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Iran's deputy interior minister yesterday warned of
"severe punishment" if Sunni Muslim rebels in the
south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan harmed
a soldier they captured last month.
Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr said militants had released
seven of eight soldiers kidnapped last month, but
had claimed one was dead. "We still lack any
accurate information and we hope these hooligans
have not made any attempt on his life. But if this
is true, severe punishment awaits," he said.
The deputy minister blamed a group led by "Abdul-Malek
Rigi". The name was similar to "Abdul-Malek Baluchi",
given to al-Arabiya television in July as the name
of the leader of a Baluchi group that sent the
station a videotape of the beheading of an Iranian
security official.
The killing had the hallmarks of Sunni militants
linked to al-Qaeda, and al-Arabiya reported the
group had demanded the release of jailed members and
a ransom. Mr Zolqadr insisted yesterday that no
"advantages" had been given to the kidnappers for
releasing the seven soldiers.
The kidnappings have highlighted not just al-Qaeda's
apparent presence in Sistan-Baluchestan, which
borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the potential
for wider unrest among Iran's ethnic and religious
minorities.
Half Iran's 68m people are made up of Persians,
while the remainder include Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs,
Lurs and Azeris. While close to 90 per cent of the
population are Shia Muslims, the Kurds and the
Baluchis are mainly Sunni. Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis
all allege religious bias and discrimination in
employment and regional development.
The deputy-governor of Ahvaz, provincial capital of
the mainly Arab south-west province of Khuzestan,
yesterday said 50 arrests had been made after two
bombs last week killed eight people on a day that
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad was due to
visit the city.
Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister, has
accused Britain of training militants in
neighbouring Iraq to carry out the blasts and giving
them refuge in London. It was unclear if he was
referring to the Democratic Solidarity party of
Ahvaz, which is London-based. The bombings were
claimed on websites in the name of the Arab Movement
for the Liberation of Ahvaz as part of a fight for
independence.
A collection of ethnic-based parties opposed to
Iran's Islamic republic last year announced a
Congress of Iranian Nationalities for a Federal
Iran, advocating a "federal democratic" system of
government based on "the separation of religion and
state".
Among the signatories, the Kurdistan Democratic
party of Iran has replaced its earlier advocacy of
limited autonomy following the example of Kurdish
federalism in Iraq. The KDPI has been based in
Kurdish-held northern Iraq since it was defeated by
Iranian forces in the early 1980s, and remains
illegal although it gave up its "armed struggle" in
1997.
But there is little uniformity among Iran's ethnic
minorities or the parties purporting to represent
them.
In last year's presidential election, Kurdish
turnout was low. But a high turnout in
Sistan-Baluchestan saw more than 50 per cent of
voters back Mostafa Moein, the reformist candidate
running on a platform of ethnic rights. Dr Moein was
backed by Abdul-Hamid Esmaeel-Zehi, a Sunni cleric
who has spoken out against separatism and al-Qaeda.
Iran's largest ethnic minority, the Azeris, number
15m-20m but are well integrated, influential in
Tehran's bazaar, and include Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
the country's supreme leader. Even the independence
of Azerbaijan, the neighbouring former Soviet
republic, in 1991 failed to stir significant unrest
in Iran's north-west, where Azeris predominate.
www.ft.com
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