Strike in Baneh in Protest Against Closure of Smuggling Routes

A number of merchants and shopkeepers in Baneh, Kurdistan province, have gone on strike in protest against the closure of borders, smuggling routes, and the decrease of goods in the market. Provincial officials have also promised to pursue their demands. IRNA reported that these protests began on April 17. According to this report, Rashid Azari, the commander of Baneh, stated: "We are making every effort to reopen the routes and borders of Baneh." Azari added: "Now that the routes in the province are closed, unfortunately, the livelihood of the people has also been affected." As this official mentioned, "All routes in the western provinces have been closed due to new policies and considerations, and this issue is being pursued in all border provinces." The Kurdistan Human Rights Association has also reported that the scope of these strikes has spread to the cities of Marivan and Sardasht. The websites Kurd Press and Roj have also published reports about these strikes and announced the start of negotiations between shopkeepers' representatives and provincial officials to achieve their demands. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Association, the reduction of "commercial activities" in the western borders of Iran over the past six months has led to protests by merchants and porters. Provincial officials have stated that the reason for this decision is to encourage people to consume domestic goods. On March 14 of last year, Alireza Ashnagar, the political-security deputy governor of Kurdistan, spoke about the efforts of "all provincial officials and the pursuit of reopening border routes." Ashnagar declared that the closure of these routes is unrelated to security issues and said, "We have submitted two plans regarding the province's border routes to the Ministry of Interior, and these plans are under review." This official also reported widespread "violations" in the border cooperatives and stated that due to these violations, "not a single rial has reached the border residents so far." As Ashnagar announced, currently, 198,000 people in four cities of Kurdistan province are members of border cooperatives, some of whom have sold their quotas for one to two billion tomans. According to him, members of these cooperatives benefit from a 40% discount on customs duties if they have a "border card." These customs exemptions have led, according to the political-security deputy governor of Kurdistan, some border residents to hand over their commercial cards to major importers and wealthy investors. In Bahman of last year, Ali Baidi, the director general of information technology and communications at customs, announced that a woman named (M.D.), whose life savings were less than 100,000 tomans, had imported more than 700 Porsche cars. In this context, the representative of Marivan criticized Hassan Rouhani for the killing of Kurdish citizens. The International Human Rights Campaign reported that 74 porters have been killed at the western borders of Iran.