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Iran sends in troops to crush border
unrest Kurdistan-Iran
5.8.2005
By Michael Howard |
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The Iranian government
has deployed large numbers of troops in cities in
the northwestern region which borders Iraq in an
effort to quell three weeks of civil unrest that has
left up to 20 people dead and more than 300 wounded,
according to reports from dissident groups.
They said as many as 100,000 state security forces,
backed up by helicopter gunships, had moved into the
region to crack down on pro-Kurdish demonstrations.
The claims, from Kurdish groups in Iraq, could not
be independently verified, and Iranian officials
remained silent about the unrest.
The state-owned news agency IRNA said the trouble
was due to "hooligan and criminal elements".
News agencies have reported trouble in the northern
areas over the past two weeks, though the scale of
the unrest has been unclear.
The protests in the Kurdish areas came after the
killing of a Kurdish activist by Iranian security
forces in the city of Mahabad on July 9. Since then,
anti-regime demonstrations have erupted in the
mainly Kurdish towns of Sanandaj, Mahabad, Sardasht,
Piranshahr, Oshnavieh, Divandareh, Baneh, Sinne,
Bokan and Saqiz.
In the worst violence so far, Iranian security
forces are reported to have killed at least 12
Kurdish demonstrators and injured more than 70 in a
clash in the city of Saqiz on Wednesday.
Witnesses said the unrest began just before noon as
hundreds of protesters attacked a paramilitary
outpost with sticks and stones. Government
buildings, including the governor's office, were
also attacked and some were ransacked.
Protesters then gathered in the main square,
chanting "Down with Khamenei", the country's supreme
leader.
Witnesses said that security forces responded with
live bullets, and some protesters were fired at by
helicopters.
Kurdsat, an Iraqi-Kurdish satellite channel based in
Sulaimaniyah, reported yesterday that police had
detained as many as 1,200 people after the incident.
Further unrest was feared yesterday in Bokan and
Sinne, where up to 6,000 special forces soldiers
were said to have gathered. Opposition leaders
appealed for calm and called for the international
community to put pressure on the Iranian authorities
to halt the crackdown.
In a statement, the Kurdistan Democratic party of
Iran, which is based in Iraq, urged "international
organisations, human-rights supporters and the
international community to make efforts to stop the
bloodshed of the Iranian Kurdish people by the
Islamic republic regime of Iran".
"This could turn into yet another tragedy for our
people," said Hussein Yazdanpanah, the general
secretary of the Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan,
who is in exile in the city of Irbil.
"Our people want their rights and to demonstrate and
work for them peacefully. But they are being met
with a brutal force."
Iranian agents provocateur were moving among the
protesters, he said, "ensuring chaos and violence
and thereby justifying an extreme reaction from
Iranian authorities".
Iran is home to about 6 million Kurds - almost 10%
of the population - who say they face discrimination
and repression at the hands of the theocratic rulers
in Tehran.
A UN report released last Saturday said authorities
were denying basic amenities to Iran's ethnic and
religious minorities and in some cases seizing land.
"Regions historically occupied by Kurds ... seem to
suffer disproportionate inadequacy of services such
as water and electricity and unsatisfactory
reconstruction efforts," the report concluded.
But Tehran dismisses such charges and is extremely
sensitive about any hint of ethnic unrest,
particularly by the Kurds. Anti-government
demonstrations are dealt with harshly.
Mahabad, where the activist Shwana Sayyed Qadr was
killed, was the capital of the short-lived Republic
of Kurdistan, established by the Kurdish leader
Mustafah Barzani in 1945. It has since become a
symbol for Kurdish nationalism.
www.guardian.co.uk
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