ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has imposed an economic blockade on a restive Kurdish town in west of the country to intimidate residents who have given a new lease of life to the antigovernment protests across the country by refusing to back down despite facing unprecedented violence being unleashed on them.
At least eight protesters have been killed with live ammunition fired by the IRGC and its militia the Basij since November 20 when the residents of the Kurdish town of Javanrud in western Iran (Rojhelat) joined the nationwide protests. The movement was sparked by the death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini at the hands of the morality on September 16 in Tehran.
The supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the man in charge of the security forces, denied once again on Monday that people had any legitimate grievances, saying they were acting at the “hands of foreign enemy,” adding that this was obvious in recent protests which targeted the “strengths” of the country mostly through propaganda.
For nearly four months, protesters across the country chanted “death to Khamenei” and called for the overthrow of the regime. At least 519 protesters and bystanders have been killed including 70 children and teenagers since the protests began. A large number of protesters have been wounded and close to 20,000 have been detained.
An activist speaking from Javanrud told Rudaw English on Monday that the IRGC is using everything in its power to force the residents to back down and refrain from protesting.
The economic lifeline of the town is the border market it shares with the neighboring Kurdistan Region where goods are exchanged and the livelihood of thousands of residents depends on the market and the goods that are sold to people from across Iran who visit the town.
“The IRGC has set up checkpoints on every road even on the dirt roads and stop anyone who is not from here from entering the town,” Shorsh, an activist who spoke to Rudaw English on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the IRGC said. “The IRGC controls all the goods that come into the town and will not allow anything to leave without their permission.”
“So if a family from the rest of Iran decides to come into the town and buy a good that has been imported from Kurdistan Region, the IRGC would turn them around,” Shorsh said. Iran has dozens of border markets with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq where goods of a higher quality are allowed to be imported into the country. Tens of thousands of Iranians used to pour into the Kurdish towns across the border from the Kurdistan Region and Iraq to buy better quality goods for lower prices than in big cities in the country.
The IRGC has also held military parades inside the town to intimidate people, Shorsh said another protester confirmed. Videos have emerged of the town showing dozens of IRGC guards walking through the streets with their guns drawn protected by armored vehicles.
“They sometimes parade through the streets on their motorbikes and pickup trucks to intimidate people and they have permanent presence in the squares and roundabout of the town,” Shorsh said. “Everyday they are installing new CCTVs in different parts of the town to monitor people.”
Shorsh said that people are not intimidated and they are waiting for the right time to take to the streets. “Right now the school children are the ones that are making the noise in the town,” Shorsh said, adding that activists continue to write antigovernment graffiti on the walls across the town at night.
Shorsh said that the people of the town are suffering economically as their livelihood is cut off. “As we say in Kurdish, people are waiting for the mercy of God,” Shorsh said. “Those who are well off are ok but others whose livelihood depends on their shops, they are stuck, the owners of the shops have also raised the monthly rent under pressure from the IRGC.”
Shopkeepers have been an important element of the protest in the Kurdish areas where they go on strike and close their shops for days to show their opposition to the Islamic regime.
“They allow guests to come into the town but they won’t allow anyone to take goods out of the city,” a shopkeeper in the town told Rudaw English. “The conditions are not good, goods are expensive, rent is going up, many will not earn enough to pay the rent and people are utterly dissatisfied.”
The IRGC and the Basij at times raid people’s houses between 2 and 5am using a large number of troops and vehicles. “They block all the roads and alleys leading to the house in order to arrest them, they want to instill fear in the people,” Shorsh said. “Their objective is not just to arrest one person but to instill fear in the whole neighborhood, they are heavily armed and when women and children are awakened as a result of the dawn raids, they are terrified.”
At least nine teenagers have been detained in dawn raids by the IRGC in recent days in Javanrud according to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights that monitors violations in the Kurdish areas.
On the status of those protesters who have been wounded, Shorsh said that the ones with serious wounds had to be admitted to hospital and other medical facilities with most of them ending up being detained. But others with less serious injuries decided to be treated at home.
“I was hit in the head with a pellet bullet but I managed to treat myself at home,” Shorsh said, adding that those who are being treated at home could face losing functions in parts of their body. “I went to see a young man, they hit him in the shin with a bullet and they have crushed it, he may not be able to stand up for another two years and even if he stands up, he will lose the function in the leg.”
The shortage of medication is another critical issue the wounded from Javanrud town face. Shorsh said there was a call on social media for medication to be sent from other towns and cities but the campaign made activists weary as it made them an easy target for the IRGC to infiltrate.
Shorsh said that the activists under siege by the IRGC have managed to secure some limited medication but asked for the methods not to be disclosed. However, there are doctors and nurses who visit the wounded at home in secret, taking huge risks to their own safety in order to cleanse the wounds of the protesters.
“The IRGC has placed the people of Javanrud under siege but we are not intimidated,” Shorsh said. “We will come out again and protest. This regime must go.”
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