tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43550327884399541502024-03-12T22:46:28.456+00:00Iranian Minorities Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO)Defending Ethnic, Religious and Social Minorities in IranUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger647125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-45494284192341158742013-08-20T15:02:00.004+01:002013-08-20T15:02:56.112+01:00Being a gay poet in Iran: ‘Writing on the edge of crisis’ <br />
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Not everyone is optimistic about the election of Iran’s new president. This article by <a href="http://nogaam.com/en/">Nogaam</a>, a publisher of censored Iranian authors, explains why gay poet Payam Feili doesn’t share the optimism of his peers. <br />
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Iran’s government has been increasing pressure on writers and artists
over the past few years, but its heavy hand does not strike evenly.<br />
<br />
Iranian poet Payam Feili, who is a gay man, is the victim of a
brutal system. He was fired from his job, his translator’s house was
ransacked, and the censors have shunned him. <br />
Isolated in Iran, Feili has dedicated himself to writing. He says he
lives among his ideas, a citizen of his mind: “I’m writing on the edge
of crisis but I think I am doing fine. I’ve gotten used to life being
full of tension, horror, disruption and crisis”. <br />
Born in 1983, in Kermanshah, a city in western Iran, Feili has faced
insurmountable obstacles as an author who, with pen as sword, is
fighting back against social, cultural and political taboos. Despite the
endorsement of renowned Iranian Simin Behbahani and the backing of one
of Iran’s biggest publishers, Feili’s work has only once emerged from
the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance with a seal of approval. <br />
Feili’s first book, ‘The Sun’s Platform’, was published in Iran in
2005, but dozens of other works submitted to the ministry have been
refused publishing permission. Payam is blacklisted, not just for his
words, but for his sexual orientation. <br />
“They refused my books, one after the other, without any
explanation. They have a blacklist of authors who are simply not allowed
to publish anything. Even my apolitical non-religious works, works of
pure poetry, were banned. There’s nothing scary about them, but the
state authorities are afraid of everything” <br />
Observing his sharply delicate words falling from the pages of
history unread, Feili began publishing his books outside Iran, knowing
all too well that he was endangering himself. Officers from the Ministry
of Intelligence ransacked his translator’s house and threatened him,
forcing him to sever ties with Feili. After gaining notoriety abroad,
the company Feili had worked for fired him without good cause. With the
odds stacked against him, Feili insists on exercising his right to
freedom of speech. <br />
“If you read my books, it’s obvious I have not succumbed to
self-censorship. My poems are bold and fearless. I don’t allow anybody,
not me, not others, not even the Ministry of Culture and Islamic
Guidance to censor my books”<br />
Many are hoping for Rouhani’s presidency to bring around the
cultural thaw that characterised Khatami’s two terms. Feili has not been
swept up by the wave of hope that has captured his peers.<br />
“Nothing essential has changed. The structure is still the same.
It’s a play, a comic and ugly performance. They’re relying on the
naivety of people to be able to succeed”<br />
Embittered by 30 years of living in exile within the borders of his
country, as a homosexual, and as a writer that challenges the status
quo, Feili is now dedicating his time to securing funding to translate
his poetry for audiences outside Iran. <br />
“I’ve learned a lot and I know what’s going on in Iran. I know that
when my homosexual narrative is woven through my words and there is a
Star of David on the cover of my book, the censors won’t even bother
opening it to find out what is inside. I just want to be published. I
know the audience outside Iran is different, but I just want to be
heard”.<br />
<hr />
This article was reported by <a href="http://nogaam.com/en">Nogaam</a>,
a publisher of Iranian books and authors that have been censored,
banned or blacklisted. Nogaam relies on donations from readers to
publish their books for free download on their website. Payam Feili’s
book ‘<a href="http://nogaam.com/en/node/2/">White Field</a>’
was first published in Persian by Nogaam in London in July 2013. The
publisher is currently seeking support to help Payam translate his
poems, and fulfil his simple goal of being heard. <br />
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<strong>I Will Grow, I Will Bear fruit … Figs (First Chapter)</strong><br />
ONE<br />
I am twenty one. I am a homosexual. I like the afternoon sun.<br />
My Apartment is in the outskirts of town. Near the wharf. In a place
that is the realm of seashells, the realm of corals, adjacent to the
eternal sorrow of the turtles.<br />
My mother lives in the waters. In the remains of an old ship. On a
bed of seaweed. Her hair blazes like a silver crown above her head. My
mother is always naked. She visits me every now and then. At my
apartment in the outskirts of town.<br />
She first crosses the wharf. She floats in the scattered scents of
the bazaar. Then she pays a visit to the crowd of fishermen in the
seaside cafés. Among their wares, a hidden pearl. And she leaves them
and heads for my bed. Of course, along this entire route, she is no less
naked.<br />
Poker; that is what I call him. He is my only friend. We met during
military training. He is twenty-one. He likes the afternoon sun and he
is not a homosexual.<br />
I consider this a threat. I have never talked to anyone about my
sexual inclination. In fact, I hide it. Even from my few sexual
partners. With them, I pretend it is my first such experience.<br />
My sexual partners are night prowlers. Strangers. Poker is not a
night prowler. Poker is not a stranger. And this is chipping away at me
from the inside!<br />
Payam FeiliUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-60671907501559492862013-08-20T14:59:00.001+01:002013-08-20T14:59:18.897+01:00Bahai world News: “Five Years Too Many” campaign leads to global outpouring of support<br />
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A global outpouring of support and concern for the plight of the
seven Iranian Baha’i leaders – and for the situation of other prisoners
of conscience in Iran – marked worldwide commemorations of the fifth
anniversary of the arrest of these Baha’is.<br />
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Statements calling for the immediate release of the seven came from
every continent, issued by government officials, religious leaders,
human rights activists, and ordinary citizens during 10 days in May as
part of the “Five Years Too Many” campaign. Local and national media
reports also carried news of the campaign around the world.<br />
“Our hope is that the government of Iran will understand clearly that
the seven Baha’i prisoners, who have been unjustly and wrongfully held
for five long years simply for their religious beliefs, have not been
forgotten,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community’s
representative to the United Nations in Geneva.<br />
“Our ultimate hope, of course, is that Iran will immediately release
the seven – and all other prisoners of conscience in Iran,” said Ms.
Ala’i.<br />
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As the campaign came to a conclusion, one theme that emerged was the
degree to which religious leaders around the world find Iran’s
persecution of Baha’is unconscionable.<br />
In South Africa, Shaykh Achmat Sedick, vice president of the national
Muslim Judicial Council, used a Five Years Too Many campaign event on
15 May to talk about freedom of religion from an Islamic perspective. He
described how the teachings of the Qur’an support religious freedom –
and added that Iran’s persecution of the Baha’i community is entirely
unjust.<br />
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On 14 May, some 50 religious leaders representing virtually every
religious community in the United Kingdom sent a letter to UK Foreign
Secretary William Hague, calling on him to demand that Iran immediately
release the seven.
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Signatories to the letter included Rowan Williams, former Archbishop
of Canterbury; Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew
Congregations of the Commonwealth; and Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, an
Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain.<br />
“Iran has abandoned every legal, moral, spiritual and humanitarian
standard, routinely violating the human rights of its citizens,” they
wrote. “The government’s shocking treatment of its religious minorities
is of particular concern to us as people of faith.”<br />
And in Uganda, the Inter-Religious Council issued a joint statement
with the Baha’i community there calling on Iran to respect the
fundamental human rights of Iranian Baha’is.<br />
“These sheer violations of basic human rights of Iran’s religious minorities by the regime of that country gave rise<br />
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to international outrage from governments and civil society
organizations and all freedom-loving people worldwide,” said Joshua
Kitakule, Secretary General of the Council, on 15 May in Kampala.
<br />
Other significant responses during the final days of the campaign included:<br />
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● A letter calling for the “immediate release of the seven” by
prominent people in India, signed by L. K. Advani, chairman of Bharatiya
Janata Party; Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney General of India; Imam
Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, Chief Imam of the All India Organization of Imams of
Mosques; and Miloon Kothari, former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate
housing, among others.<br />
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● A series of statements issued by prominent Austrians in support of
the seven, including one by Efgani Donmez, the first Muslim elected to
the Austrian Parliament, who said “The Baha’is in Iran are part of the
society, part of the Iranian culture. They should also have the rights
as all the other citizens in Iran.”<br />
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● A speech in Ireland by campaigner and Holocaust survivor Tomi
Reichental, who said the discrimination faced by Iranian Baha’is sadly
reminded him of what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany. “I can very
well identify with the struggle that the Baha’i religion suffers in
Iran,” said Mr. Reichental on 15 May in Dublin.<br />
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● A video message by Nico Schrijver, a member of the Senate of the
Netherlands and vice-chairperson of the Geneva-based UN Committee for
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, who said: “The leaders of the
Baha’i community have been detained for the sole reason that they are
Baha’is. This is of course a complete violation of human rights law.”<br />
The campaign, which ran 5-15 May, quickly found support from others,
including Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr,
and Lloyd Axworthy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in Canada, as <a href="http://news.bahai.org/story/956">previously reported</a>.<br />
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Among the most notable expressions of concern was a <a href="http://news.bahai.org/story/957">joint press release</a>.
by four UN human rights experts, issued on 13 May, which stated that
the seven are held solely because of their religious beliefs, that their
continued imprisonment is unjust and wrongful, and that Iran’s
treatment of religious minorities violates international law.<br />
<br />
Six of the seven Baha’i leaders were arrested on 14 May 2008 in a
series of early morning raids in Tehran. The seventh had been detained
two months earlier on 5 March 2008.<br />
Since their arrests, the seven leaders – whose names are Fariba
Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash
Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm – have been subject to an
entirely flawed judicial process, and were ultimately sentenced to 20
years imprisonment, the longest of any current prisoners of conscience
in Iran.<br />
Further details can be found at the campaign website, located at: <a href="http://www.bic.org/fiveyears" title="http://www.bic.org/fiveyears">http://www.bic.org/fiveyears</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-56519095761821508632013-08-20T14:47:00.002+01:002013-08-20T14:47:31.897+01:00OMCT: Group calls for release of jailed Iranian journalist brothers <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">The Observatory reports that Khosro
Kordpur was arrested on March 7, 2013 in Mahabad, and two days later the
Ministry of Intelligence arrested his brother, Massoud Kordpour.</span><br />
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They were then reportedly taken to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps (IRGC) detention centre in Uroumiyeh, where they were kept in
solitary confinement.<br />
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On April 25, they were finally allowed a visit by family members, who
reported that they had not been interrogated during their 45 days of
arrest.<br />
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Khosro Kordpur went on a 25-day hunger strike to protest his undetermined condition.<br />
They were finally transferred back to Mahabad on June 26, at which
point the two brothers had lost between 10 and 20 kilos, and they were
finally charged with "enmity against God."<br />
The brothers are also charged with "crimes against national security, propaganda against the regime and insulting the leader."<br />
<br />
Khosro Kordpour has challenged the charges against him, saying all
the material published by his news agency has been within the framework
of the law. Massoud Kordpour also defended himself, saying that, as a
reporter, he has only exercised his constitutional right to report on
issues.<br />
The Observatory reports that the request for bail for the two
brothers is pending the judge's decision, which was not given in court,
and their second hearing is to take place in September.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-29385755049227889812013-08-20T14:43:00.003+01:002013-08-20T14:43:56.583+01:00Reuters: Iran's Arab minority drawn into Middle East unrest<div id="articleInfo" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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By Isabel Coles</div>
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<span class="timestamp" style="font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;">Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:33pm EDT</span></div>
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<span class="articleLocatio</span>n">(Reuters) - Arab insurgents blew up a gas pipeline in<a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iran" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;" title="Full coverage of Iran">Iran</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>last week and dedicated the attack to their brothers in arms in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/syria?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;">Syria</a></span>, highlighting how the Syrian civil war is spreading into a region-wide proxy conflict that could blow back onto<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iran?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;">Iran</a></span>.</span></div>
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The blast, two days after new President Hassan Rohani took office, hit a pipeline feeding a petrochemicals plant in the city of Mahshahr in Iran's southwest, home to most of its oil reserves and to a population of ethnic Arabs, known as Ahwazis for the main town in the area.</div>
