|
Iran-Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2007- U.S. State Department
To read full report click this
link:
Iran-Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2007- U.S. State Department
........................
There were reports that the
government and its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.
Baluchi groups in the southeastern province of Sistan va Baluchestan alleged
numerous executions during the year after reportedly unfair trials for
attacks against government officials. A September Amnesty International (AI)
report estimated that authorities executed at least 50 Baluchis since the
beginning of the year, almost all following the February 14 bombing in
Zahedan of a bus carrying members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC), which killed 11 IRGC members. On February 15, the militant
opposition group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack. Many of
those executed following the bombing made televised "confessions" of
responsibility, which Baluchi groups alleged were extracted under torture.
According to AI, Baluchi groups alleged that authorities sought to dispel
the appearance of ethnic targeting by taking Baluchis to other provinces to
execute them after human rights groups drew attention to the rise in
executions of Baluchis.
On June 13, according to AI, Vahid Mir Baluchzahi was found dead in Zahedan,
Sistan va Baluchestan province, after going missing on February 14, the same
day the bus bombing killed 11 IRGC members in the same province. At year's
end the government had not initiated an investigation.
During the year the government executed at least 11 Ahvazi Arabs in
Khuzestan province in connection with bombings in that province in 2005 and
2006. NGOs and human rights groups outside the country condemned the
executions, stating that the accused did not receive fair trials. On January
10, three UN independent experts released a joint statement condemning the
executions. Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on
extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions; Leandro Despouy, the UNSR
on the independence of judges and lawyers; and Manfred Nowak, the UNSR on
torture, jointly called on the government to halt the imminent executions of
seven Ahvazi Arabs and grant them fair and public hearings. The UNSRs
alleged that authorities used torture to extract the confessions of the
accused, and that defense lawyers were not allowed access to the accused
during trial and were themselves threatened with charges of "acting against
national security." It was not known if all seven were executed at year's
end.
During the year there were reports of other killings by government forces.
For example, on May 16, members of the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF)
reportedly shot and killed 11-year-old Roya Sarani, according to eyewitness
reports cited by AI. LEF forces reportedly stopped her father's car as he
was driving her and her brother home from school and opened fire for unknown
reasons. LEF forces also reportedly wounded Roya's brother, Elyas, in the
incident.
.........................
Sunni Muslims are the largest
religious minority, and the constitution provides them a large degree of
religious freedom. Sunni Muslims claimed the government discriminated
against them, although it was hard to distinguish whether the cause for
discrimination was religious or ethnic since most Sunnis are also ethnic
minorities, primarily Arabs, Baluchis, and Kurds. As an example of
discrimination, Sunnis cited the lack of a Sunni mosque in Tehran, despite
more than a million Sunni inhabitants.
Members of the country's non-Muslim religious minorities, particularly
Baha'is, reported imprisonment, harassment, and intimidation based on their
religious beliefs.
..............................
In general the government did
not discriminate on the basis of race, disability, or social status;
however, it did discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, and
ethnicity. It consistently denied minorities their constitutional right to
study and use their language in schools, particularly Kurds, Azeris, and
Ahvazi Arabs. The poorest areas of the country were those inhabited by
ethnic minorities, including the Baluchis in Sistan va Baluchestan Province
and Arabs in the southwest. Much of the damage suffered by the citizens of
Khuzestan Province during the eight-year war with Iraq has not been
repaired; consequently, the quality of life of the largely Arab local
population was poor.
|