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Commentary
by U.S. Alliance for Democratic Iran
2008: A
Barbaric Beginning in Iran
The ayatollahs’ regime in Iran began the year
2008 the same way it ended 2007: with more
gallows and executions. Nearly 20 executions,
some in public, took place in the month of
December alone. According to the Agence France
Presse, Iran carried out at least 297 executions
in 2007, which is about 70% increase in respect
to the 2006 numbers.
The 2008 looks to be even more promising for the
ayatollahs’ executioners. They had a strong
opening on January 2, when13 Iranians including
the mother of two young children were executed
according to the state media. At least three of
executions took place in public.
The intrinsic barbarism of the tyrant mullahs is
only partially responsible for their wicked
enthusiasm for non-stop erection of gallows. The
“surge” in number and ferocity of pro-democracy
anti-regime protests and uprisings by students,
women, workers and union members is also a main
factor.
In the closing days of the year 2007, the United
Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution
condemning systematic human rights violations in
Iran, including torture, flogging, amputations,
stoning and public executions. The resolution
also called on Iran to abolish public executions
and stoning and "to end the harassment,
intimidation and persecution of political
opponents and human rights defenders, including
by releasing persons imprisoned arbitrarily or
on the basis of their political views."
Equally significant is the paragraph 5 of the
resolution which “Decides to continue its
examination of the situation of human rights in
the Islamic Republic of Iran at its sixty-third
session under the item entitled “Promotion and
protection of human rights”, and, to this end,
requests the Secretary-General to submit to it
at that session a comprehensive report on the
situation of human rights in the Islamic
Republic of Iran.” Tehran delegation made a last
ditch effort to revise this paragraph. It failed
miserably.
If 2007 was any indication, in the coming year
Iran would be the scene of more and stronger
pro-regime change demonstrations and uprisings
by Iranians seeking democratic change. Indeed,
Iran's new Revolutionary Guard commander,
Mohammad Ali Jafari, said in late September that
the "main responsibility" of his forces is to
counter "internal threats," according to the
Christian Science Monitor.
It can reasonably be expected that the
ayatollahs’ strategy of “survival through fear
and terror” would unleash even more brutal
crackdown of Iran’s democracy movement. To help
and defend the democracy movement, the free
world must stop paying lip service to Iranians’
quest for democracy and employ punitive
diplomatic and economic measures against
Tehran’s rising human rights violations.
Reprehensibly, the general equation of
international approach toward Iran is in effect
to empower the regime and undermine the Iran’s
movement for democratic change. This equation
must be reversed now.
Mullahs’ barbaric treatment of their own
citizen’s is the flip side of their drive for
nuclear weapons and establishment of a client
state in Iraq. A gross right-violator regime in
Tehran would never abandon the quest for nuclear
weapons. Conversely, a democratic regime in Iran
would have no intention of possessing an atomic
weapon or meddling in the affairs of other
countries particularly its neighbors.
(USADI)
USADI
Commentary reflects the viewpoints of the US Alliance
for Democratic Iran in respect to issues and events
which directly or indirectly impact the US policy toward
Iran |