week was billedas a chance to listen to the province’s largely Arab population. Instead, it turned out to be a long lecture on foreign policy with little attempt to address the causes of ethnic unrest in the province.
Ahmadinejad’s series of rallies were more notable for what he did not say rather than what he did say. There was the usual litany of anti-Western slogans, the defiance of the UN Security Council’s censure of Iran over its nuclear programme, the promise of Israel’s demise and the Nazi Holocaust denial that has become the hallmark of the Ahmadinejad administration. Yet Arabs in the audience – who are a minority in Iran but a majority in Khuzestan – did not hear a single word on the civil unrest that has gripped the province since April 2005, when riots broke out after a letter detailing an “ethnic restructuring” plan for Khuzestan was publicised on Al-Jazeera.
There were signs that the audience wanted to hear more about more fundamental issues. Hand-written placards were held up indicating that a massive presence of Bassij paramilitaries had not completely suppressed dissent. One read "Inflation, unemployment, insecurity, drug addiction have desiccated the tree of the revolution" and another said “Oil and gas are our rights. Eliminate youth unemployment.”
For most Ahwazis, industrial development has not led to a significant increase in living standards.
Situated in south-western Iran and bordering Iraq, Khuzestan is the motor of the Iranian economy providing 80-90 per cent of its oil output. However, the province’s indigenous Ahwazi Arabs are among the poorest people in Iran, with Arab districts enduring African levels of child malnutrition, the highest illiteracy rates in the Middle East and low life expectancy. Poverty has fuelled social problems, such as drug addiction which has led to a dramatic rise in HIV/AIDS. Added to these economic problems are the lingering effects of Iraq’s invasion of Khuzestan, which most Ahwazi Arabs opposed and died in their thousands resisting. Saddam promise of sovereignty for Ahwazi Arabs was never realised, but he left in his wake wrecked cities, poisoned soil and the world’s largest minefields which continue to claim lives – although the sacrifices of the Arabs who bore the brunt of Iraqi aggression is rarely recognised and little has been done to clear up the devastation of one of history’s most bloody wars. The lack of progress in human development reveals that the promises of the Islamic Revolution – which the local Arab population had embraced in 1979 – have never been fulfilled, despite the province’s immense resources.
Economic inequality is underpinned by racial discrimination and state terrorism. In its first assessment of the Ahmadinejad administration’s human rights record, Amnesty International pointed out that Arabs have been “denied state employment under the gozinesh criteria.” The report adds that “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 Ahvaz, are reported to be extremely overcrowded as a result of the large numbers of arrests … 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.”
One of the main issues is land expropriation, which Amnesty says is “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.” Members of the European Parliament have described it as ethnic cleansing on a par with Serbia’s purges on Kosovar Albanians.
The problem of land confiscation predates Ahmadinejad’s appointment as president. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari appeared to be incredulous at the treatment of Ahwazi Arabs. 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?”
The Ahwazi Arabs are looking over the waters to their brothers in the rich oil emirates and wondering what life would be like if they had sovereignty over their homeland, which contains oil reserves of over 100 billion barrels – more than the combined total of Kuwait and the UAE. They are also looking back to the time when Khuzestan was known as Arabistan, a large part of which was ruled from Mohammara, now Khorammshahr. The British guaranteed protection for the local Arab ruler Sheikh Khazal Khan in return for an agreement for exclusive oil rights for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now British Petroleum), which discovered oil there in 1909. Khazal’s rule was ended in 1925 when Reza Pahlavi’s forces overran Arabistan, deposed him and imposed direct control. By then, the British had decided that a powerful central government led by a Persian monarch was essential to halt the tide of Bolshevism and ditched their support for the Mohammara sheikhdom.
The Ahwazi Arabs are well aware of what might have been had Pahlavi not imposed central government control over their homeland. Most regard the resurrection of Arabistan as a pipedream. Separatism is unpopular not because Iran’s Arab population is overcome by mindless patriotism. The Ahwazis are predominantly Shia, which makes them unworthy of solidarity in the minds of the Sunni dominated Arab League. This may change due to geopolitics and an intensive campaign of international lobbying by Ahwazi groups in recent years. In an article in the British Arab magazine Sharq, Arab Media Watch chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi wrote that “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.”
The Iranian intelligentsia is already warning that failure to deal with the crisis in Khuzestan threatens to turn it from a provincial problem into a regional geopolitical issue. In a recent letter to the Chief of the Judiciary Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi appealing for clemency for a number of Ahwazis sentenced to death, writer and human rights advocate Emad Baghi wrote that “this kind of ethnic issue is rooted in the poverty, socio-economic deprivation and accumulated repressed complexes abused and exploited by foreign forces. It is only through the pursuit and implementation of justice that ethnic concerns can be addressed and external manipulation neutralized.” He urged Shahroudi to end the mass execution of Ahwazis “to avoid costly mistakes not only in relation to the taking of precious human lives but also because of the real potential for heightening and injuring ethnic sensibilities.” Yet the regime does not appear to be listening to Baghi’s words of wisdom. Instead, Baghi has been repeatedly detained for criticising government policy.
There is little evidence to support Tehran’s claims that foreign governments are involved in ethnic unrest. Senior Ahwazi leaders are mindful of the dangers of aligning too closely with the interests of foreign powers, following Saddam Hussein’s attempts to rouse Arab nationalism in the province during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). However, their attempts to organise constitutional means to advance the Arab rights agenda have been violently suppressed by the government. The Lejnat Al-Wefaq (Reconciliation Committee), which formed in 1999 and won a seat in the Majlis and control of Ahwaz City Council, was recently outlawed and founding members were executed. In doing so, the government undermined the Ahwazis’ rights to equality, as outlined in Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution.
Meanwhile, an underclass of disenfranchised and enraged young men is seeking out new ideologies to oppose the regime and neighbouring Iraq has become a breeding ground for armed radicalism. There are ominous signs that Khuzestan is becoming a new front in Iraq’s nascent civil war, with videos of armed men purportedly from a resurrected Ahwazi Arab nationalist militant group, the Mohieldain Al-Naser Martyrs Brigade, speaking of revenge against the Iranian regime with Iraqi accents. And the moderate Ahwazis are being sidelined due to the growing confrontation between the government and the ethnic Arabs. The rhetoric of militant groups has given unhappy young men a sense of hope that Ahmadinejad’s lectures on Israel and nuclear weapons have failed to provide.
The regime would be wise to study the story of Prophet Daniel, who was buried in Khuzestan. He warned the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar that regardless of his kingdom’s wealth, it had feet of clay that could be broken with just a small stone. Iran’s feet of clay – its oil reserves – are in Khuzestan and if the level of despair compels Ahwazi youth to seek martyrdom, the province’s Arabs could strike a blow that could topple the Islamic Republic

Message to all freemen in the world



Message to all freemen in the world


Let us lift up our voices to stop Iranian regime crime against Ahwazi prisoners and detainees


let our voices be one in face of iranian invaders



WWW.ALAHWAZ.ORG   A.D.P.F    WWW.ALAHWAZ.COM


Ahwazi Democratic Popular Front (ADPF)


17/3/2012

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The word that was thrown by the Center for the Ahwaz Human Rights in the nineteenth session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva (in English

IMGP2499

Ahwaz (the South and Southwest of Iran).
13 March 2012
Ahwazi Arabs statement in Human Rights Council, 19th Session
The side sessions
Submitted by: Ahwazi Centre for Human Right
SOURCE: Ahwazi Center for Human Rights
Mr. Chairman
Ladies and Gentlemen
Before I start my statement, let me in my name and on behalf of the people of Ahwaz in the South and South West of Iran, thank all the freedom strivers all over the world and especially those who are present at this and other similar meetings that have become distinct and influential platforms for voices of persecuted and oppressed people.
Ladies and Gentlemen
I have come here from among millions of people, who are not even allowed to name their children the names they like and are forbidden to speak or learn in their native language, a place which is rich in oil and gas and other natural sources, and yet unemployment rate, according to official figures is over 37%.
A place the indigenous people call it Al- Ahwaz and the Iranian governors and the settlers divided into three parts and call them “Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hermozkan” and others as they desire.
A place where people are suffering from the ugliest racist policies of ethnic cleansing and systematic methods of obliterating the identity of Ahwazi Arabs who have lived in Al- Ahwaz for thousands of year.
Within this short consideration, I am not able to explain all the obvious violations of human rights which are practised against the people of Ahwaz, but due to the arbitrary arrests and mass executions and various crimes that have occurred in Ahwaz recently, I concentrate my review in this regard to give you a brief picture of what is happening now in Ahwaz due to the barbaric violence against defenseless people.
Assassinations in the streets and arrest and murder under torture are the salient features of the Iranian authorities to deal with the Ahwazi Arabs in the South and Southwest of Iran.
Continuous arrest of innocent people and suffering of old political prisoners is the mark of authorities in Iran and these are conducted in the worst forms against Ahwazi Arabs.
Some of the worst examples of this are the mass arrests recently carried out by the authorities randomly against the citizens of the city of Susa (Shush) and Hamidiya and Ahwaz, as well as against the citizens of Mohammara (Khorramshahr) and Abadan and the Khalafia (Khalfabad), which have so far reached more than 75 people during the past three months and terrorising Nasser Albushokh (20 years) who was killed under torture in a detention centre In the city of Ahwaz. Mohamed Kaabi (36 years) was killed under torture in one of the detention centers in the city of Susa (Shush) plus two young men namely Ali Hamidi and Jaffar Asakereh who were on their bikes in the trajectory (the highway) between the city of Ahwaz and Mullahthani they were murdered and their bodies thrown under a bridge (eyewitnesses reported to us and sent video clips recorded from the accident).
The most recent assassination carried out by security forces is the 15 years old teenager namely Hassan Thamer Heydari (2nd of March 2012) when his father, Mr. Thamer Majid Hayderi, the Ahwazi citizen, took up arms to defend his family and his children when security forces attacked his home without warning, and tried to arrest him and his children and eventually the attacking forces killed his son(15 years old Hassan Hayderi), and seriously wounded the father and then arrested all those who were in the house and transmitted them with the body of the murdered boy to unknown places.
