Balochistan Peoples Party

www.balochpeople.org/eng

nasser.boladai@balochpeople.org

February 2006

Persistent Human Rights Violation by Iranian regime in Balochistan, 2006

The policies of the Iranian Government in Balochistan are characterised by human rights abuses and discrimination against the Sunni Baloch people. In the last two years the Iranian intelligence agencies, Security Forces have increased the execution by hanging especially of Baloch young men whom they accuse of being members of the Baloch resistance movement.

In addition to many security forces and intelligent agencies, a paramilitary group known as “Mersad”, (meaning Ambush) which operates under direct order of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamanei, is also active in Baloch areas. What differentiates this group from others is its licence to kill. They choose their victims randomly, creating a sense of insecurity in Balochistan, especially among young men. For this group the whole of Balochistan has become a hunting ground, in the recent months it has been responsible for many shootings and beatings in Balochistan.

Baloch resistance movement, unlike regimes forces avoid using violence against civilian, this have disarmed regime, to label Baloch resistance forces as terrorist, hence the authorities in Iran deliberately mixed the fight against drugs with the suppression of the Baloch national movement. Amnesty International reported in 1991 that “in Balochistan a clamp down on the Balochi national movement appears to have been coupled with the continuing campaign against drug-trafficking, blurring the distinction between prisoners detained for political activities and those arrested for participation in illegal smuggling activities.[i]”  The regime still deliberately mixes the fight against drug trafficking with its operations against Baloch dissidents, political forces, and armed resistance. It continues to execute, hang, or shoot to kill Baloch political activists, accusing them of drug trafficking and executing them without any trial.

The Committee for Defence of Human Rights in Iran-Sweden report on executions in Iran shows that the Baloch are over-represented compared to Baloch populations in Iran. This report is not exhaustive, since its source are mostly the regime’s own media sources. There is a more intensified and rigorous censorship against the news from Balochistan. Most killings in Balochistan do not occur in prison, the regime’s security forces are given a free hand to kill Baloch without answering to anybody, so they do not see the need to put Baloch on trial and execute them in prison. This report only mentions executions in the regime’s prisons. It does not report on the random killings by the paramilitary group Mersad and other security forces [[ii]].

Whilst the international community and the world media focuses on the regime’s uncompromising stance on the nuclear weapons issue, the Islamic regime takes advantage of the crisis to suppress the Baloch people, a nation that has collectively rejected the Shia regime of Iran and is against its chauvinistic policies.

In the last months the Shia regime has increased the execution by hanging and killing of Baloch youth charging them as trouble maker and it is beginning to use the phrase Mofesed-o-fel-Arz (meaning Corrupter of the society, whose Blood can be spelled) and “Moharebeh”, a religious term that describes someone who wages war on God. The charge Moharebeh is often applied to those accused of armed resistance to the state.

In  the Decmber 2006, the intensity of the Baloch resistance movement, in the last two years forced the regime’s revolutionary court in Dozaap (Zahidan) the capital city of Balochistan to admit that the security problem which have political character are in increase in Balochistan[iii].

Some recent specific cases of human rights violations and repressive policies of the Iranian regime are:

1.  On December 25^th three men Mohmmed Shabakhsh, Changez Narui and Ali Baghri were hanged in public in Dozaap (Zahidan), they were accused of being "Mofsed-o-fel-Arz" and “Moharebeh”. The charge Moharebeh is often applied to those accused of armed resistance to the state. They were convicted without trail.

2.  On the 4^th of December 2006 Ali Gaghri and Mohammad Shabakhsh were hanged accused of being "Mofsed-o-fel-Arz"  and “Moharebeh” without a trial.

3. On the December 4th Shaikhi Jamshed and Sabaki Eisa were executed by hanging in public in Dozaap (Zahidan), they were accused of kidnapping without trial.

4. On the 5^th of November, Mohammad Askani a political prisoner was executed by hanging in Pahra (Iranshahr), accused of armed attack against President Ahmadinezhads Convey in 2005 in Balochistan, without a trial. Another man Najibollah Qayoumi was executed by hanging in public accused of trouble making and drug trafficking in Pahra (Iranshahr), with out a trial.

5. Mohebali Gholamian Moqaddam was executed by hanging in Zabol on 2th November, accused of drug trafficking without a trial.

6. On 1th of the November men identified as Hadi Daryakesh Naroui and Azizullah Najjarian were executed by hanging in public in Dozaap (Zahidan) for instigating trouble without a trail.

7. On Monday 30^th of October 2006, 6 men identified as Mohsen Sargolzae, Nader Kaharazahi, Majid Kahrazahi, Behzad Naroui, Mohammad Amin Hormozi and Abdullah Sheikh Hassani were hanged in Public in Dozaap (Zahidan) charged trouble makers and Mofesed-o-fel-Arz.

8. Mersad Group in the 5^th of October attacked from distance the house of two brothers Satar and Adam Druzahi and killed them in the village Modgeli in the Bamposht district of Saravan.

