The speech of Arab Movement for the liberation of Ahwaz in New York Conference 24-09-2019

The Honorable attendees

Greetings

To begin with, let me convey the warm greetings of the Ahwazi people who fervently hope that this conference will contribute to casting light on some of their sufferings. Also, the accompanying delegation and I express our profound thanks and gratitude to the US for hosting and sponsoring this landmark conference, the first of its kind, which is evident in its clear and precise theme. The conference is also distinguished by the high caliber of attendees and participants, who represent the oppressed and tyrannized people suffering for decades. Ahwazis have long awaited such an occasion as it represents a glimmer of hope for these people to achieve their cherished aspirations for freedom, peace and democracy, and of help in enabling them to finally attain their long-withheld right to self-determination.

Mr. Woodrow Wilson , the 28th President of the United States, was the first International Figure to present the right of self-determination to the people of the World after the first World War , which was included in the Charter of the United Nations after the Second World War.

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is no secret to you that the people of Ahwaz have made tremendous sacrifices since 1925 in pursuit of saving their children and future generations from a life of injustice, prejudice and oppression. They do so in order to reassert their right to self-determination, a well-established inalienable right granted to all peoples, enabling them to decide what befits them, as free peoples, to live in the way they deem appropriate on their own soil; those upholding this most precious right have emerged victorious in many places worldwide, with many peoples throwing off the yoke of tyranny. Our people, however, have been denied this right since the annexation of our beloved land was endorsed at the UN.

The ugly truth which should be reiterated is that consecutive regimes in Iran have exercised and continue to exercise the worst sorts of violence, which include the use of atrocities that directly contradict all international laws and norms, such as crimes against humanity, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and systematic prejudice, along with all the other practices banned under international conventions and treaties, especially the UN charter.

The brutal and savage regime of Iran is going to execute more than 30 innocent Ahwazi in the course of this week, we therefor ask the international community to take the necessary measures to prevent this heinous crime, Iranian judges have no law based on justice and follows dictatorial laws as ordered by supreme leader Khamenei.

The regimes which seized power in Iran have imposed indiscriminate and arbitrary measures, abolishing all the institutions of the region of Ahwaz established by the people to run their own affairs. As with other minorities in Iran, the regimes took prejudicial measures, including banning studying or speaking in Ahwazis’ native Arabic language and practicing policies of systemic racial discrimination and persecution against the people of Ahwaz. This is not confined to official arenas but affects every aspect of everyday life for the people of Ahwaz. This is in addition to ongoing efforts to obliterate the indigenous people’s Arab identity and annihilate their presence from the entire Ahwaz, as the UN report of Mr.  Miloon Kothari, in 2005 stated. In addition to these cruel injustices, the people of Ahwaz are subject to forced displacement in Ahwaz and efforts to change the demographic composition of the area in order to strengthen Tehran’s control. Under the current cruel and medieval regime, public executions and arbitrary killings of unarmed young Ahwazi men on the streets and in public squares have become commonplace, along with law-defying indiscriminate arrests. In order to exploit and profit from Ahwaz’ massive natural resources of gas, petrol and water, Iran’s regime pursues sadistic policies of economic and cultural oppression and many other criminal policies which are internationally illegal as well as morally repulsive.

The people of Ahwaz and the other non-Persian peoples and dissidents in Iran still lacks international support of their legitimate rights, which prevents their revolution for freedom from emerging victorious. Due to this international impunity, the Iranian regime unleashes hell on the people of Ahwaz in retaliation for every uprising and protest demanding freedom and democracy, using excessive force, killings, horrendous torture in jails that equal those of any barbaric historical tyrant, along with routine executions and assassinations of public figures at home and abroad, as have been seen in the Netherlands and Denmark. Some of these operations are carried out secretly. Others are perpetrated publicly, with everybody hearing and seeing, to intimidate the people and underline the regime’s impunity.

From time to time, the ruling regime in Tehran also resorts to other repressive and wholly illegal measures which hinder and impede normal life, such as cutting off water, electricity and communication from several Ahwazi towns and cities to deter the people of Ahwaz and force them to submit and abandon any protests for their rights.