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The Ahwazi Arabs are a small minority in mainly ethnic Persian<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iran?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;">Iran</a></span>, some of whom see themselves as under Persian "occupation" and want independence or autonomy. They are a cause célèbre across the Arab world, where escalating ethnic and sectarian rivalry with Iran now fuels the wars in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="color: black;"><a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/syria" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;" title="Full coverage of Syria">Syria</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iraq?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;">Iraq</a></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and is behind political unrest from Beirut to Bahrain.</span></div>
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Tehran dismisses any suggestion that discontent is rife among its Arab minority, describing such reports as part of a foreign plot to steal the oil that lies beneath its Gulf coastal territory. Iranian news agencies reported a fire on the gas pipeline last week but said its cause was unknown.</div>
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There has been unrest in the area for many years, and now some Ahwazis see themselves as part of a larger struggle between Shi'ite Iran and the Sunni-ruled Arab states across the Gulf, which back opposing sides in the Syrian civil war.</div>
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Although the overwhelming majority of Ahwazis are Shi'ites, some say they sympathize with the mainly-Sunni rebels fighting Syria's Iran-backed President Bashar al-Assad.</div>
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"Our land is occupied and the Syrian people are in the shadow of a dictatorial regime that serves Iranian interests in the region," said an Ahwazi activist speaking from inside the region. "If Bashar falls, Iran falls: that is the slogan of the Ahwazis," he said.</div>
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ARABISTAN</div>
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The Islamic Republic would almost certainly outlast Assad's downfall. But the slogan nonetheless shows how events in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/syria?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;">Syria</a></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>are stirring a latent threat to stability in one of the world's most resource-rich corners: the Iranian province of Khuzestan, once known as Arabistan for its Arab majority.</div>
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An Ahwazi militant group said it had sabotaged the pipeline with homemade explosive devices, targeting Iran's<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/economy?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;">economy</a></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in revenge for the authorities' mistreatment of ethnic Arabs and for Tehran's roles in Syria and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iraq?lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;">Iraq</a></span>.</div>
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"This heroic operation is a message to the Persian enemy that the national Ahwazi resistance has the ability and initiative to deliver painful blows to all the installations of the Persian enemy, inside Ahwaz and out," the Mohiuddin Al Nasser Martyrs Brigade, which has claimed responsibility for previous attacks on energy infrastructure, said in a statement.</div>
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The group threatened to intensify its activities in coordination with members of Iran's Kurdish and Baluch minorities, some of whom also complain of unfair treatment.</div>
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Arabistan was a semi-autonomous sheikhdom until 1925, when it was brought under central Iranian government control and later renamed, marking the start of what some Ahwazis describe as a systematic campaign to Persianise if not obliterate them.</div>
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According to the CIA Factbook, Arabs make up about 2 percent of Iran's population, suggesting there are around 1.6 million of them, a small minority in a country with a Persian majority and much larger Azeri and Kurdish communities, among others.</div>
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At their most ambitious, Ahwazis want an independent state stretching beyond the borders of Khuzestan, which is at the head of the strategic Gulf waterway and shares a border with Iraq.</div>
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Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's attempt to annex Khuzestan triggered the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s in which a million people were killed. "Liberating" the Ahwazis was a slogan for Saddam and the Arab states that supported him.</div>
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In 1980, with Iraqi support, Ahwazi separatists took 26 hostages in Iran's London embassy. British special forces stormed the embassy after a six day siege; two hostages and five captors were killed.</div>
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Thousands of Ahwazis crossed into Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and some were given land, but they are no longer welcome under the Shi'ite-dominated government that rose to power after U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003 and toppled Saddam.</div>
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Exploited by avowed secular Arab nationalists like Saddam, Ahwaz is now being woven into the sectarian narrative revolving around the Syrian conflict, which has polarized Sunnis and Shi'ites. Ahwazis are overwhelmingly Shi'ite, but in recent years there has been some conversion to Sunni Islam among them.</div>
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"I converted for political reasons and I think most are like that," said the activist contacted by Reuters in Khuzestan, who decided to become Sunni during a trip to a Shi'ite shrine in the Iranian city of Mashhad after hearing several ethnic Persians travelling on the same train mock Arabs.</div>
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Iran's Deputy Minister for Arab and Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian told reporters in Kuwait there were no Sunnis in Khuzestan. Nevertheless, Sunnis across the Arab world have taken up the Ahwazi cause with zeal.</div>
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From a stage in the Iraqi province of Anbar, where Sunnis have rallied for months against a Shi'ite leadership they denounce as a stooge of Iran, lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani roared: "We tell our people in Ahwaz: we are coming!"</div>
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In Bahrain, whose Sunni monarchy blames Tehran for fomenting protests by the Shi'ite majority on the island since 2011, a street in the capital has been renamed "Arabian Ahwaz Avenue".</div>
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A bearded presenter on Saudi-based hardline Sunni pan-Arab TV channel al-Wesal burst into tears recounting the sufferings of the Ahwazi people: "We must stand with them as Muslims! They are calling us," he said after composing himself.</div>
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One battalion of the rebel Free Syrian Army is called the "Ahwaz Brigade", although the group says there are no foreign fighters in its ranks.</div>
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"We have relations with different factions of the (Syrian) rebels," said Habib Nabgan, the former head of a coalition of Ahwazi parties whose armed wing carried out last week's pipeline attack.</div>
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"They need information, which we give them, and we need some of their expertise, so there is cooperation and that is developing," he told Reuters via telephone from Denmark, where he took refuge in 2006.</div>
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PROTESTS</div>
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The use of Ahwaz for sectarian and Arab nationalist agendas has served to justify repression by Iranian authorities, which say they face a foreign plot to control the country's natural resources. Tehran has accused Britain, Israel and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="color: black;"><a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/saudi-arabia" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;" title="Full coverage of Saudi Arabia">Saudi Arabia</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of provoking unrest in Khuzestan.</span></div>
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Although the bulk of Iran's 137 billion barrel oil reserves lie beneath the soil of Khuzestan, most Ahwazis struggle to scratch a living off the land they lay claim to.</div>
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"We get nothing from the oil and gas fields except smoke (from the refineries)," said activist Taha al-Haidari, in footage filmed secretly in prison before he was executed along with two of his brothers and a friend.</div>
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They were arrested after taking part in a protest in 2011 and convicted of "enmity against God" and "corruption on earth", having confessed under duress to murder and being members of an armed separatist group, one of them said in the video.</div>
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The authenticity of the tape, which activists said was smuggled out of jail, could not be independently verified.</div>
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Iran dismisses Ahwazi grievances and says reports of their mistreatment are mere propaganda, often pointing out that a former Iranian minister of defense was an ethnic Arab.</div>
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A document purporting to be a secret government directive leaked in 2005 described a policy to dilute the Arabs of Khuzestan by displacing them and encouraging others to settle there. The letter, which authorities said was forged, ignited protests that were put down by force, leaving at least 31 dead, according to rights group Amnesty International.</div>
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As the anniversary of that crackdown approached in 2011, Ahwazi activists began calling for a "Day of Rage" in the spirit of popular anti-government revolts in Egypt and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="color: black;"><a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/tunisia" style="cursor: pointer; outline: medium none; text-decoration: none;" title="Full coverage of Tunisia">Tunisia</a>.</span></div>
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Protests broke out but were quelled by authorities who have since rounded up dozens of Ahwazi activists, at least five of whom are currently awaiting execution on terrorism-related charges, rights groups say.</div>
<span id="midArticle_5" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Ahwazi groups are divided over whether to seek independence or devolution of power within a democratic, federal Iran.</div>
<span id="midArticle_6" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
"We have a right to seek independence, but is that possible at this time? I don't think so," said Abu Khaled, a member of the biggest Ahwazi federalist party, speaking in Dubai.</div>
<span id="midArticle_7" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
"We have to be pragmatists, or else we will be a part of history, like the Red Indians (Native Americans)".</div>
<span id="midArticle_8" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
(Editing by Peter Graff)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-57182978387759605522013-08-20T14:41:00.003+01:002013-08-20T14:41:48.680+01:00The guardian: Iran plays the blame game<br />
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<br />
<br />
Long-term instability in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iran" title="Iran">Iran</a>
is an alarming prospect for western countries keen to resolve disputes
over the country's nuclear programme and other contentious issues. But
continuing political weakness in Tehran is also likely to produce the
opposite effect – increased regime concern about external attempts to
interfere, destabilise, and exploit its current vulnerabilities. This
paranoid trend threatens unpredictable, even dangerous consequences –
but may be justified.<br />
The pinning of blame for Iran's
post-election turmoil on malign foreign enemies is already under way
among so-called principalist, conservative factions. The pro-Ahmadinejad
Keyhan newspaper today denounced plots by "politically bankrupt
dictators" to thwart the popular will. "The hopes of the imperialist
triangle (America, UK and the Zionist regime) for a crawling coup d'etat
in the Middle East and revival of the dead Middle East plan have been
dashed," it declared.<br />
Javan newspaper was similarly acerbic.
"Today democracy slogans have become a lever to provoke, interfere and
overthrow," it said. "By announcing results in the presidential
elections that did not benefit their favourite candidate ... some
foreign media such as BBC Persian [service], al-Arabiya, Fox News, CNN
and some French media have started a new wave to create social and
political division and cause riots."<br />
In largely <a href="http://persianesque.com/2009/06/15/obamas-reaction-to-iranian-election-iranian-voices-should-be-heard-and-respected/" title="cautious responses to Friday's polls">cautious responses to Friday's polls</a>,
Barack Obama's administration has been careful not to feed the fires of
xenophobic resentment. "It's up to Iranians to make decisions about who
Iran's leaders will be. We respect Iran's sovereignty and want to avoid
the US being the issue inside of Iran," Obama said. But Iranian
officials say US protestations of non-interference would be more
credible if the White House publicly cancelled a $400m Bush era covert
programme, authorised in 2007, that they say was intended to destabilise
Iran, with the ultimate aim of regime change.<br />
According to the journalist Seymour Hersh, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh" title="writing in the New Yorker last year">writing in the New Yorker last year</a>,
covert operations by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command
were used to support the PJAK Kurdish dissident group in northern Iran,
the disaffected ethnic Arab minority in Khuzestan, in the south-west,
and militant Baluchi Sunni Muslim separatists in the south-east,
bordering Pakistan.<br />
While not officially acknowledged or disavowed
in the US, the covert programme has been repeatedly linked by Iran to
ongoing violence, bomb attacks and assassinations in all three areas, as
well as to the main external opposition group, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq,
which is allegedly funded and armed by the US. Iran also occasionally
claims to have evidence of involvement by Israel's Mossad spy agency and
British intelligence.<br />
Although the problem can be overstated,
Iranian leaders of all political complexions have reason to worry about
the so-called minorities question in a country comprising multiple
ethno-linguistic groups, namely Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Arabs,
Baluchis, Turkmen, Armenians, Assyrians, Jews and Georgians. Recent
reports from Iranian Kurdistan, for example, speak of 100 or more
checkpoints being erected by Revolutionary Guards and the shelling of
PJAK positions inside northern Iraq.<br />
Iranian officials linked the recent <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/29/iran-mosque-bomb-presidential-election" title="suicide bombing of a Shia mosque">suicide bombing of a Shia mosque</a>
in Zahedan, in Sistan-Baluchistan, to US, British and Israeli support
for the Jundullah Sunni Muslim separatist group. An unsuccessful attempt
last month to blow up a domestic airliner in Ahvaz, in Arab Khuzestan,
brought similar claims. Speaking after the Zahedan attack, the Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei said: "No one can doubt that the hands of ... some
interfering powers and their spying services are bloodied by the blood
of the innocent."<br />
Iran announced yesterday that members of a
foreign-backed "anti-revolutionary group" responsible for fomenting
unrest and armed with bomb-making materials had been arrested.
Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said the group "wanted
to achieve its goal through explosions and terror and in this connection
50 people were arrested ... They were supported from outside the
country."<br />
Given the current uproar in Tehran, the temptation for
leading regime figures such as Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to deflect
attention by hitting out at real or imagined foreign enemies, for
instance by indirectly re-targeting US forces in Iraq or causing
problems for Nato forces in Afghanistan, is growing dangerously. But
even such extreme measures may not work.<br />
The moderate Seda-ye
Edalat newspaper certainly wasn't swallowing the regime's line about
external threats yesterday. "Why does the government not let the people
protest peacefully?" it asked. "Why do we always want to call Iranian
protesters a group of hooligans bribed by foreigners to sabotage
everything?"<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-87806902831749255602013-08-20T14:38:00.004+01:002013-08-20T14:38:55.777+01:00Todays zaman: South Azerbaijani hunger strikers continue to plead case globally<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<div id="newsSpot">
<span class="detail-spot">Five South Azerbaijani
politicians from northwestern Iran, imprisoned for establishing a
political party advocating their identity rights, are continuing a
hunger strike -- which has already turned critical for their health --
that they started in an effort to have their voices heard on the
international scene due to the failure of Iran's state-controlled media
to report on their situation.</span></div>
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</div>
<span class="detail-text">The Tabriz Islamic Revolutionary
Court sentenced five South Azerbaijani activists -- Latif Hassani (43),
Mahmoud Fazli (45), Shahram Radmehr (38), Ayat Mehr Ali Bayglu (35) and
Behboud Gholi Zade (48) -- to nine years in prison in May on the charge
of forming an illegal group, the New Southern Azerbaijan National
Awakening Movement Party (Yeni GAMOH), and distributing anti-government
propaganda.<br />
The political activists have been on a hunger strike
in the central prison in Tabriz since July 13 in protest of the sentence
handed down against them. Relatives of the victims have confirmed that
some of the activists have already been hospitalized because of the
strike. According to the latest update from the prisoners' families on
Sunday, visitations have been banned and the prisoners were transported
on the eighth day of their hunger strike to a prison in Tehran without
informing their families.<br />
The imprisoned activists confirm that
they will continue to strike until their prison sentence is canceled,
which they say the court decided under the pressure of the Iranian
intelligence community.<br />
“Because of the Iranian media boycott on
publishing news on Azeri nationalists, this [hunger strike] is an
opportunity for us to make our voices heard internationally. This is
just a stage in our struggle,” stated Duman Radmehr, brother of prisoner
Shahram Radmehr.<br />
Tabriz intelligence and the Tabriz prosecutor's
office had demanded the most severe punishment for the prisoners, and it
was given by the court. The prisoners were detained during a series of
arrests that began in December last year in Iran, and they were sent to
the central prison in Tabriz.<br />
Yeni GAMOH has been active in abroad
for years. The five imprisoned activists were on the administrative
board of the party, under the chairmanship of Hassani.<br />
Amnesty
International issued a report on June 12 expressing worry for the
situation of imprisoned activists in Iran, including those five from
Yeni GAMOH. <br />
Families of the prisoners have confirmed that the
five activists were in solitary confinement and that they were tortured
physically and mentally by Iranian intelligence officers before being
sent to prison in March. Included in the unlawful treatment of the
detainees were long periods of interrogation, severe beatings and days
of solitary confinement. They were only permitted to get a lawyer almost
five months after their detention and just one week before the court
hearing, the families also said.<br />
All of Iran's Azeri political
groups had to organize outside the country because the Azerbaijani
population is not a “recognized minority” in the country. Article 26 of
the Iranian constitution only allows “[the] formation of parties,
societies, political or professional associations, as well as religious
societies, whether Islamic or pertaining to one of the recognized
religious minorities.”<br />
Karim Asghari, an active South Azerbaijani
activist, told Today's Zaman: “Iran could not accept that an Azeri
political party, which it accused of having foreign/external origins,
was found to be operating inside the country. [Yeni GAMOH] has declared
that it wants transparent politics, which has been lacking in Iran for
many years.”<br />
<br />
‘New presidency won't decrease pressure on South Azerbaijanis<br />
South
Azerbaijanis think that the changing presidency in Iran due to the June
elections will not improve their situation, although the
president-elect, Hasan Rohani, is a moderate conservative supported by
Iranian democrats. His election has been read as a signal of a more
moderate Iranian policy, both vis-à-vis domestic actors and foreign
relations.<br />
South Azerbaijanis are not so optimistic about Rohani
abiding by his promise to them before the elections on allowing
education in their mother tongue. “After the elections, he [Rohani] has
returned to the state's old discourse, saying ‘all of us are Persians,
so no need for any other language,'” Asghari stated.<br />
Shahin Helali
Khyavi, a friend of the prisoners who is based outside Iran, however,
estimated that such a harsh punishment would not have been made if the
arrests and trials had not occurred during the last period of the
outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, indicating his hope for Rohani.<br />
Iranian-Azeri
people living in northern Iran define themselves as southern
Azerbaijani Turks and are struggling with the Iranian regime as they
have been denied their ethnic rights granted in Articles 15 and 19 of
the Iranian constitution, which provides for the equal treatment of all
ethnic groups and freedom to use their mother tongue in media and
education. However, these Azeri Turks in Iran have been arbitrarily
deprived of such rights, while other ethnic groups, such as Armenians,
enjoy their freedoms. Iran has an Armenian population of 200,000, while
the number of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran amounts to 35 million.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-32267075321091950002013-08-20T14:35:00.005+01:002013-08-20T14:35:56.755+01:00amnesty: Iran: Halt Execution of Arab Minority Men. Four Ahwazi Arabs Sentenced to Hang After Unfair Trials<h2 class="pane-title">
Document - Iran: Halt Execution of Arab Minority Men. Four Ahwazi Arabs Sentenced to Hang After Unfair Trials</h2>
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<b>AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
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<b>JOINT PUBLIC STATEMENT</b>
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AI Index: MDE 13/031/2013
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26 July 2013�<b>�Iran: Halt Execution of Arab Minority Men
</b>
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<b>
<i>Four Ahwazi Arabs Sentenced to Hang After Unfair Trials</i> ��</b>(London,
July 26, 2013) – Iran’s judiciary should stop the executions of four
members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority because of grave violations of
due process, Amnesty International, the Iran Human Rights Documentation
Center, and Human Rights Watch said today. The judiciary should order a
new trial according to international fair trial standards in which the
death penalty is not an option. Family members and Ahwazi Arab rights
activists have told human rights groups that the detainees contacted
their families on July 16, 2013 and said they feared that authorities
were planning to carry out the execution orders any day now. </div>
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According to information gathered by the
rights groups, authorities kept the defendants, including three others
who have received unfair prison sentences, in incommunicado pretrial
detention for months. The authorities denied them access to a lawyer and
harassed and detained their family members. The trial suffered from
procedural irregularities and the convictions were based on
“confessions” that defendants said had been obtained by torture. There
is no record the trial court investigated their torture allegations.</div>
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“The absence of lawyers at key stages in the
proceedings and the credible allegations of coerced “confessions” cast
strong doubts on the legitimacy of the Ahwazi Arabs’ trial, let alone
the death sentences,” said Tamara Alrifai, Middle East advocacy director
at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that the government has an appalling
rights record against Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority only makes the case
for the need for a fair trial stronger.” </div>
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The court sentenced Ghazi Abbasi, Abdul-Reza
Amir-Khanafereh, Abdul-Amir Mojaddami, and Jasim Moghaddam Payam to
death for the vaguely-defined “crimes” of <i>moharebeh</i> (“enmity against God”) and <i>ifsad fil-arz</i>
(“corruption on earth”). These charges related to a series of shootings
that allegedly led to the death of a police officer and a soldier. The
court sentenced three other defendants --Shahab Abbasi, Sami
Jadmavinejad, and Hadi Albokhanfarnejad -- to three years in prison in
the northwestern city of Ardebil for lower-level involvement in the
shootings. The lower court issued its judgment a week after a trial that
lasted approximately two hours, said letters to Ahwazi Arab rights
groups allegedly written by the defendants.
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Security and intelligence forces have
targeted Arab activists since April 2005 after reports that Iran’s
government planned to disperse Ahwazi Arabs from the area and to attempt
to make them to lose their identity as Ahwazi Arabs.</div>
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The Iranian authorities have executed dozens
of people since the disputed 2009 presidential election, many of them
from ethnic minorities, for alleged ties to armed or “terrorist” groups.
Following unrest in Khuzestan in April 2011, the human rights groups
received unconfirmed reports of up to nine executions of members of the
Arab minority. In June 2012, a further four were executed and reports
suggest that five were executed in April 2013. </div>
Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Ahvaz, the capital of
Khuzestan province, issued the sentences on August 15, 2012. Branch 32
of Iran’s Supreme Court affirmed the sentences in February 2013.
Revolutionary courts are authorized to try cases classified by the
judiciary as pertinent to political and national security matters. Their
trials take place behind closed doors, and revolutionary court
prosecutors and judges are allowed, under longstanding legislation,
extraordinary discretionary powers, especially during the pretrial
investigation phase, to limit or effectively prevent the involvement of
defense lawyers. <br />
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The revolutionary court’s judgment, a copy
of which the human rights groups reviewed, said the court convicted the
seven men for the vaguely-defined “crimes” of <i>moharebeh</i> (“enmity against God”) and <i>ifsad fil-arz</i>
(“corruption on earth”). The court found that the defendants had
established a “separatist ethnic” group that “used weapons and engaged
in shooting in order to create fear and panic and disrupt public
security.”
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None of the defendants had a prior criminal
record, the judgment says. All seven are residents of Shadegan (also
known as Fallahiya in Arabic), approximately 100 kilometers south of
Ahvaz.</div>
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In several of the letters, the writers said
that security and intelligence forces had held the seven men in
incommunicado detention for months, subjected them and their family
members to detention and ill-treatment to secure “confessions”, and
tried them simultaneously in one session that lasted less than two
hours. The letters said that none of the six lawyers present had an
opportunity to present an adequate defense of their clients.</div>
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In one letter, the defendant alleges that
despite the lack of evidence, intelligence agents pressed the
revolutionary court to convict the men of <i>moharebeh</i> and <i>ifsad fil-arz</i>
and to sentence them to death. In another letter, the defendants allege
that none were questioned during pretrial interrogations about the
supposed armed group – Kita’eb Al-Ahrar to which authorities say they
belong, even though their alleged membership was used by the judiciary
as the basis for their death sentences.</div>
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In a defense pleading criticizing the lower
court’s ruling, a copy of which the rights groups reviewed, one of the
lawyers criticizes the lower court’s ruling on several grounds,
including the court’s failure to look into the defendants’ allegations
that their “confessions” were extracted under torture. </div>
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The rights groups could not independently verify the authenticity of the letters or the defense pleading.</div>
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A former detainee who spoke to the human
rights groups on condition of anonymity said that for about two weeks in
2011 he was in the same ward of Karun prison as the four men sentenced
to death. He said that both Amir-Khanafereh and Ghazi Abbasi told him
that during their time at the Intelligence Ministry detention facility
in Ahvaz agents blindfolded them, strapped them to a bed on their
stomachs, and beat them with cables on their backs and feet to get them
to confess to using firearms.
</div>
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The source also said that he observed
black marks around the legs and ankles of Amir-Khanafereh and Abbasi,
and that the two said the marks were caused by an electric shock device
used at the Intelligence Ministry detention facility. The source said he
had seen similar black marks on the legs of other Arab activists during
his time in Karun prison. The former detainee said that Amir-Khanafereh
and Abbasi told him that they were not allowed any visits and were held
incommunicado by Intelligence Ministry officials for months.
</div>
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�The judgment, which primarily relied on the
alleged “confessions” of the defendants and circumstantial evidence,
stated that the members of this group were involved, among other things,
in several shootings at police officers and their property, and that
the shootings led to the deaths of at least two officers. </div>
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The Supreme Court judgment, a copy of which
the rights groups reviewed, affirmed the lower court’s ruling and
identified the victims as a police officer, Behrouz Taghavi, shot and
killed in front of a bank on February 26, 2009, and Habib Jadhani, a
conscripted soldier, who was shot and killed in spring 2008. Both the
lower court and Supreme Court judgements acknowledge that some of the
defendants retracted their confessions at trial saying they were
extracted under physical and psychological torture, but refused to
acknowledge the validity of those retractions. There is no record of any
investigation by either court into the allegations of torture.</div>
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Under articles <a href="http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/iranian-codes/3200-islamic-penal-code-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-book-one-and-book-two.html%22%20%5Cl%20%2231">183</a> and <a href="http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/iranian-codes/3200-islamic-penal-code-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-book-one-and-book-two.html%22%20%5Cl%20%2234">190-91</a>
of Iran’s penal code, anyone found to have used “weapons to cause
terror and fear or breach public security and freedom” may be convicted
of <i>moharebeh</i> or <i>ifsad fil-arz</i>. Punishment for these charges includes execution by hanging. </div>
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“Considering putting to death the four
Ahwazis after a fundamentally flawed trial during which basic safeguards
such as rights of defense were blatantly disregarded and allegations of
torture and ill-treatment dismissed is abhorrent, said Hassiba Hadj
Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and
North Africa Program. “At the very least, the defendants should be
granted a new trial and the ability to properly defend themselves in
court. Anything less would risk that these men be executed for a crime
they may very well have not committed.”</div>
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Article 38 of the Iranian Constitution prohibits all forms of
torture “for the purpose of obtaining confessions.” The Penal Code also
provides for the punishment of officials who torture citizens to obtain
confessions. Despite these legal and constitutional guarantees regarding
confessions under duress, “confessions” are sometimes broadcast on
television even before a trial has concluded and are generally accepted
as evidence in Iranian courts. Such broadcasts violate Iran’s fair trial
obligations, including the presumption of innocence under article 14 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to
which it is a state party.
<br />
The ICCPR fair trial provisions also require Iran to guarantee
that all defendants should have adequate time and facilities to prepare
their defense and to communicate with counsel of their own choosing. The
UN Human Rights Committee has said that: “In cases of trials leading to
the imposition of the death penalty scrupulous respect of the
guarantees of fair trial is particularly important.”��Since June 14, the
date of the recent presidential and local elections, unofficial and
official sources have reported at least <a href="http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/1000000225-ihrdc-chart-of-executions-by-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-2013.html%22%20%5Cl%20%22.Uex4LNJO_PY">71 executions</a>.
In 2012 Iran was one of the world’s foremost executioners, with more
than 500 prisoners hanged either in prisons or in public.