9. In the last week of october three Baloch young men - two brothers and a cousin - belonging to the same Baloch family Balochzahi, were arrested without charge by members of the Mersad Group. They were beaten, tortured, and towed behind a car. Later they were shot to death. They were between 19 to 25 years old.

10. On 23 September 2006, 4 men identified as Shah Mohammad, Nader Rigi, Abdol Ali Baloch, and Mohammad Shakib, were executed by hanging. These were also accused of being members of a local resistance group.

11. On 24 September 2006 three men, identified as Ali Karimi, Gholam Koohkan and Khodamorad Lashkarzadeh, were executed by hanging in prison in provincial capital Dozaap (Zahedan). These dissidents were also executed on the charge of drug smuggling without a trial.  

12. In early September Gholam-Reza Rigi was executed by hanging in public in the Town of Saravan, charged for instigating public arrest, again, there was no trial.

13. On 24 August 2006, a young man Amir Hamzeh Eidouzehi, was executed by hanging in public in the Baloch town of Khash. Another young man Ali Jan Moradi was executed by hanging in public in Phara (Iranshahr) on 27 August 2006. Both of them were accused by the authorities of instigating public trouble and drug trafficking without any trial. 

14. On 23 August 2006, members of the Mersad group attacked a village near the Balochistan capital Dozaap and killed two young men in front of women and children, who were forced out of their homes to search for the members of resistance movement and weapons. The two young men had protested at the treatment of the women by the Mersad group.

15. Between 15 - 17 August, 4 men identified as Mehdi Zehri, Houshang Kiani, Jamaloddin Jamali and Abdol-Rahman Safarzhai were executed by hanging in public in the city of Zabol and on 12 July 2006 one Majeed Rigi in Dozaap (Zahedan) the provincial capital of Balochistan. The five were accused of “instigating trouble” and executed without a trial. In different random attacks in villages in the Pahra (Iranshahr) district five people were killed by the Mersad Group. 

16. During July - August 2006, while the Iranian regime was planning its latest war game, which started in Balochistan on 19 August 2006 and then expanded to most parts of the country populated by non dominant nationalities, the regime’s security forces stepped up their campaign of shootings and killings, executions and public hangings of young Baloch men. A young Baloch man was killed while driving his car in the road between Zabol and Dozaap (Zahedan). In Nikshar members of the Mersad group shot and killed a young Baloch man.

17.  June 20, 2006, a man (Gholam Qaljaee) was executed by hanging in a prison in the city of Zabol. He was accused of drag trafficking, again an accusation that regime uses to execute dissidents in Balochistan.

18. The Iranian regime, due to its oppressive character, is accusing the Baloch people of cooperation with United States and Great Britain, instead of employing negotiations and other peaceful means to end the resistance. On 15 May 2006 the regime used this accusation to launch a military operation in a large area of the northern and southern parts of Dozaap, Balochistan’s provincial capital. During these operations no encounters between Baloch resistance forces and Iranian army have taken place. The regime’s forces have bombed civilian areas using helicopter gunships, resulting in the deaths of innocent Baloch people in both villages and the mountains.  More than 20 civilians have been killed with many more injured, and the people have also suffered enormous damage to their property.

19. Two young Baloch men that were working as gasoline sellers on the road between Dozaao (Zahedan) and Bam were involved in a car accident. Mersad group were the first to arrive at the scene. An identity check of the injured revealed tah they were ethnically Baloch and Sunni, so instead of receiving assistance, they were shot on the spot.

20. On Monday 10th of April 2006, three Sunni Baloch clerics, Molavi Nea'matulla Mirbalochzahi, Molavi Abdul Hakim Gamshadzahi, Molavi Abdullah Narui and their two associates were killed in a mysterious car accident. The so-called accident happened in a way that the target car travelling from Dozaap was hit by an empty unmarked bus which was occupied only by its driver and his assistant travelling from Kerman (500 kilometers from Dozaap). Having experienced this way of killing opponents by the Shia regime many times over the last decade the Baloch people are questioning this so-called accident and holding the Iranian intelligence services responsible for this suspicious killing.

21. On 22 of January 2006 in the Balochistan capital three teenagers Abdullah Nutizhai aged 15 years, Ruhala Nutizhi aged 16 years and Masoud Shabaksh aged 18 years were riding on a motorbike to visit their cousin in hospital. The regime’s security forces approached them from behind and deliberately hit the motorbike. When these youngsters fell to the ground the security forces shot them while grabbing their half dead bodies and beating them with the stock of their guns. Two of them were killed at the scene and Ruhala Nutizhi sustained severe injuries and was taken to hospital by witnesses where he was admitted for treatment. Again no one has been prosecuted.

22. In the first week of January 2006 in the city of Raask in Balochistan two young students driving a car failed to obey an order to stop by so-called security forces. The security forces chased them while shooting at them in a crowded area. During this shooting the two young men in the car and another passer-by were killed and another person was injured.  After witnessing this crime Baloch people attacked the main police station where the situation got out of hand. The city Mayor and elders of the city intervened and returned the situation to normal. However, up till now, none of the perpetrators has been prosecuted.