The beginning of a people’s war in Balochistan, Iran
Reza Hossein Borr
London- 3- 5- 08--When the Islamic Republic of Iran hanged two
Sunni Baluch leaders in the morning of 9
April 08, the Baluch people knew that a new era has began in the
relationship between the Shia fundamentalist
regime of Iran and the rising Sunni Baluch people.
As the Baluch culture requires, the Baluch people offered
plenty of advice to the regime to stop its atrocities in
Baluchistan and if they did not, then, they would face severe
consequences. As usual, the Iranian regime underestimated the
inner strength of the Baluch people and continued the execution
and hanging of Baluch people. Now a
widespread military movement has began in Baluchistan that goes
far beyond the borders of Baluchistan, well into the heart of
the country, in the cities of Shiraz and Kashan in the middle of
the country.
From time immemorial the Baluch people have always used wisdom
of negotiation for resolving their disputes with their
neighbours and enemies. Most of the time the
wisdom of negotiation succeeded and when it
did not succeed, it was usually when the other side assumed
itself as superior in finance, arms and army.
But the Baluch people never counted much on finances, arms or
armies; as they relied most of the time on
their courage, resilience, toughness, tactical
and strategic manoeuvring of power.
They always knew that the arms will be finished, the armies
would be broken and their finances would run out.
What remains, they thought was human dignity that
manifested unlimited resilience. There were
many times that they were temporarily flat on the ground but
they never allowed the idea of defeat to overshadow their
inspiring dignity for life building freedom.
The love for freedom in the Baluch people has been so deep that
they were prepared to make everything else subordinate to it.
Freedom first they thought, the rest must follow.
Freedom is the supreme value of the Baluch people.
It is not something that they can trade with anything
else. But at the same time, because they are
honest people, they get cheated time to time as they were
cheated by the founders of Pakistan when they were brought to
this conclusion that the union with Pakistan is for their best
interest. They never knew that there were
leaders who can be so mean to deceive the other side.
Today they realised that they have been cheated for being
honest as they extended their idea honesty to some people who
proved to be by nature dishonest. They are
paying the price for that but there will come one day when they
will regain what they have lost because of honesty.
If honesty pays, they will get their land one day soon.
As the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenaei, had lived in
Baluchistan for many years, he happened to know a lot of Baluch
people. The Baluch people look very ordinary.
They do not engage in boasting and bluffing.
They do not get involved in praising the authorities.
They want their own free lives, free of influence of
authorities. Khamenaei of course could not understand the
psychology of the people that have simple lives and complicated
culture and history. He thought that he knew
the Baluch people and therefore, he thought that he can
eradicate them quite easily. What he didn't
know was that the Baluch people were products of toughest
conditions that could have destroyed many societies.
It was his orders that the two religious leaders of Baluchistan
shall be hanged to make example of them. In
fact, in a few days they became example of a struggle that has
caused immense embarrassment for the Iranian regime.
Four days after the hanging of the two religious leaders, on13
April 08, a huge bomb destroyed a religious conference hall in
Shiraz in which at least 12 people were killed and more than 200
people were injured. The embarrassed
authorities claimed that the explosion was caused by the storage
of some mines from an exhibition which was held few years ago.
The leader of this place rejected this claim and said
that the exhibition place was intact and it was not the cause of
the explosion. He claimed the explosion was
so strong that it removed a large part of the hall and threw it
about 100 meters away. (1) To cover their inefficiencies for
protecting the hall, the security forces tried to put together
some excuses which did not convince anybody.
The Shiraz fire brigade announced that they investigated the
matter very carefully and concluded a bomb destroyed the centre
that has been turned into a centre of promoting hatred and
conflict among the ordinarily Shia people against the Sunnis and
other religions. (2) The leader of the centre was a capable
orator that could attract 3 to 4 thousand people on Saturday
evenings. The focus of his preaching was the
justification of elimination of Sunnis. The
centre was financed by the security forces and the office of the
supreme leader. It was an official centre
that promoted hatred against Sunnis in a province which had a
large number of Sunni populations.