<br />
“Four men are facing the gallows after a judge brushed aside
their statement that their confessions were coerced,” said Gissou Nia,
Executive Director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. “At
the very least, they deserve a fair trial and an impartial investigation
of the abuse they say was used to force them to confess.” <br />
<b>�For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Iran, please visit:</b>�<a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran">http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran</a>�<br />
<b>For more Amnesty International reporting on Iran, please visit:
</b>
<br />
http://amnesty.org/en/region/iran<br />
�<b>For more information, please contact:</b>
<br />
�In London, for Amnesty International, Sara Hashash (English,
Arabic): +447831640170 or +44-20-7413-5566; or press@amnesty.org and
Drewery Dyke (English, French, Persian) +447535587297; or
ddyke@amnesty.org <br />
In New Haven, for the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center,
Gissou Nia (English, Persian): _+1 203 772 2218; +1 203 654 9342
(mobile); or gnia@iranhrdc.org <br />
�In New York, for Human Rights Watch, Faraz Sanei (English, Persian): +1-212-216-1290; or +1-310-428-0153 (mobile); or <a href="mailto:saneif@hrw.org">saneif@hrw.org</a>
<br />
<b>�</b>In New York, for Human Rights Watch, Tamara Alrifai (English, Arabic, French, Spanish): +1-646-309-8896 (mobile); or <a href="mailto:alrifat@hrw.org">alrifat@hrw.org</a>
<br />
<b>�</b>In Beirut, for Human Rights Watch, Nadim Houry (English, Arabic, French): +961-3-639244; or <a href="mailto:houryn@hrw.org">houryn@hrw.org</a>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-50708437718765980632012-10-10T11:57:00.000+01:002012-10-10T11:57:12.052+01:00The UK Foreign Office reply to IMHRO letter with regard to recent persecution of Ahwazi Arabs <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Iranian
Minorities’ Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO)</span></b></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Ref.IMHRO.79</span></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">10.12.2012</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">UK Foreign Office in reply top concern raised by IMHRO
wrote” the British Government are deeply concerned about the continuing
persecution of the Ahwazi Arab minority living in Iran. Reports in June that
four Ahwazi Arabs were secretly executed in prison are deeply disturbing. The
fate of fifth person remains unclear”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">IMHRO observed that UK government supports human rights
globally and always supported minorities under suppression. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The letter continues” in July, a further five member of the
Ahwazi Arab minority were sentenced to death, with a sixth man facing a 20 year
prison sentence. Reports suggest they were tortures in detention. In his
statement of 24<sup>th</sup> of August, the foreign secretary said that the
Iranian government should know that its systematic attempt to curtail the
freedom of its citizens will not go unchallenged by the international community
and only adds to its isolation. He called on Iran immediately to commute these
death sentences, to stop torturing its citizens and to end the systematic
persecution of its ethnic minorities.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On ignoring UN special rapporteur, DR Shaheed reports and
recommendations, the UK foreign Office wrote” we too are disappointed that Iran
has not seized this opportunity to engage with the UN and has instead publicly
stated it will prevent<span> </span><span> </span>Dr Shaheed from visiting Iran”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On difficulty on relationship and dialogue with Iranian
government FCO wrote <span></span>“following
the attacks on the British embassy in Tehran on 29 November, bilateral
relations between the UK and Iran have dropped to the lowest levels possible
consistent with the maintenance of diplomatic relations. However, the British
government will continue to work with EU partners and the UN on human rights
issues such as those of the repression of the rights of Iranian Arabs” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">IMHRO strongly supports the British Government on its
courageous position for support for Human rights in Iran and elsewhere. Unfortunately
not many countries in the world in real terms care about human rights in Iran,
many foreign ministries are silent and not criticising Iranian regime human
rights record. IMHRO like to see more countries learn from the example of the
UK Government and take stands on human rights in Iran.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">IMHRO researcher Reza Vashahi told IMHRO <span style="font-size: small;">"</span>we hope that Iranian
government would change its behaviour toward Ahwazi Arabs and other minorities
in Iran, by fulfilling its international obligations toward Ahwazi Arabs, by
granting them freedom and stop persecution their political and human rights
activists<span style="font-size: small;">.</span> so far we did not see any sign of changing behaviour in Iran.
Reports that we are receiving indicating of wide spread suppression of torture
of Ahwazi Arabs, and continues of show trials of Ahwazi Arabs without access to
lawyers and with harsh sentence of death penalty.<span>" </span><span> </span></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-35048321856762267042012-06-19T15:14:00.002+01:002012-06-19T15:16:25.487+01:00al arabyah: Iran executes three detained brothers from Ahwaz region<div class="main_body" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GSDv6VV7BSM/T-CJqgCzjaI/AAAAAAAABVQ/OQHxxYsdgbQ/s1600/al-arabiya_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GSDv6VV7BSM/T-CJqgCzjaI/AAAAAAAABVQ/OQHxxYsdgbQ/s1600/al-arabiya_logo.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Iran executed on Monday three brothers from the Ahwazi Arab
community who were detained in April 2011 and were later sentenced to
death for allegedly killing a law enforcement official, a charge
dismissed by international rights groups as false. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The Brothers –Abdul Rahman Heidari, Taha Heidari and Jamshid Heidari –
were reportedly detained together with their cousin Mansour Heidari and
Amir Muawi during the unrest in the Khuzestan province.</span><br />
<div class="contentParagraph">
<div class="with-margin">
<span style="font-size: small;">Ahmad Haidaran, a relative of the
three brothers who currently lives in Turkey as a refugee, told Al
Arabiya that his family from Ahwaz informed him of the executions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Haidaran said he also confirmed the report in a phone call with the
family of the victims and that he heard crying and sobbing in the
background.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Amnesty International had urged the Iranian authorities last Monday to overturn the death sentences against the five detainees.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The right group released the statement after the prisoners were moved to
an unknown location over the weekend, indicating that they are facing
imminent execution.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">“The men were transferred out of the general section of Karoun Prison in
the south-western city of Ahvaz on Saturday, prompting concerns their
death sentences may be about to be carried out,” Amnesty reported.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Death row prisoners in Iran are generally transferred to solitary confinement shortly before their executions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Ahwazi Arabs, one of the country’s many minorities – who are mostly
Shiite Muslims like the majority in Iran – live mainly in the oil-rich
south-western province of Khuzestan and often complain of being
“marginalized and discriminated against in access to education,
employment, adequate housing, political participation and cultural
rights.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">In 2005, Khuzestan was the scene of mass demonstrations to protest Iran’s government policies. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">In a similar case in early May 2011, the Iranian authorities reportedly
executed at least eight Ahwazi Arabs - including Hashem Hamidi, believed
to be 16 years old – “for their alleged role in the deaths of a law
enforcement official and two others during clashes”.</span></div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-50846415288590392512012-05-25T11:47:00.003+01:002012-05-25T11:47:52.220+01:00The Guardian: In memory of Farzad Kamangar, Iranian Kurdish teacher<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pWsd8ZXigIA/T79jSWxYtwI/AAAAAAAABVE/I_eCjT9nfVU/s1600/guardian+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pWsd8ZXigIA/T79jSWxYtwI/AAAAAAAABVE/I_eCjT9nfVU/s1600/guardian+logo.jpg" /></a></div>
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This month marks the second anniversary of the execution of a primary school teacher, who paid with his life for refusing to make televised confession about<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/11/iran-hangs-a-little-fish/" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">a crime he didn't commit</a>.</div>
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Farzad Kamangar was 31 when he was detained by the security forces in July 2006 for allegedly collaborating with the Kurdish opposition groups. The government accused him of being "an enemy of god". His mother believes that her son's only crime was his 'Kurdishness' and his lawyer Khalil Bahramian maintained<a href="http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2010/05/iran-political-executions-indication-of-governments-insecurity/" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that "there was not a shred of evidence" against him</a>.</div>
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Interrogators in numerous prisons where Farzad was held for four years, put him through severe physical and mental torture to break his resistance. Farzad's letters and articles about the inhumane conditions inside prison helped to bring international condemnations from many organisations including UNICEF and the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://ei-ie.org/en/news/news_details/1449" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Education International</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>which represents teachers across the globe.</div>
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When the authorities realised that they could not break Farzad under torture, they decided to silence him for ever. In the early hours of the 9th May 2010, Farzad and four other prisoners were lead to the gallows. Contrary to Iranian law his lawyer and his family were not informed. Within a few minutes, his lifeless body was hanging from a noose in Evin prison in Tehran.</div>
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His death was another reminder to the Iranian people that the Islamic Republic maintains its grip on power through creating a climate of fear and disregarding its own laws.</div>
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Even in death, Farzad<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/10/kurds-protest-iran-executions" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>managed to unite</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the people of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iran" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Iran">Iran</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>as the Kurdish region went on strike and many mourned his death across the country and in the diaspora. Fearing more unrest, the Islamic Republic, contrary to the basic tenets of Islam, refused to hand over his body and those of his co-defendants, depriving their families of a dignified burial for their loved ones.</div>
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In his last message smuggled out of prison, Farzad<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://farzadkamangar.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=326:1&catid=2:000&Itemid=70" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">wrote</a>: "Is it possible to be a teacher where there is a drought of justice and fairness and not teach the alphabet of hope and equality?"</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-15135276369170432252012-05-20T19:52:00.001+01:002012-05-20T19:52:04.382+01:00ai: Ahwazi Arabs facing unfair trial, risk torture<div class="header" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UFDaUUv1fDQ/T7k88eeJFrI/AAAAAAAABU4/nD4BmO0s3zk/s1600/amnesty-logo+yellow.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UFDaUUv1fDQ/T7k88eeJFrI/AAAAAAAABU4/nD4BmO0s3zk/s1600/amnesty-logo+yellow.gif" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">UA: 137/12 Index: MDE 13/029/2012 Iran Date: 18 May 2012
UA: XXXXXXXXXX Index: XXXXXXXXX Iran Date: 17 May 2012 </span><br />
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</div>
<div class="aI_Urgent_Action_Top_Heading" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>URGENT ACTION
</b></span>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">AHWAZI ARABS FACING UNFAIR TRIAL, RISK TORTURE</span></div>
<div class="aI_intro_para" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div class="aI_intro_para" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Six members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority are due to go on trial in
Iran on 20 May. The men were detained without charge for almost a year
and all were arrested in connection with their activities on behalf of
Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority. It is feared they will not receive a fair
trial and may be at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.</b></span>
</div>
<div class="aI_Body_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The six men, all from Khalafabad in Khuzestan
province, south-west Iran, were arrested at their homes in February and
March 2011 in advance of the sixth anniversary of widespread protests by
Ahwazi Arabs in April 2005. Blogger <b>Mohammad Ali Amouri</b>, chemistry teacher <b>Rahman Asakereh </b>and teacher <b>Hashem Sha’bani Amouri</b> were arrested on 16 February. Teacher <b>Hadi Rashidi (or Rashedi)</b> was arrested on 28 February, and <b>Sayed Jaber Alboshoka</b> and his younger brother <b>Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka</b> were arrested in March.</span></div>
<div class="aI_Body_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="aI_Body_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The men are now held in Karoun prison in the
city of Ahwaz, Khuzestan province. At least four of them were denied
access to a lawyer for at least eight months after arrest. In or around
February 2012, they were all charged in separate five-minute court
sessions with the vaguely-worded offences of “enmity against God and
corruption on earth"<i> </i>(<i>moharebeh va ifsad fil-arz</i>),
“gathering and colluding against state security” and “spreading
propaganda against the system”. The charge of “enmity against God and
corruption on earth” carries a possible death sentence. They are due to
be tried before Branch 2 of the Dezful Revolutionary Court on 20 May
2012. </span></div>
<div class="aI_Body_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="aI_Body_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Mohammad Ali Amouri, who fled to Iraq in
December 2007and was forcibly returned in January 2011, was reportedly
tortured and otherwise ill-treated during his first seven months in
detention. Hadi Rashidi was hospitalized after his arrest, apparently as
a result of torture or other ill-treatment, and is said to be in poor
health. According to their family, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka lost 10 kg and
Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka experienced depression and memory loss as a
result of torture or other ill-treatment.</span></div>
<div class="aI_Body_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div class="aI_Body_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Please write immediately in Persian, Arabic, English or your own language:
</b></span>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Calling on the authorities to ensure that the men (naming them) are
tried according to international fair trial standards and without
recourse to the death penalty;</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Urging them to make sure that the men are protected from torture and
other ill-treatment, and that they are allowed regular access to lawyers
of their choosing;</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Calling on them to ensure that Hadi Rashidi and the other five men are given immediate access to adequate medical treatment.</span></div>
<div class="aI_Table_Heading" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div class="aI_Table_Heading" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 29 JUNE 2012 TO:
</b></span>
</div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">�</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Leader of the Islamic Republic
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">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
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Table_Heading" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">@khamenei_ir must ensure six Ahwazi Arab men are tried fairly”
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Salutation: Your Excellency</b></span>
</div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Head of the Judiciary</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">[Care of] Public Relations Office
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Number 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Tehran,
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Islamic Republic of Iran
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com (Subject
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Line: FAO Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani)
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Salutation: Your Excellency�</b></span>
</div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>And copies to:
</b></span>
</div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Secretary General High Council for Human Rights
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Mohammed Javad Larijani c/o Office of the Head of the Judicary. Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Address_Text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">South of Serah-e Jomhouri Tehran, Islamic
Republic of Iran Email: info@humanrights-iran.ir (Subject line: FAO
Mohammad Javad Larijani)</span></div>
<div class="aI_Table_Heading" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="aI_Text_Small_No_Line_Spacing" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
</b></span>
</div>
<div class="aI_Text_Small_No_Line_Spacing" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation </span></div>
<div class="aI_Text_Small_No_Line_Spacing" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Text_Small_No_Line_Spacing" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div class="aI_UA_Second_Heading" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>URGENT ACTION
</b></span>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">AHWAZI ARABS FACING UNFAIR TRIAL, RISK TORTURE</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">ADditional Information
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Additional_information_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">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.
