Posted on 04/20/2005 1:27:30 PM PDT by Cyrus the Great
[World News] Washington, April 20 : The US State Department has charged that Iran is violently suppressing the democratic rights of the Arab minority in the Khuzestan region of Iran.
"We are very concerned by reports from Khuzestan in Iran of unrest in which several people have been killed and many more, perhaps even hundreds, have been arrested," State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli yesterday said.
"In our view, this unrest and these arrests involve the denial of rights of minority groups in Iran. The group is an Arab group -- my understanding -- and that suppression of minority rights is obviously to be denounced. And it is not the first time that Iran has practiced this kind of human rights violations and I think it's reflected in our human rights report on Iran," he said.
"The United States calls upon the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint in dealing with this minority in Khuzestan and to respect the peaceful exercise by the Iranian people of their democratic rights," Ereli added. PTI
Iran Ping!
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