Reports - AHRO Ahwaz Human Rights Org

According to statistics Ahwazi Arabs occupy less than half percent of managerial positions in Khuzestan province .Ahwazi activists provided Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation ( AHRO) with reliable data and statistics .The result of analysis demonstrates that only half a percent of managerial positions are occupied by Arabs in Arabistan (Khuzistan) province

These positions refer to governors, mayors, directors of major industries , and manufacturing companies.

A) statistics over managers in large industries and manufacturing companies of province

1) Out of 81 factory and manufacturing companies :
• 66% of members of board of directors are absolutely non native.
• Number of non-native executives :46 or 56/7%
• Native executive :35 or 43% .

2) 405 individual currently serving as board of director .
297 or 73% are non-native .

3) Only 108 out of 405 board of directors in the above companies are native to the province ,equivalent to 26% of the total .

4) Among 108 non-native officials only one person Admiral Ali Shamkhani ,Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council in Arvand Free Zone is a native .
making the share of indigenous population in official positions 0/9% and 0/2 % of administrative posts.

5) Among the 81 companies in the province not even one Arab specialist work force occupies the executive post .

6) Most of the shares in these companies belong to banks such as “Bank Saderat Iran (BSI) “and Bank Melli Iran (BMI( “ in addition to social security pension funds and “Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company“ which is Iran’s first petrochemical holding company .

B) List of Governors in the province
The list provided to us shows that since the inception of Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 , no Arab governor was appointed for the province and during the past four decade only one Arab citizen by the name of “Naim Mojadam “ was appointed the governor of Ahwaz for a period of 45 days in 1990 .

24 governors were appointed as governor , out of which 5 were from followingprovinces : Gilan , Fars , Bushehr , Kerman , Isfahan . Besides the 45 days served by Naim Mojadam in this post , 2 governors were from Shushtar and 9 from Dezful and the last 7 were from the Lur and Bakhtiari population .

Jafar Ballali served the shortest period with 24 days of acting governor in the month i December 1987 ,while Abdulaziz Fadami served the longest period which is 8 years from 2006 -2014

List of governors :
On 20 Jun 2016 the Iranian president , Hassan Rouhani, appointed “Gholamreza Shariati” as the new governor of Arabistan (Khuzestan ) ,making him yet another non -Arab official in this post
Since 1979n revolution no administrative post has been occupied by indigenous Arabs in the province .

1- Ahmad Madani (March 1979-January 1980) ,during his turn war crimes known as “Black Wednesday “ took place .On 30 May 1979 in Muhammerah (Khoramshahr) hundreds of Arab men ,women and children were killed after total take over by the militias under his command .
Madani died recently in United States and was never charged.

2-Mohammad Gharzi (1980-1982) during revolution assembly .Current position :Chairman and CEO of Moshanir company (Affiliated with Ministry of Energy ) - Isfahan

3-Mohammad Hasan Toolayi (Supervisor):(July 1981-January1982) during Rajaii presidency ,Vice Chairman of Management and Planning Organization of Iran-Nishapur

4- Mohammad Frozandeh (1983-1985 ) ,during Khamenei presidency .
Current position :member of The Assembly of Experts -Tehran .

5- Ali Jannati(1983-1988) during Khamenei presidency .
Current position :Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance under Rouhani - Qom

6-Mohsen Mirdamadi (1987-1989) during Khamenei presidency.
Current position : Director of Islamic Iran Participation Front-Isfahan .

7-Mohammad Hasan Toolayi (1989-1991) during Rafsanjani .
Current position : Vice Chairman of Management and Planning Organisation of Iran-Neyshabur

8-Alireza Tabesh (1991-1992) ,during Rafsanjani .
Current position :Farabi Cinema Foundation FCF director - Yazd

9-Moteza Roozbeh (suervisor): (August 1993-Sepemebr 1993) during Rafsanjani
Current position : Its been 6 months since Roozbeh was released from his position as Qazvin governor and at the moment he is a university teacher-Qazvin.

