EU, Iran: Partners In Trade, Partners In Human Rights Abuse?
By US Alliance For Democratic Iran (06/16/04)
If there was any doubt about the impossibility of any improvement of the Iranian people’s lot under the current theocratic rule, it was put to rest by the report published earlier last week by the US-based Human Rights Watch.
Entitled, “Like the Dead in Their Coffins: Torture, Detention, and the Crushing of Dissent in Iran,” the scathing report is a requiem for a failed dogma, the possibility of reform within the clerical system.
"Claims that reforms in Iran have put an end to torture are simply false," said a spokeswoman for the human rights group, adding, "More than ever, journalists, intellectuals and activists are afraid to voice opinions critical of the government."
The report clearly affirms the notion that the ruling regime, erected on the totalitarian doctrine of the Velayat-e faqih (the absolute supremacy of clerical rule), structurally and intrinsically lacks any capacity for genuine change.
Unelected bodies such as the Guardian Council and the Judiciary, which the report said are "at the center of the human rights violations," shield the regime from real change. The slightest letdown in repression would lead to the collapse of the whole system in the face of legitimate demands of Iranians.
The Human Rights Watch report noted that “Little hope remains for domestic organs to push for change in the judiciary’s behavior. The costs for speaking out against human rights violations by the judiciary and by the parallel forces have increased considerably over the past three years.”
It added that Iran’s rulers had silenced the dissidents “through the systematic use of indefinite solitary confinement of political prisoners, physical torture of student activists and denial of basic due process rights."
“In the aftermath of the February 20, 2004 parliamentary elections, it seems that this climate of fear will only increase,” it concluded, quoting a former Parliament deputy as saying that “compared with the past, we must expect a much worse condition.”
The movement for secular democracy in Iran has been stressing on the need to unseat the mullahs to bring about real change. The reason: the impossibility of real democratic reform under the Velayat-e faqih system.
The tyrannical regime rules by terrorizing and intimidating its citizens. But it cannot sit on the tip of the bayonet forever. Despotic regimes ensure their own demise by being dictatorial, more so in the case of a dictatorship under the cloak of religion in Iran.
In order for freedom to flourish in Iran, the reign of terror in there must be brought to an end. This is not a luxury, but a prerequisite.
As another round of so far fruitless EU talks with Iran over human rights issues began early this week in Tehran, hundreds of political prisoners are languishing in the mullahs’ torture dungeons. Despite promises it has made to the families of many of political prisoners, so far the EU has refrained to bring up their names in public negotiations with Iran. Manoucher Mohammadi, Akbar Mohammadi, Jamil Bassam, Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Ahmad Batebi, Siamak Pourzand are just a few of these political prisoners.
While the EU has been boasting about its “dialogue” with Iran, as the HRW report indicates, the human rights situation in Iran has in fact worsened since year 2000. The talks, which in practice have turned into a “monologue” by the clerical regime to preach to the EU about how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not apply to Iran, are used by the mullahs as a fig leaf to continue their crackdown against rising opposition activities in Iran.
The EU must end this charade and instead make it clear to Iran that any future negotiation would take place only if there is a solid and tangible improvement in their human rights record. Release of all political prisoners must be a first step.
The must also stop doing the mullahs’ dirty work for them. Demanded by senior officials of Iran’s ruling theocracy and in exchange for lucrative commercial deals, some EU countries have chosen to severely curtail activities of Iranian dissidents and political refugees in their countries.
The EU block, which did not sponsor a resolution to condemn Iran’s dismal rights record in the recent session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, is looking more and more hypocritical on the issue of human rights. France, Italy, Germany, the leading trade partners of Iran in the EU, are not only turning a blind eye to the mullahs suppression of dissidents inside Iran, they are also doing the clerics’ work abroad by trying to silence Iranian dissidents right at the very moment Iran’s democracy movement needs the Iranian opposition organizations to empower the movement at home against the mullahs’ regime.
The United States and the European Union must help, rather than hinder or ignore, Iran’s democracy movement in its endeavors. It is the only solution for a true democratic change. That’s the untold message of the Human Rights Watch report.
The US Alliance for Democratic Iran (www.usadiran.org), is a US-based, independent, non-profit policy advocacy organization, which aims to advance a US policy in support of Iranian people’s aspirations for a democratic, secular, and peaceful government. The USADI is not affiliated with any government agencies, political groups or parties.
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