Karim Abdian, s speech in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Ahwaz Human Rights Organization-USA
P.O. Box 679, Lorton, Virginia 22199
e-mail: www.ahwazstudies.org  

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, tenth Session, New York, 17-27 May 2011,
Agenda Item 3, © Free, Prior and Informed Consent
Madam Chairwoman,
I am here to speak to you on behalf of Arab-Iranian or Ahwazi Arab minority in Iran.
More than five million indigenous Ahwazi Arabs live in the southwestern region of Iran, near the southern border of Iraq in the province of Khuzestan or as called by its indigenous name, Al-Ahwaz or Arabestan. Ahwazis constitute an indigenous, ethnic, national and linguistic minority in Iran. Historically, this indigenous Arab community has been marginalized, excluded and discriminated against by successive governments in Iran.
Islamic Republic of Iran does not abide by the Free, prior and informed consent. The Ahwazi Arab Nation in Iran has not been allowed to participate in running its own affairs. It does not have local or national representation.  The Arab minority in Iran is totally deprived of its civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.
While Ahwazi ancestral lands produce over 4.5 million barrels of oil daily, funding 90% of Iranian economy, indigenous Ahwazis live in abject poverty and receive no part of its $ 80 billion annual income. Legislation to allocate 1.5% of revenue to Khuzestan or al-Ahwaz was recently defeated for the fourth time. Neither the Islamic Republic, not any of international oil companies from China, Norway, Italy and others, do not respect the  “ the concept of Free, Prior and Informed Concern”.
National Iranian Oil Company, National Iranian chemical and petro-chemical companies do not hire local indigenous population. NIOC places labor advertisements in Isfahan, Shiraz, Tehran and other Persian cities soliciting people to come to Khuzestan but these advertisement do not appear in any of Ahwazi-Indigenous cities and towns in Khuzestan. This discriminatory policy of the Iranian government caused demonstration on 14 and 15 of April, last month, where Iranian paramilitary police e opened fire on unarmed demonstrators and killed at least 1 Ahwaz-Arab demonstrators according to Ms. Shrin Abadi, noble peace prize laureate.
Prior to its annexation and occupation by the Iranian government in 1925, this region enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and independence. Indigenous nomadic tribes have lived on this land for thousands of years.
Successive Persian-dominated regimes in Iran followed a systematic forced assimilation, ethnic cleansing confiscation of indigenous Ahwazi farmers land and diverted Karoon and Karkhe Rivers from Arab land to Persian provinces of Isfahan, Yazd and Kerman. The Islamic Republic, like its predecessors, is trying to strip indigenous Arabs of their national identity, culture and language, and has excluded Ahwazi-Arabs from the Iranian landscape, politically, economically and socially.
Khuzestan’s political, military and security commanders, officers, mayors and all high and mid-level government officials of Khuzestan have consistently been appointed from non-Arab areas.
This marginalization is more acute in light of the fact that the state is the largest employer in Iran.
[90% of the labor force of Iranian oil and gas industries that are located in our lands are hired from non-indigenous, non-local and non-Arabs.
Among Ahwazis, the illiteracy rate is 4 times the national average. Unemployment is 6 times the national average.
The drop-out rate of Ahwazi students is 30% during elementary school, 50% during secondary school and 70% during high school. Only one out of 4 Ahwazi students graduate from high school, while 3 out of 4 Persian students graduate from high school.
The Persian language, which is native only to a 1/3 of the population, is the sole official language therefore denying the linguistic rights of Arabs to their mother tongue. Furthermore, Names of cities, towns, villages, rivers and other geographical landmarks were changed from Arabic to Persian
Often, the Iranian government authorities in Khuzestan refuse to register and issue birth identity cards to indigenous Arab newborn-babies, who do not assume Persian or Shiite names.
Population Transfer
Ahwazi-Arab people have been subjected to a forcible population transfer program. Since the end of Iran-Iraq War, in 1989, 1.2 million Ahwazis have been forcefully displaced into central provinces whilst 1.5 million non-Indigenous Persians were relocated into government-funded resettlement towns such as Ramin, 1, 2, 3, and Shirin-Shahr in Arab cities in Khuzestan. Under the same policy, 500,000 hectares of indigenous Ahwazi farmers land was confiscated and given to non-indigenous Arab Persian settlers, a scheme designed to break up and change the ethnic structure and racial mix of the province.  
Unfair discrimination
Since the Uprising (Intefada )15 April 2005 in the provincial city of Ahwaz where security forces opened fire on thousands of peaceful demonstrators killing at least 151 men, women and children, injuring over 1800,- disappearance of 160 people (believed killed) and 28,000 were detained.  
Last week, 9 indigenous Ahwazi-Arab political and human rights actic=vists were executed, 3 of them were hanged in public in Malashieh part of Ahwaz City and 6 were hang in Karoon prison in Karoon, Ahwaz.
Madam chair, ladies and gentlemen, the Ahwazi-Arabs are neither secessionist nor believe in the dismemberment of the State. They do however urge and request the following:
1. That Iran constitutionally and publically acknowledges the existence and the group rights of the Ahwazi- Arab and other ethnic minorities
2.      Facilitate economic participation by allocating a portion of the vast oil revenue for the development of Arab homeland in Khuzestan and employ indigenous Ahwazis in the oil and Gas industries to foster political participation.
3.       Allow Arabs to study in their own language to reduce the high illiteracy rate among Ahwazis and abide by the concept of Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
4.       The Iranian government should put in place a policy of devolution of power and establish a local representative Ahwaz government, preferably, constitutionally in a federal system of governance.
5.       End the state of siege in Khuzestan and allow the independent expert on minority issues, Ms Gay McDougall, to establish an investigation or fact finding mission, travel to Khuzestan and report the findings to of the Forum on Minority Issues and to the Human Rights Council.