Soon after that was the announcement of the Iranian authorities's determination to conduct the execution of five Ahwazi Arabs awaiting public executions after Court of Appeal and The Supreme Court of Iran approved of the sentencing.
The names of these young men are:
1- Abd al Rahman heidari
2- Taha Heidari
3- Jamshid Heidari
4- Mansoor Heidari
5- Amir Muawi
The “Ahwazi Center for Human Rights” (ACFH) calls for an urgent intervention from the international community to put an end to the continued violations of human rights, including the continued detention of hundreds of political detainees in appalling conditions.
Sources told the “Ahwazi Centre For Human Rights”, they were subject to arrests and torture for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly. The international community's selective reactions over the Iranian regime’s continuous crimes are leading the people of Ahwaz to take desperate measures and risk their own lives.
The Parents and family of many activists who have been detained since last April (Ahwazi rage day) have announced the continued suppression, including arbitrary detention, unfair trials, sentencing of innocent people for peacefully demanding their rights, and the continued policy of starving people through unfair dismissal from any chance of fair life and confiscation of basic rights.
There are concerns over the health of the activists who are in jail facing various types of torture , even those who suffer from disability, previously suffered a heart attack after enduring severe torture by the authorities within the prison an example of this is Mr. Ghazi Haidari 35 years old, who was not able to receive the required medication on time for the illness he had in 2010, he was therefore transferred to Razi Hospital in Ahwaz city several times and there are fears that the condition of his health has deteriorated . Faleh Mansouri a citizen of the Netherland and Rasoul Mazraeh accepted as refugee to Norway plus Taher Mazraeh an accepted refugee in Sweden could be the eldest detainees, being over 65 years old; their families have raised concerns over their health as well. In addition, they still suffer from the effects of torture, as stated in the report of the Ahwazi Human Rights groups including the “Ahwazi Centre For Human Rights”. It's not expected that medical care will be provided to them if needed at the prison, as was made evident in previous cases.
Many prisoners, including those held in notorious Caroon and Sapidar prisons and the Health center17 in the city of Ahwaz, are going through the same suffering if not worse. The families of the political prisoners have also complained of lack of adequate attention by the international organizations of the situation experienced by the Ahwazi prisoners in prisons and detention premises in various parts of the territory.
The Ahwazi Centre For Human Rights holds the international community responsible for the consequences of the lives of the activists and political prisoners who were arrested for the conduct of peaceful demonstration and assemblies.
The Ahwazi Centre For Human Rights calls for immediate urgent action and makes the following demands:
- The immediate release of all political detainees who have been detained tortured and sentenced in unfair military trials for practicing their basic rights and protesting peacefully.
- An end to the continuing violation of human rights, including the violent suppression of peaceful protests, continued arbitrary detention, and unfair trials and sentencing.
- An end to the assassination of Ahwazi men and women under the pretext of the fight against God and other flimsy charges against from the humane treatment towards prisoners and detainees.
For more Information
Ahwazi Centre For Human Rights
Ahwazi.cfhr@gmail.comهذا البريد الإلكتروني محمي من المتطفلين و برامج التطفل، تحتاج إلى تفعيل جافا سكريبت لتتمكن من مشاهدته
www.acfh.info
00447864555134
http://acfh.info/ahwaz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117:2012-02-06-16-04-02&catid=44:2010-09-16-17-14-58
Amnesty Report 28 Feb. 2012- 4.4 RIGHTS ACTIVISTS FROM MINORITIES