</span></div>
<div class="aI_Additional_information_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="aI_Additional_information_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></div>
<div class="aI_Additional_information_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="aI_Additional_information_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Mohammad Ali Amouri fled from
Iran to Iraq in December 2007: he was said to have been sought by the
authorities for organizing protests during the widespread
anti-government demonstrations in April 2005. He was arrested in the
southern Iraqi city of Basra, charged with entering Iraqi territory
illegally and sentenced to serve one year’s imprisonment in al-‘Amara
prison. He completed his prison sentence (see UA 3/09, MDE 14/001/2009, 7
January 2009, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE14/001/2009/en)
and was forcibly returned to Iran in January 2011. He was arrested 20
days after his forcible return from Iraq. </span></div>
<div class="aI_Additional_information_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">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 people said to have been 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, preventing foreign journalists from visiting
Khuzestan. At least four Ahwazi Arab men reportedly died in custody
between 23 March and mid May 2011, possibly as a result of torture or
other ill-treatment. Others – including Hadi Rashidi - were hospitalized
around the same time, apparently as a result of injuries sustained from
torture or other ill-treatment. </span></div>
<div class="aI_Additional_information_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="aI_Additional_information_text" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Between 10 January 2012 and
the beginning of February, in the lead-up to parliamentary elections
held on 2 March, between 50 and 65 people were reportedly arrested in at
least three separate locations in the province; at least two deaths in
custody were also reported. Some Ahwazi Arabs, mostly in Shoush,
north-central Khuzestan, called for a boycott of the elections and
arrests in Shoush, 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”. In the
immediate lead-up to the 15 April anniversary, from late March until
mid-April 2012, at least 25 Ahwazi Arabs were reportedly arrested
following protests in cities across the province.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Name: Mohammad Ali Amouri, Rahman Asakereh, Hadi Rashedi, Hashem
Sha’bani Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Gender m/f: all m</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</div>
<div class="aI_Text_Small_No_Line_Spacing" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">�</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">UA: 137/12 Index: MDE 13/029/2012 Issue Date: 18 May 2012</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-23895275176611621672012-05-15T16:11:00.004+01:002012-05-15T16:11:33.728+01:00BBC: Israel's Iranian Jews caught in middle<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="byline">
<span class="byline-name"><span id="goog_64145571"></span><span id="goog_64145572"></span> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="byline"><span class="byline-name">By Beth Ryder</span>
<span class="byline-title">BBC World Service, Holon</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">An estimated 250,000 Jews
of Iranian descent live in Israel - most of them in the city of Holon,
just outside Tel Aviv. How do they feel about the threat of an Israeli
strike on Iran's nuclear programme?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Uri Nissani has little desire to return to the country of his birth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"I came to here in 1959 and have never been back. I may have been born in Iran, but I feel I am an Israeli." </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Now in his 60s, Uri helps to manage of one of the three
synagogues in Holon that are mainly frequented by Jews of Iranian
descent, and talk in the community is dominated by one subject: the
drum-beat of war. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"We love the people of Iran, but we don't love the regime,"
Uri says. "No one wants war, but if it comes to military action then I
would have to support it." </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="cross-head" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On the air waves</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="cross-head" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Across town on the lower ground floor of a suburban shopping
centre, Parviz Barhourder helps to run a full-time radio operation in
his native Farsi language. </span></div>
<div class="story-feature narrow" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17688877#story_continues_2"></a></span> <br />
<h2 class="quote">
<span style="font-size: small;">“If it comes between the hammer and the rock, what are we going to do? ”</span></h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="quote-credit">Parviz Barhourder</span>
<span class="quote-credit-title">Radio RadisIN</span></span>
</div>
<div id="story_continues_2" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div id="story_continues_2" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Every day of the week, Iranian
poetry, music, and politics can be heard blasting over the air waves of
Radio RadisIN, but the station has one overall aim - peace. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"Throughout history, until the current regime came to power,
there had been constant good relations between Iran and Israel. The aim
of our station is to re-establish that relationship," Parviz explains. </span><br />
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Since the station's establishment three years ago, a team of
38 Iranian-Israeli volunteers keep RadisIN streaming over the internet,
cable and satellite to a large national and international audience of
Farsi speakers. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The station takes calls, SMS messages and emails from
listeners in Iran, and one of the most commonly talked about subjects,
Parviz says, is the impact that Western economic sanctions are having on
the country.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"People talk about their weariness with the current situation
and tell us how they're having to store food and other life necessities
at home."</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Parviz is concerned about the impact military action could have on his Jewish friends who remain in Iran.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"I'm worried about them. If anything happens, the regime will take them as hostages," he says. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Iran
is home to the largest population of Jews in the Middle East outside of
Israel. Numbers have declined since the establishment of Israel in
1948, and the revolution which saw the overthrow of the Shah in 1979,
but an estimated 25,000 still live there. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">"We need to convince the current regime in Tehran to leave
their atomic project and become another normal country," says Parviz. </span><br />
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"As soon as they have access to an atomic bomb, a third world war will be created."</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He does not want to see war with his homeland, but - like
many in the community - he would ultimately support military action as a
last option. </span><br />
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"If it comes between the hammer and the rock, what are we
going to do? The window of opportunity is getting narrower and narrower
everyday." </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="cross-head" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Community crumbles</span></span>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Not far from studio, the Beit Koresh community centre for
Holon's Iranian population is closed and unfinished. There is a Persian
library, but this can only be accessed when the building is open - and
that is very rarely.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Standing outside, Kamal Penhasi - editor of Israel's only
Farsi-language magazine Shahyad - remembers the role the centre played
for him, arriving in Holon as a 16-year-old in 1979.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"The centre seemed so beautiful, we would come here every week - it was really important," he says.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But as Iranians have become more integrated in Israel, many
of the younger generation have lost interest - the community has just
not pulled behind the centre, says Kamal.</span></div>
<div class="story-feature narrow" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17688877#story_continues_3"></a></span> <br />
<h2 class="quote">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Here in Israel, we are free to say what we feel, but I know in Tehran they are scared”</span></h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="quote-credit">Rose Penhasi</span>
<span class="quote-credit-title">Student</span></span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div id="story_continues_3" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"Every Iranian in Holon knows about Beit Koresh - if we were united we could finish the project. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"But we are a wealthy people and everyone wants to be a manager." </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">These days, Iranian-Israelis are an integrated and
economically successful group. Shaul Mofaz, the newly elected leader of
the country's opposition Kadima party is Iranian-born for example. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Construction began on Beit Koresh over 30 years ago with the
financial aid of Iran's Shah - that was a time when relations between
pro-Western Iran and Israel were broadly warm. These days, it is illegal
for anyone with an Israeli passport to visit Iran. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Kamal longs to see the removal of the current regime but
thinks the most likely way for that to happen is for change to come from
within.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"The Iranian people, especially the youth, are capable of
bringing about political change, as we saw after the 2009 presidential
elections. We in the West should be willing to step in and help them
with financing, logistics, information and media support." </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="cross-head" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Iranian roots</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="cross-head" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">At the magazine's headquarters, a small shop just off the main
stretch in Holon, Kamal's 22-year-old niece Rose Penhasi says she is
worried for Iranian civilians. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"I'm afraid for students like myself in Iran. Here in Israel,
we are free to say what we feel, but I </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">know in Tehran they are scared."
</span></div>
<div class="caption" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="width: 224px;">Beit Koresh community centre was once a hub for Iranian-Israelis</span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Despite being born in Israel, Rose learnt Farsi at home before
speaking Hebrew, and still tries to maintain links with the country of
her parents. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"I used to be able to talk to people my age in Tehran via
internet chat rooms and social media, but these days government blocks
are making it increasingly difficult." </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Her interest in Iran is unusual amongst her peers. "When I'm
at home with my parents and grandparents, I feel 100% Iranian, but when
I'm out with my friends, I'm Israeli." </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"Most second generation Iranians have forgotten their roots," she says.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It is important, she says, for people to acknowledge the distinction between the Iranian people and the regime. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">"The civilians in Iran are not like the government and we need make sure they know that Israelis love and support them." </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Rose hopes to visit Tehran one day, to see the family home in
Amir Abad she has heard so many stories about, but in the current
climate this option is out of the question. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-48212450750483902512012-05-15T16:06:00.001+01:002012-05-15T16:06:05.699+01:00Pink News: Four Iranian men due to be hanged for sodomy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D95UheOwL94/T7Jwt8QIAwI/AAAAAAAABUk/C740DjyFZIE/s1600/pink_news_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D95UheOwL94/T7Jwt8QIAwI/AAAAAAAABUk/C740DjyFZIE/s1600/pink_news_logo.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Iran court sentence four men from the town of Choram, in the
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, to death by hanging for sodomy.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Four men named ‘Saadat Arefi’, ‘Vahid Akbari’, ‘Javid Akbari’ and
‘Houshmand Akbari’ are due to be executed shortly after their verdict
was approved recently by high court judges, according to a report from
the <a href="http://www.hra-news.org/1389-01-28-00-30-11/12226-1.html" target="_blank">Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA)</a> in Iran.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The four men are said to be from the town of Choram, in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province of Iran.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">According to HRANA and <a href="http://en.news.joopea.com/2012/05/12/-Four-Men-are-waiting-for-Execution-for-Having-Gay-Sex-in-Iran/" target="_blank">JOOPEA</a>, these four men will be hanged for sodomy according Shari’a law.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A gay activist based in Iran said: ‘Although being gay is not a crime
based on Iranian criminal law but this is the most clear statement
against same sex-acts in past months.’</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">He added that ‘there wereof our other men hanged in past five months.’</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">London based Iranian Human Rights Lawyer, Mehri Jafari said: ‘I am
horrified and saddened to have heard the news about these four men. Not
only with regards to the execution which is about to take place, but the
fact that is beyond our control.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">‘There are two important issues in this case; the location of the
alleged occurrence and the interpretation of the Sharia’ law that a
Hodud (strict Sharia punishment) is eminent. Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad
is one of the most undeveloped provinces in Iran and it is obvious that
a lack of access to lawyers and fair trial can be considered a serious
issue in this case. After this announcement it is very likely that the
execution will be carried out soon, and the remote location makes it
difficult to exert any influence on the process.’</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Mehri further pleaded: ‘I hope international organisations act quickly and effectively on this specific case.’</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Gorji Marzban chairperson of the Austrian-based Oriental Queer
Organization (ORQOA) said: ‘The recent death sentence for the four
Iranian men is a shocking reality and demonstrates the discrepancy
between Western and Islamic perception of queer life. The rhetoric of
announcement makes the link between same-sex sexual activity, or sodomy
with corporal punishment very clear. Last month the Iranian authorities
hanged a young man and the local news agencies/authorities were
intentionally unclear about the reason for the death penalty. In the
case of these four men we have a clear text attributing the reason for
hanging is sodomy.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">‘The judicial denial of same-sex relationships in Iran stems from its
relationship to Shari’a law and patriarchy. This is a warning signal
not only for the queer population of Iran but also for all types of
gender inclusive the heterosexuals who have sexual relations outside
marriage.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">‘The death penalty has failed to eradicate homosexuality from Iran
but it was successful to force queer people into the closets. Sooner or
later any Islamic community is obliged to integrate queer people. We
believe that Iranians should gain more gender equality and rights and
wholly condemn such an archaic sentence to murder which is inherently
unislamic!’</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its 2011 - <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/12/14/we-are-buried-generation" target="_blank">We are a Buried Generation: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities in Iran </a>-
stated that because trials on moral charges in Iran are usually held in
closed sessions, it is difficult to determine what proportion of those
charged and executed for same-sex conduct are gay and in what proportion
the alleged offense was consensual.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Because of the lack of transparency, Human Rights Watch said: ‘It
cannot be ruled out that Iran is sentencing sexual minorities who engage
in consensual same-sex relations to death under the guise that they
have committed forcible sodomy or rape.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The issue of the death penalty for same-sex acts is further compounded by the fact that <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/64119127/Iranian-Law-Regarding-LGBT-Issues" target="_blank">the Iranian legal code</a> does not differentiate between rape and homosexual acts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Furthermore, in many cases, it is often unclear whether the accused
has actually committed a sexual act or it is a mere accusation based on
some dispute. Even in the cases where the same-sex act has happened,
often it is not clear whether the individuals involved are actually gay
or it is an occasional act of sexual gratification.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Iranian Human Rights activists constantly note the fact that the two
genders are strictly segregated increases the tendency for same-sex acts
among the youth, in a phenomena that is also similarly known in single
gender prisons. Indeed this phenomenon happens throughout highly
segregated societies in the Middle East and North Africa.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-22262238153807681072012-05-15T16:03:00.001+01:002012-05-15T16:03:21.370+01:00Fox News: 4 Iran Guards killed in clashes with Kurd rebels<div class="article-text KonaBody" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="dateline">TEHRAN, Iran – </span>Four troops from
Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards have been killed in clashes with
Kurdish rebels in western Iran, the semi-official Mehr news agency
reported Wednesday. Eight others were wounded.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The fighting erupted outside Paveh, a town near the Iraqi border.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">There has been sporadic fighting in the mountainous regions on Iran's
border with Iraq and Turkey between Iranian forces and Kurdish rebels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">This was the most serious incident between the two sides since September.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The report said the Guard clashed Tuesday with armed members of the
Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">PEJAK, which is fighting for
greater rights in Iran.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">PEJAK is the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK,
which is struggling for autonomy in Turkey with an eye toward uniting
Kurds in the region.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Iran has accused the president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish
region, Massoud Barzani, of providing bases to PEJAK without informing
the central Iraqi government in Baghdad. Barzani has not responded
publicly to the charge.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Iran has also accused the U.S., Britain and Israel of seeking to
incite tension on Iran's borders to undermine the government in Tehran.
