حزب مردم بلوچستان Balochistan People’s Party بلوچستانءِ اُستمانءِ گــَل
02.02.2008
QUETTA: Security personnel raided the Quetta residence of Baloch nationalist
leader Nawab Khair Baksh Marri early on Friday and whisked away his watchman,
a Marri tribe spokesman said.
The Organisation for Marri Unity spokesman said plainclothesmen were also
among the team that arrived in 30 vehicles and searched the room of Nawab
Marri’s son Nawabzada Herbyair Marri, who is currently detained in the UK.
“The security personnel damaged many household articles during the raid.
They blindfolded and whisked away the security guard after failing to find
anything illegal from the house,” the spokesman said. He alleged that the
raid was carried out on the instructions of intelligence agencies to defame
the Baloch leadership. Biburg Baloch, a spokesman for the banned Balochistan
Liberation Army (BLA), confirmed the raid, and said that security forces had
started a new military operation in the Marri areas wherein “dozens of
people have been killed, several injured and a large number of the Marri
tribesmen have been whisked away”.
“Security forces have been bombing the Kahan area. Ground troops are also
operating in the Marri areas. Unarmed Baloch people are being victimised,”
he told Daily Times via satellite phone from an unknown location. He said
the BLA would react to the recent incidents. “There is no reality in the
government’s claim that insurgents’ camps have been eradicated. For the past
four years, the government has been claiming that it had destroyed 63 camps
of Baloch freedom fighters and that only 3 to 4 are still operating,” he
said, adding that the BLA’s operation had been expanded across the province.
However, there was no official confirmation about the raid on Nawab Marri’s
house or the ground operations in the Marri areas. malik siraj akbar
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/
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Iran's Executions Condemned by European Parliament
02 February, 2008
The resolution was adopted with 559 MEPs voting in favour, 52 against and 44
abstaining. The European Parliament said it "protests vehemently against the
execution in Iran on 31 January 2008 at 4 am local time of the Ahwazi
activist Zamel Bawi, the 19th Ahwazi activist executed in the last twelve
months, and urges the Iranian government to desist from executing the Dutch
citizen and human-rights activist Faleh Abdulah al-Mansouri and the UNHCR-registered
refugees Rasoul Ali Mazrea and Said Saki, whose resettlement to Norway has
been secured, as well as to allow them to proceed to their countries of
citizenship or refuge."
Of the MEPs present at the vote, 96% of the centre-right European Peoples
Party MEPs, 97% of the Socialist MEPs and 100% of the Liberal MEPs voted in
favour of the resolution. As such, the three main political groupings were
near-unanimous in their condemnation of the execution of Zamel Bawi. Just
over half those voted against belonged to the Communist group and a quarter
were Greens, including the
The charges against Zamel Bawi and others include hoisting the Ahwazi flag,
giving their children Sunni names, converting from Shi'ism to Sunnism,
preaching "Wahabbism", and being "Mohareb" or enemies of god, which carries
death sentence. Other charges are "destabilizing the country", "attempting
to overthrow the government", "possession of improvised explosives",
"sabotage of oil installations" and being a "threat to national security."
Last year, Emadeldin Baghi, a leading Iranian human rights activist, in a
letter to the chief of the judiciary Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, argued
that the trials of Ahwazi Arabs, including the trial of Zamel Bawi, were
flawed, the charges baseless, that the sentencing was based on a spurious
interpretation of law and that no evidence has been presented (click
here for details). Mr. Nkbakht, a prominent defense lawyer in
"I love my father; I want to grow up with a father who cares for and loves
me. I want him to hug me, console me and feel for me... [My father] speaks
for freedom ...
"People of the world, innocent children of the world, please include your
voice with mine so that I can be heard loudly and say: do not kill my
father. Please call with me for his release, my call alone is not enough
since I called and cried many times alone, but I could do nothing. Please
help me so that I can stop the execution of my father and the fathers of
other Ahwazi children. Please, please, please."