With Arms for Yemen Rebels, Iran Seeks Wider Mideast Role

WASHINGTON — In the past several months, Iran appears to have increased its political outreach and arms shipments to rebels and other political figures in Yemen as part of what American military and intelligence officials say is a widening Iranian effort to extend its influence across the greater Middle East.
 

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Iranian smugglers backed by the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, are using small boats to ship AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and other arms to replace older weapons used by the rebels, a senior American official said. Using intercepted cellphone conversations between the smugglers and Quds Force operatives provided by the Americans, the Yemeni and Indian coastal authorities have seized some shipments, according to the American official and a senior Indian official.
The scale of Iran’s involvement remains unclear, and some Yemeni officials and analysts remain skeptical about the impact of any weapons shipments, citing a long history of dubious accusations by Saudi Arabia — Iran’s regional nemesis — and Saudi allies in Yemen.
But American officials — who had sometimes dismissed such accusations as propaganda — say there now appears to be at least limited material support from the Iranians.
Earlier this year, Iran tried to send to Yemen material used to make explosive devices, known as explosively formed penetrators, or E.F.P.’s, according to a high-ranking Yemeni security official. The material was shipped in freighters from Turkey and Egypt that docked in Aden.
The cargo was destined for Yemeni businessmen affiliated with the rebels, known as the Houthis, but was intercepted by the government, the Yemeni official said. American officials said Iran supplied the same lethal roadside bombs to insurgents in Iraq during the worst of the violence there, an accusation that Iran has consistently denied.
“Iran is really trying to play a big role in Yemen now,” the Yemeni official said from his office in Sana, the country’s capital.
American officials say the Iranian aid to Yemen — a relatively small but steady stream of automatic rifles, grenade launchers, bomb-making material and several million dollars in cash — mirrors the kind of weapons and training the Quds Force is providing the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. It also reflects a broader campaign that includes what American officials say was a failed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in October, and what appears to have been a coordinated effort by Iran to attack Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia earlier this year. Iran has denied any role in the attacks.
“They’re fighting basically a shadow war every day,” Gen. James N. Mattis, the head of the military’s Central Command, told a Senate hearing last week.
“They are working earnestly to keep Assad in power,” he said, explaining that in addition to arms and scores of Quds Force trainers and Iranian intelligence agents, Iran is providing the Syrian security services with electronic eavesdropping equipment “to try and pick up where the opposition networks are.”
In early January, American intelligence officials said, the Quds Force commander, Qassim Suleimani, visited Damascus, Syria, raising suspicions that Iran was advising Mr. Assad on how to quash the uprising. “What we’re seeing is a much more aggressive Iranian effort to become involved in a number of areas and activities,” President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, said in a recent interview.
The authorities in Azerbaijan announced Wednesday that they had arrested 22 Azeri citizens suspected of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and plotting to attack the United States and Israeli Embassies and the British oil company BP, according to Reuters, citing the country’s National Security Ministry.
Analysts say Yemen could be highly useful in any effort by Iran to retaliate against an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. The country’s longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, formally stepped down earlier this year after a year of widespread protests and violence, but Yemen remains highly volatile, with its political elite divided and much of the country outside the control of the government. Militants linked to Al Qaeda continue to battle the Yemeni military in the south, and much of the north is under the control of the Houthi rebels.

(Page 2 of 2)
The Houthi rebels are based just across the border from Saudi Arabia, and they practice a quasi-Shiite form of Islam that makes them natural Iranian allies. Skilled guerrilla fighters, they fought a short war with Saudi Arabia in 2009, and could presumably be used as an Iranian proxy force. “Iran is hoping to use Yemen as a pressure point against Saudi Arabia and all the countries in the Arab Gulf,” said Yahya al-Jifri, a leader of Al Rabita, one of Yemen’s independent political parties.