One day after that, on 14 April 08, mob burned alive a Bahai in
Shiraz but the regime did cover it. Shiraz is
also the birthplace of the Iranian prophet Bahaollah and
therefore, he has some followers in the city.
Bahais of Shiraz have been the subject of cruel treatment since
the revolution.
Three days later, on the 16th of April, a new organization,
Sunni Jehadi Movement, took the responsibility for the explosion
of bomb in Shiraz and claimed that it has acted in revenge for
the killing of the two religious Sunni leaders of Baluchistan.
They warned the regime that they have the capability of acting
all over Iran if the government did not stop oppressing the
Sunni people. They did not publish any new statement after that.
But another Baluch Group, Forghan, who had several
confrontations with the Iranian regime, also indicated
indirectly that it has planted the bomb. (3)
As the regime was trying to confuse the public about the source
explosion in Shiraz, the Iranian Press news announced that the
Shia religious leader of Fahraj, a Sunni city in
Kerman Province, has been abducted on 22 April 08 by the
People's Resistance Movement of Iran, Jondollah.
A weblog of which is closely related to Jondollah
announced that in an armed clash that the Jondollah had with the
Iranian security forces, 15 members of the guard have been
killed near Zahidan when they were transferring the Fahraj
religious leader to their bases. It also said
that Jondollah has been capable of moving the religious leader
from Kerman province into the mountains of Baluchistan.
The statement said that he may be hanged in revenge for
the hanging of two Sunni religious leaders.(4)
At the same time some other armed groups in Baluchistan began
their armed struggle against the government.
The regime did not give the fatalities of their own side.
But to create more fear in the Baluch people, they hanged
four innocent Baluch in Kerman and killed 4 Baloch on 26 April
08 in Balochistan. (5) According to the sources of the Iranian
regime, there are more than one hundred armed groups in
Baluchistan. This shows the depth and breath
of discontent in Baluchistan. In spite of the
killings of the Baluch people, the number of organised armed
groups is growing. They learn from their
mistakes and become extremely complicated in their tactics and
strategies.
The Iranian media announced on 26 of April that another Shia
religious leader, HojatoslIslam Bejari, has been shot by the
Baluch armed groups in Zahedan. Although he
did not die in the incident, it created immence fear among the
Shia religious leaders in Baluchistan. They
immediately demanded a meeting with the governor of the province
and asked for more security.(6)
The fear among the Shia radicals and agents of the regime
intensified when another Baluch warrior Dorra Khan began his war
against the regime by arresting four Shia clerics who had close
contacts with the security forces. It was
announced that he had captured such one cleric from Kashan,
centre of Iran and transferred him to Baluchistan.
Kashan is hundreds of km away from Baluchistan.
He captured one cleric from Kerman, one from Zahedan and
one from Sarawan. It seems that he has a huge
operational capability that can act in such a short time in such
a wide area not only in Baluchistan but in the whole country.
(7)
While the operations of the security forces continued to expand
around Zahedan after their unsuccessful attack on the fighters
of Abdolmalek Rigi on 27th of April 08, the news of an armed
conflict in Sarawan was spread on 30 April 08.
It was reported the five security forces were killed and
one Baluch fighter was slightly injured. It
is likely that some of the security forces were captured by the
Baluch forces. In the meantime, yesterday, 29
of April, Mohammad Mehdi Afras, Deputy Manager of OIL Comany was
attacked by two young Baluch in Zahedan. He
was taken into hospital.
The elite security guards in Baluchistan that have proved their
inefficiencies in quelling insurgency in Baluchistan began
arresting innocent people in Zahedan and other main cities of
Baluchistan. According to some reports, hundreds of young men
have disappeared. Zahedan, the capital
of Baluchistan, looks like a military garrison.
