Press Release : ‘Tehran funds Hamas while starving children at home’.
Written by ACI in 30 November 23‘Balochistan’ – ‘Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All’
The situation of civil, political, economic, social, cultural rights of the Iranian Baloch People
Saturday 9 December 2023 – 10:00-13:00 English, 14:00-18:00 Persian
Marshall Theatre, The Marshall Building, LSE, 44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY
(On Saturday the Entrance is accessed through Portugal Street opposite the LSE Library)
One day seminar in London examines possible ‘crimes against humanity’ committed against Iranian Baloch people on ‘Zahedan’s Bloody Friday’ with UN rights experts and Baloch minority activists and human rights defenders.
While with the Israel-Gaza war, Iran’s prioritising of funding for terrorism is headlining international news, at home the latest annual budget keeps the Balochistan province as the most deprived and under invested province in Iran.
The seminar will hear from Baloch activists who accuse the regime of intentional policies of keeping the region underdeveloped and deprived to further its aim of illicit gain from drugs smuggling. The ingress point for Billions of dollars in street value of narcotics is 565 miles of the province’s common border with Pakistan and 572 miles of common border with Afghanistan.
The morning panel (10am-1pm) in English, will hear from Javaid Rehman the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran who has said that the “scale and gravity” of violations committed by Iranian authorities during the ‘Women Life Freedom’ movement in Balochistan pointed to “the possible commission of international crimes, notably the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual violence, and persecution”. The panel will hear firsthand accounts of the plight of families whose loved ones have been executed, killed and/or sustained life changing injuries during the ‘Bloody Friday’ on September 30, 2023.
The afternoon panel (2-6pm) in Persian, examines the wider dimensions of religious and ethnic persecution and violence against the Iranian Baloch people through the regime’s economic and security policies. Poverty is deep-rooted. According to a Baloch MP in April this year ‘deep rooted poverty in the region means that people can only afford to eat subsidised bread and provisions for that are even failing to meet the demands’. Reports on the region’s inequitable access to education, housing, healthcare, employment, and crumbling infrastructure will examine their impact on the rights of women and children in particular.
Looking to the future, the seminar will conclude with its call for action and recommendations. Ends.
Further information
Organised by Association des Chercheurs Iraniens (ACI) in collaboration with Azadi Network and Balochistan Human Rights Group
Contact
ACI:
rk@aciiran.com, +44 7960945970
Azadi Network:
negin@azadi.network +44 7545 263316
Background information:
Sistan and Balochistan, the third largest of Iran’s 31 provinces, sits in the southeast corner of Iran with access to the waters of the Persian Gulf. It borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Balochistan has 3.3 million inhabitants. It is also home to over 700000 Afghan refugees. It has had one of the highest rates of population growth in Iran with 67% of the population below 30 years of age. 28% of this group are between 15-30 years of age. This young population presents huge potential for future growth if planned for correctly while simultaneously creating real problems for the regime that has so far failed to meet the demands and aspirations of the people.
The Balochistan region in the most deprived province in Iran according to the Islamic Republic’s own figures. It has the worst access to education, healthcare, housing, employment opportunity. Over 60% of the population live under poverty line.
At least 274 Baluch people have been executed for drug-related charges since 2021, 40% of all drug executions in that time period. This is while they only make up 2-5% of Iran’s population[1].
On 30 September 2022, during Friday Prayers in Zahedan the regime’s forces opened fire on unarmed civilians. According to Amnesty International at least 82 Baluchi protesters and bystanders were killed in bloody crackdown. ‘Iranian security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people, including children, and injured hundreds of others after firing live ammunition, metal pellets and teargas at protesters, bystanders and worshippers during a violent crackdown after Friday prayers on 30 September in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province, Amnesty International said today. Since then, another 16 people were killed in separate incidents in Zahedan amid an ongoing clampdown on protests. Evidence gathered from activists, victims’ families, eyewitness testimonies, and images and videos of the protests suggest the real death toll from Zahedan is likely to be higher.’[2]
Poor water management and changing climate, have created draughts and debilitating dust storms which have severely impacted the lives of the indigenous people of the region[3].
[1] https://iranhr.net/en/reports/35/
[2] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/10/iran-at-least-82-baluchi-protesters-and-bystanders-killed-in-bloody-crackdown/
[3] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/drought-climate-change-turn-iran-sistan-and-baluchestan-into-dust-bowl