Text of the letter from the ICFTU General Secretary to the ILO.
Mr. Juan Somavia,
Director-General
International Labour Office (ILO)
Route des Morillons 4
CH – 1211 Geneva
Switzerland
Fax: + 41 22 799.76.70
TUR/JS 12 February 2004
Dear Mr. Somavia,
Freedom of Association: Islamic Republic of Iran
The ICFTU hereby lodges a formal complaint against the Government of Iran for violations of the principles of freedom of association, the right to organise and the right to collective bargaining.
We have been informed of the killing of at least 4 workers and of injuries inflicted on 40 or more workers by riot police during a strike on 24 January 2004 in the village of Khatoonabad and the city of Shahr-e Babak (Kerman Province, in the south east of Iran). The names of four of the dead workers are reportedly as follows: Mahdavi, Javadi, Momeni and Riyahi. Unofficial figures report between 7-15 dead and up to 300 wounded.
According to our information, the workers concerned by these events were a mixed group of unskilled workers, construction workers and other skilled workers employed in the construction of the Nazkhaton’s Copper Smelting plant in the village of Khatoonabad. Their employer, a subcontractor that had built the smelting plant for the National Iranian Copper Industries Company, in cooperation with China’s National Non-Ferrous Metals Co., had reportedly promised permanent contracts to the 1500 workers who had participated in the construction and preparation of the smelting plant. However, once the construction had finished, the employer only kept 250 workers. The workers therefore went on strike.
The workers thus organised work stoppages and a sit-in at the plant in the days up to 24 January 2004. The sit-in lasted 8 days before violence broke out. Many workers and their families, including many elderly women, had attended the protest and had been blocking the main road leading to the plant and the main entrance of the plant. They were demanding permanent employment and were protesting against the use of temporary contracts, layoffs and deferred payment of salaries and benefits.
We understand that, due to the persistence of the sit-in and the protest, the Provincial Security Council, on which the Governor of Kerman province, Mr. Karimi and the Governor of Shahr-e Babak city, Mr. Seifollah Shahad-Nejad both have seats, decided to dispatch more security forces to the area. Special police forces were thus brought in from Kerman city by helicopter.
There are conflicting reports as to how the confrontation began. According to the government’s press agency (the Islamic Republic News Agency, or “IRNA”), the confrontation began when 300 motorbike riders started attacking government property, banks and other buildings. A similar explanation was given by Governor Seifollah Shahad-Nejad, quoted on the matter by the Iranian press. However, he contended that the confrontation began when a group of 100-150 motorbike riders took advantage of the tension to start attacking the Governor’s residence, banks and private property and that these attacks led the police to open fire. The Governor stated that some of the wounded sustained their injuries in clashes with baton-wielding riot police; he also claimed that some were hurt by flying objects thrown by the workers themselves.
Another version given by Mansour Soleymani Meymandi, a reformist Member of Parliament for the city of Shahr-e Babak, suggested that the local authorities had brought in special police forces in helicopters in order to break the strike, and that these special police forces had attacked the workers in the village of Khatoonabad. The confrontation had then spread to the city of Shahr-e Babak, where the four workers were killed and dozens more severely injured. Mr. Mansour Soleymani Meymandi gave this information during a session in Parliament on 25 January, which was later broadcast on national radio.
Reports from Iranian workers’ organisations in exile supported Mansour Soleymani Meymandi’s understanding of the events. However, the organisations contend that the workers were shot dead in front of the plant, and that the outbreak of violence in the city of Shahr-e Babak was caused by special police forces dispatched there.
The General Secretary of the Tehran-based organisation “Workers’ House”, Mr Ali Reza Mahjoub, also confirmed that the police had attacked the workers during the sit-in. A communication received by the ICFTU from Workers’ House on 30th January 2004 refers to an interview in which Mr. Mahjoub reportedly stated that Workers’ House condemned the attack and that it had issued a protest statement. He was reported as placing the root of the problem in the use of [presumably fixed-term] contract labour in Iran. The communication also said that the organisation would be filing complaints with Iranian courts and with the ILO and that it would organise a protest gathering and a demonstration. The ICFTU has received no confirmation so far that any of these have actually taken place.
In an interview on 25 January with the “Iranian Labour News Agency” (ILNA), a Tehran-based official news agency published in Farsi language, the Governor of Kerman province, Mr. Karimi, confirmed that special guards from Kerman City had been brought in to break the strike and ensure free access to the plant.
In view of the abovementioned reports, the latter statement gives the ICFTU reason to believe that the confrontation began when the police used force in an attempt to break the strike.
Iran’s head of security forces, General (Sardar) Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf later confirmed that the police had fired the shots that killed the striking workers.
The ICFTU was also informed that some of the wounded were hospitalised in Surcheshmeh and in the city of Shahr-e Babak; some of them were reported as being in a critical condition.
After the confrontation, local people gathered in front of the residences of the dead workers, demanding that those responsible for their deaths be held to account. Protests and clashes with police reportedly continued over the following days, leading to the arrest of workers and their relatives. According to one of the abovementioned exiled workers’ organisations, security forces had conducted extensive house-to-house searches. The other exiled workers’ organisation reported that a number of those arrested had been tortured.
Official sources confirmed the arrests. The commanding officer of the security forces of Kerman province, General Isa Darayee, disclosed that 80 people had been arrested during this incident, and 15 had been kept for interrogation. The present status of any such detained workers is unknown to the ICFTU at the time of writing.
Different public authorities have reportedly ordered separate investigations into the matter. The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr; Mohammad Khatami, has ordered an investigation by a delegation from the Presidential Office. The Interior Ministry has reportedly also ordered an investigation into the matter by a delegation of its own and a delegation from the Kerman Governor’s General Office is also reported as investigating the matter.
I view of the gravity of these events, as reported by various – and sometimes contradictory – sources, I would like to request you, Mr. Director-General, to forward this communication to the Committee on Freedom of Association as a formal complaint against the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely,
General Secretary