Iranian Sunni protesters killed in clashes with security forces

Iranian Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi writes to UN human rights commissioner over treatment of Sunni minority

guardian.co.uk, Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Monday 18 April 2011

Nobel peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi wrote to the UN commissioner
for human rights over the treatment of the Sunni minority in Iran.
Photograph: Caren Firouz /Reuters

At least 12 people who are believed to belong to Iran's Sunni minority have been killed in clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters in the south-western city of Ahwaz since Friday.

On Monday, Shirin Ebadi, Iran's Nobel peace prize laureate, wrote a letter to the UN high commissioner for human rights, in which she said "more than 12" Sunni protesters had been killed in Iran's oil-rich province of Khuzestan, home to many Arabic-speaking Sunni Iranians.

According to Ebadi, hundreds of people in Ahwaz had gathered for a peaceful demonstration against the Islamic regime's discrimination towards its Sunni minority.

"During these clashes, more than 12 people were killed, around 20 injured and tens of protesters have been arrested," Ebadi wrote in her letter.

She criticised Iran's treatment of the Sunnis and said: "In the 32 years' history of the Islamic Revolution, Arabic-speaking Iranians have suffered from inequality and an extensive discrimination."

Recent events in Ahwaz come at a time when Iran has publicly criticised Bahrain – a country in which the 70% Shia majority is ruled by minority Sunnis – for using extensive violence in suppressing its own people.

Iran has voiced support for the pro-democracy movements that have been sweeping across the Middle East, except in Syria, a strong ally of Tehran.

Iranian state media initially ignored the clashes in Ahwaz but Iran's semi-official FARS news agency reported later that one person had been killed and one other injured.

Speaking to the Guardian, a human rights organisation based in the UK said that it had received testimony from various people who participated in the Ahwaz protest, who told them at least 12 were killed when government forces opened fire at peaceful protesters.

Reza Vashahi, a spokesman for the Iranian Minorities' Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO) said: "Unfortunately, the fate of those protesters who have been arrested is unclear and we even don't know where they have been taken to."

The organisation identified one of the dead protesters but said that the fear of persecution has forced the families of the dead protesters to remain silent.

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, human rights organisations have documented Iran's violation of the human rights of its minorities, especially the Kurds and the Arabic-speaking Sunnis.

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