In the past couple of decades, the regime has also established dams in order to divert the course of the once-mighty rivers that made Ahwaz a fertile regional breadbasket, depriving its people of freshwater. This has also largely destroyed the agricultural capabilities of the region, as well as helping to poison the drinking water supply, devastating the environment and torching forests.

This cruel policy led to the shrinkage or total disappearance of these once vast rivers, where ocean-going vessels plied their trade, with devastating results for the natural environment as well as for the people and the once abundant wildlife. This has aggravated desertification and led to widespread dust storms and pollution levels among the worst in the world.

Much of the heavily and deliberately polluted rivers that remain have turned into fetid and saline, often undrinkable muddy trickles which are home to epidemics. Ahwaz, according to the World Health Organization, has become the most polluted spot on earth. This is confirmed by reports released by global rights organizations renowned for their credibility.

There can be no doubt that the people of Ahwaz aspire to freedom, democracy, peace, security and stability. They refuse to see their beloved lands turned into a vast military base for the Iranian regime, which includes thousands of its infamously cruel security, police, IRGC, and Basiji terrorist personnel. The foremost mission of all these forces is killing, crime and state terrorism inside and outside Ahwaz, as can be seen from the designation of most of these forces as terror groups by major countries, on top of which is the US.

Ladies and gentlemen

The Iranian regime has shown its rotten nature, only clinging to rule by sadistic despotism and dictatorship and denying the Ahwazis, Azeris, Kurds, Balochis and Turkmen and all dissidents, their right to self-determination, waging a relentless genocidal war of aggression against these peoples, as well as against the peoples of Iraq and Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, paying no heed to international laws; relying on brute force, violating the independence; sovereignty and regional integrity of countries; annexing others’ territories, and interfering in their sovereign affairs; attempting to impose control over peoples by savagery and terror; forcing people from their homes; adopting a policy of expansionism; inflicting medieval theocratic persecution; sowing sectarian sedition; inciting strife and infighting across the world; practicing authoritarianism, injustice, repression, suppression of freedoms and violation of rights, and attempting to possess nuclear weapons and develop ballistic missiles. We must reiterate that this is a regime which is anathema to peace and stability, and which can only be classified as a world-class terrorist entity.

On the other hand we strongly refuse any missile test and or nuclear activities on the soil of Ahwaz, and also condemning the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil Aramco by the Iranian regime, the Iranian attacks on Aramco was against the regional and international security, thus we urge the international community to take a decisive action against the regime’s savagery.

Based on these undeniable facts, we could assert that the current position of the US towards this rogue state is wholly correct and based on the premise of abundant conclusive proofs and evidence demonstrating that the hegemonic Iranian regime has become the biggest threat to the world. It poses a constant threat to global peace and security and an impediment to the efforts made by the international community to achieve the aspiration of all good peoples of peace and security for all the world’s peoples. Therefore, the continuation of the US pressure on Iran contributes to a great extent towards curbing the Iranian threat and weakening the regime, which is, due to pressures and sanctions, on the verge of collapse and downfall.

There is no doubt that millions of peoples within Iran are prepared to interact with this imminent historical development, given their long-frustrated yearning to be rid of the terrible injustice, tyranny and repression which has been inflicted on them for decades to this day. It is certain that these peoples will rise up and revolt to attain their freedom and self-determination and freedom from all the tools of terror and control imposed by the Iranian regime, which has proved repeatedly for decades to the free world that it knows nothing but the language of force, killing and spreading fear and terrorism.

Given our firsthand acquaintance with the mindset of this terrorist regime, we know well that it will spare no efforts in using all the internationally outlawed means at its disposal to achieve its hostile and expansionist policies. It will respond to revolts with fire, iron, repression and by committing the most horrendous bloodshed, paying no heed – as always – to international laws and conventions that should be respected, observed and implemented; indeed, despite the previous regime signing these pacts and reiterating commitment to them when the Iranian state gained membership in the UN since its establishment in 1945, the ayatollahs’ regime has ridden roughshod over them since its inception.