10-Mohammad Hossein Moghimi (1993-1997) , during Rafsanjani .
Current position : Deputy Minister during Rohani-Khomeyn

11-Ahmad Khorram (1997-1998)
Current position :teacher in Isfahan University - Isfahan

12- Abdulahassan Moghtadaei (1998-2001) during Mohammad Khatami , also (2013-2016)
Current position : advisor to minister during Rouhani - Isfahan

13- Fathullah Mo’een Najafabadi (2001-2005) , during Khatami .
Current position :member of the city council of Isfahan - Isfahan .

14-Amir Hayat Moghaddam (2005-2007) during Ahmadinejad presiden
Current position : IRGC air force commander and member of board of directors of Aseman Airlines

15-Jafar Hijazi (2009-2013) , during Ahmadinejad presidency .
Current position :Teacher , Chamran University faculty member

16-Gholamreza Shariati , Behbahan -Non Arab

Note(1) ** indicates non-native mangers and * indicates Lur , Bakhtiari managers and no* indicates to other ethnicities.
The phrase “non-Arab” refers to member of boards of directors who are non-native and non Arab.

Note (2) some of the executives are members of board of directors in companies
Outside of the province ,for example “Mohammad Reza Modares Khianbani” ,Director of Khouzestan Steel Company is also on the boards of directors in companies such as “Bahman Group” , “Mehr investment and finance" ,
“Tractor Industrial Group” , development project of Zinc mines ,”Hamrah Aval" (Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran) , “Danayan Pars” (investment company ) ,” Mobin Trust Consortium” which includes “Shahryar Mahestan “ and “Sepah Cooperation Foundation “ belonging to IRGC .

References:
http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=164843

goo.gl/idj6kj

goo.gl/b3EnbA

Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) believes that exclusion of indigenous Arabs from posts on both local and national level and recruitment of immigrants from other provinces is an indication of ethnic discrimination and racism of the central government .
The central government ’s exclusion of the indigenous population started during Reza shah and continued to this day .
23/4/2017
Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation

Details: Reports; Last Updated: 27 April 2017

Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) strongly condemns the crackdown of protests by internal security forces though announcing state of emergency , and threats of arrest against those who raise their voice against discrimination ,deprivation and lack of services .

The internal security forces broke up the protest of Ahwazis which lasted until this Friday evening, and suppressed the demonstrators who had gathered for the fifth consecutive day to protest power outage and pollution in different cities .

In regards to protests ,The spokesman for the Internal Security Forces in Ahwaz an-nounced state of emergency ,warning from the continuation of demonstration and threat-ened to arrest the participants .

Activists sent pictures to AHRO in which anti riot police are appearing in the city and re-ported that officials called these forces from Fars and Loresten Provinces to suppress the demonstrators who during the past five days took the streets in Al-Ahwaz , Al-kurah ,Fallahieh and other cities in Arabistan to protest against pollution ,discrimination , marginalisation , continuation of power outage ,interruption of services , unemployment and poverty despite living in an oil rich region .

protesters chanted “We have no one but God” referring to the fact that their continuous pleads are not addressed and they are left alone as officials ignore their calls and con-demned the continuation of power outage and disruption of services, rampant unemploy-ment and discriminative policies exercised by Iranian government which has made the lives of local indigenous unbearable .

Iranian news agencies announced the dismissal of two officials from Ahwaz ,the general director of provincial crisis management and the General Director of provincial natural resource ,but it doubtful that this dismissal solve any problem or change the situation as the central government is committed to policies of demographic change and systematic destruction of environment of the region .

Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation condemns the crackdown on protests ,and supports the civil society activist’s calls for peaceful demonstrations and calls on Iranian officials to stop the excessive security measure and allow the peaceful gathering that call for freedom of speech in accordance with international laws and human rights principles

Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation
17/02/2017

click here to see the pictures

Details: Reports; Last Updated: 18 February 2017

A video has been circulating among the Ahwazi Arab activists showing the locals complaining about sugarcane project and describe it as the reason behind unemployment, homelessness and disease in the region.
Residents of Alkhaddriaat village in Fallahieh southeast of Ahwaz say that their land has been occupied for the sugar cane project , it has not created job opportunities for them and it had effected the quality of drinkable water, forcing them to bring water from other areas located dozens of kilometers away .
People say that the sugar cane project does not employ locals, and although there is a workforce , the management has always relied on burning the field . Sugar cane field burning is carried out before harvesting the cane to make the process easier and require less manual labor.
Burning the excess herbs and leaves to facilitate the process of harvesting is a method that has been put aside due to its negative environmental affects
Local residents say that their families and especially their children have been subjected to a lot of smoke, causing them respiratory diseases and a number of which are now under treatment in hospitals. sugar cane contractors have not even pay the workers their salaries to enable them to complete the treatment of their loved ones.
Despite many protests and calls by civilians and local officials ,this project has been taken its course in regardless of the environmental devastation that it has brought about.
Mr.Ismael Birghani the mayor of Ahwaz city has stated that burning the sugar cane fields is a big mistake adding that the ashes and the smoke produced by this process has doubled the air pollution in Ahwaz and severely effected the health of its citizens.
likewise ,Mr. Khalaf Mosawi the head of Ahwaz municipality Considered the ashes produced by these fires are endangering the environment.
Mr.Ali Bani Akaba ,the director of environment management in Ahwaz denounced this process and stated that for years he has been following the matter in order to put a stop to the pollution caused by sugar cane plantation project ,but unfortunately this dossier had little advancement in the court and basically it was a dead end .
Dr. hassan Mezraii a law professor in”Chamran” university has previously stated in “Hamshahri” newspaper that if the activities of a certain industry is damaging the health of the local population and it has created diseases ,people do have the power to file a lawsuit against those factories ,regardless to whether the environment is contaminated or not .
According to the law , the industries can buy lands from private owners and in case the land does not have an owner ,they need the authorization of the institute for natural resources.
Recently Mr. Korush Bahadori the head of weather forecast center in Khuzestan province has announced the possibility of acid rains in Ahwaz and although he did not clarify the reasons for the acid rains , the smoke and ashes of the burned sugar cane fields are believed to be one of the main reasons .
see video: https://youtu.be/Ik-A0QzFyMA

Details: Reports; Last Updated: 23 November 2016

Seven years after his disappearance in 2009 Iranian authorities have not yet clarified the whereabouts of Yousef Silavi ,one of 522 registered victims of Enforced disappearance in Iran according to UN working group.

As defined in the preamble of the Declaration, enforced disappearances occur when persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of, the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.

Today on the international day of the victims of enforced disappearances ,Ahwaz Human Rights Organization renews its calls to the Iranian government to disclose the whereabouts of Yousef Silavi ,The 57 year-old Ahwazi Arab citizen .

He was taken from his home in Ahwaz in November of 2009 ,and despite of his wife and daughters relentless search and efforts inside and outside of Iran ,there has been no sign of Mr.Silavi .

Iranian government has not replied to the calls from UN Working Group on Involuntary and Enforced Disappearance . It is worth mentioning that Iranian government has been delaying the country visit by UN working group since the year 2004 .

Early this year Amnesty International and justice for Iran issued an urgent action for Mr.Silavi and today ,Concurrent with this international day, Ahwaz Human Rights Organization representative met with Mr. Emile Franck Amnesty Gulf coordinator in Brussels where the issue of human violations against ethnic minorities in Iran was discussed ,in addition Amnesty Brussels , the francophone division issued a petition in French introducing the case .

