Hundreds of Ahwazi Arabs and their supporters demonstrated outside the European Commission offices in Brussels today to mark the eighth anniversary of the Ahwazi intifada.
More than 30 non-governmental organisations signed a declaration to condemn the ongoing persecution of Ahwazi Arabs:
"We the undersigned condemn the planned executions of Ahwazi Arab activists, we condemn past killings and future killings of those whose only crime was to raise a voice of freedom against ethnic persecution.
"We condemn the successive regimes in Tehran that have taken land from indigenous Ahwazi Arabs, taken lives, taken opportunities to learn in their native tongue, destroyed and polluted the beauty of the once fertile and verdant environment, stolen the once mighty waters of the Karoon and Karkeh and robbed the freedom of the Ahwazi Arabs to determine their own destinies.
"We state that the killings and ethnic cleansing are the result of nearly ninety years of violent persecution and the only remedy is the self-determination of the Ahwazi Arab nation.
"We demand that Ahwazi Arabs be allowed to form their own cultural associations and political parties on their own land so that they may debate their collective destiny without fear, intimidation or violence.
"We affirm this right under international law and in the name of the Ahwazi Arab martyrs who have died for freedom from tyranny. The creation of more martyrs by the tyrants of Tehran will only strengthen our resolve to shake off the shackles of dictatorship and fight the ongoing ethnocide of our people.
"We call on the international community to act in solidarity with the cause of the indigenous Ahwazi Arabs."
Ahwazi organisations, in alphabetical order:Ahwaz Education and Human Rights FoundationAhwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO)
Ahwaz Liberation Organisation - Miaad (ALO)Ahwaz Studies Center (ASC)
Ahwazi-Arabs for Democracy and Justice in IranAhwazi Arab Solidarity NetworkAhwazi Canadian Centre For Human Rights
Ahwazi Centre For Human Rights (UK)Ahwazi Cultural Centre
Ahwazi Democratic Popular Front (ADPF)
Ahwazi Islamic Sunni Organisation (AISO)
Ahwazi Justice Movement
Ahwazi Youth Community
Ahwazian Human Rights CouncilArab Front for the Liberation of Ahwaz (AFLA)
Arabistan Studies Centre
British Ahwazi Friendship SocietyCentre for Combating Racism and Discrimination against Arabs in Iran (CCRDAI)
Danish-Ahwazi Friendship Society
Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz (DSPA)
European Ahwazi Human Rights OrganisationPatriotic Arab Democratic Movement in Ahwaz (PADMAZ)
Youth Union of Ahwaz
Other organisations:
American Baluch CouncilBahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS)
Baloch People's PartyBalochistan Human Rights Organisation - London
Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran, International Committee
Ethnic Human Rights Defenders in Iran
Gulf-European Center for Human Rights (GECHR)
Human Rights Association in National Unity Assembly (Bahrain)Party of Lur and Bakhtiari PeoplePeter Tatchell Foundation (UK)
South Azerbaijan Human Rights Centre (SAHRC)
South Azerbaijan Independence PartyTogether For Human Rights and Democracy Association (Bahrain)
Universal Message Of Human Rights’ Organisation
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO)
