Presented by Nasser Boladai, Spokesman of Balochistan Peoples Party, in the United States Congress in Washington on 30th of May 2006*

Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank and express my deepest gratitude to the organiser of this conference, the Kurdish National Congress of North America.

I am glad to be here in the Congress of a nation whose founding fathers fought for the sovereignty and freedom of their nation and are an inspiration to oppressed peoples all over the world to fight for freedom and justice. Today, the Senate of the United State is symbol of American federalism.

I am speaking here as the representative of Balochistan Peoples Party (BPP), which is a Republican and Democratic Party struggling to achieve sovereignty for the Baloch people within a secular federal and democratic Republic in
Iran. More than three million Baloch living in Iran are being treated as third-class citizens because of ethnic and religious differences with Persian and Shi'a sect of Islam. Under the previous monarchist and the current Islamic regimes of Iran, the Baloch people have been deprived of cultural, social, economic, and other fundamental human rights.

Balochistan, "the country of the Baloch" is presently subjugated by three countries of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The country is strategically situated at the eastern flank of the Middle East, linking the Central Asian
states with the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean. It posses the Northern part of Gulf and Arab Sea from the strait of the Hormose to Karachi.

The Indian government and Pakistan and Iran are trying to build a pipeline to take Iranian gas, which in large part belongs to Baloch, to Pakistan and to India. At same time China is building a deep seaport in Gwadar in the Eastern Balochistan, and India has started the construction of a road to
link Afghanistan to Chabhar, a port City in Western Balochistan. Balochistan will become a cross road for pipeline serving the energy need of the region and world. All these activities are being carried out without
consulting the Baloch people. In all these projects, the Baloch people have
been sidelined in jobs and other benefits. Only India has expressed that
Baloch should be consulted before development starts, but there are no signs
that the parties are contacting Baloch popular representatives.

Since 1928 that Western Part of Balochistan was annexed by Iranian forces.
The politics of the Iranian regimes in Balochistan are characterised by
human rights abuses.


*Some significant consequences of the Iranian regimes chauvinistic policies
are:*

1. The use of the Balochi language is forbidden in public places, and
Baloch children are deprived of using their mother tongue as the medium of
instruction at schools. The Iranian government does not allow any kind of
press freedom in Balochistan

1. Ethnicity and religion are systematically and practically used as
barriers to Baloch students entering into higher education systems.

1. The policy of keeping the Baloch backward has resulted in the lack
of job opportunities and in the impoverishment of the entire population. The
high-ranking authorities in Balochistan are Shi'a and non-Baloch, including
the majority of ordinary governmental officers and clerks employed from the
other parts of Iran and brought into Balochistan.

1. Successive Iranian governments have been engaged in demographic
manipulations to systematically reduce the Baloch people to a minority in
their own homeland. Furthermore, among the many repressive policies is the
destruction of the homes of poor Baloch people and their displacement. This
is done in order to provide the best located land to the non-Baloch,
specifically to Security Forces, which are brought in from other parts of
Iran to carry out the regime's chauvinistic policies. Government policy has
been based on facilitating easy access to non-Baloch people to purchase land
at a cheap price and set up businesses.

The current situation: the regime's atrocities in Balochistan* *

The policies of the Iranian Government in Balochistan are characterised by
human rights abuse. They have distorted the political, economical, and
cultural development of Balochistan and insulted the human dignity of Baloch
people. Some specific cases of human right violation and repressive policies
of the Iranian regimes are:

1 In the first week of January 2006 two young students
driving a car in the city of Raask in Balochistan were ordered to stop by
so-called security forces and failed to observe the security forces' stop
sign. The security forces then chased them while shooting at them in crowded
area. During this shooting the two young men in the car and another
bypassing person were killed, and, in addition, another bystander was
injured.

After seeing this crime Baloch people attacked the main police station, and
the security forces ran away. When the situation got out of the hand, the
city Mayor and elders of the city intervened and the situation returned to
normal. However, up until now, none of the perpetrators have been
prosecuted.

2 On the 22 of January 2006, in Provincial Capital Dozaap
(Zahedan) three youngsters (Abdullah Nutizhai age 15 years, Ruhala Nutizhi
age 16 years, and Masoud Shabaksh age 18 years) were riding on a motorbike
to visit a sick cousin in hospital. The regime's security forces approached
them from behind, deliberately riding towards the motorbike. When these
youngsters fell to the ground the security forces began to shoot them while
grabbing their half dead bodies and beating them with the stock of gun. As a
result, two of them (Abdullah Nutizhai and Masoud Shabaksh) were killed, and
Ruhala Nutizhi sustained severe injuries and was admitted to hospital.
Again, no one has been prosecuted.

3 On Monday, the 10th of April 2006, three Baloch
clerics, Molavi Nea'matulla Mirbalochzahi, Molavi Abdul Hakim Gamshadzahi,
Molavi Abdullah Narooi, and their two associates were killed in a mysterious
car accident.

The suppposed accident happened in a way that the target car travelling from
Zahedan (provincial capital) was hit by an empty, unmarked bus, which was
occupied only by its driver and his assistant travelling from Kerman, 500
kilometres from Zahedan.

Having previously experienced this way of killing opponents by the Iranian
regime countless times over the past decade, the Baloch people are
questioning this accident and are holding the Iranian Intelligence services
responsible for the suspicious killing.

4 One of most despicable crimes by Iranian regime was the
killing of two young Baloch men who were working as gasoline sellers on the
road between Zahedan and Bam, and who were involved in an car accident. A
group called "Marsad" meaning "Ambuscade or Ambush" were first to arrive at
the scene. After they checked the injured identities and saw that they were
ethnically Baloch and Sunni, instead of helping them, the Marsad group shot
the men on the spot. Marsad is paramilitary group that work under direct
order of Iranian supreme leader Mr Khamenaie.

