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Iranian Security Forces Kill More Cross-Border Couriers

Kulbars carry goods on their backs along the mountains of the Iran-Iraq border (Mehr)
Kulbars carry goods on their backs along the mountains of the Iran-Iraq border (Mehr)
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Iranian Security Forces Kill More Cross-Border Couriers

Kulbars carry goods on their backs along the mountains of the Iran-Iraq border (Mehr)
Kulbars carry goods on their backs along the mountains of the Iran-Iraq border (Mehr)

An alarming number of border couriers, primarily from Iran’s Kurdish and Baluchi minorities, have been killed in the first eight months of 2024, as Tehran uses unlawful and lethal force against those who transport goods and fuel across Iranian borders as their only means of survival, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on Thursday.

Headquartered in Washington, CHRI said at least 30 Kurdish border couriers, known as kulbars, were killed and 198 others injured by direct gunfire from Iranian government forces from January to August 2024.

Research undertaken by CHRI also found that six of the injured were children. One of them was 17-year-old Arian Mamandi from Sardasht, who was shot in the face by border guards and lost an eye.

Over the same eight-month period, at least 34 Baluchi fuel couriers, known as sukhtbars, were killed, and 39 others were injured by direct gunfire from government forces, CHRI’s research showed. One of those killed was 14-year-old Omran Baloch Zahi.

“The ongoing killings of border couriers are yet another example of the Islamic Republic’s use of disproportionate and lethal violence against Iran’s oppressed ethnic communities,” said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI executive director.

“The Iranian government must immediately halt its unlawful use of lethal force against border couriers and instead focus on developing economic empowerment initiatives. This relentless violence against vulnerable populations must end,” Ghaemi said.

In July, Human Rights Watch and the Center for Supporters of Human Rights (CSHR) called on Iranian authorities under the new president to halt their use of excessive and lethal force at the Iran-Iraq border against predominantly Kurdish kulbars (border couriers), who come from marginalized communities.

“It is shameful that our youth have to engage in kulbari [transporting goods across border] for a piece of bread. We must establish a border that facilitates trade, not kulbari,” said Masoud Pezeshkian, the newly elected president of Iran, during his presidential campaign in Sanandaj in June.

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Venezuela’s Machado Calls on International Community to Step up Pressure on Maduro 

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro gestures in his regular Monday TV show "Con Maduro+," in Caracas, Venezuela September 2, 2024. (Marcelo Garcia/Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters)
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro gestures in his regular Monday TV show "Con Maduro+," in Caracas, Venezuela September 2, 2024. (Marcelo Garcia/Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters)
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Venezuela’s Machado Calls on International Community to Step up Pressure on Maduro 

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro gestures in his regular Monday TV show "Con Maduro+," in Caracas, Venezuela September 2, 2024. (Marcelo Garcia/Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters)
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro gestures in his regular Monday TV show "Con Maduro+," in Caracas, Venezuela September 2, 2024. (Marcelo Garcia/Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters)

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday vowed to keep the pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to leave office in January.

She also urged the international community to rise to the occasion by immediately recognizing her faction’s presidential candidate as the winner of the election in July, and implement measures to hold government officials accountable for abuses unleashed after the vote.

Machado, speaking to reporters online from an undisclosed location in Venezuela, reaffirmed her commitment to negotiate incentives and guarantees that could lead to a peaceful transition of power.

“We, the Venezuelan people, have done everything,” she said. “We competed with the rules of tyranny ... and we won, and we proved it. So, if the world or some government is thinking of looking the other way, imagine where sovereign will and popular sovereignty end up in the Western world. It would mean that elections are worthless.”

Her comments came three days after the country’s justice system, which is loyal to the ruling party, issued an arrest warrant for former diplomat Edmundo González, who represented the main opposition coalition in the July 28 election.

While the National Electoral Council — stacked with ruling party supporters — declared Maduro the winner, it never released vote tallies backing their claim. However, the opposition coalition claimed that González defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin and offered as proof vote tallies from more than 80% of the electronic voting machines used in the election.

Thousands of people, including minors, took to the streets across Venezuela hours after the electoral council's announcement. The protests were largely peaceful, but demonstrators also toppled statues of Maduro’s predecessor, the late leader Hugo Chávez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda.

Maduro's government responded to the demonstrations with full force. A Wednesday report from Human Rights Watch implicated state security forces and gangs aligned with the ruling party in some of the 24 deaths that occurred during the protests.

“They have no limits in their cruelty,” Machado told reporters Thursday.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday condemned the “unjustified arrest warrant” of González, characterizing it as “another example of Mr. Maduro’s efforts to maintain power by force.” Kirby said the US is considering a range of options to show Maduro and his allies that “their actions in Venezuela will have consequences.”

Under the Biden administration, Venezuela’s government has been granted various forms of economic relief from economic sanctions the US imposed over the years to try to topple Maduro. Earlier this year, it ended some of the relief when the government increased repression efforts against members of the opposition, civil society and others it considers as adversaries.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab, a staunch Maduro ally, on Thursday insisted his office had sought the warrant because González, 75, failed to appear three times to answer questions in a criminal investigation focused on the publication online of the tally sheets obtained by the opposition.

Saab told reporters that the publication constitutes a usurpation of powers exclusive of the National Electoral Council and claimed that the opposition's vote records are false.

“You shared the website on your (social media) networks,” Saab said, referring to González. “Explain why you shared it if it is false.”

Saab's claim contradicts experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center, which at the invitation of Maduro's government observed the election and then determined the results announced by electoral authorities lacked credibility.

In a statement critical of the election, the UN experts stopped short of validating the opposition's claim to victory, but they said the faction's voting records published online appear to exhibit all of the original security features.