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Iran: Total energy cuts in Kurdistan-Iran
led to protests
10.1.2007
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January 10, 2007
Saqqez, Iran-Kurdistan, -- The National Iranian
Gas Company issued a statement on January 2 warning
of shortages and asking Iranians -- including Tehran
residents -- to moderate their consumption or face
cuts. There were energy shortages in 11 provinces,
with partial or total cuts that include Kurdistan in
western Iran, the northwestern Zanjan Province, and
the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan.
Officials have blamed rising consumption and delays
in unspecified projects for the shortages. Deputy
Oil Minister Hasan Kasai told ILNA on January 1 that
gas consumption rose by 45 percent over last winter.
Authorities have in the past lamented Iranians'
wasteful use of natural gas, electricity, gasoline,
and water. And some have blamed the problem on state
subsidies that keep those prices low.
In western Iran, the energy cuts led to protests. In
Saqqez, in Kurdistan Province, residents gathered
outside the district governor's office on January 4
to protest eight days without sufficient gas
supplies. From there, some 200 protesters went to
the city council, then to the town's central square,
by which time they numbered about 1,000, according
to advarnews.com. Protesters demanded that the
government resolve such fundamental problems instead
of attending to its high-profile nuclear program.
Fakhredin Heidari, the parliamentary representative
for Saqqez and Baneh, wrote to President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad on January 3 to complain about the
situation. He reminded Ahmadinejad that on his last
visit to Saqqez, the president responded to public
outcry by promising that shortages would not happen
again "this year." The lawmaker recounted the death
of a family of five due to a faulty heater that they
were forced to use because of a lack of gas.
Heidari asked whether Ahmadinejad would respond
similarly if it were his family and that of the oil
minister who had to spend the night in the cold. He
also accused gas authorities of "giving away"
natural gas to states who side with Iran's opponents
in the nuclear standoff, leaving none for Iranians.
Heidari struck a note that the president himself has
played in many of his speeches since taking office 1
1/2 years ago -- that of social justice. The
lawmaker questioned the justice of a situation in
which "the negligence of some officials" leaves
Saddez residents "shivering in the cold" or burning
to death in their homes.
Lawmaker Amin Shabani, from Sanandaj in Kurdistan
Province, argued on January 5 that Oil Minister
Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh should be questioned in
parliament if the gas shortages continue --
particularly in the colder western provinces. He
said many western areas have experienced weeks of
gas shortages or cutoffs.
Shabani said that such areas are living "entirely
the opposite" of Ahmadinejad's reported campaign
pledge to bring "oil to the people's tables" and oil
wealth into Iranian homes. He said gas exports
should be cut until domestic needs are met. He
invited Oil Minister Vaziri-Hamaneh to visit
Kurdistan "one day" and "feel the cold...and
properly answer how helpless people are to live" in
near-freezing
temperatures without gas, gasoline, or oil.
The crisis appears to have eased for now. Lawmaker
Shabani said recently that there are currently
sufficient supplies for the city of Sanandaj, and
intermittent but less severe cuts in Saqqez and
Baneh, according to ILNA on January 8.
But Shabani also warned ominously of a "100 percent
possibility that with another cold wave, people in
cold regions will face a fuel crisis." He accused
the oil minister of fulfilling just half of his
pledges to help avoid fuel shortages.
Shabani also took up the challenge to the
Ahmadinejad administration, saying the public
expects a government that "takes pride
in...understanding issues close-up, to have traveled
to the region" as the crisis unfolded, ILNA
reported.
rferl org
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