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Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Japan and China

The riots in China and the war of words between the two country's is not exactly a burning issue in the British General Election but it is very important and we will have to return to it in due course

'The riots in China and the war of words between the two country's is not exactly a burning issue in the British General Election but it is very important and we will have to return to it in due course'

Agreed.

So is the US's 'take it easy on them' approach to Iran's quelling of riots in the Iraq-neighbouring province - kettle/pot springs to mind.

Regs, Andy

I have a personal interest in the violence in Khuzestan as I was one of the first people to receive the letter on "ethnic restructuring" that was leaked from President Khatami's office which sparked the unrest.

As Chairman of the British Ahwazi Friendship Society, which lobbies on behalf of the Ahwazi Arabs who are indigenous to Khuzestan, I can say that the situation there is a lot worse that the news reports suggest. I have a list of 48 people killed by the regime since the unrest began, including children as young as eight. Up to 1,300 people have been arrested, including entire families, and they are at risk of torture. All ethnic Arab tribal, religious and community leaders have been rounded up and interned in the notorious Karoon jail in Ahwaz City and in Esfahan province. Al-Jazeera TV has been banned for covering state violence against Ahwazis, although 148 Iranian legislators have signed a petition calling on the government to halt the crack-down.

Khatami is leading a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Khuzestan, with around 90,000 hectares of Ahwazi-owned farmland confiscated in recent years and Ahwazi-occupied homes systematically destroyed by the Iranian army. The leaked letter details plans to eliminate Arab culture and language and reduce the Arab population of Khuzestan from a majority in the province to under one third, through forced migration. It confirms what the Ahwazis already knew: they are facing extinction.

The US State Department has condemned the massacre, but Jack Straw has been completely silent. Last month, he met with our organisation and pledged to support democratic movements in the Middle East. Now a crisis has emerged on Khuzestan - which borders Iraq's Basra province - and the British government appears to be refusing to make human rights a central issue in its talks with Tehran.

Clive: there are lots of Iranian Ahwazi Arabs in your former constituency, many of them refugees. The Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz - a centre-left secularist group which abhors violence - and Al-Ahwaz TV are run from Chiswick, which is close to your patch. The Ahwazis are eager to show anyone the evidence of the persecution of the indigenous Arabs of Khuzestan, who were Saddam's victims in the Iran-Iraq War and who are now being systematically eliminated by the regime in Tehran.

I appeal to you, Clive, to just listen to what they have to say and make your own judgement. All we asked for is a couple of hours of your time.

You can email us at info(at)ahwaz.org.uk or just visit our website www.ahwaz.org.uk

Linking Rover, Jack Straw and Iran may seem a little strange, but that is exactly what The Independent has done today saying that the British government have been in talks with the Iranians regarding building Rovers in one of their eastern provinces.

'Senior British ministers held a series of meetings with the Iranian government before the collapse of MG Rover, hoping to clear the way for a deal that could have doubled Rover's worldwide production and perhaps saved the company.

The talks involved an Iranian firm, Dastaan, which had been negotiating with MG Rover since early 2004 over plans to assemble some 150,000 cars each year in eastern Iran - more than the entire output of the MG Rover group in 2004.

The first trial shipment of 2,000 Rover 75 and 45s worth £20m was due this April, May and June, with another £30m delivery later in the summer.

The shipments were meant to test the market and establish a trading relationship before Rover and Dastaan moved on to the assembly stage in 2006.'
http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/04/21/cnrover21.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/04/21/ixfrontcity.html

Regs, Andy

I'd rather Iran produce more cars and fewer suicide bombers. Yesterday, the regime signed up a further 400 suicide bombers for its 35,000-strong "Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign". These will be directed by the Qods Force, which has a large base near Ahwaz City in the border province of Khuzestan, against "occupied Islamic countries" - ie British troops in Basra and Jews in Israel. But Jack Straw need not worry. He's got a defunct car company to sell. That's far more important.

I don't understand the basis of British foreign policy. Why go to the trouble of fighting an illegal and unpopular war against a fascist dictator in Baghdad and yet appease another in Tehran?

michael howard is more trustworthy than clive soley or councillor andrew slaughter...

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