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A Houthi spokesman, Yahya al-Houthi, denied that the movement had received any Iranian weapons, training or money, and added that the accusation was an old one leveled by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Many Yemeni political and tribal figures dismiss any Iranian military support as insignificant, noting that the Houthis have plenty of weapons, and that Saudi Arabia has been supplying Yemeni factions with arms for decades. Some add that any substantial shipments of arms across inland Yemen would have left a clear trail of evidence.
There have been reports on the subject in the Yemeni press — as in years past — but those are widely dismissed as rumors disseminated by Saleh loyalists, or allies of Saudi Arabia. One high-ranking Yemeni official said that he had been told about the Iranian military aid by Mr. Brennan, but that he had no other reason to believe it.
True or not, the claims of Iranian support are now held up as gospel by Sunni tribal figures in northern Yemen, where fears are rising of a proxy conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. One prominent Sunni tribal leader in northern Jawf Province, Abdullah al-Jumaili, said: “We don’t even call them the ‘Houthis’ anymore. We refer to them as ‘the followers of Iran.’ ”
Weapons aside, Iran is offering financial help, training and encouragement to a number of groups that protested against Mr. Saleh’s rule in the past year, according to Yemeni political leaders, diplomats and tribal figures.
“We have been treated unjustly by Saudi Arabia, and we do not mind taking help from Iran, which has been sympathetic to our cause,” Sultan al-Samie, a prominent tribal figure and militia leader in the central city of Taiz, said in a telephone interview. Mr. Samie said that he traveled to Iran to attend an all-expenses-paid conference last fall, along with scores of other protesters, but he denied widespread reports in Yemen that he has accepted Iranian payments.
Iran appears to be playing its hand shrewdly, offering financial help and sympathy but insisting that there are no strings attached, according to Mr. Samie and others. That is an important distinction in an area where Saudi Arabia is widely perceived to have used cash to manipulate Yemeni political and religious currents. Iran also recently added a daily Yemen program to its Arabic-language channel, Al Aalem, that is now popular across Yemen for its anti-Saleh slant. The channel is also viscerally anti-American, like all Iranian official media.
There also appears to be increased Iranian influence among Yemeni activists, especially those not affiliated with the Islamist party Islah, and even more so among supporters of the southern separatists movement, known as the Herak.
A large contingent of Yemenis attended two conferences in Tehran in September and January intended to link Iran with protesters affiliated with the Arab Spring movements. “We need another force today to make balance and I think that force is Iran,” said Aad Qaid, a 28-year-old activist who supports the southern secessionist movement and attended the January conference. “Iran supports the Houthis and Herak.”

UN Independent Expert on Iran

UN Independent Expert Ahmed Shaheed on Iran calls for cooperation from the government to ensure transparency. Shaheed presented a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Monday 12th March, where he expressed various human rights concerns in the country, including capital punishment


UN Independent Expert on Iran

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Document - Iran: Five Arab men at imminent risk of execution

UA: 77/12 Index: MDE 13/013/2012 Iran Date: 8 March 2012
URGENT ACTION
FIVE ARAB MEN AT IMMINENT RISK OF EXECUTION
Five members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority, including three brothers, their cousin and another man are at imminent risk of execution in public , after t heir death sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court. The sentences may be intended to deter Ahwazi Arabs in Iran from demonstrating on the 15 April anniversary of protests held in 2005 .
The three brothers, Abd al-R ahman Heidari , Taha Heidari and Jamshi d Heidari, their cousin Ma n sour Heidari and Amir Muawi (or Mo ’av i ) were arrested in April 2011 in Ahvaz, during unrest taking place across Iran’s south-western Khuzestan province. Since their arrest, their whereabouts have not been disclosed to their families. On or around 5 March 2012, Ministry of Intelligence officials informed their families that the Supreme Court had upheld death sentences against the five men, after they were convicted of the killing of at least one individual, said to be a law enforcement official, on 15 April 2011. The Ministry of Intelligence also told the men's relatives that they would be executed in public “in the next few days”. It is not known when their initial trials took place or if they had any legal representation. ”Confessions” extracted under duress are frequently accepted as evidence before courts in Iran.
Please write immediately in Persian, Arabic, English or your own language:
Urging the Iranian authorities not to carry out the executions and to commute the death sentences of Abd al-Rahman Heidari, Taha Heidari, Jamshid Heidari, Mansour Heidari and Amir Mo’avi and anyone else on death row;
Seeking information about the trial of all five, including whether they had access to a lawyer of their choice;
Calling on them to ensure that all five men are protected from torture or other ill-treatment, and are granted immediate and regular access to their families, their lawyers and adequate medical care.
P LEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 1 9 APRIL 2012 TO :
Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street – End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info_leader@leader.ir
Twitter: "#Iran leader @khamenei_ir: halt execution of Abd al-Rahman Heidari, Taha Heidari, Jamshid Heidari, Mansour Heidari and Amir Mo’avi”
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani
[care of] Public relations Office
Number 4, 2 Azizi Street
Vali Asr Ave., above Pasteur Street intersection
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com (Subject line: FAO Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani) or info_leader@leader.ir
Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to:
Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights
Mohammad Javad Larijani
High Council for Human Rights
[Care of] Office of the Head of the Judiciary, Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave. south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@humanrights-iran.ir
(subject line: FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani)
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
URGENT ACTION
FIVE ARABS AT IMMINENT RISK OF EXECUTION IN IRAN

