Al Ahwaz

Following is an article written by Arab Media Watch chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi and published in the March/April 2006 issue of British-Arab magazine Sharq.

A young Iranian Arab, released from jail, spoke in January of the abuse he experienced and witnessed at the hands of Iranian guards after his arrest during demonstrations in Ahwaz City in November 2005.

Yes, you read it right. Iran's indigenous Arabs are one of our best-kept secrets, so well kept that many, if not most of us, do not know they exist. Just try finding any information about them on the Arab League website.

Nonetheless, due to current internal and external factors, we may be hearing a lot more about them in the near future.

It is difficult to accurately know how many there are because Iran does not release official ethnic statistics, but estimates reach as high as 5 million, larger than the populations of almost half the Arab states. There are an estimated 3,000 in Britain.

Perhaps the most prominent contemporary Iranian Arab, and certainly the highest-ranking in government, is Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani, who also served in the previous administration.

Ahwazi Arabs, as they are also called, are mostly located in the south-western province of Khuzestan, where they form the majority of the population. Fertile and water-rich in a mostly arid region, it was an autonomous Arab emirate protected by Britain and known as Arabistan or Al Ahwaz until it was over-run by Iranian forces in 1925.

Bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf, it is perhaps the most strategically and economically important of Iran's 30 provinces, as it contains up to 90% of the country's oil reserves and 10% of the output of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

For the same reason, it is also potentially the country's Achilles heel. Some analysts speculate that, were the US and UK to attack Iran over its alleged nuclear ambitions or plan to shift its petrodollars into a euro-based bourse - with potentially disastrous effects for the US economy - they could strike a knock-out blow by capturing the province.

"With control of the oil of Khuzestan and Iraq and, by proxy, Saudi Arabia, the US will have what [former US President] Richard Nixon called 'the greatest prize of all'," says award-winning journalist John Pilger, who believes that "an American attack on Iran...is very real and probably imminent."

Iran blames Britain for a string of bomb blasts in Khuzestan since last year, and for fomenting unrest among its ethnic Arabs. Britain denies this, but the claims have nevertheless aroused fears among Iraqis, particularly the Shia majority, that their occupied country could be used as a staging ground against their Shia neighbour.

Khuzestan is also integral to the sabre-rattling between Iran and the West concerning the nuclear issue. In December 2005, Iran announced it was planning its second nuclear reactor to be built in the province, raising serious concerns among the population there due to the earthquake-prone nature of the region.

"The government claims that a nuclear power station in Khuzestan is essential to achieve its goal of meeting electricity demand with nuclear power supply, yet Khuzestan is one of the most oil-rich places on the planet," says Nasser Bani-Assad, spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society, fearing that the province "could witness a Chernobyl-scale disaster."

If a military strategy is being contemplated by the US and UK, they would be advised to learn from the experience of Saddam Hussein, whose country has periodically laid claim to the province - in 1969, Iraq's deputy prime minister declared that the "dispute with Iran is in connection with Arabistan, which is part of Iraq's soil."

In 1980 Saddam invaded Khuzestan to capture it, initiating the Iran-Iraq war. He had counted on support from the Ahwazi Arabs, but they put up staunch resistance against the invasion, which was ultimately repelled. As a result, the province took the brunt of the devastation from the eight-year war.

Having said that, resentment among Ahwazi Arabs over their maltreatment in Iran, despite their also being predominantly Shia, has increased over the decades, and particularly since last year.

"Historically they have been marginalised and discriminated against, for instance being denied the right to an education in their own language," Amnesty International said in a December 2005 report. In October that year, the organisation said this "has fed civil unrest…and an atmosphere of anger and mistrust."

From the moment Iran captured Arabistan, it embarked on a campaign to forcibly settle nomadic Arab tribes and 'Persianise' the province, which is the only one not to be named after its ethnic population, unlike Kurdistan, Azerbaijan and Balochistan.

It is forbidden to publish local newspapers in Arabic, the province's authorities – including the mayor – are not Arab, and Arab opposition parties are illegal.

Nevertheless, there are political parties and solidarity groups in exile such as the BAFS, the US- and UK-based Democratic Solidarity Party of Al Ahwaz, the London-based Al Ahwaz Arab Peoples Democratic Popular Front, the Netherlands-based Ahwaz Liberation Organisation, the Ahwaz Studies Center and the Ahwaz Human Rights Group.