All three countries have denied that.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DgNHJJLJoAk/T7JvsGc_hVI/AAAAAAAABUU/iD9DEpEqnQM/s1600/Rudaw.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DgNHJJLJoAk/T7JvsGc_hVI/AAAAAAAABUU/iD9DEpEqnQM/s1600/Rudaw.gif" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In a press conference, U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria
Nuland called on the Iranian government to release Muhammad Kaboudvand, a
Kurdish human rights activist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Kaboudvand, from the city of Sanandaj (Sina) in Iranian Kurdistan,
was the head of the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization. He was
imprisoned for reporting on the conditions in Iranian prisons, including
the use of torture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The U.S. State Department has launched a campaign under the slogan
“Free the Press.” The initiative will continue until World Press Freedom
Day on May 3 [2012].</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">During daily press briefings, the department is highlighting the
cases of imprisoned journalists from around the world. Kaboudvand was
the journalist in focus on April 26 [2012]. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Nuland said, “Kaboudvand was reporting on torture in Iranian prisons
and now finds himself in one. In 2007, he was sentenced to 11 years in
prison for acting against national security.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Nuland called on the Iranian government to release Kaboudvand and 90 other journalists. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Parinaz Husseini, Kaboudvand’s wife, expressed gratitude to the State
Department for recognizing her husband. She told Rudaw, “The State
Department’s action will uplift my husband’s spirit and encourage him.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">She added, “This acknowledgment by the State Department will ensure
Kaboudvand that his struggles for Kurdish rights weren’t in vain.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In 1997, Kaboudvand and activist friends established the organization Union for Democracy in Iran.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">They issued a “message of the people” newspaper in both Kurdish and
Persian in 2003, with Kaboudvand acting as editor-in-chief. One year
later, he was arrested by the Iranian government and the newspaper was
suspended. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It was after his release in 2005 that Kaboudvand founded the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In 2007, he was charged for acting against national security for
establishing the organization and engaging in propaganda against the
state through his writings. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He
is currently serving time in prison in Tehran.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Parinaz Husseini has no hope that Iranian authorities will release
her husband. She says, “We appreciate the State Department and
international community’s efforts for my husband’s release. But I am not
optimistic that the Iranians will respect the international community’s
request. For a long time, we have been pleading with the Iranian
government to let my husband out for a few days so that he can see his
sick son, but they have ignored our requests.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">She added, “Kaboudvand himself is suffering from multiple health problems.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Husseini implores the Iranian authorities to respect prisoners’
wishes. She said, “They themselves are fathers. I beg them to consider
this request as fathers. The doctors believe our son’s spirit will
strengthen if he sees his father. But the Iranian authorities will not
allow this to happen even for one minute.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In 2009, the British Press Awards named Kaboudvand International
Journalist of the Year. He also received Human Rights Watch’s
Hellman/Hammett Award.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Local and international organizations, including Amnesty
International and Reporters without Borders, have called upon the
Iranian government to release Kaboudvand without any conditions.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-38059271700795438972012-05-15T15:58:00.001+01:002012-05-15T15:58:29.569+01:00VOA: Release Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-96pnyDJ_hEE/T7JvCSDow3I/AAAAAAAABUM/cIQtI0CZfSk/s1600/VOA_Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-96pnyDJ_hEE/T7JvCSDow3I/AAAAAAAABUM/cIQtI0CZfSk/s1600/VOA_Logo.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In advance of World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd, the U.S. State
Department has been highlighting cases of journalists around the world
who are suffering because they dared speak truth to power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> In advance of World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd, the U.S. State
Department has been highlighting cases of journalists around the world
who are suffering because they dared speak truth to power. One of them
is Kurdish-Iranian journalist Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand.<br /><br />Mr.
Kaboudvand was the editor of the weekly journal Payam-e Mardom and the
founder and head of the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan. He was
arrested in 2007, and reportedly held in solitary confinement for
months.<br /><br />State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland spoke of him at a press briefing:</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />“Kaboudvand
was reporting on torture in Iranian prisons -- and now finds himself in
one himself -- and also on human rights abuses against Iranian Kurds.
In 2008 he was sentenced to eleven years in prison for acting against
national security and engaging in propaganda against the state.”<br /><br />According
to his family and human rights monitors, Mr. Kaboudvand has had several
heart attacks in prison. Though physicians have recommended surgery for
complications with Mr. Kaboudvand’s heart, authorities have denied
temporary release for medical care. Before her own arrest and
incarceration, renowned human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh was his
lawyer. She said that “the most difficult conditions ever imposed on a
prisoner have taken place for Mr. Kaboudvand.” <br /><br />While all
independent journalists and civil society activists live under threat in
Iran, ethnic minorities like the Kurds are particularly targeted by the
regime. Human rights monitors say that at least 14 Kurdish Iranian
prisoners are on death row, and many other Kurdish journalists and
rights activists languish in prison.<br /><br />In the press briefing, State
Department spokesperson Nuland called on the Iranian government to
release Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand, along with the approximately 90
other journalists it is currently holding in Iranian prisons. The United
States, as President Barack Obama has said, will continue to speak out
“when fundamental human rights are denied, when freedom of judiciaries
or legislatures or the press is threatened.”</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-26359191412131500102012-05-15T15:56:00.001+01:002012-05-15T15:56:23.626+01:00JP: Iran reportedly hangs gay man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ABAQMXwOm8o/T7JuiNHlkXI/AAAAAAAABUE/FqUQDPx03xI/s1600/JerusalemPostLogo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ABAQMXwOm8o/T7JuiNHlkXI/AAAAAAAABUE/FqUQDPx03xI/s1600/JerusalemPostLogo.gif" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span id="lblBody">BERLIN – The Islamic Republic's campaign to execute gay Iranians is believed to
have resulted in the public hanging this month of a man identified only as “CH.
M.”<br /><br />According to an online report last week in Europe’s largest gay news
service, Pink News, Iran’s judiciary imposed the death penalty on Ch. M. in
Marvdasht, Fars province, on April 19 “for allegedly engaging in ‘sodomy’ with
another man.”<br /><br />Iran has ramped up over the years its persecution of the
country’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.<br /><br />The British <span style="font-style: italic;">
Guardian </span>earlier this month translated remarks from Grand Ayatollah Abdollah
Javadi-Amoli, who said, “Even animals... dogs and pigs don’t engage in this
disgusting act [homosexuality], but yet they [Western politicians] pass laws in
favor of them in their parliaments.”<br /><br />Stuart Appelbaum, a leading US gay
activist and head of a large trade union, wrote to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Jerusalem Post</span> by email
on Saturday: “The fact that Iran promotes and tolerates this kind of action
removes itself from the community of civilized nations. The entire world – gay
and straight – should be appalled.”<br /><br />Appelbaum added, “If members of the
LGBT community speak out about the Middle East and yet remain silent about the
horrific acts and statements coming out of Iran, they are culpable as
well.”<br /><br />Appelbaum is president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union, UFCW, and president of the Jewish Labor Committee.<br /><br />Pink News
reported that Gholamhossein Chamansara, the attorney-general of Marvdasht, told
the government-controlled Iranian Fars News Agency that a man (Ch. M.)
was sentenced to death because of his “despicable/heinous act that contradicted
Shari’a Muslim laws.”<br /><br />Yoav Sivan, an Israeli journalist who served on the
boards of Aguda – the Israeli Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Association
and the Jerusalem Open House and the Israeli board of the World Jewish Congress,
wrote to the Post on Saturday: “Unfortunately, we have become inured to hearing
such homophobic expressions coming from top Iranians. We should note that the
expression is not just homophobic but just as much anti-Western by describing
tolerance toward a minority as a shortcoming of Western politics. So Ayatollah
Abdollah Javadi-Amoli teaches two lessons. One homophobic directed primarily at
his audience at home, and one anti- Western that should be heard primarily among
us in the West.”<br /><br />Gay sex is punishable by death under Iranian ”so long as
both the active and passive partners are mature, of sound mind, and have acted
of free will.”<br /><br />According to Pink News, “the Iranian Human Rights
Activists News Agency (HRAN) stated that the reference to ‘despicable/ heinous
act’ indicates that the death penalty was carried due to same-sex acts. However
the judiciary regulatory office in Fars Province was unwilling to give more
precise information about the case and the type of sexual activities of the
executed man.”<br /><br />In an interview last week with the <span style="font-style: italic;">Die Welt am Sonntag</span>,
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commented on Iran’s human rights
record.<br /><br />“After all they stone women, they hang gays – this is a backward,
dark medieval regime that imposes its tyranny on its own people. Shoots them on
the sidewalk, goes into their homes, culls the Internet, takes people away at
night,” he said.<br /><br />Human rights activists, gay journalists, and LGBT
publications criticized Human Rights Watch for failing to focus on the rise of
persecution of gays in the Islamic Republic.<br /><br />The online publication
Queerty wrote an article titled, “Disgraced Human Rights Watch Director Scott
Long Quits...” back in the summer of 2010. Long had failed to publish a study
documenting intense repression of Iran's LGBT community.<br /><br />Writing on his
blog “A Paper Bird” in February, Long, whom critics also accuse of fanning
anti-Israel sentiments, continued to downplay violent repression of Iran’s
LGBTs, saying that Iran has “a unique genocide, the first genocide in world
history with no demonstrable dead.”<br /><br />After Long’s departure, HRW issued a
respected study in 2010 on the persecution faced by Iran’s LGBT
community.<br /><br />Long has praised anti-Israel advocates such as Sarah Schulman,
who claimed that Israel is mounting a “pinkwashing” campaign to promotes its gay
rights record to blunt criticism of the Jewish state.</span></span></h2>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-59628164250981005292012-05-15T15:37:00.000+01:002012-05-15T15:39:09.814+01:00UNPO Report Outlines Threats to Indigenous Peoples’ Cultural, Economic and Social Rights in Iran<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">UNPO Alternative Report to the UN Committee on Cultural, Economic and Social Rights highlights marginalization of indigenous ethnicities in Iran. </span><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">UNPO has submitted an Alternative Report to the UN Committee on Cultural, Economic, and Social Rights (CESCR) ahead of Iran’s review at the 49th Session in May 2012. This report to the Treaty Body monitoring committee underlines threats to the identity, culture, and opportunities for sustainable lifestyles faced by the Ahwaz Arab, Azeri Turkish, Kurdish, and Baloch peoples. </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Though Iran is commonly thought of as a Persian state, its population includes a large number of ethnic and linguistic minorities who are located in the peripheries of Iran; namely the Ahwaz Arab, Azeri Turk, Kurdish and Baloch peoples. These groups are highly diverse, but share common experiences of economic marginalization, political repression and denial of even the most basic of cultural rights. While abuses against activists, journalists, and members of the political opposition have been widely documented and discussed, the severity and pervasiveness of abuses against Iran’s minority populations, though well documented by international NGOs and United Nations human rights bodies, tend to receive significantly less public attention. </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Regional ethnicities are systematically excluded from many benefits of investment and development related to natural resource wealth, despite the fact that the principle of self-determination in that all peoples are allowed to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development, is enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and in the Iranian constitution. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Consequently, lands rich with natural resources provide a large source of wealth for the Iranian government while non-Persian ethnic groups who traditionally reside there experience disproportionately high rates of poverty, unemployment, and preventable disease due to poor or non-existent infrastructure. </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Non-Persian women face double discrimination as members of marginalized communities and as women in Iran, where laws specifically limit their rights. For example, women belonging to regional ethnicities are more likely to receive less legal assistance in an already corrupt and defunct judicial system. In a recent </span><a href="http://unpo.org/article/14039" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">UNPO Event on Minority Rights in Iran</a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, Ms. Monireh Sulemani, a representative of the Balochistan Peoples Party stated that, </span><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Three elements in my identity – being a woman, ethnically Baloch, and a Sunni – deprive me from having access to political participation, including standing as candidate for presidency in Iran. As persons of national minorities, we are doomed to face many kinds of discrimination from the day of our birth. </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Despite constitutional guarantees, in practice, the attainment of education is also a challenge for all non-Persian speaking communities. Because education in minority languages is severely restricted, as a result many ethnic Azeris are unable to read or write their mother language. In response to communities and activists advocating for more opportunities to learn their native languages, the Iranian government has charged individuals with “acting against the national security of the Islamic Republic and its territorial integrity.” Without education in their mother language, many non-Persian communities experience high school drop-out rates compared to Persian native Farsi-speakers. This problem is additionally compounded by the lack of or the poor conditions of school in regions populated by non-Persian ethnicities. </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">UNPO’s Report proposes a series of recommendations to be posited to the Iranian delegation at the 49th Session of the CESCR. They include</span><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Formally recognize the Ahwazi Arabs, South Azerbaijani, Baloch and Kurds as indigenous people, and respect the distinct rights to self-governance afforded to them by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ensure that profits from natural resources are reinvested in their respective communities </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women without reservation and bring national laws into conformity </span><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stop the use of screening that denies equal employment opportunities to certain categories of Iranians, including regional ethnicities and religious minorities </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fully implement Constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination in providing adequate housing and equal access of development resources for all citizens </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Address the significant disparity in health and environmental standards between regions populated by regional ethnicities and ethnic Persians </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Take meaningful steps to implement Article 51 of the Iranian constitution protecting the use of non-Persian languages in media and schools to ensure that ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities are able to enjoy their own culture and use their own language in media and schools </span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The full report can be downloaded here. Further information related to the review at the 49th Pre-Sessional Working Group of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can be found here. (</span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/cescrwg49.htm" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/cescrwg49.htm</a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">)</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-21857244861751906372012-05-13T21:15:00.002+01:002012-05-13T21:15:17.128+01:00Arab News: Sunnis in Iran under Persian ‘arrogance’ - (Part 2)<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
By <strong>ABDULLAH AL-SULTAN </strong></div>
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<strong>The Iranian Sunnis are treated with discrimination not only
at hospitals, courts, and other government services, but even in the
choice of names for their newborn babies.</strong></div>
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For instance, Sunnis are banned from
calling their sons with names such as Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, or Abdul
Rahman. This, in fact, amounts to a violation of the Iranian
constitution, which respects, at least in theory, the minority
community’s right to practice its religious rites. But in practice, the
government follows the ideology of the Al-Jaafari school of thought of
the Shiite Ithna-Asheri sect and discriminates between Shiites and
Sunnis. The government also makes deliberate efforts to rekindle the
historical conflict between Shiites and Sunnis with the aim of
exploiting the strife in its favor.</div>
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In a clear violation of the
provisions in the constitution the Sunnis are also facing severe
discrimination in the freedom to practice their religious beliefs and
hold to their national sentiments. They are denied of their right to set
up their own particular organizations to protect their interests.</div>
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The
methods of Iranian suppression of Sunnis include hounding them,
detention and assassination. The Sunnis of the Ahwaz (Arabistan) region
is a special target for oppression. Men and women of the opposition are
executed or lynched indiscriminately in line with a predetermined plan
to drive out the Sunni population of Ahwaz to other regions under the
slogan of Persian nationalism. Even some Shiites in Ahwaz are the
victims of oppression, only because they are Arabs.</div>
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The status of
Sunni scholars in Iran is far worse. Their lives are under the constant
threat of assassination. The two options they are left with are either
to embrace Shiism or flee. Their murders are arranged to appear as
traffic accidents. If anyone is lucky enough to survive an accident, he
would end up in some jail, if not exiled from the country. The
authorities are motivated by the hope that the oppressive treatment will
prompt Sunni scholars to embrace the Shiite school of thought as the
country aims to convert all people to the Shiite creed, or at least
reduce the Sunni population to a minimum. This is in fact a revival of
the policy followed by the Sawafids in the past.</div>
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It is reported
that Iranian intelligence service has a role in the oppression of Sunnis
and that the Iranian leaders including the supreme leader are informed
of such practices.</div>
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On the other hand the government always claims
that it has nothing to do with the suppression and persecution of Sunnis
and denies it or any Shiite leader ever issued an order to harass the
Sunni population. If the claim is true, the government’s silence on the
acts of violence and discretion against Sunnis, apparently, means that
its leaders are happy about such persecutions. The Iranian Sunnis are
weak because they are discriminated against and put under a siege like
situation.</div>
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It is surprising that Iranian government always claims that it stands by the weak and oppressed people in the world.</div>
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Is
it not true that “anyone who fails to do good to his own people will
not do good for others?” Are not the Sunni citizens of the country more
deserving to get their government’s care and attention and protection
from oppression more than anyone else outside?</div>
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If the
contradiction in the government’s deeds with its words refers to
anything, it is the Iranian hypocrisy. Even if Iran can deceive itself
with such claims, it cannot deceive the outside world any more.