ADditional Information

The Ahwazi Arab minority is one of many minorities in Iran. Much of Iran's Arab community lives in the south-western province of Khuzestan. Most are Shi’a Muslims but some are reported to have converted to Sunni Islam, heightening government suspicion about Ahwazi Arabs. They often complain that they are marginalized and subject to discrimination in access to education, employment, adequate housing, political participation and cultural rights.
There were mass demonstrations in Khuzestan province in April 2005, after it was alleged that the government planned to disperse the country's Arab population or to force them to relinquish their Arab identity. 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 2005, 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 arbitrary arrests. At least 15 men were later executed as a result of their alleged involvement in the bombings.
Scores, if not hundreds, of members of the Ahwazi Arab minority were reportedly arrested before, during and after demonstrations on 15 April 2011. The demonstrations had been called a “Day of Rage” to mark the sixth anniversary of the 2005 mass demonstrations. At least three (according to the authorities) - and possibly many more - people were killed in the April 2011 demonstrations during clashes with the security forces, including some in the Malashiya neighbourhood in Ahvaz. Amnesty International received the names of 27 individuals allegedly killed. Ahwazi Arab sources have claimed the casualty figures were even higher. Amnesty International has been unable to confirm the reports as the Iranian authorities do not allow the organization to visit the country. The authorities maintain a tight control on the flow of information in and out of the province, including by preventing foreign journalists from visiting Khuzestan. At least four Ahwazi Arab men reportedly died in custody between 23 March 2011 and mid May 2011, possibly as a result of torture or other ill-treatment. Others were hospitalized around the same time, apparently as a result of injuries sustained from torture or other ill-treatment.
At least eight Ahwazi Arabs in Iran, including Hashem Hamidi, said to have been aged only 16, were executed between 5 and 7 May 2011, three reportedly in public, for their alleged involvement in the killing of three individuals including a law enforcement official (see Iran: Arbitrary arrests, torture and executions continue, Index: MDE 13/051/2011, 20 May 2011, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/051/2011/en).
Between 10 January 2012and the beginning of February 2012, in the lead-up to parliamentary elections held on 2 March 2012, between 50 to 65 individuals were reportedly arrested in at least three separate locations in the province; at least two deaths in custody have also been reported. Some Ahwazi Arabs, mostly in Shoush, called for a boycott of the elections and arrests in Shoush, north-central Khuzestan, reportedly followed the appearance of anti-election slogans painted on walls. Others may have been pre-emptive arrests aimed at preventing any gathering of Ahwazi Arabs either on the anniversary of country-wide demonstrations held on 14 February 2011 in support of the people of Tunisia and Egypt which were violently repressed, or on the 15 April anniversary of the “Day of Rage”.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the authoritative body which interprets the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Iran is a state party, has found that public executions are “incompatible with human dignity” and in November 2011 called on Iran to prohibit their use.
Names: Abdulrahman Heidari, Taha Heidari, Jamshid Heidari, Mansour Heidari and Amir Mo’avi
Gender m/f: m
UA: 77/12 Index: MDE 13/013/2012 Issue Date: 8 March 2012

