Iran Saves Oil Rigs, but Destroys Ahwaz – Utilising “Natural Disasters” as a tool of Ethnic Cleansing
By Hossein Bouazar
It has been more than 10 days after the man-made floods by the Iranian regime, all Ahwazi farmers lost their farms and many Ahwazis (about two million Ahwazi Arabs) had to leave their home land to save themselves from the floods. The greater concern is that they might never be allowed to return home. Ahwaz region located in the south and south-west of what is currently known as Iran. Iranian regime instead of providing aids, the Iranian regime’s terrorist group known as IRGC (also known as Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enqelāb-e Eslāmi) attacked Jalizeh village for refusing to abandon their homeland. As a results of that attack 34 People were injured and 1 dead. Here is a video of the IRGC members attacking Ahwazi Arabs.
Photo of Abud Jelbazi shot dead by the IRGC.
Photo of people from Jalizeh village after IRGC’s attack.
In the writer’s opinion the man-made floods by the Iranian regime in worse than the leaked document proves Iranian regime recruiting non-indigenous people (Here is a detailed article on the leaked document) and migrating Ahwazi Arabs from their lands. In fact, it is even worse than the Mohammareh black Wednesday massacre as it is utilising “natural disasters” as a tool of ethnic cleansing and forced migrating Ahwazi Arabs.
Some people may or may not remember the ‘Black Wednesday massacre (Many people remember that as crime against humanity by the Iranian regime) which was carried out directly in response to Khomeini’s direct order to Ahmad Madani the military governor of Ahwaz at that time to kill all of the members of political and cultural organizations of the Ahwazi Arabs in Mohammareh city.
From killing Ahwazi Activists to publicly announcing that they hate Arabs (in different platforms) to Iranian regime’s deliberate attempt to Forced Migrate the Ahwazi citizens from Ahwaz to other region, has been a plan since this regime’s early days.
Iranian regime after occupying Al-Ahwaz, they initiated programs and policies of Persianization by enforcing Persian or Farsi as the official language and banning the teaching of Arabic in the schools in the region.
Despite the Natural wealth in Ahwaz region over 90% of oil and gas wealth claimed by Iran located in the region, while poverty spreads among Ahwazi people. We are victims of institutionalised wider spirit destitution and deprivation such as for example;
- HealthCare
- Decent Education.
- Lake of equal employment opportunity.
- Clean water
- And even clean air
Ahwazi Arabs in Iran often face state discrimination in areas including politics and culture. Iran is the second country after china in terms of execution, Ahwazi Arabs make the most of their lists. Iranian regime even executed pregnant woman. There are thousands of Ahwazi Arab has been executed and imprisoned by the Iranian racist regime to keep Ahwazi Arabs under control.
There is no end to the suffering of the Ahwazi people. From heavy and deadly sandstorms (Sand storms that now routinely plague the region are the result of a decline in humidity throughout the whole region as wetlands vanishing), to racism and the way we were treated, influenced many Ahwazi Arab people, including myself, to wake up and defend ourselves against Iran. Iran always have hatred towards Arabs.
The suffering of the Ahwaz people continues from banning farmers from farming to brutally oppressing Ahwaz activists to “dried dams”.
Ahwazi Arabs are among the most brutally oppressed peoples in the World. In the past (before Iran’s occupation of Al-Ahwaz) Ahwaz was a rich land with rich people ran by the Ahwaz leader Shekh Khazal. Since the Iran’s occupation of Al-Ahwaz Iran has taken all oil, gas and other natural resources and Ahwazi Arabs received nothing in return. Ahwaz is also one of the most oil-rich nations in the world. Ahwaz is the backbone of Iran.
The situation of the floods damage has been very bad that the Iranian government have banned foreign activists and journalists from visiting the area.
Iran has seen major flooding for the past two weeks in hundreds of villages, towns and cities in the western half of the country, where in some places an emergency situation has been declared. According to the spokesman for the emergency department, 57 people have died in the floods and about 478 people has been injured.
Javad Zarif Iran’s foreign minister tweeted, to blame US sanctions on not receiving aids from other countries for the Ahwaz floods, even though the floods was caused by the Iranian regime themselves.
In response to Javad Zarif’s comment, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, the floods show the “level of Iranian regime mismanagement in urban planning and in emergency preparedness.”
Not long-ago Iranian regime were saying that there is no water in Dez Dam and other dams as even the regime banned farmers from farming. They destroyed all the wetlands even though people who live there were earning money through fishing and making mattresses.
How Iran’s Khuzestan (part of Al-Ahwaz) went from wetland to wasteland;
Now, in order to provide the water needed for these water-based industries, as well as the prosperity of agriculture in the desert provinces, during the mentioned period (from the Iranian fifth state to now), six reservoir dams and a number of regulated and detached dams constructed on the outskirts of the Karkheh, Karun and Jarahi rivers, which are as follows:
- Parsel 11 (Banghstan) dam
- Ghotvand Oliya dam
- Techan Dam
- Dez Dam
- Dehnou Hendijan Dam
- Ramhormuz (Jareh) dam
- Septon dam
- Sare Tirak Haftgel dam
- Karoon 1 (Shahid Abbass por) dam
- Shoh Hamid dam
- Zehiriyeh Dam
- Karoon 3 dam
- Karkheh dam
- Kaltondar dam
- Maroun Dam
- Masjed Solieman (Ghedar Lander) dam
- Vali Asr dam
- Karkheh Regulatory Dam
- Ghotvand Regulatory Dam
- Dez Regulatory Dam
- Behesht Abad dam
- Tunel Kuhrangh 3 dam
The true reasons behind the man-made floods in Ahwaz;
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.
Video shows the floods from helicopter view.
Ahwaz citizens seeking international help to stop the floods.
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 happen, 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-defense 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 two million 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.
Ahwazis people didn’t get any aids or support from the government so Ahwazis from man to women and from young adults to adults they turned to other Ahwazis seeking help.
While Ahwazi people helping people in needs, the IRGC arresting some of them secretly.
While IRIB does an interview like this one but it does not get published in their national TV. Filtering, from Internet Filtering to selective News, so we shall continue the #BanIRIB and #IRGCTerrorists.
We Ahwazi people 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.
We need the international organizations to dictate to Iranian regime to;
• Stop Persian racism and bigotry against Ahwazis.
• Free political prisoners.
• Demand for unconditional freedom and equality.
• Stop stealing Ahwazi rivers’ water.
• Understand that Ahwazi Arab lives matter.
• Put an end to ethnic demographic change in Ahwaz.
• Understand that Ahwaz is Arab homeland and respect this fact.
• Allow education in Arab language.
• Understand that Ahwazi people’s language is their identity.
• Understand that Ahwazi people are Arab people and not Arab speaking people.
Hossein Bouazar is a human rights activist from the Ahwaz region in Iran. He writes about human rights abuses committed on the Arab Ahwazi.
Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights
Date: 07/04/2019