Responding to Zamel Bawi's execution, the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO)
said: "This new wave of executions is designed to intimidate and terrorise
the indigenous Ahwazi Arab population into submission. Although the Ahwazi
Arab homeland in
According to Daniel Brett, chair of the British Ahwazi Friendship Society:
"The Iranian government is not only executing innocent men, it is killing or
jailing entire families in its attempt to terrorise the Ahwazi Arab people.
We know that the entire family of Ahwazi psychologist Dr Awdeh Afrawi have
been executed, murdered or imprisoned; Dr Afrawi himself is currently dying
in prison, being deliberately denied the medication he needs to survive.
"The Nasseri and Bawi tribes appear to be key targets, due to the fact that
their lands are oil-rich and members of these tribes have been heavily
involved in opposition to the government's land confiscation programme and
its forced displacement of Arabs."
http://www.ahwaz.org.uk/2008/02/irans-executions-condemned-by-european.html
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Iran's Repressed Turkmen Minority
14 February 2008
Human rights monitors are
concerned over the reported detention of hundreds of ethnic Turkmen by
Iranian authorities. The detentions followed the killing of an ethnic
Turkmen fisherman, Husamettin Khadivar, by Iranian maritime security
officers on December 28th.
According to the U.S. State Department, about two percent of Iran’s
population, over one-million-three-hundred-thousand people, are ethnic
Turkmen. Mr. Khadivar was fishing without a license in the Caspian sea near
the Iranian city of Bandar-e Torkman.
Abdulgafur Setaesh is Director of the Center for Human Rights of Turkmenstan
of Iran, a Canada-based human rights monitoring group. Mr. Setaesh said
friends and relatives of the young fisherman protested the killing to
Iranian military authorities:
“After two days of mourning, four-hundred or five-hundred people goes to
Chapaqli military center [base] and asks why? This is an eighteen-year-old
young person. Why did you kill him? Now his family is without any food.
Here, as usual, they [Iranian authorities] started to hit people.”
Mr. Setaesh said Iranian security forces attacked the crowd. According to
Amnesty International, “dozens of Turkmen protestors are said to have been
injured, and two-hundred to three-hundred were arrested in villages in the
region.” Amnesty International said the detainees were reportedly not told
the reason for their arrest.
According to Amnesty International, “scores, if not hundreds of Turkmen have
reportedly been taken to Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchistan province, possibly to
make it harder for families to find out what has happened to them.” Amnesty
International says two of the detainees, Jamshid Arazpour and Haji Aman
Khadivar, are believed to be held incommunicado in Golestan province and
“are at risk of torture.”
President George W. Bush said, “Iran’s rulers oppress good and talented
people.” Mr. Bush said that the U.S. “message to the people of Iran is
clear: we have no quarrel with you. We respect your traditions and your
history. We look forward to the day when you have your freedom.”
http://www.voanews.com
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14.02.2008
Aktivist dømt til døden i en urettferdig rettssak
Menneskerettighetsaktivisten Ya’qub Mehrnehad ble dømt til døden i en lukket
rettssak tidlig i februar. Det er ikke kjent hva han var tiltalt for og han
har angivelig blitt torturert i fangenskap. Han har fått frist til den 17.
februar for å anke dommen. Send appell og krev hans løslatelse!
Status: Aktiv
Baluchi cultural and civil rights activist Ya’qub Mehrnehad was sentenced to
death in early February, for an unknown offence, after an unfair trial
conducted behind closed doors. He has allegedly been tortured. His appeal
before the Supreme Court has been scheduled for 17 February, denying him the
minimum 20 days normally given in Iran for him to prepare his appeal.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in
Persian, English, French, Arabic or your own language:
- calling on the authorities not to carry out the death sentence against
Ya’qub Mehrnehad;
- asking for details of the charges against Ya’qub Mehrnehad and his trial;
- expressing concern at reports that Ya’qub Mehrnehad has been tortured, and
has lost 15kg and cannot keep his balance as a result, and reminding the
authorities of their responsibility to ensure that he has access to adequate
medical treatment;
- stating that Amnesty International recognizes the right and responsibility
of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but
opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishment.
