Floods continuing and alarming situation ringing all over Al-Ahwaz
Floods have been continued in all over Al-Ahwaz for more than a week, amid a clear government flare-up in relief efforts. While the large number of Ahwazi citizens were evacuated by themselves and more than 70 villages were evacuated in different places of Ahwaz region.
The Iranian authorities opened gates of the “Abbas por” Dam in the Masjid Suleiman after opening the gates of three dams in Ahwaz that are Maroun Dam, Dez Dam and Karkha Dam, under the pretext of rising water levels behind these dams, according to the Iranian officials in Ahwaz.
Thousands of Ahwazi rural inhabitants of villages on the outskirts of Susa (Shoosh) city are still trapped in floods up to written of this report as Iran Red Crescent could only rescue and accommodate 1600 of them. The condition of thousands of Ahwazi rural inhabitants still hazardous.
While the Iranian authorities not rescuing people from catastrophic floods, the terrorist IRGC officers attacked defenceless Ahwazi people inhabitants of Jelizi rural area, 20km from Ahwaz capital on the Tuesday night of 2ndApril 2019. Iranian officials try to flow flood waters out of dams towards Ahwazi agricultural lands and homes without warning people or providing aids.
Following the attack and firing tear gas towards protestors, one Ahwazi young were killed and four wounded in a shootout by the terrorist IRGC officersagainst citizens of Jelizi villagewho protested against the closure of the flood water path made by Iranian authorities in order to prevent them from reaching the oil installations and fields.
Also the Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights has received number of videos showing the destruction of thousands of hectares of farms belonging to Arab farmers due to the Iranian government’s failure to take measures to prevent the access of flood waters to these areas.
Meanwhile the Centre has received video on Wednesday the 3rdof April 2019, clearly shows that The Iranian occupation authorities prevent the flow of flood waters towards “al-Huwayzah” and “Al-Falahiyah” wetlands, that are having a total area of hundreds of thousands hectares, protecting the oil companies in those wetlands.
The Centre believes that what is going on in all over Ahwaz comes under pretext of implementing the “Khuzestan comprehensive security plan(1)” in order to Iranian regime reduces the Arab population to one by third. According to following evidence the Centre believes that the flooding phenomena in Ahwaz is deliberate and man-made:
First: the Iranian regime has prevented the Ahwazi farmers for last 4-5 years from farming due to lack of water and drought, and Iranian environmental scientises has warned about finish of underground water and alarming low level of water behind dams in Ahwaz region.
Second: Dez dam as example has density of 3.3 billion Sq/m and it needs minimum of six months continues raining to be filled up completely and as scientises warned about lack of water behind the dam, how it become full within few rains led to opening the emergency gate after 69 year??
Third: how can we imagine that all the dams in Khuzestan (part of Al-Ahwaz) region been overwhelmed at the same time and their emergency gates been opened simultaneously in 2019???
Fourth: the Iranian governor in Khuzestan , criminal Shariati said in the Iranian pro media that if the Ahwazi people are not displacing themselves quickly, the authorities will relocate them in coercion way.
Fifth: as it happens in all the world, if floods happens, the army and other governmental representative will help people by moving them to safe place and providing warm food and dress for the affected people, but the Ahwazi people despite passing nearly one week did not receive any kind of support.
Sixth: why the flood phenomena happened in 2019 not any other year ??? is it because the security plan execution time ends by 2019.
Seventh: one of the Iranian officials (cannot remember the name) 3-4 months ago said that we are going to have severe floods in south and southwest of the country. If the Iranian authorities been aware of floods with reasonable amount of time, why they did not take rational steps to reduce the casualties in all kinds???
Eighth: despite nearly passing a week from floods, why there is no presence of Iranian army in Al-Ahwaz??
Ninth: while Ahwazis are suffering from the severe flood, why the Iranian media are not speaking about the Ahwazi miseries?? Is there blockade instructed by Iranian security service for not to cover Ahwazi flood???
Tenth: in so appalling situation ,IRGC forces broke flood-defence dykes built by Ahwazi farmers against devastating floods. As shown in yellow line on the picture ,IRGC exploded the flood-control levees to protect oilfields in wetland without taking into consideration risks imposes to the life of Ahwazi people.
Iranian authorities said minimum 100,000 Arab residents, most of them farmers, have been displaced by themselves from their villages, while floods threaten hundreds of thousands of the residents of the “Susa”, “Khafajiya”, “Albesaitin” and “Dar Khewin” cities.
Opening the emergency gates of Dez Dam along after 69 years with other IRGC built dams such as “Karkheh”, “Abass Por” and “Maroun Dams”, diverting the stream of floods water towards Arab villages and agricultural lands in the occupied Ahwaz, targeting the demographic changes of the Arab population structure and destroying the agriculture economic structure in all over Al-Ahwaz.
Ahwazi activists have been sent videos from Ahwazi people complaining of the Iranian authorities for ignoring the Ahwaz flood victims. The Ahwazis are saying that the Iranian government has deliberately opened the dams but has not opened roads and ways to sew it into both Hor al-Azim and Al-Dauragh wetlands, to protect the oil fields and installations.
Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights strongly condemns the Iranian heinous crimes by deliberately making the flood to change the Arab demographic structure of Al-Ahwaz and calls for international aids for Ahwazis that are suffering from century phenomena made by Iranian regime. The centre calls upon humanitarian organisation and NGOs to put pressure on Iranian regime to stop its vicious policies in Al-Ahwaz and condemn it in the United Nations and other humanitarian organisations and parliaments.
Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights
04-April-2019