Security forces could be seen everywhere and yet, in one
corner of the city, confrontation between the Baluch fighters
and the security forces suddenly erupts. This is the nature of
people’s war. Nobody knows who is a fighter.
The arbitrarily execution of the Baluch people and regime's
destructive policies in the region has created a people's war in
Baluchistan in which every Baluch can become a soldier.
The Baluch people are fighters by nature.
None of the top fighters of Baluchistan have received any
official training in gorilla wars but yet, Abdol Malek Rigi, the
leader of People's Resistance Movement of Iran has achieved 100%
success in his military operations.
Everybody who has underestimated the unlimited strength and
power of the Baluch people has faced fatal consequences.
Among the first cases is when Esfandyaar, the son of the
king of Parsia, underestimated the strength and wisdom of Rostam,
the great legendary hero of Central Asia and India.
As was the tradition of the Baluch culture at that time
and it is the tradition of code of honour of the Baluch today,
Rostam advised Esfandyaar to return back to the capital and
avoid confrontation with him. Esfandyaar who was a great warrior
thought that he can take on the Baloch man, the greatest and the
most powerful warrior of all times, Rostam.
Ferdowsi, in his Book of Kings describes the confrontation
between the two men with great details and shows how Rostam used
his fair and just attitude and advised Esfandyaar to go away;
and when he refused, the battle between the two began and ended
in the death of Esfandyaar.
Ferdowsi also narrated how later the great king of Sassanid
dynasty, Ardashir, fought the Baluch people and how he was
defeated by the Baluch people. After him, Anoushirwan followed
his mission and massacred a large number of Baluch people but
the Baluch people rose again from their ashes and began fighting
the successors of Anoushirwan and defeated them.
During the Arab invasion of Iran, the Arabs defeated Persian
army regularly but when they faced the Baluch they were
defeated. The commander of the Arab army
contacted Omar, the second Caliph and reported that they
couldn't defeat the Baluch and it is better to enter with them
in agreement. Omar ordered negotiations with
the Baluch people and signed an agreement which is still exists
and Malekolshouraye Bahar has written in detail about this
confrontation and agreement.
200 years after the occupation of Iran by the
Arabs, it was Yaqoub Leith, a successor of Rostam Baluch that
defeated the Caliph of Baghdad and announced the independence of
Iran for the first time after Arab invasion.
There are hundreds of other examples of how the ruthless rulers
of the region have tried to subjugate the Baluch people but they
have failed.
When the Baluch people rise, they begin people’s war against the
enemy. Every Baluch turns into a soldier and
every soldier can handle dozens of the soldiers of the enemy as
the Baluch soldiers fight for their survival and the enemy's
soldiers fight as mercenaries.
Today is the beginning. The Iranian regime
would use its most ruthless operations in Baluchistan.
They will kill a lot of innocent people but for every
person that dies hundreds will rise. Nobody
has benefited from the war with the Baluch and Islamic Republic
of Iran will not benefit either. This is the
people with the most resilient sense in their minds and bodies.
They strive in the war.
Sources
1.
http://www.tiknews.net/display/?ID=59617&page=1,,,28.4.08????????
?????? 1.
2.
<http://www.tiknews.net/files/2128535194??????.jpg>
3. ttp://taftaan.blogsky.com/?PostID=1881
4. http://taftaan.blogsky.com/?PostID=353,,26.4.08
5.
http://www2.irna.ir/fa/news/view/menu-155/8702037440170110.htm
6. http://www.rasanews.com/Negaresh_site/FullStory/?Id=29945
7.http://mybalochistan.page.tl/140.htm,30.4.08
Reza Hossein Borr
is a leadership consultant and the creator of 150 CDs and 14
Change management models. He is also the author of Manual
Success, Manual of Coaching and Mentoring, Motivational Stories
that Can Change Your Life, and a New Vision for the Islamic
World. He can be contacted by email: balochfront@aol.com
