Ahmad Vafaee, Nader Rigi, Nezar Kabdani, Naser Shahbakhsh who were killed on 12 Oct.08 in Iran.
I have always thought how someone can think and feel when he is ready to sacrifice his life for you, me and the rest of us to live a descent and honourable life. I am the kind of person who has invested all my life for making the world a better place. I have given thousands of my books and CDs free to those people who needed them. I also have trained hundreds of people free of charge or for very low fees just to make a difference; just to make other people empowered enough to make a living that they dream about. Yet my dedication is not in any way close to those that I knew were prepared to give their lives so that I can have a better life, so that you can have an honourable life. I never understood their psychology and feelings and thoughts.
When I was in high school I had a friend who joined a guerrilla organization. When we talked together, I found out that his outcome was not to succeed in bringing some fundamental changes as he knew he could not do that, but he was still prepared to give his life so that the rest of us would have a prosperous life long after he has gone. He was executed in 1970. He was sure that his sacrifice of his life would make life for us much easier but the group that he belonged to was disintegrated later, and nearly was demolished after the Islamic Revolution. His ideas were abandoned and the Islamic Republic of Iran took over the power and executed those of his friends that had survived his death. He gave his life to create a better life for us. That was his great goal but the new system that was established in Iran made life more painful for all of us than ever before. This regime is not the last one and therefore I would not think that his death was in vain. The good days will come and this regime like many others will end in disgrace. At that time in the future, when the people will have a better life, they would know that what they have is the product of endeavours of a lot of people who did not have the chance of having a great life.
These days I hear the death of a lot of people from my own community, from Baluch community. Of the young generation that was born in eighties but think and feel like those who lived in Sixties and Seventies in Iran. They are idealists and they want to die for the hope that their children and the children of others will live in dignity, in freedom from fear and live as equals with the rest of humanity. They can see some kind of glory in fighting with the criminals that oppress those people who would not and cannot defend themselves. The absolute majority of our people have surrendered themselves to fear and intimidation. They have given themselves to the security forces of a regime that has no mercy even to those who have surrendered themselves and accepted that they have been defeated.
The most horrible conquerors have manifested mercy to those who have submitted themselves to their wills. But it is beyond comprehension that why the Islamic Republic of Iran is embarrassing those who have already accepted defeat and the supremacy of this regime? The innocent people of the big cities of Iran have already given up any idea of fighting this regime. They have surrendered themselves, their lives, their properties and even their honour and pride to this government. What more they want? The government has everything that the people once had. The people even have accepted how to behave in their own homes and in their own beds. These people who have lost any hope for a dignified future have accepted that the clerics have the right to do to them what ever they like. What else they want?
Among the Iranians, however, there are some groups of people that just can’t quit. They just can’t live and give in to oppression. They just can't accept discrimination. They do not submit to those who have forced the absolute majority of the population to submission. They cannot understand why they have to live according to the will and instructions of a group of clerics who have no any kind of legitimacy and moral authority. They just can't do that because of their own belief in their own dignity and respect for the dignity of all human beings. They have unshakable belief in respect for other human beings and therefore, they are prepared to fight injustice and discrimination wherever they see it. They are a unique people with a unique mindset that doesn't accept wrongdoings from whoever they may come. They have an obstinate head and they go to change what seems impossible to change. They go to defeat a regime that has already proved its invincibility in the eyes and minds of many people. They believe they can do that. They believe that they can change a regime that many people think is unchangeable.
I have talked to several of these people who believe they can achieve what the rest believe could not be achieved. When I talked to them I felt they have a resolve of infinite magnitude. But it was not the resolve only that made me think of their chance of success. It was their skills and intelligence that surprised me. They were so intelligent that they could have been in the greatest universities anywhere in the world and yet, they have chosen to have a very simple life in the deserts and mountains where the fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran is going on. When I saw the pictures of their life style, I thought that I cannot to do even for one day what they have been doing for at least four years now, although I have been in similar circumstances. I have been forced sometimes ago to go to the mountains and live like a guerrilla fighter. But when I think of the way I lived there and the way they are living now, the difference is not thinkable even for myself.
