We appeal to the international community to save the lives of two innocent Baloch religious leaders in Iran.
BY Reza Hossein Borr
London, 7 April 08--Two Baluch Sunni religious leaders have been condemned to death after making false confessions under severe tortures. Moulavi Mohammad Yousuf Sohrabi and Moulavi Abdol Qoddoos Mollazehi who were teaching in theological school in Chah Jamal, Baluchistan were arrested after the security forces attacked the base of Peoples Resistance Movement (PRMI) of Iran in which 8 people were killed. The witnesses who live in the neighbourhood claimed that those who were killed were innocent people who lived in the area or were studying at the theological school. The security forces claimed that three key leaders of People Resistance Movement of Iran, Jondollah, were killed in the attack. PRMI confirmed the attack but claimed that only one member of their military wing was killed and the rest left the area safely for other bases.
The security forces clamped down on the area and arrested six people and accused them of being the members of Jondollah. They released four of them later but continued to torture the two teachers of the school who were arrested at the time. There is no any tradition in Baluchistan that the religious leaders participate directly in armed struggle or support the armed groups. In Baluchistan, Sunni leaders have been forced into silence and they hardly express their dissent against the regime even if when their sacred beliefs become under attack by the Shia leaders or media.
Moulavi Mohammad Yousuf Sohrabi and Moulavi Abdol Qoddoos Mollazehi were shown on Iranian official television to confess about their involvement with the Jondollah on 6 of April. They looked distressed and desperate. There were plenty scars of torture in their movements. It was clear that they have been forced to confess. Few former detainees who had seen them in the prison revealed that they have been brutally tortured and beaten.
These two teachers were the employees of the school which was located near the base. They have never been accused of any crime before and they have no any reputation for being politically active. They do not have political background either. The Baloch armed groups live among the people but do not establish any kind of relationships with their neighbours to conceal their identity.
A prominent member of security forces told the locals that they would make an example of these teachers. The Iranian regime intensified its executions in the last two years to create an environment of fear and intimidation to force the Baluch people to submission. The killings and executions have been so much intensified that only in the last seven days, the first week of April 2008, more than 37 Baluch and Sunnis have been killed in Baluchistan and the neighbouring Sunni areas. While the regime gave a long list of drugs that have been confiscated, they called those who were killed as insurgents.
The Iranian regime usually vilifies Baluch political activists as drug traffickers and rebels to justify their killing and executions. In a report that the Amnesty International published about a year ago, it was revealed that 700 Baluch people had been condemned to death. The 700 Baluch were later transferred to different provinces in Iran and were executed under different false charges.
The people of Baluchistan know quite well that Moulavi Mohammad Yousuf Sohrabi and Moulavi Abdol Qoddoos Mollazehi are innocent teachers who were forced to confess for the crimes they have not committed. The religious leaders in Baluchistan enjoy enormous popularity and if these two teachers are executed it is likely that widespread protests and even armed struggle will follow.
Baluchistan is the largest province in Iran. There are about four million Baluch in Iran who live under severe political and economic plight. According to the official figure, 76 percent of the Baluch people live under poverty line while the official poverty line in Iran is about 12 percent. The widespread poverty in Baluchistan is the result of deliberate policies of the regime for starving Baluch people so much that they leave Iran for other countries. This is ethnic cleansing through starvation and forced immigration. Half a million of Baluch people have already left Baluchistan for the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Iranian government is using the policy of no-return and when some of these Baluch people want to return to their homelands they are usually stopped for being aliens.
The international community must exert pressure on a regime that suppresses its own people and sponsors international terrorist organizations to kill innocent people abroad. Any silence will encourage the Iranian regime to continue its oppressive policies internally and its terrorist policies internationally.
Reza Hossein Borr is a leadership consultant and the creator of 150 CDs and 14 Change management models. He is also the author of Manual Success, Manual of Coaching and Mentoring, Motivational Stories that Can Change Your Life, and a New Vision for the Islamic World.
He can be contacted by email: balochfront@aol.com |
