who move goods back and forth across the Iran-Iraq border.
It produced a list of the cases, documenting by name, date and location instances of 70 men who were killed and 68 who were shot and injured by Iranian border guards. The list covered the 12 months from Now Ruz in 2011 to Now Ruz in 2012.
“The Iranian government should immediately investigate the numerous cases of border security forces killing couriers in the northwestern provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah, and hold accountable those responsible for such callous use of unlawful force,” ICHRI said Friday.
“The government should also review its border security measures and the growing pattern of excessive use of lethal force, and should adopt clear polices to stop unlawful and unnecessary killing,” ICHRI said.
Kulbars are couriers who carry illegally imported goods, such as tobacco, electronics and tires, on animals or their own backs, and kasebkars are tradesmen who transport similar goods into larger towns.
ICHRI said the 138 listed cases represent only individuals whose identities and case particulars ICHRI was able to verify independently or through reliable local sources. It suspects there may be many more cases.
A March 2012 report by Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, says: “Iranian law regards the activities of the kulbari as a crime that is punishable by several months of detention or a fine equal to the value of the seized commodities. However,… Iranian border guards indiscriminately shoot at these individuals.”
The border region near the town of Sardasht, in West Azerbaijan, has seen the most deaths, followed by the Marivan and Baneh border regions in Kurdistan.
A kulbar who has worked almost 10 years in the border town of Baneh told ICHRI, “The police have been waiting in mountainous and hard-to-pass areas for us. After warning us to stop, without firing a warning shot, they shoot at us directly.”
The killings don’t all take place in the mountains. ICHRI said that on March 22, 2011, during confiscation of goods from several border tradesmen in the town of Nosood, the deputy border commander of Nosood shot at several kulbar inside the town’s Moallem Square. A young Kurdish man by the name of Pourmand Madhatnia was killed during the shooting and three others injured.
ICHRI said the killing triggered protests by townspeople. The police initially detained the officer, but then transferred him to a post in another town.
Some kulbar and their families and friends have reported that border guards have intentionally shot and killed their horses and pack animals used to transport goods. Sources in the towns of Marivan and Sardasht also claim that police have set fire to several animals carrying smuggled fuel into Iraqi Kurdistan, burning them alive.
ICHRI said, “The government is basically punishing poverty. Attacking the kulbar, who are from some of the poorest areas of Iran, is using lethal force against people relegated to this activity by their economic circumstances,”
The UN Human Rights Committee has said that governments “should take measures Ö to prevent arbitrary killing by their own security forces. The deprivation of life by the authorities of the State is a matter of the utmost gravity. Therefore, the law must strictly control and limit the circumstances in which a person may be deprived of his life by such authorities.”
Christof Heyns, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, explained in October 2011, “Lethal force should not be used unless there is a reasonable suspicion that the suspect has committed a crime involving serious violence, or has threatened to do so, [but] that is not enough. For deadly force to be used by the police, there must be an immediate or ongoing threat to the public if the person were to escape.”