AHRO calls upon Mr.Ban Ki-moon the Secretary-General of the United Nations

and all international human rights organizations and UN especial rapporteur to pressure Iran in order to disclose the whereabouts of Mr.Silavi and other victims of enforced and involuntary disappearances and put an end to the pain and confusion of families by disclosing the place of detention or their fate .

Link to the petition : http://www.amnesty.be/je-veux-agir/agir-en-ligne/signer-en-ligne/yousefsilavi?lang=fr

Details: Reports; Last Updated: 31 August 2016

One of the problems of Hor AL-Azim pond is occupancy of Drilling Oil Companies for oil exploration
According to the administrator of Department of Environment in Howayzah, Moussa Modheji, the pond is encountering the danger of pollution during the oil companies’ operations in the west of Ahwaz.
Modheji added that there were pipes prepared to entomb under the ground but seemingly this operation had been left unfinished. He warned that the unleashing of water into the pond before drilling operation can destroy the ecosystem of the pond.
Modheji stated that government formerly used to oppose the abandon of the water into pond in order to restoring the natural and economical life in the Hor Al Azim pond but today government claims that the water releasing into the pond can damage oil companies equipment which are ready to start drilling for oil in the Hor AL Azim pond.

Source: HAMSHAHRI NEWSPAPER-KHOUZESTAN.

Details: Reports; Last Updated: 04 July 2016

Hooshmand Safaei, Director General of the Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare in the Alahwaz province (Also known as Khouzestan) denounced the arrest of 20 Ahwazi city council workers as illegal and accused the Ahwaz municipality and its contractors of breaking the law in dealing with workers’ demands.

Details: Reports; Last Updated: 04 July 2016

Iranian judiciary officials have announced regime’s supreme court decision to publicly execute three Ahwazi political prisoners very soon in Alahwaz( also known as Khouzestan).

In April 2015 Qais Abidawi and his brother Ahmad Abidawi and their cousin; Sajjad Abidawi along with four other Ahwazis have been arrested by the regime’s security intelligent forces in Hamidiyeh town(20km northwest Ahwaz city) with allegation in having involvement in killing three revolutionary guards in town of Hamidiyeh.

Four other Ahwazi prisoners who also received long imprisonment and exile sentences are including Mohammad Helfi (age 25) to spend 23 years imprisonment in Yazd city, Mehdi Sayahi to spend 35 years imprisonment in Yazd as well as Mehdi Moarabi and Ali Abidawi to spend each of them 25 years in prison.

We in Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation have strong evidences that the regime has taken force confessions from Ahwazi prisoners during their detention in revolutionary guards’ detention centres in which later on has publically broadcasted them on state’s run Press TV which is apparently in contradiction of regime’s obligation to the international law and human rights declaration.
There is no doubt that these sentences are aimed to stop Ahwazi people from demanding their legitimate rights to live freely as all sentences were taken on non-existent trials and lack of basic judicial standards such as having access to independent lawyers or unbiased courts.

AHRO strongly condemns such barbaric and medieval level sentences issued against these innocents Ahwazi political activists and at the same time appeals to the international community to interfere with the Iranian regime to stop his mass execution machine against Ahwazi people.

