NEW YORK, 28 July 2008 (BWNS) -- Acts of arson targeting homes and vehicles
are the latest violent tactics directed against the Baha'is of Iran.
"In the early hours of the morning of 18 July, the house of the Shaaker
family in Kerman went up in flames, only weeks after their car had been
torched and in the wake of a series of threatening phone calls," said Bani
Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the
United Nations.
"As would be expected in the light of the mistreatment Baha'is in Iran are
routinely receiving, the officials who investigated the fire either ignored
or dismissed obvious signs of suspicious activity, including a muffled
explosion, simply saying that it was the result of an electrical problem,"
she said.
At least a dozen cases of arson that target Baha'is have been reported in
Iran in the last 15 months, Ms. Dugal said. She gave the following examples:
-- On 15 July at 1:15 a.m., Molotov cocktails were thrown into the front
courtyard of the home of Khusraw Dehghani and his wife, Dr. Huma Agahi, in
Vilashahr, only months after anonymous threats directly related to her being
a Baha'i forced Dr. Agahi to close her clinic in nearby Najafabad where she
had practiced medicine for 28 years.
-- On 25 July, the car of a prominent Baha'i in Rafsanjan, in Kerman
province, was torched and destroyed by arsonists on motorbikes. Soheil
Naeimi, the owner of the car, and 10 other Baha'i families in the town had
received threatening letters from a group calling itself the Anti-Baha'ism
Movement of the Youth of Rafsanjan that, among other things, threatened
jihad (holy war) against the Baha'is.
-- On 10 June, an outbuilding on the property of the Mr. and Mrs. Mousavi,
elderly Baha'is living in the village of Tangriz in Fars province, was
destroyed by fire when it was doused with gasoline. The Mousavis, along with
their two sons who were sleeping close to the building, narrowly escaped
injury when the gasoline tank used to start the fire exploded. The Mousavis
believe that the perpetrator thought they were all sleeping in the hut when
he set the fire. Mr. Mousavi issued a formal complaint against the person
they suspected, but the legal office has declined to pursue the case because
the suspect swore on the Qur'an that he was not guilty. Out of respect for
the Qur'an, the Mousavis have dropped the charges.
-- On 4 April, the home of a Baha'i was set on fire in Babolsar, in the
north of Iran.
-- In February in Shiraz, a 53-year-old businessman was attacked on the
street, chained to a tree, doused with gasoline, and assaulted by unknown
persons who then attempted to throw lighted matches at him.
-- Also in Shiraz in February, several arson attempts were made against
vehicles and a home belonging to Baha'is.
-- On 1 May 2007, arson destroyed the home of 'Abdu'l-Baqi Rouhani in the
village of Ivil, in Mazandaran.
-- In Karaj, the burial section of a Baha'i cemetery was set on fire.
"These latest attacks follow the authorities' attempts to deprive the
Iranian Baha'i community of its leadership," Ms. Dugal said, referring to
the arrests in March and May this year of the seven members of Iran's
national Baha'i coordinating group, all of whom are still locked up in Evin
Prison in Tehran without any charges and without access to an attorney or to
their families.
"As Baha'is worldwide watch with alarm this escalation in violence," she
added, "their fears that a sinister plan of persecution is unfolding become
increasingly confirmed. Their only hope is that enough voices of protests
are raised around the world to compel the government in Iran to put an end
to this violence."
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