These are young people who have been told by everybody they that they did have neither the skills nor the resources to fight a regime that has been challenging the USA and other great powers for years. They have been told that this regime has frightened all Islamic countries and rulers and therefore, if there was any chance for changing it, they would have already changed it. But these people believed that what they can do is much more than what the public think. The public always feel uncomfortable when the exceptions get up and do what the public could not do or thought that nobody could do. The comfortable public and rulers cannot imagine facing the severity of hardest lives in places where everything is against you. But what other people think that are not surmountable, these young men see as their friends. They see the deserts as their friend. They see the harsh and cutting wind as their friends. They see the harsh winters and unbearable summers as their saviours. They see the uncertainty as an opportunity to attack the government and keep them in a state of uncertainty for the rest of their lives.
All the qualities and conditions of unbearable times that the Iranians and specifically Baluch people have experienced during the last 30 years now are going to be transferred to the government that has created them. The government that created violence now is the subject of the violence it created. The fear that the regime created to force the people into submission, now has been transferred to the government's side. They fear the public more than the public fear for them. Now these are the government officials who cannot sleep well because of the fear that the public may rise against them at any moment. They fear more the Iranian people than the people fear them.
The psychology of the Baluch people that has been shaped in the hardest times of history is manifesting itself now to deal with one of the hardest times that they have ever experienced. None of the government officials or the secret agents has gone through the hardest times that the Baluch have gone. Therefore even the hardest and roughest times cannot force them into submission. They know that the hardest time will go away and they will stand firm and tall, unshakable after the dust has settled down with more resolve than any other time. Now they are fighting a war that the spirit of Baluch culture has been nurtured in it. It was this spirit that retained the Baluch people while all their opponents through the long history of the region have disappeared. Now they have a chance of standing tall at the peak of an honourable war to repel the onslaught of a government whose legitimacy has already disappeared.
The four young Baluch who were killed on 12 of October in an equal war fought like lions and killed forty-eight members of the security forces. They did not die in direct conflict with the security forces. They were killed by the helicopters that were bombing them from high-altitude. They shot down one of the helicopters. All the crew of the helicopters were killed. The Iranian government mobilised its security forces from four provinces of Iran and surrounded them. Yet, they were able to break the siege and get out of the trap that the arm has planned for them
When I was in high school I had a friend who joined a guerrilla organization. When we talked together, I found out that his outcome was not to succeed in bringing some fundamental changes as he knew he could not do that, but he was still prepared to give his life so that the rest of us would have a prosperous life long after he has gone. He was executed in 1970. He was sure that his sacrifice of his life would make life for us much easier but the group that he belonged to was disintegrated later, and nearly was demolished after the Islamic Revolution. His ideas were abandoned and the Islamic Republic of Iran took over the power and executed those of his friends that had survived his death. He gave his life to create a better life for us. That was his great goal but the new system that was established in Iran made life more painful for all of us than ever before. This regime is not the last one and therefore I would not think that his death was in vain. The good days will come and this regime like many others will end in disgrace. At that time in the future, when the people will have a better life, they would know that what they have is the product of endeavours of a lot of people who did not have the chance of having a great life.
These days I hear the death of a lot of people from my own community, from Baluch community. Of the young generation that was born in eighties but think and feel like those who lived in Sixties and Seventies in Iran. They are idealists and they want to die for the hope that their children and the children of others will live in dignity, in freedom from fear and live as equals with the rest of humanity. They can see some kind of glory in fighting with the criminals that oppress those people who would not and cannot defend themselves. The absolute majority of our people have surrendered themselves to fear and intimidation. They have given themselves to the security forces of a regime that has no mercy even to those who have surrendered themselves and accepted that they have been defeated.
The most horrible conquerors have manifested mercy to those who have submitted themselves to their wills. But it is beyond comprehension that why the Islamic Republic of Iran is embarrassing those who have already accepted defeat and the supremacy of this regime? The innocent people of the big cities of Iran have already given up any idea of fighting this regime. They have surrendered themselves, their lives, their properties and even their honour and pride to this government. What more they want? The government has everything that the people once had. The people even have accepted how to behave in their own homes and in their own beds. These people who have lost any hope for a dignified future have accepted that the clerics have the right to do to them what ever they like. What else they want?