Ahwaz human Rights Organization
19 June 2016

Details: Reports; Last Updated: 19 June 2016

Fahimeh Ismaeli ,an Ahwazi Arab female political prisoner lost conscious after being severely beaten by Yasouj prison's guard.
According to reports received by Ahwaz Human Rights Organization ,Fahmieh Ismaeli , the well-known female Ahwazi Arab political prisoner ,who was exiled to Yasuj to spend her imprisonment since 2006, has received severe physical beaten by the prison guards in which she was later transferred to hospital as she lost consciousness .
The source stated :"Yesterday, ,Thursday (2/6/2016) ,Mrs.Ismaeli the Ahwazi political prisoner has received physical punishment after a verbal confrontation with a prison guard named "Ameneh Fooladi " of Yasuj central prison . The beating was so extreme that Mrs.Ismaeli was initially committed to the clinic inside the prison and later transferred to hospital due to deterioration of her health condition .
The source added that :" The beating began inside the cell when the prison's guard started the provocation and insulting Mrs.Ismaeli ,which eventually caused the argument .The incident has then escalated between the prison guard and Mrs.Ismaeli . One day after her hospitalization she was released today (3/6/2016) and was returned back to the prison and she is currently bedridden in her cell in an unsuitable situation ."
Fahimeh Ismaeli was a elementry school teacher ,who was arrested along with her husband "Mr. Ali Motayeri " on 28/11/2005 . At the time of arrest she was 8 months pregnant with their daughter"Salma".
"Salma" was born one month later in the detention center of ministry of intelligent in Ahwaz. This Arab woman was later sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in Yasuj prison ,but her husband was executed for charge of being acting as "enmity against God " on 19/12/2006.
Ahwaz human righta organization (AHRO)
3-June - 2016

Details: Reports; Last Updated: 08 June 2016

On Friday 27th of may 2016 , Esmaeel Shawerdi ,a 30 year-old worker from Fallahieh (Shadegan) a city in South of Ahwaz carried out a self -immolation as a sign of protest for not receiving his salary for the last 7 months from the Municipality .Unfortunately Mr.Shaverdi did not survive and passed away .
According to the news sources of Ahwaz Human Rights Organization(AHRO) ,Mr.Shawardi who was a simple worker at the service department in Fallahieh municipality ,along with his colleagues who had not received their salaries for more than 7 months carried out a strike a week before ,but their requests were ignored by the authorities .
Mayor of Fallahieh claims that the municipality faces lack of funds ,while each of the nine members of the city council are receiving a monthly sum of 30 million Iranian rials equivalent to 1,000 USD. The mayor personally receives the sum of 60 million rials (2,000 USD)and each of his deputies receive 50 million rials ( 1,600 USD) a month.
It should be noted that corruption has engulfed financial institutions of municipality in the province. The majority of municipal funding comes from illegal channels and flows into the pockets of executives, employees, contractors and their family members and relatives.
This is not the first time that an Ahwazi worker carried out self -immolation to protest unemployment, low wages and hard living condition .
Prior to this incident , Younes Asakereh , a young man of 34 set himself on fire in front of Muhamarah (Khoramshahr) municipality on march 24th in protest against the confiscation of his fruit stand which was the only source of income for his family .After doctor's failure in improving his condition in both Ahwaz and Muhammarah ,he was transferred to a hospital in Tehran while suffering 3rd degree burns .His funeral was turned into a massive protest march against Iranian government's discriminatory policies and participant shout slogans of protest ,hundreds of which were arrested on the same day.
In a similar case , Mehdi Mojaddam ,a 32 year-old man carried out a self immolation on 15th of April 2013 in front of Ahwaz governor's office and passed away a few days later.
As Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general noted in paragraph 58 of his report during the seventieth sessions of the UN General Assembly in New York ,nearly 1,000 people were arrested on 17th of March 2015 for protesting the case of an Arab male from Muhamarrah (Khoramshahr) by the name of Younes Asakereh who committed suicide as a sign of protest to local authorities confiscation of his fruit stand due to absence of official permission in despite of his numerous attempts to obtain one .
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO) expresses sympathy for the family of the workers who have lost their lives as the result of self-immolation and condemns racial discrimination ,oppression and deprivation that Iranian officials are exercising on the Arab population who are living in an area which is rich with natural resources such as gas and petrol , agricultural lands and is a vital factor in the Iranian economy .

AHRO calls on all the human rights organizations and institutions affiliated with United Nations to pressure Iran to commit to the international treaties concerned with labors rights and the rights of marginalized groups in the society and also calls for development of Ahwaz region which produces 80 percent of Iran's oil ,while its population is suffering the worst conditions of poverty and deprivation .

Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO)
28 -5-2016