The Charter of the United Nations, in its first and fifty-fifth articles, stipulates that all peoples should be granted their right to self-determination, and the peoples of the region are an integral part of the peoples of the world and aspire to the implementation of the principles of international law in their vital sphere along with all other peoples. Consequently, the Iranian regime has no right to act unilaterally and contrary to the rules of international law, especially since the Iranian regime has failed miserably since its inception to achieve security and stability in the territories it controls.

Based on all the above, the Ahwazi delegation participating in this conference asserts the following:

• First: The continuing failure to resolve the issue of Ahwaz and of the other non-Persian peoples in Iran is a violation of the principles and objectives of the United Nations. The assertion of the principle of the rule of international law and achieving the interest of the international community in peace, security and stability can only be achieved through the full participation of these peoples, including the Ahwazi people, in deciding the future of Iran and choosing the form of government that they deem appropriate to administer the affairs of their territory, in accordance with the principle of self-determination by referendum. This should take place in a neutral, legal and democratic environment under the supervision of the United Nations.

• Second: The Iranian authorities have no right, under any pretext, to deny the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Ahwazi people, and to deny or continue the horrendous and inhumane practices inflicted for decades on this people.

• Third: the subjugation of the people of Ahwaz via armed repression constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights and a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples issued by the General Assembly in 1960, and impedes progress in world peace and international cooperation.

• Fourth: The international community’s support for the issue of the Ahwazi and non-Persian peoples as well as the Persian people takes the form of assistance to support its ability to achieve its goals. This assistance is legitimate as it is a manifestation of the international rejection of Iranian terrorism in Ahwaz and other peoples’ territories resulting from clear and flagrant violations of international laws and conventions, and denying any legitimacy for the results of these violations, especially as these peoples do not aim to interfere in the internal affairs of the Iranian state.

• Support reflects the implementation by these states of the numerous United Nations resolutions that have requested the Member States of the United Nations to provide material and moral assistance to national movements demanding the right of their peoples to self-determination.

• Fifth: We call on the international community to intervene legally to resolve the issues of the people, and to provide all necessary guarantees to deter the Iranian authorities and prevent them from carrying out acts of violence, repression and persecution towards the people’s uprisings and revolutions based on upholding the people’s legal right, as recognized by the international community.

• Sixth: It is certain that the overthrow of this terrorist regime and the long-awaited just resolution of the peoples’ issues will bring peace and security to the region.
• The refusal of the Iranian authorities to provide redress for the damage caused by their cruel and constrictive tyranny via armed repression is a clear violation of their international obligations, subjecting peoples to a rule they reject. The natural outcome of the Iranian regime’s intransigence is the affirmation of the right of peoples to resist injustice and oppression, and to present their cases to the United Nations. This problem involves, in essence, the Iranian state’s denial of the rights and fundamental freedoms of peoples.

• Conclusion, I want to assert that we, as an Ahwazi delegation, consider this conference to be an important step down the right path to peace, freedom and justice if we have the will to rid the Middle East and the whole world of tensions and wars and uproot the incubators of global terrorism. This issue is not confined to getting rid of the Iranian regime, although doing so would be a major step towards achieving this objective. But it would also serve equally urgent requirements, including the search for satisfactory and lasting solutions to the plights of peoples whose rights have been trampled on for decades. The international community’s heedlessness towards these cruelly oppressed peoples’ causes has helped successive Iranian regimes to perpetuate their plights, serving only to gratify the regime. There is no peace where there are injustices. The only means to achieve real and lasting peace in the region is to provide the conditions conducive for peace, most importantly through granting the Ahwazi and other oppressed peoples their long-denied right to freedom and self-determination for which we have struggled and sacrificed for decades.

We wish and hope for success for this conference in achieving its ends.

I would also like to thank the organizing and sponsoring bodies for their invitation, and to express our deep thanks and appreciation to the USA, this conference’s host and sponsor.

Thanks for giving us a voice.