The Birth Right to Truth and Justice
At present the illegally occupied Eastern and Western Balochistan are experiencing the worst type of violation of human rights by the Islamic states of Iran and Pakistan. Not a day goes by when we are not gifted with the mutilated bodies of our most open-minded and conscious members of our society. The victims are from all walks of life. The age range of victims is from the tender age of 12 years to the ripe old age of 80 years. Among them are university professors, lawyers, journalists, poets, writers, teachers, students, workers, shopkeepers, religious scholars, human rights activists and social workers.
The following will not escape the view of any objective observer if they visit Balochistan at this time. One cannot escape observing the presence of occupying security forces, the extreme poverty and the infinite desperation of a nation in its entirety. We will not be able, however, to understand the plight of the Baloch nation and its present predicaments unless we know its contemporary history. The current state of Balochistan, more than anything else, is a legacy of the British colonial policy.
The British forcefully occupied independent Balochistan on 13th November 1839. A few decades later they drew two arbitrary lines dividing the Baloch nation into three parts. The “Goldsmith Line” was drawn in 1871. This line divided Balochistan in two parts, Eastern Balochistan which remained under the control of the British and Western Balochistan which was given to the Qajar Dynasty who were in charge of Persia at the time. The “Durand line” was drawn in 1893 and with this line the British gave the Northern part of Balochistan to Afghanistan.
The Baloch succeeded in pushing the Qajar government out of their homeland before the end of the First World War. With the direct assistance of the British once again Western Balochistan was forcefully re-occupied by the Persian military dictator Reza Khan, the founder of modern Iran in 1928.
This is the root of most of the current problems in Balochistan. Subsequently, the occupying states have deprived the Baloch nation and its people from their true history. Instead, they have introduced a fake history and have persecuted anyone who has tried to explain the actual history of Balochistan. The counterfeited history has one and only one objective. It is designed to serve the interest of occupying states. When we look at Balochistan’s history impartially, this will allow the Baloch people to demand their democratic rights.
The British have long since left Balochistan but its colonial legacy has remained. Present colonisers of Balochistan are far more violent, corrupt, and intolerant. The fact of the matter is a forceful occupation and colonization of a free nation has never been, neither in the past nor at the present, ethically and politically a just and democratic act. Such act is now universally regarded as unlawful and unacceptable. Colonisation of a weaker nation is rightly looked upon as inhuman and undemocratic and against the rights and the interests of the nations being colonized. On this ground the colonization of Balochistan by the British in the 19th century was as illegal as the subsequent forceful annexation of Balochistan by Iran and Pakistan. The Baloch people have as much right as the people of other nations to be free from any form of colonization and forceful occupation.
Unlawful occupation of Balochistan, be it by the British or by the Islamic states of Iran or Pakistan, are the same colonial acts. These are repressive colonial acts that are imposed by foreign powers without the consent of Baloch people. On that account such acts have no legal validity to the Baloch nation.
Forceful occupation of a nation by its very nature is violent and undemocratic and hence unjust. Ever since re-colonisation of Balochistan by the states of Iran and Pakistan in 1928 and 1948 respectively Baloch people have been prohibited systematically in the use and development of their rich language, literature, culture, music, economy and their legal, moral and ethical codes and values.
Despite being strategically well-located and exceptionally rich in natural resources, Balochistan has been kept as one of the poorest nations in the world. Its natural resources have been plundered to finance the occupying states. The social and economic institutions in Baluchistan are deliberately kept at a very rudimentary level. Balochistan has been deprived of basic infrastructure. It has one of the highest rates of illiteracy, infant mortality and poverty in the world.
In western occupied Balochistan the Islamic regime of Iran spared no time in violating the rights of Baloch nationals. From day one of assuming political power it targeted progressive secular sections of Baloch society. It targeted those who could articulate the democratic demands of their people most effectively. For that, this section of Baloch society has paid a heavy price.
Here is a short list of some of these victims:
Amin Noraee, a sixteen year student, was killed by the Islamic revolutionary guards in (1980). Rahim Zard-kohi killed was killed (1980). Ali Reza Rahmani (Arshad) and Mohammed Abrahim Ashkan , two from the very few Baloch educated as engineers, were executed (1981). Cheragh Mohamadi, a high school teacher was executed (1981), Abdul Rahim Raieesi, a student of Balochistan University executed (1981) and Mohamed Gull Rigi, another student of Balochistan University was killed in Zahidan prison (1981). The teenage political activist, Khosro Mobarki, was executed (1981), Abdul Samad Hosainzahi, a teacher, executed in Zhidan (1981), Shafi Mohammad Zeluldini executed (1981), Akhardad Sopahi and Dr Sdigh Didawar were killed in their home by the Islamic guards (1981).
An unknown number of Baloch youths have been arrested and extra-judicially killed by Iranian security forces. Many have been abducted and have never reappeared. For some their executions have been announced but the bodies of the victims were not given to their families.
Western occupied Balochistan has always been one of the worst places in terms of enduring the most horrific types of violation of human rights by the Islamic regime’s security forces. These forces can act with complete impunity and native Baloch have nowhere to express their grievances. From 2004 onwards Western occupied Balochistan has suffered the highest concentration of death penalties and extra judiciary killings per population in the world.
