Sistan and Balochistan has been described as akin to Mars on Earth. For all the attention they get from Tehran, many Baloch feel they may as well be on another planet.
‘It’s the closest thing to Mars on Earth,’ concluded a group of US geologists visiting the region of Sistan and Balochistan in the early 1970s. And since Iran’s revolution in 1979, the country’s southeast feels as little explored as the Red Planet.
Balochistan, as the Baloch refer to their homeland, is divided today between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But the fact that the region is a virtual no-go area for the international media shouldn’t disguise its potential strategic importance. After all, the area—roughly the size of France—holds significant reserves of gas, gold, copper, oil and uranium, and also has a 1,000-kilometre coastline at the gates of the Persian Gulf.
‘(But) unlike what happened in Pakistani-controlled Balochistan, Tehran hasn’t exploited the energy and mineral reserves in the area,’ says Prof. Taj Muhammad Breseeg. ‘It prefers that the region’s resources and population remain undeveloped.’
Today, the region has the lowest per capita income in Iran, with almost 80 percent of the Baloch people living below the poverty line by some estimates. The average life expectancy, meanwhile, is at least eight years lower than the national average, while infant mortality rates are the highest in the country. It all results, suggests Breseeg, from Tehran’s ‘policy of assimilation.’
‘Annexation of the region to Iran in 1928 brought terrible episodes of repression, caused a mass exodus of the local population and saw virtually every Baloch place name changed toa Persian one,’ Breseeg says.
The problem for Balochs is that they are Sunni Muslims in a Shiite-ruled nation. ‘The Islamic Shiite missionaries sent by Tehran told us that we’d have no jobs, no schools and no opportunities unless we converted,’ says Faiz Baloch, one of thousands of Baloch refugees who were forced to leave their homeland.
Now based in Britain, Faiz recounts the incident 10 years ago that he says was the last straw in pushing him out. ‘(I had) a heated discussion with two Islamic Guards. They raided our home and wanted to arrest me,’ he says. ‘I managed to escape, but they took my father instead. That was the last time I saw or heard from him.’ Faiz says he believes it likely his father was hanged soon after he was detained.
According to figures from Amnesty International, Iran executed at least 1,481 people from 2004 to 2009, with the London-based International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons claiming that about 55 percent of these were Baloch. The organization claims that the Baloch in Iran have endured the highest concentration of death penalties handed down as a percentage of population in the world for nearly a decade under the Islamic regime.
Faiz is studying for university admission exams, something he says would have been much harder in his native Sistan and Balochistan. ‘There are currently about 3.3 million university students in Iran, but Baloch account for probably only 2,000 students,’ he says. ‘Most Baloch students don’t find a job after graduation anyway.’
It was this harsh economic and political climate that fostered the creation of Jundallah—a religious and political organisation established in 2002 claiming rights for the local Baloch. Jundallah is believed to organize a range of disruptive activities in support of its cause, including suicide bombings and more selective attacks, such as the alleged kidnapping of an Iranian nuclear scientist last September.
‘The greatest paradox of all this is that it was the Ayatollahs’ regime that initially supported the Sunni Mullahs in the early 1980s,’ says Shahzavar Karimzadi, a Baloch economist and human rights activist who currently teaches at London Metropolitan University. ‘It was another way to counter the ever increasing popularity of the progressive secular democratic left among Baloch people.’
Photo Credit: Karlos Zurutuza
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From Sweden
Salam Rondy
Who can says the majority of Baloch youth who became executed by the barbaric and Baloch enemy regime have been involved in narcotic, the regime say it. Do you have any idea the rate of opion that used in capital of Iran, Government self estimate it 5 ton in every single day. Do you believe the Baloch youth have this opportunity and capacity to transport 5 tom opin from Baloch Land to Tehran? Do you how chech post you should pass. Do you have any idea how many very high level of Government,s officer have been involved in transport case of narcotic? If the reports says 55% of all executed have been Baloch but the correct number isstill much higher than.
Mark
Rodney,
Other than Amnesty International, the author is quoting a rare source on the executions issue you´re free to trust or not. Besides, how did you get to know about “narcotics in Iran”? Just because you saw it on Press TV? If we are to trust the Ayatollah´s regime, all the Iranian Baloch are nothing but “terrorists and drug smugglers”…
Mohammad Zainudini
Salam Karlos
I would like thank you so much for the articles u writing about forgotten people of Baloch. As u self have seen, heared, experienced and wttnised how the people of Baloch living. The Baloch people need help from Human rights activist and jounalist like u very much. The Baloch problematic very seldom highlight in Media but i see ur article in three parts of Balochistan. The Baloch people have been more poor as the were for 500 years ago. I am a baloch and Human Right,s activist and living in Sweden.
very best regards
Mohammad Zainudini
Rodney
It is a little inaccurate to state that 50% of those executed in Iran are of Baloch ethnicity as if to somehow insinuate their execution is racially motivated without, also mentioning the type of crimes they have committed. Given the majority of narcotic drugs that are smuggled through Iran pass through Balouchistan, the vast majority of drug crime which carries with it, the capital punishment, takes place in that province. Additionally to insinuate that Jundollah and it’s leaders are anything less than terrorists is a gross misrepresentation of the truth.
Please exercise a little professionality when trying to pass something off as “journalism”.
kalgor
Baloch people should unite, file case and sue Britian Government who is responsible of their miseries, other wise they should help Baloch people to liberate Balochistan again from failed state of Pakistan and terrorist state of Iran.
Jalalkhan Boer
I am so glad to see these kinds of articles written about my homeland and exposing these brutal regimes on both sides of Baluchistan the Pakistani and Iranian sides and wish that more exposures like this would educate the Western World of the existence of another race the likes of the Kurd whoa re being murdered in broad day light due to their aspirations of wanting to unite their country into one and be able to determine the future of their of their country and that of its people in this modern and civilized World.Greed of these two countries have been the key factor in causing all these hardships to the native land.If the Western World study the linguistics similarities between the Baluchi language with German,English and French you will find that we belong to the European families and least to say that our mere existence has been ignored by the European cousins and more support and favoritism has been shown towards the Punjabi and Iranian people than towards the Baluchis.I hope with these kinds of exposures of the brutalities leveled against us by the two main countries of Pakistan and Iran the West will come to our rescue and lend us support after all we are the same in our thinking with the West than the other two who have done nothing but caused destruction in the region.If the West will bet on the right horse than there will be safety and stability and growth in this strategic area and thus far much less dollars will be spent for the security and thus will enable the Americans to repay their debts much faster.I hope President Obama and his aides and will read this and take heed.We need support your support in liberating our lands and we will ensure that there is security for all and if this is not given to us then prepare for the worst that is to come as soon as Iran becomes Nuclear power.Pakistan has already polluted part of our lands when testing their Nuclear device and now Iran will follow suit.Please stop the annihilation of a beautiful race.
Grant
There wouldn’t be such ignorance if more people tried to write about the Baluchistan area*.
*Which also includes a part of Pakistan that seems only slightly more to hear about than the Iranian Baluchistan.