Peaceful Demonstrators Take to the Streets of Athens to Bring Attention to the Syrian Crisis

A peaceful demonstration of mostly Syrian protesters took place in the center of Athens on 09/03/12. The relatively small crowd of people gathered in Syntagma square to bring attention to the Syrian Crisis and to ask for help and intervention from governments from around the world.
The ongoing violent conflict in Syria kicked off with public demonstrations which began on 26/01/2011, and has now developed into a nationwide uprising. Angry protesters are vehemently demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad and the overthrow of his government. To quell the revolutionary uprising, the Syrian government quickly deployed the Syrian Army and several cities were besieged, resulting in reports of alleged appalling atrocities. According to witnesses, soldiers who refused to open fire on civilians were summarily executed by the Syrian Army.
Jassem (last name withheld) was among the demonstrators in Syntagma Square and explained what he was hoping to achieve in today’s protest. “I come from Al-ahwaz, a city of southwest Iran, north-northeast of Basra, Iraq, and I have been living in Greece for approximately 23 years.” “I left my family and friends behind during the Iranian occupation and arrived in Greece when I was just 19.” “Over the years, I have watched news reports from Syria and today, and it is with great bitterness that I see Bashar’s army executing and torturing my people.” “It is only now that people are seeing for the first time disturbing pictures of crimes against humanity, pictures of women and children being murdered in cold blood at the hands of the Syrian regime, snipers targeting and indiscriminately shooting unarmed protesters and enforced disappearances….I am here today, to support the revolution and to plead for help from around the world, to put a stop to this bloodshed.”

Indeed, according to UN figures issued this month, at least 3,500 people have been killed in Syria since March, and UNICEF has reported, based on claims by opposition groups, that over 400 children have been reportedly arrested and tortured in Syrian prisons.
Further demonstrations are due to take place in Athens on 18/03 and the 20/04 with the international initiative called “Friends of Syria” also staging protest marches in cities around the globe.

Dr Shaheed’s report on Iran reveals six-fold increase in executions since 2003

Dr Shaheed’s report on Iran reveals six-fold increase in executions since 2003 thumbnail

UN Special Rapporteur on Iran and former Maldives Foreign Minister, Dr Ahmed Shaheed, has released an explosive report on human rights abuses in Iran.
Dr Shaheed, who was appointed Special Rapporteur in June 2011, reported that Iran had executed 670 people last year, 81 percent of them for minor drug offences that did not justify capital punishment under international law. 20 people were executed for offences against Islam, Dr Shaheed found, while a further 15 are awaiting death sentences for adultery.
Of these executions 421 were announced publicly, while 249 were performed in ‘secret’. Dr Shaheed expressed particular concern about the surge in executions in the last three months of 2011, from 200 in mid-September 2011 to over 600 by the end of the year – a six-fold increase on 2003.
Despite drug offences being the most frequently-cited reason for executions, Dr Shaheed told a press conference that there were “strong indications” that the arrests were political and drug charges added later.
Dr Shaheed found the Iran had not only executed more citizens per capita than any other country in the world, but had also detained the most number of journalists. 42 were current imprisoned, while a further 150 had fled since the 2009 election for fear of persecution. Journalists were also reportedly barred from appearing at their trials and were often informed of their sentences in prison.
The Iranian government refused to allow Dr Shaheed to visit the country in his capacity as UN Special Rapporteur, describing him as “incompetent”. The report relied heavily on first-hand testimonies, “the preponderance of which presents a pattern of systemic violations of fundamental human rights,” it noted.
Head of Iran’s the parliamentary commission on human rights, Zohreh Elahian, said the report was based on “politically tainted objectives and politicisation.”
“As was clear in Ahmed Shaheed’s draft document, the report is biased and serves political objectives since he had visited a number of European states and had meetings with the opposition and anti-revolution forces living abroad,” Elahian said.
Iranian MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi told media that Dr Shaheed was “a US agent”.
“From the first day that Mr Ahmed Shaheed was appointed as the UN [human rights] rapporteur, we suspected he was a US agent; but after he published a few reports [on the rights situation in Iran], we became certain he had been sent on mission by the Americans,” Boroujerdi said.
Dr Shaheed’s mandate for the post was narrowly approved in a UN resolution despite the opposition of Cuba, China and Russia. He told journalists he hoped the mandate would be extended.
“One of the most important aspects of this mandate is its capacity to give voice to those that believe themselves to be silenced by fear and lack of recourse,” he said.