PLEASE SEND COPIES OF APPEALS TO:
Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran
H.E. Dr. Abdul Reza Faraji Rad
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Drammensveien 88 E
0244 Oslo
Fax: 22 55 49 19
Email: iremb@iran-embassy-oslo.no
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme
Leader,
Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street, Tehran, Islamic
Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah
Shahroudi)
Salutation: Your Excellency
President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic
Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
(via website) www.president.ir/email/
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat,
or your section office, if sending appeals after 25 March 2008.
http://www.amnesty.no/web.nsf/pages/2C3483C104046EC1C12573EF004811CC
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Ya'qub Mehrnehad
(m), aged 28, member of Iran’s Baluchi minority
MDE 13/038/2008 - UA 38/08 ;
Source URL: http://www.isavelives.be/en/node/918
Baluchi cultural and civil rights activist Ya’qub Mehrnehad was sentenced to
death in early February, for an unknown offence, after an unfair trial
conducted behind closed doors. He has allegedly been tortured. His appeal
before the Supreme Court has been scheduled for 17 February, denying him the
minimum 20 days normally given in Iran for him to prepare his appeal.
His trial began on 25 December 2007 before a court in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province. This may have been a special court set up in the city in May 2006, and it is unclear if it operates as a branch of the Revolutionary Court it would be governed by the General and Revolutionary Court procedures, but it may be operating outside that framework. Furthermore, in June 2006 it was announced that a “special judicial complex for security affairs” had begun work and that a recommendation had been made to the Judiciary to establish a branch of the Supreme Court in the complex in order to expedite the implementation of sentences and to reduce the time between the commission of crimes and the implementation of sentences. Amnesty International is concerned that Ya’qub Mehrnehad may be in imminent danger of execution.
Ya’qub Mehrnehad is the head
of a government-registered NGO, "The Voice of Justice Young People’s
Society", which specializes in organising events such as concerts and
educational courses for young Baluchi people. He was arrested in early May
2007 along with six other members of the association after they attended a
meeting in the Provincial Office of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which the
Governor of Zahedan reportedly attended. The six other men were later
released. The exact reasons for his arrest are not known although some
newspaper reports in July 2007mentionned that a man identified as Ya’qub M.
was being detained on suspicion of "aiding Abdolmalek Rigi", the head of a
Baluchi armed group, Jondallah, also known as the Iranian Peoples’
Resistance Movement.
Five months after his arrest, Ya’qub Mehrnehad was allowed visits from his
lawyer and his family, who said afterwards that he had been tortured, had
lost about 15kg and was unable to keep his balance.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Iran’s Baluchi minority live mainly in the south-east of the country, and
are believed to make up between one and three percent of the total
population of around 70 million. Mainly Sunni Muslims, they have for many
years complained of discrimination by the authorities.
Jondallah has carried out a number of armed attacks on Iranian officials and
has sometimes taken hostages and killed them. It reportedly seeks to defend
the rights of the Baluchi people, though government officials have claimed
that it is involved in drug smuggling and terrorist activities and has ties
to foreign governments.
Attacks by Jondallah have been followed by widespread arrests of members of
the Baluchi minority. According to a 15 March 2007 BBC report,
Sistan-Baluchistan television said that at least two people had been hanged
in connection with a 14 February 2007 attack on a bus carrying Revolutionary
Guards. At least 17 other people are reported to have been either sentenced
to death or executed in connection with a March 2006 attack in Tasuki, in
which up to 22 people were reportedly killed. In an interview with the
Iranian newspaper ‘Ayyaran on 17 March 2007, parliamentarian Hossein Ali
Shahryari said prisons in Sistan-Baluchistan province held more than 700
people under sentence of death. In 2007, at least 312 people were executed
in Iran, and the true figure may be considerably higher. There was a marked
rise in the number of Baluchis executed. For further information please see:
Iran: Human Rights Abuses against the Baluchi Minority, MDE 13/104/2007,
September 2007:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/104/2007 [1].
