Human Rights Watch: Islamic Republic Agents Use 'Lethal Force' Against Kolbers

Human Rights Watch announced in a report on Monday that government agents of the Islamic Republic use 'excessive and lethal force' against Iranian kolbers, who are 'mostly Kurdish.' According to the report, kolbers have 'limited access to justice or legal remedies for these [human rights] violations, and Iranian agents have mistreated detained kolbers.' The report highlights the long-standing history of the Islamic Republic in suppressing Kurdish regions in Iran, noting that 'high unemployment and poverty rates are among the factors driving people to engage in border carrying, or kolbari, either legally or illegally, which is physically exhausting and dangerous work.' Nahid Najjari, the research supervisor at Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, stated: 'The excessive use of lethal force against Kurdish kolbers by Iranian security forces is another way of suppressing Kurdish communities that have been socially and economically marginalized.' According to Ms. Najjari, 'Iranian authorities must provide self-sufficient economic opportunities in border areas to reduce the reliance on kolbari for economic survival in these communities.' In another section of this relatively detailed report, Human Rights Watch interviewed some of the victim kolbers or their relatives, reflecting parts of the hardships imposed on them. Armed agents of the Islamic Republic, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have targeted hundreds of kolbers and traders in the border areas of three provinces: West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah, with Turkey and Iraq over the past decades under the guise of 'fighting smuggling.' In many cases, relevant Iranian institutions promote the perpetrators of these shootings instead of holding them accountable in response to complaints and follow-ups from the victims' families. The Urmia Revolutionary Court sentenced one kolber to death. A Baluch citizen was injured due to 'indiscriminate shooting' by Iranian border agents. A kolber was killed by gunfire from Islamic Republic agents, and the detention of citizens continues in Paveh and Urmia. The killing of two child kolbers and the injury of 43 others at the Iran-Iraq border within a year. Kurdpa reported that 17 kolbers have been killed since the beginning of the year. A kolber was killed as a result of gunfire from Islamic Republic agents in the Nowsud border area.