Brief info
Iranian Balochistan, is located in the south-east of Iran, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is in a strategically primed position, situated at the eastern flank of the Middle East, linking the Central Asian states with the Indian sub-continent and the Indian Ocean. Balochistan's coastal border starts from the Strait of Hormuz where the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf meet at Gwater, a small village divided between Iran and Pakistan. Some estimates put the Baloch population in Iran at over four million.
http://www.unpo.org/members/7922
There is a history of human rights violations against the Baloch people, stemming back to Reza Shah's, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, defeat of Balohistan's sovereign government and Iran annexed Balochistan, treating the Baloch people and their historical homeland as a colony.
The Baloch people's resistance is a natural response to the forceful assimilative policies of those who are different by language, culture, and religion. Policy of the Iranian authorities to the Baloch people has always been based on distrust, and therefore has imposed a tyrannical military and security approach.
There are attempts to destroy the
Balochi culture in various ways. Balochi the native language is
forbidden to be used as a formal means of communication; Baloch parents
are not allowed to name their children after Balochi historical legends
and Balochi linguists and writers are forbidden professions and are
harassed off organised activities. Consequently, despite of having high
IQ in childhood (http://www.unicef.org/iran/fa/layout-fa-web.pdf)
Baloch children loose self confidence, feel humiliated with weak
performance during their academic life. Under such educational
atmosphere many give up schools, leaving Balochistan with the highest
rate of illiteracy. This policy is coupled with the authorities'
enforcement of various social, religious and economical barriers of
narrowing the chances for Baloch students to the higher education.
Educated Balochs’ failure to compete in the job market is an obvious
result of such policies.Currently of the approximate 100,000 students at Balochistan University, only 3% are Balochs.
Demographic manipulation by facilitating economical, medical, social, cultural and security support to non Baloch people is a well-known and believable assimilative policy of migration to Balochistan. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/sto ... 0416_la-ahvaz-arabs.shtml . Unemployment ratio in Balochistan compared to its population is the highest in Iran. Balochistan's economical infrastructure is equal to zero. Civil servants and armed forces in Balochistan are predominantly non-Baloch, while also receiving higher pay for the same position. Consequently, the Baloch work force due to not being welcomed into neighbouring Iranian cities, have departed their home towns, and have been left with no choice but to seek low-income labouring jobs in the Gulf region's Arab countries.
Balochistan's neighbour, Afghanistan, is the main producer of narcotics in the region and is a centre/haven for international drug mafias' activities, aided by the region's official authorities. This has caused Baloch people a catastrophic social, cultural and economical regression, as well as political injustices. http://balatarin.com/permlink/2011/5/7/2497301. Balochs are struggling to have their human rights upheld on both sides of the borders. Moreover, the human right activists are easily branded as narcotic traffickers, and imprisoned, tortured, then executed.
From Thousands of shared borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, only Baloch families living in the border regions are cruelly divided by high and wide concrete border walls and ditches, which are created using the "Mini Dublin Funds" http://www.dchq.ir/html/index.php/mod ... de=thread&order=0&thold=0 .
The forceful and assimilative policies of the Iranian regime are systematically engineered towards a gradual cultural genocide by forcing the extinction of the Balochi language, music, clothing, traditional ceremonies, and even their Sunni religion. This is evident in how poor unemployed Balochs are persuaded to convert to sheism while receiving incentives such as better governmental posts, cooperative transports, shops,free mosques and religious schools construction even in areas with little shia population. Not only are Sunnis forbidden to build mosques in shia populated cities, but they are also pressurised to stop building mosques and religious schools in their own towns and cities. Furthermore, the few historical sunni mosques in big cities have been demolished, and such destruction has even occurred in Balochistan, with a majority Sunni populated province. Imposing control on mosques and religious schools in Balochistan, detention of religious activists, harassment, torture and even execution in public is a daily fear for Baloch people. Constitutionally, in Iran Sunnis are forbidden from high ranking positions of authority, even where in their historical homeland where Sunnis are the majority.( Article no. 15 of the Iranian Constitution). http://sobhe-omid1.blogfa.com/post-33.aspx
all types of media used to promote Balochi language is banned. Baloch people are not only deprived of having access to the governmental mass media, such as radio, television, news papers and electronic media but even are forbidden to set up their own non-governmental media and organisations. Harsh punishments will be enforced to those who are disobedient. For example, the (world's first?) blogger who was executed in Iran, journalist Mr Yaqub Mehrnehad Baloch, for promoting democratic human rights through civil right campaigns, and another blogger, Mr Sakhi Riggi, who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
The flagrant disregard of the law, human rights and patent discrimination against Baloch people in Balochistan are part of Balochi people's daily lives. There are numerous examples of target killings with no justice. A teenage girl in "Konarak" of Balochistan was raped and killed by Regime's armed forces (http://baluch.4mg.com/custom.html). in Zahedan a twelve year-old girl was shot dead at her door step in front of her parents by the regimes armed men (http://www.gwank.org/MAY09/roya_sarani_16_may.html) . A young driver was shot dead in a busy street in Sarawan city by armed forces. These are a few examples where the murderers went unpunished, despite public demonstrations and even killed demonstrators (http://www.iran-3.com/affiche.php?type=news&id=108).
Extra judicial killings in Iran have shown its ruthless face in Balochistan harsher than anywhere else in Iran. When the regime's extreme policies of suppression of Baloch people's religious and cultural beliefs are challenged by Baloch extremist resistance, such as Jundullah, young Balochs, including teenagers (http://www.balochvoice.com/Humain_rig ... _17_years_old_Baloch.html), are snatched from the streets and executed in public within a few days of their capture, without the normal procedures(http://www.unpo.org/article/9838). These are all clear/outrageous violations of human rights. There is a destruction of the Balochi community's livelihoods and creates a perpetual state of fear and torment. It is evident that a Baloch child is born victimised, at a huge disadvantage, treated as an inferior, and faces an extreme likelihood of a life of difficulty and torment.
Recommendations to the United Nations and its member states:
Continue the annual UN General Assembly resolution condemning violations of human rights in Iran.
Appoint a UN Independent Expert on nationalities’ issues, a UN expert to address the situation of human rights on freedom of religion or belief.
Other governments should use effective opportunities
to express concern for the situation of Iran's nationalities and religious minorities, including in bilateral trade contracts.
Urge the Iranian Government to:
Allow all religious minorities, freedom of religion and belief, allow religious communities to construct centres of worship.
Free all minority rights activists, human rights defenders, journalists and others who are currently imprisoned for their peaceful advocacy for their democratic and human rights.
Stop immediately the use of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
Officially recognize all Iranian nationalities’ languages and implement the right to teaching of their languages in schools.
Bring into action the right of nationalities to a free press and media to express their culture in their own languages.
Provide equal opportunities of educational, cultural and economic to all citizens regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender and beliefs.
Stop systematic manipulations of demography of all nationalities in Iran.
Human Rights Organisation of Balochistan
23,09,2011
www.balochdemocratic.com
balochhumanrights@gmail.com
