Baloch are treated as third class citizens in Iran

Ladies and gentlemen and distinguished members of the UNPO, on behalf of the Balochistan people’s party and the Baloch nation, I would like to express our heartfelt thanks and profound gratitude to you. We sincerely value the opportunity provided to us to bring you and the world the solution which in our view would result in solving the plight of our oppressed Baloch and other nations in Iran.

The Iranian government treats Baloch people as third class citizens, deprived almost of all human rights. Baloch children are barred from receiving education in their mother language, and do not have access to sufficient educational facilities to equip them with appropriate knowledge to enter Iranian Universities.  Those who succeed after passing many hurdles are excluded from other processes where religion affiliations are tested. The majority of Baloch are sunny Muslim.

In the employment market Baloch young men and women face other obstructions, which are a combination of ethnicity, language, culture and religion. They are excluded, simply, because they are Baloch. Most young men and women are forced to leave Balochistan to neighbouring countries in search of Jobs. Baloch in Iran feel and experience that they are living in an apartheid system.

Balochistan is blessed with vast natural resources. Gas found in its soil is sold by the Iranian government without any benefit to the Baloch. The Iranian government is building a pipeline from Sirik in Balochistan to take its Gas to Kish, a free trade Area for the rich. While Baloch living near those fields, do not have access to Gas or other necessary modern facilities.

Balochistan’s oil is being exploited in Sirik, yet Baloch people face energy shortages every winter.

The International community is worried that Iran armed with nuclear weapons would be dangerous and will threaten its neighbours and Israel, but there is no debate about  how dangerous the existing regime is to its people and especially to Baloch in Iran.

Whenever The Iranian Government test a long or a short range missile, in the pursuit of Weapons of Mass Destruction it uses Balochistan’s Soil. We Baloch have now for many years been in the receiving end of Iranian missiles, our land has been polluted, our property destroyed and our lives lost. The present regime in Iran is a Godzillian monster to us Baloch. It eats our natural resources and throws out chemical and other contaminated materials on us through its missiles and other weapons.

Iran’s neighbour and one of its closest allies in the region, Pakistan, also tested its nuclear weapons in Eastern Balochistan, the part of Balochistan under Pakistan’s subjugation. The test was conducted near the Iranian border still, Iran was the first country to congratulate Pakistan on its successful nuclear test, disregarding damage it caused and will cause in future, to its citizens. It disregarded that because the Iranian government is negligible for the health and well being of the Baloch people.

Introduction to Balochistan

Balochistan is located in eastern Meddle East, linking Central Asian states with the Indian subcontinent, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Balochistan has existed as a geographical area inhabited by a closely related people for thousands years. It has even existed for decades as a modern national state. Historically The Baloch people have had independent principalities within a Baloch national framework until the middle of the 1900s. As regards an independent state, the  Kalat state existed from 1947 to 1948. Kalat was occupied and annexed by Pakistan on April 1948.

In 1849, an Iranian army defeated Baloch forces in Kerman and captured Bumpur. The Baloch political status was changed radically in later decades, when in the 19^th century the British and Persian Empires divided Balochistan into spheres of influences, between the British Empire in India, the Persian Kingdom and Afghanistan.  Balochistan, “the country of the Baloch” is presently divided between three countries of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

The Baloch in Western Balochistan have been in constant rebellion against the domination and discrimination by the chauvinistic policies of Iranian governments. In some period some part of Balochistan could break away from Iran and establish Baloch rule. The last Baloch independent government was in the early 1900’s until 1927. It was attacked by Reza Shahs army, was occupied and annexed to Iran. Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzahi, its last ruler, went to Tehran for negotiations and was arrested and executed in 1930.

Assimilation policies and its after marks

In the Iranian controlled part of Balochistan, the Baloch are rapidly losing their identity. The previously Baloch dominated regions of Bandar Abbas and parts of Kerman and Sistan are the most affected areas of the assimilation efforts by the Persian state. Now in all these areas the Baloch are a minority, even the capital city of Zahedan does not look like a Baloch city. The Baloch in Iran are completely excluded from the structures of political, social and economic powers of the country.

Many army garrisons are permanently stationed in Baloch areas, Balochistan presenting a picture of an army zone. Here I have to say that the Iranian Army is not so popular that people want it to stay, it is dominated by non Baloch and treats Baloch as an occupied people. In its facilities Baloch are denied job or any kind of entrance.

The Baloch are discontent because they have not been allowed the right to use their native language.

The Baloch are disenchanted because they do not do not receive any benefits from the resources found in their homeland.

They are disillusioned because they are exploited economically and in the process are kept away from the power structure of the state.

The Baloch are disappointed because religion and language is manifestly used as a means to assimilate Baloch nationality into Persian national identity in Iran. These basic realities have reinforced the Baloch’s general feeling of frustration.

Preventive diplomacy

Iranian governments in the past seventy years, both the Shahs and present regime, have only been successful in creating hatred through their favouritism. Their policies have deepened ethnic and social hatred. To prevent civil and ethnic war that was experienced in the former Yugoslavia. The International Community could play an important role by adopting a preventive diplomacy, that is to say, to support liberal democratic forces who are committed to peaceful resolution of ethnic conflict and peaceful national coexistence in a republican federal democratic system based on equal sovereignty, self rule and shared rule within Iran. 

Resolving the Baloch National Question:

The Baloch National question can not be taken as bits and pieces. The Baloch nation must be recognised within its boundaries as a people distinct from others, equal in collective rights and duties. In the new millennium a new scenario of national governance should prevail. The attributes of the new system of governance should be a harmonious partnership in a republican liberal democratic system with a federal structure and national autonomous provincial governing mechanisms. This may appropriately address the problem and offer prospects of a pleasant new partnership of trust and coexistence. A mechanism based on the acceptance of genuine demands of the constituent nations should generate participation, share responsibilities, and offer opportunities to all nations providing a foundation for stronger, civilised, prosperous and proud peoples in a multinational state with a new vision and a civilised image.

Balochistan People’s Party is a national Liberal Democratic Party. It struggles to achieve the Baloch people’s sovereignty within the federal Democratic Republic in Iran. It has formulated a federal democratic framework which envisages a system based on parity of constituent parts, which constituent borders within Iran will be redrawn according to the language, history and people’s wishes. The new republics will have equal rights in all spheres of power. According to the parties program, the relationship between a republic and the federal government must include five basic principles:

1.      National sovereignty: Principal authority rests with the republic, with the federal government having exclusive authority in ‘foreign affairs’, ‘defence’, ‘international financial relationships and financial relationships between republics within Iran’ and ‘communication. The republics will retain power and sovereignty over the remaining state departments.

2.      Democracy: Parliamentarian democracy should be enforced in all levels of power, both at the federal and republic level.

3.      Participation: National republics will have equal participation in all government bodies: the legislative, executive and judicial branches.

4.      Distribution of Power: Both the federal government and the republics should have written Constitutions, and unambiguous laws, regulations and memorandum that both in federal and republics level divides power horizontally between legislative, executive and judicial branches; and vertically divides power between federal and national republics governments.

5.      Financial autonomy: To guarantee financial autonomy, tax collection power should be divided between the federal government and the national republics in a way that makes the national republics financially autonomous of federal government.

A permanent appropriate and lasting solution should be in line with internationally recognised principles of the right to self-determination and sovereign equality of nations.  The federal government shall incorporate republics in its decision making procedures on some constitutionally entrenched basis.