{"id":8890,"date":"2021-03-15T15:29:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T12:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=8890"},"modified":"2021-03-18T11:14:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T08:14:52","slug":"balochi-protests-rock-the-fragile-iranian-political-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/balochi-protests-rock-the-fragile-iranian-political-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Balochi Protests Rock the Fragile Iranian Political System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Balochi protests in late February rocked the Iranian  city of Saravan in the Sistan and Balochistan province. These demonstrations  led to strong condemnations because of  the  excessive violence unleashed against  innocent Balochi protestors. Iran\u2019s leadership has  not accepted responsibility for the excessive violence,  despite the harrowing accounts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protests flared up  after Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) blocked a road to stop the Balochi people from smuggling fuel to sell  in Pakistan.  The shootings began when  Balochi fuel smugglers  reportedly attempted to break through a blocked road<\/a> set up by the IRGC. A fuel smuggler,  AbdolHamid Esmail Zehi, was shot dead first. At least 10 other Balochi fuel smugglers <\/a> were killed and five others wounded in clashes with the IRGC. Other reports said Iranian border guards<\/a> lined up dozens of fuel smugglers  and shot them. It is reported that  23 were killed<\/a> after this deadly shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the national level, the public condemnations in the aftermath of  the harrowing shootings<\/a>  were quickly silenced.  However, Saravan\u2019s Friday prayer leader said the shootings had to be condemned as they violated Iranian law.  Molavi Abdulhamid, the Sunni Friday prayer leader of Zahedan, called the shootings  a crime<\/a>. Five Iranian members of Parliament<\/a> visited Saravan and were told that the  local people needed food to survive after they were prevented from smuggling fuel to sell in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internationally, the United Nations<\/a> and the US State Department condemned Iran\u2019s harsh response<\/a> to the protests. Amnesty International condemned the shootings, sdeclaring them to be unlawful<\/a>. Human Rights Watch<\/a> demanded a  transparent investigation  and called on  the Iranian government to comply with the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. A campaign led by Balochi activists<\/a> is demanding those involved in killing Balochi protesters to be held to account and for justice to be delivered.  The Balochi people represent a severely impoverished ethnic minority in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This latest excessive use of violence shocked the Balochi people as cross-border fuel smuggling had been tolerated in the past.  To facilitate fuel smuggling,  the state-run Razzagh Plan<\/a> distributed \u201cfuel cards\u201d to  the Balochi people living within 20 kilometers of Pakistan\u2019s border. These \u201cfuel cards\u201d allowed the Balochi people to buy fuel at subsidized rates and then to smuggle and sell in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with Iran struggling to sell fuel in recent years  due to a tight US-led sanctions<\/a> regime, the IRGC took over the Razzagh Plan which had been supposedly established to help the Balochi people. The IRGC took over the remaining 30 percent of shares in the Razzagh Plan, after owning 70 percent of shares previously.   This control will allow the IRGC to further strengthen its domination over the economic and political management in the Sistan and Balochistan province; hence increasing its interference in the lives of the Balochi people who have suffered excessively at the hands of the IRGC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local authorities blamed the shootings on Pakistani border guards<\/a>. The Deputy Governor for Security Affairs in the Sistan and Balochistan province Mohammad Hadi Marashi held meetings with local tribal leaders, claiming that only three people were killed, despite most accounts indicating a much greater number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amnesty International said that the city of Saravan experienced near total internet shutdown<\/a> as the protests flared up  on February 23. Later in the day, videos emerged showing the IRGC shooting at unarmed civilians, and killing at least one child. Some 2,000 to 3,000 people participated in the protests,  and were shot at for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the protests eventually subsided, one  issue became very clear. The increased securitization of the border areas<\/a> in Iran has made it unsafe for  the Balochi people. The  Sistan and Balochistan province is  heavily guarded now and considered to be a securitized border zone, where Iran\u2019s military and intelligence officers remain extremely active. And although Iran\u2019s government<\/a> has promised to probe the border shootings, it is likely that this probe \u2013 like others \u2013 will be brushed under the carpet, highlighting its lack of concern and interest in the suffering of the Balochi people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Balochi protests in late February rocked the Iranian city of Saravan in the Sistan and Balochistan province. These demonstrations led to strong condemnations because of the excessive violence unleashed against innocent Balochi protestors. Iran\u2019s leadership has not accepted responsibility for the excessive violence, despite the harrowing accounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5758,5759,2927,3191],"class_list":["post-8890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-balochi-protests","tag-fragile","tag-iranian-political-system","tag-protests-in-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8890"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8906,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890\/revisions\/8906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}