The Iranian regime arrests and tortures civil and peaceful campaigners in Baluchistan

Balochistan Peoples Front

1.5.07, London, UK

The Iranian regime arrests and tortures civil and peaceful campaigners in Baluchistan

"One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered." Michael Fox, actor.

Those who are arresting, torturing, hanging, executing and humiliating the Baluch people will never see the day that the Baluch surrender their dignity and rights. Hundreds of rulers have come in the region and tried to force the Baluch to surrender. They never succeeded. All those rulers are gone now and the Baluch people are still here and they will be here until this regime is gone and hundreds of regimes in the future will come and go. The Baluch people are here to stay firm, to stand tall and to star brilliantly in the battlefield that its opponents and enemies have generated. They will go forward and as Ferdowsi has said, "nobody will ever see their back, always facing the enemy head on. Nobody has seen their backs in thousands of years in the battlefield and nobody will see them surrendered in thousands of years to come.

I know that our enemies are strong and ruthless; but I know that we are tough enough to take any blow that may come from any corner. I know that the task ahead requires a lot of power; but there is inside us more power than the task ahead. Our tenacity and resilience have saved us for thousands of years and our resilience and tenacity will save us for as long as this earth continues to exist. Every Baluch must now that he has a will stronger than iron, a mind larger than oceans, a fist tougher than rocks and a pen sharper than swords.

The Baluch enemies must now know that we have already combined all these formidable forces together to campaign vigorously and relentlessly to preserve our identity, retain our dignity and regain our rights and our lands.

What thousands of political activists and campaigners are doing now will continue for years to come until we repossess what is rightly ours. Although thousands of Baluch have been already killed, 700 are waiting on the death row and Yakoub Mehrnehad and his friends are experiencing torture, thousands more are prepared to face the Islamic Republic of Iran today and in any day to come.

The Islamic Republic of Iran and international community often question the Baluch political activists and campaigners that why they were not engaged in civil and peaceful political campaigns and we always explained that the Iranian regime has never allowed the political culture of peaceful campaigning to develop and grow. To test the attitude of the government, the Baluch young people organised a legal and approved meeting to present their views on the present circumstances of Baluchistan and Iran. The government issued the licence for the meeting and after the meeting arrested the leaders of the Voice of Justice Association of Baluchistan. The witnesses confirmed that the when revolutionary guards and security forces arrested these young people, they began torturing, beating, offending and humiliating them as soon as they entered the office of the Association. Since their arrest nobody knows where they have been taken. But if we judge from the way they were arrested we can understand that they must be under severe torture right now.

Now it is clear for the Iranian people, political activists, human rights organizations and international community that the Iranian regime does not allow any civil political campaigning in Baluchistan. It is now clear for everybody inside Baluchistan and outside Baluchistan that the Iranian regime arrests and tortures those political activists that live inside Iran, follow the law of the land, and work according to the constitution of the country. It is also clear for the international community and the Iranian people that the Iranian regime is pushing the Baluch people towards armed struggle and violence. The Iranian people have a right to protest against racial, cultural, political and economic discriminations and social exclusions and if they do not have the permission to organise peaceful and legal meetings, there is no any other alternative but resorting to other means to regain their rights.

Yakoub Mehrnehad and his friends are the victims of a lawless regime that has victimised all Iranian people and specifically the Sunnis, Baluch, Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Lors, Turkemans, women, students, and workers. Today these groups are the vanguard of campaign for political freedom, social justice and economic well-being of the Iranian people. We see that they are engaged in different forms of political activities every day in different parts of the country. To arrest and torture their leaders only increases their intention and will for further and more effective campaign in future.

Balochistan Peoples Front

Reza Hossein Borr

01.5.07, London, UK