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please
send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, French,
Arabic or your own language:
- calling on the authorities not to carry out the death sentence against
Ya’qub Mehrnehad;
- asking for details of the charges against Ya’qub Mehrnehad and his trial;
- expressing concern at reports that Ya’qub Mehrnehad has been tortured, and
has lost 15kg and cannot keep his balance as a result, and reminding the
authorities of their responsibility to ensure that he has access to adequate
medical treatment;
- stating that Amnesty International recognizes the right and responsibility
of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but
opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishment.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic : His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali
Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar
Doust Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir [2]
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary : Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir [3] (In the subject line write: FAO
Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Minister of Intelligence : Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie
Ministry of Intelligence, Second Negarestan Street, Pasdaran Avenue, Tehran,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
President : His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir [4]
(via website) www.president.ir/email/ [5]
Speaker of Parliament : His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Baharestan Square, Tehran, Islamic Republic of
Iran
Fax: +98 21 3355 6408
Email: hadadadel@majlis.ir [6] (Ask for your message to be passed to the
Article 90
Commission)
Ambassade de la République islamique d’Iran : Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 15
1050 Bruxelles
Fax : 02.762.39.15 /Email : secretariat@iranembassy.be [7]
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat,
or your section office, if sending appeals after 25 March 2008.
----------------
Links:
[1] http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/104/2007
[2] mailto:info@leader.ir
[3] mailto:info@dadgostary-tehran.ir
[4] mailto:dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
[5] http://www.president.ir/email/
[6] mailto:hadadadel@majlis.ir
[7] mailto:secretariat@iranembassy.be
Amnesty International Belgique francophone - Rue Berckmans, 9 - 1060
Bruxelles. Tel: 02/538.81.77.
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Land Mine Blast Kills 4 Pakistan Troops
17-02-2008
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A military pickup truck struck a land mine that
killed four troops and wounded two others Sunday in Pakistan's
insurgency-hit southwest, police said. A rebel group claimed responsibility
for the attack.
The explosion occurred along a dirt road in Baluchistan province near the
tribal town of Dera Bugti, where the troops were on a routine security
patrol guarding a gas well, said local police chief Najmuddin Tareen.
The pickup was carrying seven troops when it hit the land mine, triggering
an explosion that killed four of them at the scene. Two others were wounded,
one seriously, Tareen said.
A little-known insurgent group called the Baluch Republican Army claimed
responsibility for the attack, according to a purported spokesman for the
group. He said the explosion was set off by a remote-controlled bomb that
targeted the troops and claimed 12 troops were killed.
"We did this because they have occupied our homeland. Our struggle against
the occupiers will continue," the spokesman, Sarbaz Baluch, said in a
telephone call to journalists in the southwestern city of Quetta.
Authorities have said rebel tribesmen operating in the area target security
forces with rockets and land mines.
Troops have been deployed in the rugged area to guard key gas wells and
pipelines. Rebel tribesmen resent the troops' presence in their territory
and have been blamed for attacking gas installations in a campaign to press
demands for an increase in gas royalties.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iFtKpSTg4V7vfYdTuZgxFSA097qQD8US5IHG1
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Kosovo declares
independence
17-02-2008
The streets of Pristina
were crowded in anticipation of declaration of independence [Reuters]
A special session of Kosovo's parliament has voted to declare independence
from Serbia, with thousands of ethnic Albanians jamming the streets of
Pristina, the main city, for the historic moment.
After deputies voted on Sunday for a formal proclamation, Hashim Thaci, the
prime minister, said "from today onwards, Kosovo is proud, independent and
free".
He said: "We, the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through
this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state.
"Our hopes have never been higher. Dreams are infinite, our challenges loom
large, but nothing can deter us from moving forward to the greatness that
history has reserved for us."
Thaci said Kosovo will be "a democratic, secular and multi-ethnic state",
and "will never be ruled by Belgrade again". He, however, vowed to maintain
friendly relations with Serbia.
