The people
of eastern Iran, also known as Western Baluchistan are ethnic Baluch. Iran is
Shiite majority state whereas the Baluch are religiously Sunni. Western
Baluchistan was invaded in 1928 by the Iranians who have since then openly used
their coercive forces to subjugate the Baluch nation and identity.
Baluch
dignity, property, society and way or life is not safe in Iran. Assassinations,
summary justice and the hanging people in groups in public is overseen by Shiite
judges. Social stigma, collective humiliation by arrogant Persian elites have
driven the Baluch to desperation.
Natural,
physical boundaries have in the past divided the Baluch from Persia and had
protected the Baluch independent culture until 1928. From time to time when
contacts occur they can involve dispute, threat and sometimes invasion and
conquest. The state of Iran was not formed in heaven. It has been the process
of this conquerors to impose its will on the conquered.
In States
where civilised values exist some basic social values are expected to be
upheld, Security, Freedom, Order, Justice, education and health. These
fundamental values are important to society's well-being and so they should be
protected.
The Baluch
culture, language, way of life and religion is under the threat from the Iranian
Authorities where their property is not safe. The Baloch are not included in
the security responsibilities of the State. The Iranian regime is aggressive
and hostile to its neighbours. The Iranian ideology and institutions pose a
threat to the region.
Civilised States uphold freedom of their
citizens vigorously. The Iranian State burdens the Baluch with military
service, imposes taxation with only limited service to their obligations. The
Baloch instead receive from the State, humiliation, heavy restrictions on the
practice of their religion, no cultural right, and no rights to equality.
There is no
freedom to cultivate and preserve their language or culture. The Baluch are not
adherents to Shia Islam and therefore in the eyes of Authorities cannot be
trusted to hold executive posts.
Most
Persians may feel that they are not free individually but under these
circumstances, the Baluch will never feel free individually nor collectively
because they were threatened under the monarchs Regime in the past. Today the
groups of Persian opposition in exile have no such agenda to address Baluch
grievances in a future Iran free from theocracy.
The State of
Iran has never felt obliged to uphold the rights of equality to each of its
various Ethnic National groups but rather establishes and maintains its
coexistence and interaction on basis of a unilateral dominance.
States are
expected to uphold rule of law and maintain order based on humanitarian
justice. Justice in Iran is not universally applied, rather it is based on
Shiite law interpreted locally, varying from one mullah to another.
The system
of government in Iran is of a revolutionary nature that includes one segment
and rejects another segment as it sees fit and is more than prepared to isolate
one segment in order to demonise and subjugate or eliminate.
The Baluch
are accused as anti-revolutionary and of being British and American
collaborators, by this attitude they are therefore excluded from the Persian
national wealth. The Baluch are of the opinion that The State of Iran has
failed to provide minimal standards for the Baluch.
Iran is a
recognised territorial State. Iran is not "One Nation, One State" as
Persians profess. The consequences of the State's failure to meet minimum
standards, based on discrimination against Baluch and other non-Persian should
raise serious questions.
The State
System is an institution not ordained by God or determined by nature, it is the
consequence of imperial conquest or territorial colonisation. It is a social
organization, constituted from many cultural groups. When the majority group is
a threat to minorities the International Community has a responsibility, not to
condemn victims of State persecution but to determine who the aggressor is.
Generally,
the majority group in most States occupy the United Nations Seat and lobby the
Greater Powers in order to legitimise their and therefore strengthen their
preferred group rule in a given State. The Persian control State Power both
internal and external, they appoint judges to reside in the highest courts in
Iran and their diplomats justify their actions through institution like in The
United Nations on basis of State Sovereignty.
The United
Nations is satisfied with Iran to maintain only order in geographical space,
but the question is for how long?
Iran is a
complex society, with multi-ethnic territorial regions constituted of Turkish,
Arab, Baluch, Kurd, Turkoman, and other religious minorities. All these
nationalities within Iranian territory are sovereign by virtue of will and have
rights to self-determination that is guaranteed by The United nations.
Persians are
the largest group within Iran but dwell predominantly within Persian territory.
Iranian ethno national groups have maintained their cultural and internal
boundaries within Iran's borders. For the peace and prosperity to prevail,
these ethno national groups must maintain their sovereignty, and govern through
legitimise means, institutions, the social contract.
People join
States or in some cases, separate themselves from a State in order to protect
their dignity. If the State of Iran violates Baluch dignity they have the
inalienable right to defend themselves from the powerful state that insists on
discriminating against them on the basis of their religion, language, culture,
and colour and is occupying their land, denying them their God given rights to
live.
Iranian
institutions are eroded and not capable, of generating any hope for the future.
