IFEX :: Human Rights Watch calls for journalist's release; foreign and Iranian journalists barred from visiting Khuzistan province

IFEX :: Human Rights Watch calls for journalist's release; foreign and Iranian journalists barred from visiting Khuzistan province: "Iran: Reports of Ethnic Violence Suppressed
Journalist Arrested; Others Barred From Visiting Khuzistan Province

(New York, May 11, 2005) - The Iranian government should immediately release Yusuf Azizi Banitaraf, an Iranian journalist of Arab descent, and allow independent journalists and human rights monitors to report on a government crackdown on protests in the southern province of Khuzistan, Human Rights Watch said today.
Plainclothes agents arrested Banitaraf, who has written 20 books on ethnic minorities in Iran, in Tehran on April 25 during a press conference held by the nongovernmental Center for the Defense of Human Rights. During this event, Banitaraf publicly criticized the government's violent suppression of protests by ethnic Iranian-Arabs in Khuzistan's capital, Ahwaz. He spoke out about the killing of local residents during the protests, which began on April 15. According to government critics, at least 50 people were killed by the government's security forces. "