To this day, the province is struggling to repair the extensive damage done by the Iran-Iraq war, with little support from the central government. "After the end of the war, the government didn't carry out reconstruction in Khuzestan as it did in other provinces," a high-ranking Iranian Arab official told the Asia Times last April.

Surveys suggest that around 50% of Ahwazi Arabs live in absolute poverty and 80% of their children suffer malnutrition, while illiteracy and unemployment levels are well above the national average. Arabs say this is due to discrimination in getting jobs, education and healthcare. This has caused particular resentment because they do not benefit from the province's wealth.

Iran's government has consistently refused to allocate just 1.5% of oil revenues to Khuzestan, as demanded by the province's representatives in the Majlis [parliament]. "Khuzestan has provided 100% of its oil production and revenue to Tehran," says representative Abdullah Kaabi. "Is allocating 1-2% of its own oil back to its inhabitants too much?"

In an official visit to Khuzestan in July 2005, UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari said: "In deprived neighbourhoods you can actually see the towers of the oil refineries and the flares and all of that money, which is a lot, and it's going out of the province. Even a small percentage would significantly improve things in terms of development."

In December last year, MPs from Khuzestan signed a petition protesting government plans to divert water from the Karoon River, an important source of water for farmers there. "The Iranian government has responded with indifference and hostility," says Bani-Assad, adding that it "would have a catastrophic effect on the Ahwazi Arabs' economic security and the ecology of their homeland."

BAFS Chairman Daniel Brett points to "an aggressive policy of land confiscation, forced migration and a long-term programme of permanently eliminating Arab influences from Khuzestan," comparing the situation there to apartheid South Africa. "Ahwazi Arabs are among the world's most disadvantaged and persecuted ethnic groups."

In September 2004, the homes of 4,000 Arab residents of Sepidar district were destroyed and bulldozed, "an action almost universally ignored in the West, in contrast to the furore that rightly surrounded [President Robert] Mugabe's adoption of a similar policy in Zimbabwe," says Brett. Simultaneously, he adds, the government began a large housing project to resettle ethnic Persians from northeastern provinces to Khuzestan.

He also says up to 500,000 Arabs could be displaced by the construction of the Arvand Free Zone, a military-industrial complex along the Khuzestan-Basra border.

The situation boiled over last year. The 'April intifada [uprising]' saw demonstrations in several of the province's cities. Some estimates put the death toll at over 160, including children and a pregnant woman, with hundreds injured and thousands arrested, many imprisoned to this day.

An Amnesty report that month referred to Iranian forces reportedly cutting water supplies, sealing Ahwaz City and operating a 'shoot-to-kill' policy, "excessive use of force, unlawful killing and possibly…extra-judicial executions of protesters," and "alleged violations of human rights."

The organisation called on Iranian authorities "to abide by international standards of conduct of law enforcement and, in particular, to respect and protect the right to life, freedom from torture and ill-treatment and freedom from arbitrary arrest."

Addressing the European Parliament, Commissioner Jan Figel, speaking on behalf of Benita Ferrero-Waldner (European commissioner for external relations), expressed "deep concern" at the "excessive use of force to suppress unrest" in Khuzestan.

There was even disquiet within Iran's parliament. A petition signed by 180 MPs was sent to then-President Mohammad Khatami, condemning the anti-Arab crackdown and discrimination that led to the unrest.

The 'April intifada' was followed by a series of car bombings, and further clashes in November between Arabs and Iranian police.

Brett says the situation of Ahwazi Arabs has become "perceptibly worse" since the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in June 2005, despite his stated desire to improve relations with Arab states. Sharq was unable to get a response from Iran's embassy in London, despite three attempts.

The continuing deterioration is perhaps because the Arab world has failed to take up their cause and, according to Brett, "their plight goes unaddressed in the West…their voice is silenced," and "the international response…has been weak."

He adds that human-rights reports "have been ignored by legislators, who have placed emphasis on 'normalising' relations with Iran. No Ahwazi is calling for a foreign invasion, but they do have a right to the same kind of solidarity extended to the Palestinians."

He says there is "no British interest" in the Ahwazi issue, and the failure of politicians here to take it up "is a sign of moral and political weakness that can only strengthen the hand of the opponents of democracy and progress in the Middle East."

In words reminiscent of Ahmadinejad's now-infamous statement on Israel, Brett says: "If the Iranian regime is to be prevented from driving the Ahwazi people literally off the map, then it's vital that their predicament be placed firmly on the 'political map' here in the West." The same should be true in the Arab world.