Human Rights Abuses in Iranian Balochistan

Amnesty International
The Human Rights Action Centre,
17-25 New Inn Yard 1st June 2007
London EC2A 3EA

Re: Serious and Deadly Human Rights Abuses in Iranian Balochistan

Dear Mr Dyke

We the undersigned Iranian Baloch organisations collectively would like to express our deepest dismay and concern over the silence and ineptness exhibited by International bodies and some human rights organisations in the face of Iranian regime’s recent murderous acts of arbitrary killings, summary executions and hanging of Baloch youths in Iran. Baloch people in Balochistan have not only been deprived of their basic rights, but also have been subject to blatant repression, systematic discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity and religion by the Iranian regime.

In cold blood the Iranian security forces shot dead a 12-year old girl called Roya Sarani in front of her brother opposite their house in Zahedan on Sunday 24th May 2007. They also executed a 17-year old boy called Saeed Qanbarzaei in Zahedan on Wed 28th May 2007 after subjecting him to constant barbarous tortures since his arrest despite your urgent appeal to the Iranian authorities. The Iranian judiciary executed further five Baloch on the following day. During the last week, the Iranian authorities in Chabahar demolished more than 100 houses that belonged to poor Baloch families in Chabahar.

Recently Dr Shahriyari, a well known racist and anti-Baloch who is currently selected member of Iranian Parliament from Zahedan, and a close ally of the President and the Judiciary announced that around 700 Baloch have been condemned to death and await execution. In recent weeks many of those detainees have been executed either by firing squad or by hanging in public or clandestinely. Mindful of local anger and backlash, many of those detainees have been transferred to neighbouring provinces for the purpose of execution. Fifteen of them were executed in Khorasan province, while two were hanged in Hormozgan and one in Kerman province respectively.

1653 Baloch have been arrested during the Unity 1 Manoeuvre in Balochistan and Baloch dominated areas of Kerman, the official Iranian news agency, IRNA reported on 23 May 07. The agency quoted the director of Public Relations of Operational Base of Rasool Akram as saying that 156 polluted locations were cleansed and 6 armed men were killed.

As the world is occupied by the Iranian nuclear threat and its support for terrorism, the Iranian regime in Balochistan is involved in a brutal and ruthless arrest and executions of mostly educated Baloch youth under the disguise of fighting drug smuggling and so-called banditry. It is common knowledge in Balochistan that the Iranian intelligence and security forces facilitate the passage of narcotic consignments from Afghanistan through Balochistan and the rest of Iran to the western world as it was admitted openly in an interview by the interior minister last month.

We urge you to express your concern and become proactively involved in the protection of human rights of people in Balochistan as the Iranian regime perpetually commits deadly human rights abuses in Balochistan. Please condemn the inhumane executions of Baloch children and innocent people, and other ongoing atrocious actions of the Iranian regime in Balochistan.

Balochistan National Movement (Zrombesh)
Balochistan People’s Party
Balochistan People’s Front
Balochistan United Front of Iran
Balochistan United Front (Republican)
Mobarezin Organisation of Balochistan