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2005-08-27 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Iran Blames Britain for Unrest of Iranian Arabs
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From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, an article by Bill Samii
Southwestern Iran -- home to many ethnic Arabs (3 percent of the total population of approximately 68 million) -- has witnessed violent unrest in recent months. Most of Iran's crude-oil reserves are located in giant onshore fields in this part of country, so the regime is particularly sensitive about developments there. .... Tehran's reaction to the unrest has been to blame it on foreigners, particularly the British. ....
.... Shell Oil is involved with several projects in Khuzestan Province. Concern about British intentions arose shortly after the inauguration of the now hard-line parliament in 2004. .... Among Shell's objectionable activities ... were its sponsorship of teams of deaf athletes, sponsoring the international travel of top students for academic Olympiads, sending the Iranian philharmonic orchestra to Abu Dhabi, and building schools in the less developed areas of south Tehran and Zahedan.
Large-scale riots in Ahvaz in mid-April followed rumors of a government plan to forcibly replace local Arabs with Persians from other parts of the country. The government acknowledged making numerous arrests, and dissident websites alleged that there was wide-scale bloodshed.
At that early stage there were allegations of involvement by Shell and other foreign agencies. .... Kazem Jalali, rapporteur of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, decried British involvement in the Khuzestan unrest, Kayhan reported on 25 April. He called on the Foreign Ministry to stop British interference. .... Kayhan newspaper -- whose reports frequently precede related government crackdowns -- announced on 26 April that another detained Arab activist, Ibrahim Ameri, was a negotiator for Shell. ...
Unrest in Khuzestan continued despite the government crackdown. Arab irredentists took credit for June bombings in Ahvaz that targeted government facilities or officials. Akbar al-Sadat, the head of the Khuzestan Province Justice Department, said on 22 July that the Ministry of Intelligence and Security was investigating the June bombings due to the possible involvement of foreigners ....
Yet more riots took place in Ahvaz in late July. A local official, Said Saadi, said the riot was the angry reaction of people who paid for goods but failed to receive them, and he added that a local bank was set on fire and 30 arrests were made. .... Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said on 14 August that the people responsible for the unrest trained at British bases in southeastern Iraq, IRNA reported. The Ministry of Intelligence and Security announced on 15 August that the leaders of the Khuzestan unrest were on foreign intelligence services' payrolls, "especially Britain," according to state television. ....
A preliminary United Nations report by special rapporteur Miloon Kothari notes discrimination all along the Western border regions ... Kothari said Arabs in oil-rich Khuzestan live in squalor, and he said land confiscation by the state appears to have a disproportionate impact on ethnic and religious minorities. .... 
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Posted by Mike Sylwester 2005-08-27 00:00||
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Posted by Zpaz 2005-08-27 12:02||
2005-08-27 12:02||
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