All 109 deputies present at the session voted in favour of independence with
a show of hands.
Eleven deputies from ethnic minorities, including Serbs, were absent.
Scenes of celebration
Across Pristina, revellers danced in the streets, fired guns into the air,
waved red and black Albanian flags and honked car horns in jubilation at the
birth of the world's newest country.
Ninety per cent of Kosovo's two million people are ethnic Albanian - mostly
nominal Muslims who are secular - and they see no reason to stay joined to
the rest of Christian Orthodox Serbia.
"Kosovo is a republic - an independent, democratic and sovereign state,"
Jakup Krasniqi, the parliament speaker, said as the chamber rang with
applause.
Krasniqi, Thaci and Fatmir Sejdiu, the president, signed the declaration,
which was scripted on parchment. Later, the flag of independent Kosovo was
unveiled in parliament.
It depicts a yellow outline of the nation on a dark blue field, accompanied
by six stars.
Thaci has signed 192 separate letters to countries around the world -
including Serbia - asking them to recognise Kosovo as a state.
Pristina expects countries, including the US and several EU members, to
announce their recognition on Monday.
Russian rejection
Russia, a key ally of Serbia, denounced Sunday's declaration and called for
an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
In a statement, the foreign ministry said Russia supports Serbia's "just
demands to restore the country's territorial integrity", and wants the
Security Council to renew efforts to reach a settlement on the issue of
Kosovo's status.
Kosovo had been run by a UN mission since 1999, when a Nato bombing campaign
drove out forces loyal to Slobodan Milosevic, the late Serbian president,
after an armed conflict with ethnic Albanian fighters.
On Friday, Kosovo's parliament convened to approve a procedure to adopt new
laws that would come into effect upon independence, including measures to
guarantee the safety of Serbs.
The EU on Saturday launched a 2,000-member police and judicial mission to
help facilitate Kosovo's transition to independence.
Lieutenant-General Xavier de Marnhac, the commander of Nato peacekeepers in
Kosovo, said his troops "will react and oppose any provocation that may
happen during these days, whether from the Albanian or the Serb side".
Serb rejection
North of the river Ibar, ethnic Serbs of Kosovo held a day of prayer and
protest to demonstrate they will never accept the act of secession by ethnic
Albanians.
For his part, Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian prime minister, criticised on
Sunday the West for backing the independence declaration.
He said: "The president of the United States, who is responsible for this
violence, as well as his European followers, will be inscribed in the
history of Serbia with blackletters, but also in the history of
international law on which the world's order is based.
"Today, on February 17, the fake state of Kosovo was illegally proclaimed on
[Serbia's] territory under the control of Nato. This was an act of legal
violence."
The previous day, Boris Tadic, Serbia's new president, issued a similarly
defiant statement.
"Serbia has reacted and will react with all peaceful, diplomatic and legal
means to annul this act committed by Kosovo's institutions," he said.
"Serbia will not resort to violence and it is the only approach which can
enable us to continue our legitmate fight to preserve the integrity of our
country."
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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First Balochi Satellite TV broadcast on 22th of February 2008
According to Baloch TV
committee, the Balochi language program will be broadcast on Gunaz TV (www.gunaz.tv
), the first program will
be on 22th of February 2008.
Time
17:00 hours on Dozaap (Zahedan) time West Balochistan/Iran
18:30 hours on Shaal (Quetta) East Balochistan/Pakistan
You can watch Balochi TV (GunAzTv) on HELLAS SAT 2, EUROBIRD and Telstar 12
Satellite: HELLAS SAT 2
FREQ: 11512
HORIZONTAL 39* (EAST)
Satellite: EUROBIRD 25.5*
(EAST)
FREQ: 11585
VERTICAL
Satellite: Telstar 12
15* (WEST)
FREQ: 12614
VERTICAL
Baloch TV committee
بلوچی تی وی کمیتی
Balochitv@gmail.com
February 2008