The Iranian mind set is corrupted. The Centralised theological regime of Iran
is the source of instability in the region right now and eventually the world.
The ability to contain it now, although difficult is much preferred and easier
than to leave it for later. Some of us at least within Iran realised that.
The only ray
of hope for Iran and the region is to support a national self-determination in
order to create stability and predictability in the region.
The Baluch
have a vision for a safer democratic region believing democratic states resolve
their differences through negotiation, rather than violence and war. Democratic
regions trade with each other and reduce border restrictions. The Baluch are
suffering from border restrictions imposed on them which will not create an
interstate-dependency between masses and reduced tension. Genuine States see
this interstate dependence as a source of income, creating real wealth, and
support for a liberal society.
The
contemporary state of Iran has been a war like state. It is the international
community’s role to search for permanent peace. The state of Iran senses that
it is losing control on parts of its territory to its own non Persian peoples.
Persians are insistent on hold them by use of force, the threat of which may be
real or may not be real but consequences are real in term of loss of life and
property.
It is time
for the International Community to convey in the strongest terms that Iran is
not Persia but a Territorial State, with many nationalities, all with equal
rights to those of the Persian, otherwise, failing to do so, the world will,
before too long be witnessing yet another genocide.
Mehrab. D. Sarjov is a baluch political activist based in
London strive for an independent Baluchistan.
Baluchistan
Baluchistan accurately means the
land of Baluch is strategically situated at the eastern edge of the Middle
East, links the newly independent Central Asian States with Iran, Indian
subcontinent, the Gulf and Indian Ocean. Presently Baluchistan is divided
into the three parts. A part of Baluchistan is under the Iranian occupation,
another and the biggest part under Pakistan and less populated part is under
Afghan sovereignty.
Partitioning Baluchistan
After the death of Khan,
Naseer Khan 1794, and geopolitical events reduced Khanate to a subordinate
position, the central control of Khanate on Baluch chieftains began to loosen.
The Iranian encroachments on western Baluchistan began during the reign of Qajar
King Nasir-al Din Shah (1848-1896). In 1849, an Iranian army defeated Baluch
forces in Kerman and captured Bumpur. The Iranian expansions increased after
the extension of Indo-European telegraph line from Karachi to Gwadar and then
up to Jask in western Baluchistan in 1861.
By the time of completion of that
line in 1870, Iranian forces had advanced very far in Western Balochistan. In
order to neutralise Persia and to prevent Persian not to side either with
Napoleon or the Czar of Russia the Britain granted a portion of baluchistan to
Persia.
In 1871, the British
Government appointed Maj. General Goldsmid as Chief Commissioner of the joint
Perso-Baluch Boundary Commission. In 1871 Persian and British Governments
excluding the Khanate delegate from the final joint meeting that took the
decision agreed upon a boundary line.
This line dividing Western and Eastern
Baluchistan is called "Goldsmid Line" forming the present
international boundary between Pakistan and Iran. In 1893, a similar
arbitrarily drawn line "The Durand Line" demarcating the Afghan and
British Indian borders gave a large part of Baluch land in northern Baloch
regions of Helmand and Nemroz into Afghan sovereignty.
Resisting Foreign Domination
The Baluch in the Western
Baluchistan are in constant revolt against the Persian domination. The revolt
of Jask (1873), of Sarhad (1888), and the general uprising in 1889, resulted in
the burning earth policy to suppress Baluch rebellion by Iranian forces in
1889. A major uprising under Baluch chieftain Sardar Hussein Narui in 1896
prompted a joint Anglo-Persian expeditionary force to crush the rebellion. The
rebellion was crushed after two years and Narui chief was arrested.
After the death of Muzzafar-al Din
Shah the Qajar dynasty rule was also weakened. The Baluch tribal chiefs in the
west Baluchistan under the Persian occupation began to consolidate their powers
on their territories. In the first decade of twentieth century, Bahram Khan
gained control of almost the entire central and southern part of Western
Baluchistan. In 1916, the British recognised Baranzai as the effective ruler of
Western Baluchistan. Mir Dost Mohamed succeeded Mir Bahram Khan. Mir Dost
Mohamed's attempts to consolidate Baranzai power went with time of Rise of Reza
Shah to power.
In 1928 the Iranian force
attack western Baluchistan and reoccupied western Baluchistan. The war was
continued for seven months and the Persian army defeated the Baluch army and
eventual Mir Dost Mohamed surrendered, thereafter the Western Baluchistan was
finally annexed with Persian shiite Empire.
Mehrab. D. Sarjov is a baluch political activist based in
London strive for an independent Baluchistan.
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