Internationally approved political and civil rights are not applicable
to Iranian minorities, especially to Sunnis. The Sunnis have only a
symbolic representation in the country’s Parliament. The representation
does not reflect the real Sunni population. The election victory is
possible only for Sunnis who support the government.</div>
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Sunnis do
not have any high position in the government or presidency of the
republic, as Shiites alone are eligible for such positions. Religious
and national minorities particularly Sunnis in Iran and the people of
Ahwaz need the attention and support of international bodies for their
deliverance from the Persian arrogance.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-72306714712808608062012-05-13T21:13:00.003+01:002012-05-13T21:16:11.391+01:00Arab News: Sunnis in Iran under Persian 'arrogance' Part 1<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
By <b>ABDULLAH AL-SULTAN</b></div>
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<b>A common man may think that Iran is populated by a single
race or ethnic group, but in fact there are several ethnic groups other
than Persians in Iran.</b></div>
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They include Arabs, Kurds, Lurs, Baluchs,
Gilanis, Turkmen (Turkish), Gilakis, Azris and Mazandaranis besides
other smaller communities. The Persians are in a majority. Most of the
minority communities are living on the fringes of the country. Their
regions were annexed by Iran in the past.</div>
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Persians regard Sunni
Muslims as the second-rate citizens. Sunnis are made up mostly of
Baluchs, Arabs and Turkmen. The Shiite Iranian government treats them
with discrimination because of their Sunni identity. They are denied
their legitimate political, legal, constitutional, social, cultural and
economic rights. Their miseries multiply because of lack of support or
assistance from within or outside the country. The Sunnis had sided with
Khomeini in the revolution against the Shah of Iran. But he turned
against them after the revolution and refused to honor his promises made
to them.</div>
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Their presence in the areas close to borders of the
county strengthened their affinity to the countries of their origin.
Persians always drive the Sunni populations to the borders of the
country because of sectarian reasons. In fact, the policy of driving out
Sunni communities from central regions to distant border areas was a
policy adopted originally by the Safavid rulers. (Safavid dynasty ruled
Iran from 1501 to 1722.) The government’s policy till now has been to
cleanse major cities and central regions of Sunni communities and
relocate them to peripheral areas as much as possible.</div>
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The
20-million strong Sunnis are the largest minority accounting for 35
percent of the 70 million Iranian population. In fact, the number of
Sunnis is much higher than the official figures. However, they are
economically poor, less educated and live far away from the capital
city. Hated by the Shiite majority, the Sunni districts are neglected —
they lack utilities, basic amenities and other essential services.
Sunnis are even denied the right to build mosques or religious schools.
Building a Sunni school or a religious madrasa is considered an
unpardonable crime. Existing Sunni mosques are subjected to close
monitoring. Many of them were demolished on the pretext that they were
built for purposes other than worshipping or without a specific license
needed for a mosque. Some times a mosque is demolished on the pretext
that its imam has foreign allegiance.</div>
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On the other hand, Shiites
are allowed to build Husainiats (small Shiite mosques) inside Sunni
districts to the chagrin of the Sunni population.</div>
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Large cities
such as Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz do not have even a single Sunni
mosque. The official explanation is that Sunnis can pray at Shiite
mosques and it will promote unity among them (although a truth, in this
context it is a falsehood.)</div>
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While no Sunni mosques are permitted,
these cities have Jewish synagogues, Christian churches and
Zoroastrianism temples. This is nothing but the arrogant oppression of
the Sunnis (religions in Iran are Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Bahaism
and Zoroastrianism.)</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Iranians have a perverted and dictatorial
Shiite regime. Its domestic and foreign policies are based on strategic
politics, racist nationalism and sectarianism and the victims are
non-Persian Sunnis in that country.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-63604499490264775322012-04-26T11:14:00.002+01:002012-04-26T11:29:57.313+01:00IMHRO met with FCO<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Iranian Minorities Human Rights Organisation</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">23/04/2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">IMHRO representative met
with the officials from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London on
23<sup>rd</sup> of April. IMHRO raise the issues of human rights of minorities
with the Foreign office.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The UK government is
committed with defend of human rights and would continue to rise the concerning
human rights of minorities with Iranian authorities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In recent years number of
reports of human rights abuse in Iran increased. Ethnic and religious minorities
are widely supressed. Media is banned and foreign journalists are not allowed
to freely visit minorities are in Iran. </span></div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-87678165627451244452012-04-26T11:12:00.003+01:002012-04-26T11:29:51.931+01:00IMHRO attended Riḍván Baha’i festival in the UK parliament<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Iranian Minorities Human Rights Organisation</span></b></div>
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26/04/2012<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">IMHRO representative attended the Baha’i <span class="st">Riḍván </span>festival
reception in the UK parliament on 23<sup>rd</sup> of <span style="text-transform: uppercase;">A</span>pril. The meeting was in friendly atmosphere accompanied by
Baha’i musician singing from sacred Baha’i books.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Baha’i minorities are the most heavily persecuted religious
minorities in Iran. They have been persecuted for many years. However since
1979 revolution in Iran, pressure on Baha’i has increased. Many of the Baha’i follower’s
torture murdered or forced to live in exile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The deeper cause of persecution of Baha’i is based on the
facts that Iranian government officially inciting hatred against the Baha’i community
in Iran, encouraging mobs to attack them and do not persecute those who attack
Baha’i in Iran, and also Iranian intellectuals in opposition for many years has
kept silence toward persecution cases of Baha’i in Iran.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">IMHRO supports the freedom of religions in Iran and demand
freedom and equality for Baha’i population in Iran to be granted.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-57761116422160336222012-04-09T22:32:00.001+01:002012-04-09T22:35:48.379+01:00BBC: Iran 'blocks' official London 2012 Olympics website<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AuqhFA7ouMo/T4NVQkPhZzI/AAAAAAAABTk/wk2jtQ76dYk/s1600/bbc.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AuqhFA7ouMo/T4NVQkPhZzI/AAAAAAAABTk/wk2jtQ76dYk/s1600/bbc.gif" /></a></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Iran appears to have blocked the official website for the London 2012 Olympic Games.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Users in Iran have tweeted that they are unable to connect to <a href="http://www.london2012.com/">london2012.com</a> and are instead redirected to <a href="http://peyvandha.ir/">peyvandha.ir</a> - a site offering stories from Iran's official news agencies.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blockediniran.com/">Blockediniran.com</a> intermittently suggests Iran-based users are unlikely to be able to see the Olympics pages.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Iran's ministry of foreign affairs did not reply to a request for comment.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nima Akbarpour, the presenter of the BBC's Click Farsi programme, said such website bans </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">are not uncommon, but it is hard to know exactly who is responsible.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The blocking process in Iran is not related to a single specific organisation," he said.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"It happens every day - even affecting pro-government sites and blogs. The Iranian government's Internet Filtering Committee is in charge of the process, but individual judges can also order a web filter to be imposed."</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently ordered officials to set up a new body to co-ordinate decisions regarding the net.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div id="story_continues_2" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Citizens have also been told they would need to show IDs and give their full name when visiting an internet cafe.</span></div><div id="story_continues_2" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also discussed plans to create a "clean web" within Iran with its own search engine and messaging service.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Iran had previously signalled it might boycott the Olympics over claims that the official logo spells the word "Zion" - a Hebrew word used to refer to Israel or Jerusalem.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In February 2011 the Iranian authorities called for the logo to be withdrawn and the designers "confronted".</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">However, a follow-up letter later made clear its athletes would still "participate and play gloriously".</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Iranian weightlifting superheavyweight, Behdad Salimikordasiab, is expected to be among those taking part. </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He previously won gold in the Asian Games in 2010 despite being affected by swine flu.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-1441195818555837682012-04-09T22:28:00.001+01:002012-04-09T22:34:00.574+01:00UN: Iran executes anti-Islam citizens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hQ6iREA_8To/T4NUcMLBVwI/AAAAAAAABTc/KM51qyEIHzU/s1600/JerusalemPostLogo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hQ6iREA_8To/T4NUcMLBVwI/AAAAAAAABTc/KM51qyEIHzU/s1600/JerusalemPostLogo.gif" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">BERLIN – Iran executed 670 people in 2011, including more than 20 for offenses against Islam, a UN investigator said in Geneva on Monday.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The vast majority of people Iran executed in 2011 were convicted of drug offenses that do not merit capital punishment under international law, former Maldives foreign minister and current UN investigator Ahmed Shaheed said.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He also reported a wide range of violations by Iran of UN human rights accords, from abuse of minorities to persecution of homosexuals and labor unions.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shaheed was delivering his first report to the UN’s 47- nation Human Rights Council on the rights situation in the country since being appointed last year. Tehran dismissed it as a “compilation of baseless allegations.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“It is with great concern that I report the significant increase in the rate of executions in Iran from 200 in mid-September 2011 to over 600 executions by the end of the year,” Shaheed told the council.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By December 31, 421 executions had been announced and 249 secret ones had been reported to him by sources inside and outside the country.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Iran’s persecution of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who has been sentenced to death for creating a home-based church and questioning compulsory Islamic education for his children, surfaced in Shaheed’s statements.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In a report on the website of the Washington-based American Center for Law & Justice, Tiffany Barrans, the group’s international legal director, who is in Geneva, wrote while Shaheed did not mention the pastor’s case in his new report, he had urged Iran’s authorities to consider the release of “Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani who has been sentenced to death for apostasy....”</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ben Cohen, who has written about Nadarkhani’s case in the US media, wrote in an email to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Jerusalem Post</span>, “It’s certainly encouraging that there’s a growing international awareness of Pastor Nadarkhani’s case, as well as a growing consensus among democratic nations that his immediate release is essential.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cohen, who jump-started a media project on the plight of Christians in the Middle East, wrote, “The Iranian regime wants to prove that it can be responsive to outside concerns, they should heed these calls. Sadly, Tehran’s record up to now is hardly cause for confidence.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist and expert on Christians in the Muslim world, wrote the <span style="font-style: italic;">Post</span> by email, “After North Korea, Iran is the global leader in Christians’ persecution. Iran is committing a cultural genocide, a tabula rasa of anything is non-Islamic. But more shameful is the silence of the Western democracies, the NGOs and the institutionalized churches about the extinction of Christianity in the Middle East.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meotti, who is a journalist with<span style="font-style: italic;"> Il Foglio</span> and is working on a book on Israel and the Vatican, said, “The West should organize a campaign of political pressure with all the means it has. But I fear that Eastern Christians, along with the State of Israel, have been chosen as the sacrificial lamb of Western greed.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The UN Human Rights Council established Shaheed’s office and mandate last year, in a narrow vote, when Western and Latin American countries, with some African support, cooperated to create a special investigation on Iran. Cuba, Russia, China and others opposed the resolution.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Iran has refused to allow him into the country. In the council on Monday it described him as “incompetent.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shaheed, a veteran diplomat and founder of a human rights institute in the Maldives, said he had received videotaped testimony from witnesses to torture by Iranian security police and from relatives of young people who had been held in jail.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He told a news conference that were strong indications that many Iranians officially executed for drug offenses had originally been arrested for resisting the regime or similar offenses and had the narcotics charges added later.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A table in his report showed executions, a sentence that can also be handed down in Iran for homosexual relationships, had soared steadily to near 700 from just under 100 in 2003. In 2010, there were around 550 executions. Iran’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community has been decimated by the regime.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shaheed told journalists he hoped the council would vote to extend his mandate, originally set for one year, next week at the end of its month-long session. Diplomats say the outcome of a vote is likely to be close.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“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.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kenneth Sikorski, a Helsinki-based writer who has written about the repression of Christians in Muslim-majority countries on his website Tundra Tabloids, wrote the <span style="font-style: italic;">Post</span>, "In light of the Finnish newspaper, the Helsingin Sanomat's main article on Sunday, promoting the Tehran regime's propaganda that religious minorities in Iran live in relative peace, I would call on the EU and the US to submit a joint motion before the UNGA/UNSC for a vote for sanctions against Tehran, with the sole intention of bringing to the international media's attention of this man's plight."</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4355032788439954150.post-59650234188260462812012-04-09T22:22:00.001+01:002012-04-09T22:36:16.132+01:00HRW: Iran: Arrest Sweeps Target Arab Minority<div class="node-body" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-il-ljKIGovw/T4NTEKKSs4I/AAAAAAAABTU/I2SbYK2Cfl8/s1600/Hrw_logo+new.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-il-ljKIGovw/T4NTEKKSs4I/AAAAAAAABTU/I2SbYK2Cfl8/s1600/Hrw_logo+new.gif" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">(New York) – Iranian security forces arrested more than 65 Arab residents during security sweeps in Iran’s Arab-majority Khuzestan province since late 2011 according to local activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The Iranian government should immediately charge or release those arrested, Human Rights Watch said. Authorities should also investigate reports by local activists that two detainees have died in Intelligence Ministry detention facilities in the past week.<br />
