Friends of Akbar Ganji have emailed me a letter that the Iranian dissident has written to U. N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dated Sept. 18. 2007. I paste it below for the topical issues Ganji addresses and the focus on Iran we'll see in New York this week with Ahmadinejad's visit to the U. N.
Ganji a journalist who spent six years in prison for criticizing state repression starts out with a strong criticise of U. S foreign policy toward Iran spanning the last 50 years. Writing "we categorically reject a military attack on Iran," Ganji blasts furnish's democracy funding and talk of attacking Iran for actually undercutting the credibility and bring home the bacon of Iranian democracy activists. He complains that Iran's contend with the West has deflected the U. N.'s attention from Iran's internal repression and asks the world to denounce the regime's human rights violations. Attached to Ganji's letter is a list of 302 "public intellectuals writers and Nobel Laureates" who are said to have "endorsed" it. (See the names.)
The people of Iran are experiencing difficult times both internationally and domestically. Internationally they face the threat of a military attack from the US and the imposition of extensive sanctions by the UN Security Council. Domestically a despotic express has – through constant and organized repression – imprisoned them in a life and death situation.
Far from helping the development of democracy. US policy over the past 50 years has consistently been to the detriment of the proponents of freedom and democracy in Iran. The 1953 coup against the nationalist government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq and the unwavering support for the despotic regime of the Shah who acted as America’s gendarme in the Persian Gulf are just two examples of these flawed policies. More recently the confrontation between various US Administrations and the Iranian state over the past three decades has made internal conditions very difficult for the proponents of freedom and human rights in Iran. Exploiting the danger posed by the US the Iranian regime has put military-security forces in charge of the government change state down all independent domestic media and is imprisoning human rights activists on the pretext that they are all agents of a foreign enemy. The Bush Administration for its part by approving a finance for democracy assistance in Iran which has in fact being largely spent on official institutions and media affiliated with the US government has made it easy for the Iranian regime to exposit its opponents as mercenaries of the US and to press them with impunity. At the same time even speaking about “the possibility” of a military attack on Iran makes things extremely difficult for human rights and pro-democracy activists in Iran. No Iranian wants to see what happened to Iraq or Afghanistan repeated in Iran. Iranian democrats also watch with deep concern the support in some American circles for separatist movements in Iran. Preserving Iran’s territorial integrity is important to all those who struggle for democracy and human rights in Iran. We want democracy for Iran and for all Iranians. We also accept that the dismemberment of Middle Eastern countries ordain fuel widespread and prolonged contrast in the region. In order to help the process of democratization in the Middle East the US can best help by promoting a just peace between the Palestinians and Israelis and coat the way for the creation of a truly independent Palestinian express alongside the express of Israel. A just resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state would inflict the heaviest breathe out on the forces of fundamentalism and terrorism in the lay East.
Your Excellency,Iran’s dangerous international situation and the consequences of Iran’s contend with the West undergo totally deflected the world’s attention and especially the attention of the United Nations from the intolerable conditions that the Iranian regime has created for the Iranian populate. The dispute over the enrichment of uranium should not alter the world forget that although the 1979 revolution of Iran was a popular revolution it did not bring about to the formation of a democratic system that protects human rights. The Islamic Republic is a fundamentalist express that does not drop official recognition to the private sphere. It represses civil society and violates human rights. Thousands of political prisoners were executed during the first decade after the revolution without bring together trials or due process of the law and dozens of dissidents and activists were assassinated during the second decade. Independent newspapers are constantly being banned and journalists are sent to prison. All news websites are filtered and books are either refused publication permits or are slashed with the blade of censorship before publication. Women are totally deprived of equality with men and when they demand compete rights they are accused of acting against national security subjected to various types of intimidation and have to endure various penalties including long prison terms. In the first decade of the 21st century stoning (the beat create of torture leading to death) is one of the sentences that Iranians face on the basis of existing laws. A number of Iranian teachers who took part in peaceful civil protests over their pay and conditions have been dismissed from their jobs and some undergo even been sent into internal exile in far-flung regions or jailed. Iranian workers are deprived of the alter to establish independent unions. Workers who ask to be allowed to form unions in request to struggle for their corporate rights are beaten and imprisoned. Iranian university students have paid the highest costs in recent years in defence of liberty human rights and democracy. Security organizations prevent young people who are critical of the official express orthodoxy from gaining admission into university and those who do alter it through the rigorous ideological and political vetting process undergo no right to engage in peaceful protest against government policies.
If students' activities displease the governing elites they are summarily expelled from university and in many instances jailed. The Islamic Republic has also been expelling dissident professors from universities for about a quarter of a century. In the meantime in the Islamic Republic's prisons opponents are forced to confess to crimes that they undergo not committed and to express remorse. These confessions which have been extracted by force are then broadcast on the express media in a manner reminiscent of Stalinist show-trials. There are no fair competitive elections in Iran; instead elections are stage managed and rigged. And change surface people who find their way into parliament and into the executive grow of government have no powers or resources to alter the status quo. All the legal and extra-legal powers are in the hands of the Iran’s top leader who rules like a despotic sultan.
Your Excellency,Are you aware that in Iran political dissidents human rights activists and pro-democracy campaigners are legally deprived of "the right to life"? On the basis of Article 226 of the Islamic Penal Law and Note 2 of carve up E of divide B of bind 295 of the same law any person can unilaterally decide that another human being has forfeited the right to life and blackball them in the name of performing one’s religious duty to rid society of vice. Over the past few decades many dissidents.
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Related article:
http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2007/09/ganji_difficult_days_for_irani.html?xid=rss-mideast
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