Iranian regime displaces Arabs in favour of Luris

Ahwazi Arabs are being forcibly displaced from the Shoaabiyeh area of northern Al-Ahwaz and replaced by Luri tribes from elsewhere, according to the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO).

New settlements that exclude indigenous Arabs are being built for Lurs brought in from the provinces of Lorestan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Isfahan and Fars.

Farmland has been confiscated from Arab farmers under a ‘tribal housing’ programme. Peaceful demonstrations by local farmers in recent days have been forcibly put down by the police and Revolutionary Guards, according to AHRO. Detainees have been taken to secret detention centres on allegations of murder, which human rights activists claim is being use to militarise the Shoaabiyeh region in order to secure the ethnically exclusive Luri settlements.

The following have been arrested amid protests against forced displacement:

Shapour Hussein Pour Kaabi, 40, married with children, son of Taji, a social and cultural activist accused of murder
Kaab Hussein Pour, son of Shapour
Aref Hajat Kaabi, 31, married with children, son of Hajat
Hussein Hajat Kaabi
Adel Kaabi, 30, married, son of Hanash
Mahdi Kaabi, 14
Khalil Kaabi, 22
Hashem Salah Kaabi, 23
Hatam Attiyeh Kaabi, 31, married with one child
Walid Hanash Kaabi, 24
Jalil Hamid Kaabi, 18, university student

AHRO has condemned the arbitrary arrests and has called on the Iranian authorities to release the men and halt attempts to change the demography of the Shoaabieyh region
http://www.ahwaziarabs.info/2013/01/iranian-regime-displaces-arabs-in.html