Among the Iranians, however, there are some groups of people that just can’t quit. They just can’t live and give in to oppression. They just can't accept discrimination. They do not submit to those who have forced the absolute majority of the population to submission. They cannot understand why they have to live according to the will and instructions of a group of clerics who have no any kind of legitimacy and moral authority. They just can't do that because of their own belief in their own dignity and respect for the dignity of all human beings. They have unshakable belief in respect for other human beings and therefore, they are prepared to fight injustice and discrimination wherever they see it. They are a unique people with a unique mindset that doesn't accept wrongdoings from whoever they may come. They have an obstinate head and they go to change what seems impossible to change. They go to defeat a regime that has already proved its invincibility in the eyes and minds of many people. They believe they can do that. They believe that they can change a regime that many people think is unchangeable.
I have talked to several of these people who believe they can achieve what the rest believe could not be achieved. When I talked to them I felt they have a resolve of infinite magnitude. But it was not the resolve only that made me think of their chance of success. It was their skills and intelligence that surprised me. They were so intelligent that they could have been in the greatest universities anywhere in the world and yet, they have chosen to have a very simple life in the deserts and mountains where the fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran is going on. When I saw the pictures of their life style, I thought that I cannot to do even for one day what they have been doing for at least four years now, although I have been in similar circumstances. I have been forced sometimes ago to go to the mountains and live like a guerrilla fighter. But when I think of the way I lived there and the way they are living now, the difference is not thinkable even for myself.
These are young people who have been told by everybody they that they did have neither the skills nor the resources to fight a regime that has been challenging the USA and other great powers for years. They have been told that this regime has frightened all Islamic countries and rulers and therefore, if there was any chance for changing it, they would have already changed it. But these people believed that what they can do is much more than what the public think. The public always feel uncomfortable when the exceptions get up and do what the public could not do or thought that nobody could do. The comfortable public and rulers cannot imagine facing the severity of hardest lives in places where everything is against you. But what other people think that are not surmountable, these young men see as their friends. They see the deserts as their friend. They see the harsh and cutting wind as their friends. They see the harsh winters and unbearable summers as their saviours. They see the uncertainty as an opportunity to attack the government and keep them in a state of uncertainty for the rest of their lives.
All the qualities and conditions of unbearable times that the Iranians and specifically Baluch people have experienced during the last 30 years now are going to be transferred to the government that has created them. The government that created violence now is the subject of the violence it created. The fear that the regime created to force the people into submission, now has been transferred to the government's side. They fear the public more than the public fear for them. Now these are the government officials who cannot sleep well because of the fear that the public may rise against them at any moment. They fear more the Iranian people than the people fear them.
The psychology of the Baluch people that has been shaped in the hardest times of history is manifesting itself now to deal with one of the hardest times that they have ever experienced. None of the government officials or the secret agents has gone through the hardest times that the Baluch have gone. Therefore even the hardest and roughest times cannot force them into submission. They know that the hardest time will go away and they will stand firm and tall, unshakable after the dust has settled down with more resolve than any other time. Now they are fighting a war that the spirit of Baluch culture has been nurtured in it. It was this spirit that retained the Baluch people while all their opponents through the long history of the region have disappeared. Now they have a chance of standing tall at the peak of an honourable war to repel the onslaught of a government whose legitimacy has already disappeared.
The four young Baluch who were killed on 12 of October in an equal war fought like lions and killed forty-eight members of the security forces. They did not die in direct conflict with the security forces. They were killed by the helicopters that were bombing them from high-altitude. They shot down one of the helicopters. All the crew of the helicopters were killed. The Iranian government mobilised its security forces from four provinces of Iran and surrounded them. Yet, they were able to break the siege and get out of the trap that the arm has planned for them
The people of Iran and the world should know that if a group of four people can fight for several days, destroy one helicopter, eliminate 47 security forces, then what a large number of these highly skilled and highly motivated guerrilla fighters cannot not do? What the public always thought that cannot be done, someone somehow appeared and got it done and this is how the history is made and history is changed.
Reza Hossein Borr
Reza Hossein Borr
