Iran - Andrew Burke [312]
Several individual and groups of tourists have been kidnapped in the southeastern provinces of Sistan va Baluchestan and Kerman since 1999. In 2007 the situation became so bad that foreigners were banned from travelling in Sistan va Baluchestan. The kidnappings are believed to have been in response to government successes in their war with powerful drug smugglers who ship huge quantities of opiates from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe through these areas. See the boxed text for details.
Drug smugglers generally aren’t interested in the trouble that comes from harming foreign tourists, so if you stay out of their way you shouldn’t have any problem. The threat from the People’s Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI; formerly known as Jundallah of Iran) terrorists isn’t quite so cut and dried. These guys, who staged bloody attacks in Sistan va Baluchestan in 2005 and 2007, have so far not targeted tourists, but the authorities are very nervous that a foreigner might get caught up in the trouble. Remember that these dangers do NOT apply to any other areas of Iran.
Western embassies Click here advise their nationals to register with them on arrival, especially if you will be in Iran for 10 or more days, or plan to visit remote places.
POLICE & SECURITY FORCES
It is unlikely you’ll have any problem with the Iranian police. The majority of those you’ll see will be busy in a fruitless effort to improve the traffic flow, and they really have no interest in hassling foreigners.
* * *
A night with the Basij Andrew Burke
When the first two bikes screeched to a halt we thought it was another instance of Iranian hospitality. These young guys would ask the lost foreigners looking at the map where they were going and directions would be given. But when the next two pulled up, one with a Hezbollah-style scarf around his face and a gun tucked into his pants, it suddenly looked more sinister. ‘Police, police!’ one of the bearded men shouted, holding aloft a tatty plastic card that for all we knew could have been his ID for the local video rental store. It was 1am on a large but very quiet Tehran street, and this had all the hallmarks of a robbery. Andrew, a fellow traveller riding his large motorbike from Dhaka to London, decided it was time to split. Alas, a man snatched the keys from his bike and we were going nowhere.
For the next hour we argued by the side of the road. Uniformed police arrived, but it was the young guys in beards and black leather jackets who seemed most agitated. Our frustrated pleas that ‘we are Australian tourists’ were met with demands that they take the bike, and take us to separate police stations. This didn’t sound like a good idea. Eventually, after one guy just rode off on the bike, we and 13 others went to the station. We were under arrest.
After two fruitless hours we were back at the hotel with some idea of what was going on. The original assailants turned out to be members of the Basij (‘volunteer’), a hardline militia who see themselves as ‘defenders of the revolution’. As Basijis argued with uniformed police at the hotel’s front desk, we learned we’d been accused of being British spies and of taking pictures of sensitive sites (at 1am?), and of being on an illegal motorcycle (Iranians are limited to 200cc bikes, but as Andrew’s was in transit, it was legal). The real police were as apologetic as the Basijis were enthusiastic with their allegations. Eventually, the Basijis were persuaded that we were not working for MI6, Andrew’s bike was returned and we were released, promising next time to get a better map!
* * *
In popular tourist destinations such as Esfahan, Shiraz and Mashhad you’ll find Tourist Police in conveniently located booths. One of them should be able to speak English, or at least find someone who does.
Thankfully, the truly dreaded Komiteh (Komiteh-ye Enqelab-e Eslami; the Islamic Revolutionary Committee, or ‘religious police’), who used to bail up tourists for less than rigorous adherence to Islamic dress