During the period between 2004-2009 the Islamic regime of Iran executed about 1481 people, out of the total population of 75 million, according to Amnesty International annual reports on Death Sentences and Executions. In the same period the number of Baluch people being killed by the Islamic regime forces was about 800 persons out of a population of about three million. That figure indicates that about 55% of people being killed by Islamic regime of Iran during this period were of Baloch nationality. (International Voice for Baluch Missing Persons (U K) – 1 October 2010)
The first Web blogger journalist to be executed in the world was a young Baloch journalist from Western occupied Balochistan. The Islamic regime of Iran hanged Mr Yaghub Mehrnehad in August 2008. Mr Mehrnehad worked under the Islamic regime’s legal boundaries. He was given permission by the authorities but even the Islamic regime did not tolerate his cultural activities because he was a Baloch national.
Another Baloch web blogger Sakhi Regi (31 year old) was arrested by the Islamic regime security forces on 18 June 2009. Apparently he supported Mir Hassan Mossavi during 18 June 2009 presidential election. After the election he was abducted by the security forces and was taken to an undisclosed location in Zahidan. A few months after this, he was shifted to Kaaroon Prison in Ahwaz. Sakhi Regi has recently been charged for “propagating against the system” and sentenced to 20 years. He is married and has a young daughter.
Mohammad Saber Raiesee a Baloch teenager who was abducted by the Islamic security forces about 20 months ago is still kept incommunicado. He has been kept as a hostage for his brother’s alleged involvement in anti government activities.
On 4 May 2011, Habibullah Marjani, one of the Baloch religious scholars, was arrested and taken to an unknown location by Islamic security forces. He has neither been charged nor his family been allowed to visit him.
Extra judiciary killings of Baloch youths under various pretexts is still ongoing at full pace. On 14 May 2011 the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in Zahidan (the Capital City of the Western occupied Balochistan) killed yet another Baloch youth, Rahmoc Sohrabzahi.
On 1st June 2011 the regime executed 36 years old Abdul Hammid Regi at the notorious Ovin prison. Mr Regi was arrested with his uncle Mohammad Regi some months ago. For the last eight months they were kept incommunicado and the family of the victim was not allowed to visit him before his execution took place.
Arrest, imprisonment, torture and killing of Baloch political and human rights activists by the Islamic regime of Iran are extremely alarming. Sadly, it has become a norm of everyday life experience of Baloch nationals. Compounding this problem is the unprecedented extent of corruption and discrimination that Baloch people are subjected to by the regime security forces and authorities. There is not a section of society that is not suffering from this social malaise too. The most incompetent, corrupt and religious fundamentalists are usually sent to Balochistan and these authorities, as expected, have the least regard to the native rights or their well-being.
Corruption is one of the most defining characteristic of any closed, tyrannical and oppressive political establishment. This immensely destructive social and political malaise has systematically been used by the colonial and occupying forces to destroy the social, political, economic, legal and moral fabric of nations under their domination. Moreover, it is used as a weapon to undermine the political struggle and economic wellbeing of the subjugated nations. Rulers of the Islamic regime of Iran have exploited this destructive tool against the Baloch to its full power.
One recent case can illustrate clearly the extent of the Islamic regime’s endemic corruption in Balochistan. It must be said that this case is only the tip of the iceberg. It is an example of what the vast majority of Baloch people, in western occupied Balochistan, have been saying about the regime, all along, for years.
On 7 May 2011 Hamd Zahid Shakhi, Chairman of Sistan and Balochistan’s Judiciary Public Relations, was caught smuggling 450 kilogram of opium and 50 kilogram of heroine at Sa-hal Abad. Mr Shakhi is an ex-Islamic revolutionary guard. Ironically, he was a leading member of a special branch to fight against illicit drugs trafficking in Balochistan. Mr. Zahid Shakhi and his brother had lead Mr Ahmadinajad’s presidential election campaign in Balochistan. The fall of Mr Shakhi’s fortune is said to be as result of the recent power struggle between the ruling factions of the Islamic regime.
Political, economic and human rights conditions in Balochistan are very grime. These conditions are created by occupying forces. We believe political and social problems cannot be resolved with more arrests, prisons, torture and killings. More pains and violence will only create more hatred and hostility. We believe that there is always a more compassionate and democratic solution to political and social conflicts. We believe the way forward is respecting and applying the principles of human rights, freedom and democracy, and the rule of law. This means respecting and implementing the rights enshrined in the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
What Baloch nationals want most is their basic birth right. They strive to end the forceful subjugation of their homeland and to live in a secular, civil, open, tolerant and democratic society, where all free individuals are respected and treated as equals under the rule of law.
The legal and moral legitimacy of the political system that governs Balochistan, therefore, stems from the decision of the people of Balochistan, in a free and democratic general election, under the authority of UN officials, held and observed by other independent bodies and international media.
We call for an immediate release of all political prisoners and a full account of the fate of all disappeared persons. We call for personal freedoms, a multi-party political system, and the freedom of speech and a free press.
8 / 6 / 2011
