There is a non-Arab country in the Middle East which, according to western and Arabic media, has been deporting tens of thousands of Arabs from their homes and building settlements to fill with non-Arabs, all in an attempt to change the demographic composition of its region.
Under the framework of an organized government plan, this country has been oppressing Arabs, violating basic human rights, detaining women and children, and expropriating farmlands for the newly constructed settlements.
Can you guess the country?
On the same week that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Damascus – where he issued belligerent statements against Israel and signed pacts with his Syrian counterpart – there were disconcerting reports in the West about other developments inside Iran.
The reports focused on the Al-Ahwaz district, a province of 43,000 square miles in southeastern Iran, near the Iraqi border, which is home to some 8 million Arabs. Ahwaz was an autonomous Arab territory until 1925 when it was conquered by Persian General Reza Khan, later a king of Iran. Since 1925, Ahwaz has been under tight Iranian control - and for good reason. Al-Ahwaz has reserves of over 40 billion barrels of oil and 210 billion cubic meters of natural gas. It is the second largest oil and gas reserves in the world.
Recently, Karim Bani Sa'id Abadiyan, the chairman of a human rights organization from the Al-Ahwaz district, offered a rare view of the region, a region that the Iranian regime takes great pains to conceal from the media. In an interview to Elaph he described a gradual transfer and said that in the past eight years the Iranian government has deported some 1.2 million Arab residents, replacing them with 1.5 million non-Arabs.
The newcomers, mostly Persian Iranians, moved into new government-constructed settlements in the region. The UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization) claims that the confiscation of Arab-owned land by the Iranian government has been an established policy since 1925. These lands, according to the UNPO, are typically given over to non-Arab settlers and used by the government as new construction sites.
In the meantime, the Iranian regime is making life difficult for the Arab residents in the Al-Ahwaz district. "The Arabs who live in Al-Ahwaz are at the lowest of the low (in Iran)," said Abadiyan. Last year, their human rights were extensively violated as 131 activists were executed and thousands were arrested in large and undiscriminating detention campaigns. Special UN envoy Miloon Kothari, who visited there in July 2005, also reported "harsh living conditions in residential neighborhoods." UNPO adds that the quality of the drinking water and irrigation water is poor due to an inadequate sewage system and industrial contamination. This problem is exacerbated by the diversion of water out of Ahwaz to other parts of Iran and the sale of Ahwaz's water to the Gulf States.
While teaching Arabic in Ahwaz is banned, the study of Farsi is compulsory in every school, which is a part of a broader Iranization policy. This process is causing an approximate 30% drop-out rate from grammar schools, 50% out of middle schools, and 70% out of high school. .
Reaction to these policies has led to the development of a resistance movement.
Local residents describe Iran as "an imperialist country, just like the United States and Israel," expressed one local editorial. Pictures and caricatures compare Ahmadinejad with Americans, Israelis, and the Nazis. Internet sites even carry pictures of "the shahids (martyrs) of the intifada (popular uprising) against Iran," which is what they call their revolt.
Recent tensions led to a crisis between the Iranian government and the Qatari news network Al-Jazeera. The government was displeased with media coverage of clashes between Persians and Arabs in Al Ahwaz. As a result, Iran suspended the network's activity in the country (which has resumed in the meantime).
This episode has not interfered with a new Iranian effort, prompted by presidential aide Hussain Shariatmadari, to unify neighboring Bahrain with its "motherland" Iran. Writing in an Iranian newspaper, Shariatmadari alleged that Bahrain was separated from Iran based on an agreement signed by the former Shah and the US and British governments – an agreement that is no longer valid.
While the people of Al Ahwaz prepare to commemorate 83 years of occupation, Iran found the time to sentence two more Ahwaz women to death by stoning. Other countries can only hope to get better treatment from Iran than that it gives its very own citizens.
Nir Boms is the Vice President of the center for Freedom in the Middle East. Roee Nahmias is the Arab Affairs Correspondent of the Internet Daily YNET
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