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Reports by local activists about security sweeps in the towns of Hamidiyeh, Shush, and Ahvaz indicate that authorities carried out at least some of the arrests in response to anti-government slogans and graffiti spray-painted on public property expressing sympathy for the Arab Spring and calling for a boycott of </span> <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/iran"><u>Iran’s</u></a> parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 2, 2012. Human Rights Watch received information that Mohammad Kaabi, 34, and Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan, 19, died in detention facilities run by local intelligence officials in Shush and Ahvaz respectively, apparently as a result of torture. The local activists say that most of those arrested are being held in incommunicado detention.<br />
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“There has been a blackout inside Iran on this latest round of arrests targeting Arab protesters and activists,” said </span> <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.hrw.org/bios/joe-stork"><u>Joe Stork</u></a>, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should immediately divulge the reasons for the arrests, give detainees access to family members and lawyers, bring all detainees promptly before a judge, and hold anyone responsible for torture to account.”<br />
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Human Rights Watch expressed concern for those in custody. Based on past government actions some of those arrested could be at imminent risk of execution if they are convicted by revolutionary courts of national security crimes including terrorism or espionage, or face prosecution on such charges. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any charges that have been brought in these cases.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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According to several Iranian Arab rights groups, security forces have since November 2011 arrested at least 18 Arab men in Hamidiyeh, 25 kilometers west of Ahvaz, the provincial capital. The first arrest, on November 28, was of the prominent activist Hasan Manabi, an elementary school principal, and his brother Ghabel. A close friend of Hasan Manabi told Human Rights Watch that security and intelligence forces had arrested him numerous times since 2005. He said that Manabi, who had told the friend about torture and ill-treatment at the hands of intelligence officials following earlier arrests, had decided in late 2010 to seek asylum in Turkey.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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Manabi’s friend told Human Rights Watch that the Intelligence Ministry summoned and detained Manabi’s wife for several days to pressure him to return to Iran. Manabi returned in September 2011 and introduced himself to intelligence officials in Ahvaz, who interrogated him, then released him after several hours. But on November 28 intelligence agents raided Manabi’s home and arrested him and his brother Ghabel. The authorities have since accused Hasan Manabi of spying for the United States and the United Kingdom, in addition to having ties with Arab opposition groups operating in Khuzestan province.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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A local Khuzestan activist told Human Rights Watch that the latest round of arrests in Hamidiyeh began when security forces arrested nine Iranian Arabs on January 10 and four more on January 26 and 30. Most are between ages 20 and 28, and some had previously been detained for participating in demonstrations demanding more rights for Iran’s ethnic Arab minority. At least one has been released on bail, the local activist said, and several others have since been arrested.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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Authorities have also arrested at least 27 people in Shush, 115 kilometers northwest of Ahvaz, in recent weeks. A local activist there said that security forces, including plainclothes members of the Intelligence Ministry, initiated the arrests in response to anti-government slogans and graffiti spray-painted on public property expressing sympathy for the Arab Spring and calling for a boycott of Iran’s </span> <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/25/iran-new-assault-freedom-information"><u>parliamentary elections</u></a>, scheduled for March 2. The activist said that security forces set up checkpoints throughout Shush. After they arrested Jasim Kaabi, his daughter Khadijeh, and his son Mohammad in their home on January 21, he said “people became angry and poured into the streets.” In response, security forces arrested at least 24 men, most of them in their 20s, on January 25 and 26. The arrests took place in Ahmadabad, Khazireh, Davar, and several villages outside of Shush.<br />
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“For about four days [from January 25] Shush was effectively under martial law, which has since been lifted,” the activist said. “But the city is still under a heavy security presence.”</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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The local activist told Human Rights Watch that Mohammad Kaabi, who was arrested in Shush on January 21, died in custody at a local Intelligence Ministry detention facility. The local activist confirmed reports from other activists that on February 2 authorities from the Shush Intelligence Ministry office contacted Kaabi’s family and informed them that he had died. The official reportedly told the family that authorities had already buried Kaabi’s remains and there was no need for funeral services. They warned the family not to conduct a public mourning service for their son.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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Prior to news of Kaabi’s death, local activists told Human Rights Watch that 19-year-old Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan had allegedly died after being tortured on January 30 in an Intelligence Ministry detention facility in Ahvaz. A source close to Derafshan’s family told Human Rights Watch that security forces arrested Derafshan on January 26 for unknown reasons.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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On January 30, agents from Ahvaz’s Intelligence Ministry called Derafshan’s father and told them to come pick up him up, the source said. When his father arrived at the detention facility, he caught a glimpse of a body inside the ambulance parked there and asked if it was his son, but the authorities denied it. He followed the ambulance to Golestan hospital and discovered that the body in the ambulance was his son’s. The source told Human Rights Watch that Derafshan’s family saw signs of torture on his body, including bruises on his face, neck, waist, and ribs. The authorities claim that Derafshan died of natural causes.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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The source told Human Rights Watch that authorities have so far refused to return Derafshan’s body to his family.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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Local activists also told Human Rights Watch that intelligence agents have arrested at least 11 Arab men in and around Ahvaz since February 3. Security forces arrested another 10 Arab men, all of whom are members of the Sunni sect, on January 17, activists said. One of them told Human Rights Watch that security forces, many of them plainclothes agents, are present throughout Ahvaz and the situation there is very tense.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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Human Rights Watch has received the names of many of those arrested or killed, but has not been able to verify the circumstances of each arrest due to severe government restrictions on independent monitoring and reporting in the province. Human Rights Watch previously </span> <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/04/29/iran-investigate-reported-killings-demonstrators"><u>called</u></a> on Iranian authorities to allow independent international media and human rights organizations access to investigate allegations of serious rights violations in the province.<br />
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“Security operations in Khuzestan province since protests there last April have resulted in the largest number of deaths and injuries since the crackdown that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election,” Stork said. “With the province under an information blackout and the history of secret convictions and executions, we have reason to be very worried about the people the authorities have been snatching up and carrying off there.”</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<b>Background</b></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Khuzestan province, where much of Iran’s oil and gas reserves are located, has a large ethnic Arab population believed to number more than 2 million, possibly a majority of residents. Despite Khuzestan’s natural resource wealth, ethnic Arabs have long complained about the lack of socioeconomic development in the region. They also allege that the Iranian government has systematically discriminated against them, particularly in employment, housing, and civil and political rights.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The arrests in Hamidiyeh, Shush, and Ahvaz are the latest in an intense government security and media campaign over several years targeting Khuzestan Arab residents and activists. The government routinely alleges that Arab rights activists and protesters engage in terrorism and espionage, or are tied to armed Arab separatist groups. On December 13, 2011, Press TV, a government English-language station, aired a documentary featuring three Arab men who confessed before the cameras that they had carried out terrorist activities. The program alleged that the men – Hadi Rashedi, Hashem Shaabani, and Taha Heidarian – were part of a group called ‘Khalq-e Arab,’ supported by US and UK interests and foreign-based Iranian Arabs who fronted as human rights activists.<br />
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A source who knows both Rashedi and Shaabani told Human Rights Watch that the two men are among more than 10 others from the town of Khalafabad, located about 120 kilometers southeast of Ahvaz, who have been arrested and detained by authorities since January 2011. He said he believes the men were forced to confess to these crimes after being subjected to physical and psychological torture.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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In April 2011, Human Rights Watch documented the use of live ammunition by security forces against protesters in cities throughout Khuzestan province, killing dozens and wounding many more. No Iranian official has been held to account for these killings.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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Authorities also arrested several hundred demonstrators and rights activists, some of whom are still in detention, and executed at least seven Arab men and a 16-year-old boy in Ahvaz’s Karun prison between May 4 and May 7, Iranian Arab rights groups reported. Local rights activists have told Human Rights Watch that at least some of those executed had been arrested only weeks before, during the April protests. Activists say that at least four others died in custody between March and May. The authorities should open independent and transparent investigations into all alleged killings, Human Rights Watch said.</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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The April 2011 protests were held to mark the sixth anniversary of 2005 protests in Khuzestan, in which security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrators in Ahvaz and other cities and towns, </span> <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2005/05/09/iran-reports-ethnic-violence-suppressed"><u>killing</u></a> at least 50 protesters and detaining hundreds. The 2005 crackdown led to a cycle of violence throughout Khuzestan province, including several <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/06/25/iran-retry-ethnic-arabs-condemned-death"><u>bomb attacks</u></a> in June and October 2005 and January 2006 that killed 12 people. In response, the government imprisoned numerous activists it claimed were Arab separatists responsible for terrorist attacks against civilians and sentenced more than a dozen people to death on terrorism-related charges. Since 2006, authorities have <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/11/10/iran-halt-execution-ethnic-arabs-after-secret-trial"><u>executed at least 19 Iranians of Arab origin</u></a>.<br />
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<b>Names of People Reported Arrested in Khuzestan Province Since November 2011 (provided by local activists)*</b></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<u>Shush</u></span> <span style="font-size: small;">: Qasem Badavi, Jaajaa Chenani, Aadel Dabbat, Ahmad Dabbat, Ashur Dabbat, Faisal Dabbat, Kazem Dabbat, Ebrahim Heidari, Hamid Kaabi, Jaafar Kaabi, Jasem Kaabi, Karim Kaabi, Khadijeh Kaabi (female), Mohammad Kaabi (died in detention), Sajjad Kaabi, Ali Kenani, Abbas Khasraji, Mehdi Khasraji, Moslem Mazraavi, Morteza Mousavi, Hasan Navaseri, Mehdi Navaseri, Salar Obeidavi, Amir Sorkhi, Adnan Zoqeibi, Ahmad Zoqeibi, Osman Zoqeibi<br />
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<u>Hamidiyeh</u></span> <span style="font-size: small;">: Hasan Abiat, Jalil Abiat, Jamal Abiat, Aadel Cheldavi, Adnan Cheldavi, Karim Doheimi, Ali Heidari, Mohammad Adnan Helfi, Ghabel Manabi (arrested November 2011), Hadi Manabi, Hasan Manabi (arrested November 2011), Seyed Faraj Mousavi (released on bail), Heidar Obeidavi, Khaled Obeidavi, Ayoub Saedi, Emad Saedi, Abbas Samer, Eidan Shakhi<br />
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<u>Ahvaz (and vicinity)</u></span> <span style="font-size: small;">: Ahmad Afravi (Sunni), Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan (died in detention), Majid Bavi (Sunni), Abdolvahid Beit Sayyah (Sunni), Valid Hamadi, Qazi Handali Farhani (Sunni), Jamal Hazbavi (Sunni), Tofiq Heidari, Hamid Khanfari Batrani (Sunni), Hossein Khazraji (Sunni), Said Khazraji (Sunni), Jasem Marvani, Taher Moaviyeh, Mohammad Naami, Seyed Ahmad Nazari (Sunni), Aadel Saedi, Hossein Savari, Ali Sayyahi, Ali Sharifi, Sadoun Silavi, Khalaf Zobeidi (Sunni)<br />
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*This list is not exhaustive and Human Rights Watch could not independently verify whether the individuals listed remain in detention. </span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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