Statement by Ahwaz Human Rights organisation (AHRO) in the 43th UN human rights council session - Geneva - 9th March 2020
Ahwaz Organization for Human Rights aim to highlight the severity of the human rights situation for the Arab minority in Iran whom suffer from repression, persecution and discrimination by the Iranian outhorities.
- In November 2019, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Troops carried out a massacre in the Mashur (Mahshar) area, based in southern Ahwaz - resulting in the killing of 148 unarmed citizens during the protests in Jarrahi (Chamran city) and Koureh (Taleghani). Following the massacre, Iran sent its Special Security Forces and the Revolutionary Guards to storm the town of Jarrahi and other towns of Maashur, and used tanks, machine guns and heavy weaponry to siege and kill the Arab citizens in those areas.
- Following the nationwide anti-government protests during November 2019, around 2,500 Arab citizens have been arrested in various parts of the Ahwaz province, and about 170 Ahwazi protesters have been killed by security forces and the IRGC.
- During November 2019 protests, Iran’s security forces and revolutionary guards unlawfully resorted to lethal force to crush nationwide protests, killing at least 23 children among other hundreds. Those children aged between 12 and 17. At least 5 of those children were Ahwazi Arabs.
- In December 2019, A 45-year-old Ahwazi citizen by the name of Qasem Wasmi Bawi committed suicide due to the torture he endured during his arrest by the Iranian authorities.
- On 6 January, Issa Damani, an Ahwazi civil and cultural activist, and founder of a charity, was sentenced to five years in prison and four years in exile in northwestern Iran.
- Furthermore, in January 2020 it was reported that detainees in various areas of Ahwaz continue to suffer the consequences of the protests that took place in November, 2019.
- In February 2020, Local sources reported that Ahwaz is charging taxes on "working children ''. Along with this news, a video had surfaced showing the Ahwaz province marking and taxing working children and adolescents collecting garbage in the city.
- Ahwaz Human Rights Organization calls on international human rights bodies to condemn the massacre in Mashour and emphasise the need for the international community and the Human Rights Council to take steps forward towards sending a truth commission and bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO)