Preface

The correspondence that follows is an internal communication between  high-ranking members of Iran’s Armed Forces  and  Iran’s Minister of Agriculture.  This correspondence was intercepted and passed on to a human rights organization.  It has been translated from Farsi to English.

The document is a rare glimpse into the internal policy discussion within the ranks of the Iranian establishment.  It elucidates the government’s “Persianization” policies, geared towards eliminating the distinct national identities of minority groups within the country’s borders.  In this case, the policy is geared towards the Arab people of Khuzistan (Arabistan or Al-Ahwaz).  The Arab people have suffered under these policies since the time of the Shahs’ rule (between 1925 and 1979) and now suffer under the policies of the Mullahs’ Islamic Republic of Iran. 

The Ahwazi Arabs for Freedom and Democracy recently issued an open letter to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights regarding the plight of the Ahwazi Arabs.  To request more information, please email the Ahwazi Arabs for Freedom and Democracy at ahwazifdusa@hotmail.com.

AHWAZI DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE SYRIAN EMBASSY

Ahwazi groups will be staging a demonstration outside the Syrian embassy in London on 22 March against the Syrian regime's arrest and deportation of Ahwazi refugees.

Five UNHCR-registered Ahwazi refugees were arrested in Damascus last May and deported to Iran, although the Syrian regime deceived the United Nations for months by claiming that the men were safe in its custody (click here for further information). The men are now being brutally tortured and held in the Ministry of Intelligence's notorious Section 209, where most prisoners are slowly tortured to death.

This month, the Syrian regime arrested a further five or six UNHCR registered refugees and one other who had fled Iran after he was sentenced to death. Two of the men - Ali Bouazar and Kamal Nawaseri - are believed to have been illegally deported back to Iran by the Syrian government. One of those others believed to still be in Syrian custody is Afnan Yousuf Azizi Bani Toruf, who has reportedly been accepted for resettlement in Australia. He is the son of Yousuf Azizi Bani Toruf, a journalist and member of the Writers' Association (Kanoun-e Nevisandigan) in Iran. Yousuf Azizi Bani Toruf was arrested on 25 April 2005, after condemning the Iranian security forces' violent suppression of anti-government demonstrations in Khuzestan province. He was released on 28 June 2005, but remains in Iran.

Ahwazi organisations are condemning the Syrian regime's involvement in Iran's persecution of Ahwazi Arabs and its assistance in political repression of Ahwazi rights activists.

Demonstration details:

Time: Thursday, 22 March, 13:00 - 15:00

Address:
Embassy of Syria
8 Belgrave Square
Belgravia
London
SW1X 8PH

Nearest Tube station: Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly Line)
Knightsbridge (Piccadilly Line)
Victoria (Victoria, District and Circle lines)

For further information, please contact the coordinators:
Hassan Radi: 0787 861 8967
Ali Torfi: 0798 430 0101
Rasoul Moshar: 0792 199 6779
Daniel Brett: 0795 855 3215

17 March, 2007

 Agence France Presse reported this speech on 19th October, 2005 under the headline “Iran foils ‘British plot’ to blow up refinery”

     We have not found any proof that Britain is not involved in the events in Ahwaz and we have not seen anything that would dissipate our doubts about that country,” Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday [18th October]. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior officials have said there is evidence of an Iranian connection to a series of deadly attacks on British troops in south­ern Iraq.

I.        Risk of arrest and imprisonment:

Arab Ahwazi opposition activity in Iran and abroad:

Official Iranian statements on the UK’s role in Arab unrest in Khuzestan after 15^th April, 2005;

Iranian Re-entry Procedures and the question of HMG’s understandings with the Iranian government on the

deportation of Iranians refused asylum in the UK;

II.      Risks of torture

Representative Citations on Torture in Ahwaz and Khuzestan;

Recent Representative Citations on Torture in Iran;

Detention and Torture of Families of those to whom opposition to the Iranian Government is imputed

 Agence France Presse reported this speech on 19th October, 2005 under the headline “Iran foils ‘British plot’ to blow up refinery”

We have not found any proof that Britain is not involved in the events in Ahwaz and we have not seen anything that would dissipate our doubts about that country,” Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday [18th October]. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior officials have said there is evidence of an Iranian connection to a series of deadly attacks on British troops in south­ern Iraq.

I.        Risk of arrest and imprisonment:

Arab Ahwazi opposition activity in Iran and abroad:

Official Iranian statements on the UK’s role in Arab unrest in Khuzestan after 15^th April, 2005;

Iranian Re-entry Procedures and the question of HMG’s understandings with the Iranian government on the

deportation of Iranians refused asylum in the UK;

II.      Risks of torture

Representative Citations on Torture in Ahwaz and Khuzestan;

Recent Representative Citations on Torture in Iran;

Detention and Torture of Families of those to whom opposition to the Iranian Government is imputed