Since the Iranian occupation of Balochistan in 1928, the Baloch people have
resisted the Persian domination in many ways including a low-intensity armed
resistance.

The increase in human right violations, collective punishment of Baloch
civilians, and increased militarization of Baloch areas has lead to
intensification of the armed resistance against the Iranian regime,
especially in the past three months.

The armed resistance movement in Western Balochistan is a native phenomenon
with a history of over 70 years against successive Iranian government and
the current religious government.

The Iranian regime, due to its oppressive character, is accusing the Baloch
people of cooperation with United State and Great Britain, instead of
employing negotiations and other peaceful means to end the resistance.

On the 15th of May in 2006, the regime used this accusation to launch a
military operation in a large area in Northern and Southern parts of
Zahedan, Balochistans provincial capital. During these operations no
encounters between Baloch resistance forces and Iranian army have taken
place.

The regimes forces using Helicopter gunship have bombed civilian areas
resulting in the deaths of innocent Baloch people in both villages and the
mountains. More than 20 civilians have been killed with many more injured,
and the people have also suffered enormous damages to their property.

In the cities, many young men have been arrested, accused of supporting the
Baloch Armed Resistance Forces. The Iranian regime treats Baloch people as
third class citizens, discriminating against them based on religion and
ethnic group, yet the same regime's president, Mr Ahmedinezhad, spoke in
Zahedan earlier this year defending Palestine's national right and
irresponsibly called for Israel to be wiped out of the world map. So, while
speaks for one people's right to their homeland, he oppresses the Baloch
people who want to keep their own ancestral lands and culture.

The Iranian regime is also a strong backer of international terrorism and
extremist groups. Currently, it is trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons
and other weapons of mass destruction. By arming itself, this theocratic,
ideological regime hopes to dominate Middle East and to globally spread its
brand of fanatical Islam.

So, this regime not only threatens the well-being and welfare of Iranian
people but it presents a great danger to the region and the entire world as
well.

Change of this regime that is armed with a fanatic ideology and financed by
oil money requires a strong opposition that enjoys popular support inside
the country and international backing.

The Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran, which presently consists
of political parties belonging to oppressed nationalities in Iran and which
enjoys popular support inside Iran, is a strong part of the opposition. The
Congress of Nationalities is trying to strengthen itself by including other
organisations and parties that struggle for federal structure based on
parity of constituent parts in Iran.

The Balochistan Peoples Party is working with other parties and
organisations in the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran to build a
stronger opposition to the current regime and to establish a democratic,
secular, federal government in Iran. And it is ready to work and cooperate
with other organisations and parties to achieve this aim before it is too
late and before this fanatic regime arms itself with nuclear and other
weapons of mass destruction. Under nuclear protection this regime will
spread and support international terrorism and extremism and will suppresses
its own people.

*Contact information:*

Balochistan Peoples Party

P.O. Box 13022

103 01 Stockholm

Sweden

www.balochpeople.org

e-mail: nasser.boladai@...

Telephone: + 46 739 34 37 24

Fax: + 46 8 43 75 97 37

APPENDIX

* *
An Introduction to Balochistan history

Balochistan, "the country of the Baloch," is presently subjugated by three
countries of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The country, strategically
situated at the eastern flank of the Middle East, links the Central Asian
states with the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean.

Balochistan has existed as a geographical area inhabited by a closely
related people for thousands of years. It has even existed in recent times
as a modern national state. Historically, Baloch had independent
principalities within a Baloch national framework. For example, the
independent state of Kalat from 1947 to 1948 was the last one. Kalat was
occupied and annexed by Pakistan in 1948. However, Kalat governed over
eastern Balochistan directly or indirectly until 1973. But, by the
mid-1990s, the structure of independent nationalities ceased to exist.

In 1849, an Iranian army defeated Baloch forces in Kerman and captured
Bumpur. The Baloch political status changed radically in later decades,
when, in the 19th century, the British and Persian Empires divided
Balochistan into spheres of influences between the British Empire in India
and the Persian Kingdom.

The Baloch people in Western Balochistan have been in constant revolt
against the domination by and the chauvinistic policy of Iranian
governments. The revolt of Jask (1873), of Sarhad (1888), and the general
uprising in 1889 resulted in a scorched-earth policy by Iranian forces in
1889 aimed at suppressing Baloch rebellion. A major uprising under Baloch
chieftain Sardar Hussein Narui in 1896 prompted a joint Anglo-Persian
expeditionary force to crush the resistance. The resistance was crushed
after two years and Chief Narui was arrested.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Bahram Khan gained control of
nearly the entire central and southern region of Western Balochistan, ending
the occupation by Iranian forces. In 1916, the British recognized him as the
effective ruler of Western Balochistan. His nephew, Mir Dost Mohamed
succeeded Mir Bahram Khan. In 1928, the Iranian forces began an operation
against Mir Dost Mohamed. Skirmishes continued for seven months and ended in
the victory of Iranian forces over the Baloch. Dost Mohammad Khan went to
Tehran for negotiations but was arrested and executed in Tehran. Thus,
Western Balochistan was finally annexed by the Persian Empire. The politics
of the Iranian Government in Balochistan are characterised by human rights
abuses.


Balochistan People's Party, P.O.Box 13022, 103 01 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46 739343724, Fax: +46 8 43 75 97 37 www.ostomaan.org ;
www.balochpeople.org

--
Balach Baloch
Balochistan People's Party
contact@...
www.BalochPeople.org/
www.BalochPeople.com/
P.O.Box 13022
103 01 Stockholm Sweden