Iran is playing drama to shift the focus of inevitable revolution which it is facing within.
Rafsanjani: A Regime That Oppresses Its People Is Committing Political Suicide
Iranian Expediency Council chairman Hashemi Rafsanjani said, hinting at the oppression in Iran, that a regime that oppresses its people is committing political suicide.
Oppression is not an effective means of ruling the people, he said.
He added that the Bahraini people is oppressed, and is suffering the most of all the peoples of the region.
Source: ILNA, Iran, April 10, 2011
At least one person was killed and dozens were injured in a second day of clashes between Iranian security forces and Arab residents of Ahwaz, a city in the country's Khuzestan province.
Thirty-year-old Mohammed Maarabi was killed in the violent clashes early on Saturday, witnesses told Al Arabiya. Ahwaz youth residents had declared
Friday a “Day of Rage” to demand the rights of the ethnic Arab majority in the Khuzestan province.
Witnesses said
dozens of wounded protesters were taken to their homes in fear they could be detained in hospitals.
Iranian Minorities’ Human Rights Organization (IMHRO) said in a statement obtained by Al Arabiya that
the government has deployed agents in public squares and in the streets.
Basij militia forces and revolutionary guards were positioned in various part of the Ahwaz city, IMHRO added.
The organization quoted Jamal Ahmad, a protester, as saying that
government forces have killed at least 10 people since Friday.
“
We came out peacefully and they soon started to shoot at us. I saw people falling down next to me,” Mr. Ahmad said.
The demonstration, which was organized via the social networking Websites Facebook and Twitter
spread to cities of Hamidieh, Mahshahr, Shdegan, Abadan, and Khoramshahr, according to the organization.
Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights Defense has
called upon the international community to interfere and put an end to what it termed “massacres in Ahwaz.” The group demanded in a statement that Iranian government ensures the “safe” treatment in hospitals of the wounded protesters.
The group also said that
authorities have intermittently cut off electricity and water from residents of Ahwaz city.
Iranian securities have launched an
arrest campaign in the province against those suspected of mobilizing people for the protests.
The
“Day of Rage” was called by opposition movements to mark the
anniversary of what was termed the “April 15 Apprising” of 2005.
The uprising was prompted by a leaked secret
government strategy to try to change the demographic chart of Ahwaz and make ethnic Arab residents a minority.
Currently there are no official figures on the percentage of Arabs and Persians in the Khuzestan province, but
it is widely known that Arabs constitute the majority. Iran’s population is 78 million.
While some ethnic Arab groups have
called for a “revolution” to demand
the independence of the region, several moderate opposition groups have called for rights they said are shared with other ethnic groups, such as the Balooch, the Kurds and the Turkmen.
Ahwaz holds 15 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves and has the second gas reserve in the world. Ahwazi Arabs are banned from using media, any political and cultural activities heavily suppressed by Iranian government.
Iranian security services,
the Vezarat Atelat, secretly killed many Ahwazi activist and intimidated families of activist who live in exile.
Source:
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