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Monday, March 12, 2012

ahwazi chanel 11\03\2012

ahwazia_123



Media committee of the Democratic Front of Ahwazi People

 12 \ 03 \ 2012

Iran: UN human rights expert concerned over judicial abuses

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed
19 October 2011 –
The United Nations independent expert on the situation of human

 rights in Iran today voiced concern over alleged violations in the country’s judicial system, citing practices such as torture, cruel or degrading treatment of detainees, and the imposition of the death penalty without proper safeguards.
Presenting his report to the General Assembly’s third committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural affairs, Ahmed Shaheed, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, also identified denial of access to legal counsel and medical treatment, and widespread use of secret and public executions, as other issues of concern.
There were also reports of capital punishment in juvenile cases, and the use of the death penalty for cases that do not meet the level of serious crimes by international standards, he said.
In some cases, elements of Iran’s penal code and legal practices amount to contravention of those international laws it acceded to.
“In some cases, elements of Iran’s penal code and legal practices amount to contravention of those international laws it acceded to,” said Mr. Shaheed.
He said Iran’s record seems to have gained particular attention because of the country’s “lack substantive cooperation with the UN human rights system and because of the existence of frequent reports of suppression of those self-correcting mechanisms that deprive Iranians from freely seeking redress or reform within the parameters of their human rights.”
The “self-correction mechanisms” that are suppressed include free and fair elections, denial of freedom of expression and assembly, allegations of depravation of the right to education, harassment and intimidation of religious and ethnic minorities, human rights defenders and civil society and religious actors.
He urged Iranian authorities to provide adequate medical access to the well-known cleric Ayatollah Kazemeini-Boroujerdi, and to consider his immediate release.
He also called upon Tehran to consider releasing all individuals listed in his report, including political leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who consider themselves detainees of the Government, human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, student and women’s rights activist Bahareh Hedayat, student activist Abdollah Momeni, and Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani.
He also urged Iran to cooperate with him as he carries out his mandate. “In the absence of this, however, my course of action will be to continue to obtain information through interaction with Iranians both in the region and in other parts of the world, as well as with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other parts of the UN system.”
Mr. Shaheed said he had been informed of the arrests and prosecution of at least 42 lawyers for their attempts to provide legal counsel. Charges brought against the majority of them include acting against national security; participating in illegal gatherings; insulting the Supreme Leader; and spreading propaganda against the regime.
He took notice of the positive steps taken by the Iranian authorities, including the Government’s recent decision to release between 60 and 100 prisoners, many of whom had been arrested as a result of their participation in events related to the 2009 presidential elections..

UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran calls for a "freeze" the death penalty

Ahmad-Shaheed


 
GENEVA (AFP) - A UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran to "freeze" the implementation of the death penalty in this country and in the report will be presented Monday to the UN Council for Human Rights in Geneva.
In his recommended decision Shahid Ahmed authorities to "reduce death sentences for people who do not fit their crimes as part of this punishment," such as drug-related crimes and adultery.
 He also urged the Government to give serious consideration to the freezing of the death penalty for all crimes to the "to be done to verify the actual application of the rights of the defense."
On the other hand, called a martyr to the Iranian government to allow the accused to have a "legal representation at all stages of the investigation."

 He condemned the stoning style expert also urged Tehran to ban the death penalty against minors.
He was a martyr condemned in the first report issued last October and presented to the General Assembly of the UN Baeidamat secret (249 case until December 2011, according to figures updated received in the current report) took place last year in Iran.
In addition, 421 people were executed last year in Tehran and in accordance with the decision of the United Nations, which was based on official figures.
And to develop a martyr met his report, which did not allow him to go to Iran, with experts and diplomats in Geneva also went to Germany, Belgium and France to inquire of Iranians living in Europe on the situation in their country.
He said the UN decision that despite the existence of the necessary legislative framework in Iran to promote respect for human rights in practice it is often a violation of this law without punishment frequency as a result the authorities in the prosecution of those responsible.
He said, "As a member of intrinsic in the system of the United Nations, the Islamic Republic of Iran an important role to play in the international community, but unfortunately withheld because of the confrontation and tension."
He called on authorities to apply the laws, especially in the field of freedom of expression and assembly denouncing the "violations of basic human rights", including electoral fraud, especially in an election in 2009 that allowed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.