Mobiles for justice
It’s difficult to believe that malign governments ─ such as those of China or Iran ─ can indefinitely control or even restrict the democratic freedoms supplied by technology. It will seemingly soon be possible for people in these countries to get news uncensored via e-mail and mobile phone.
The religious rapists
At last the mainstream media here are waking up to the widespread human rights abuses ─ more concretely rape, torture and murder ─ being practised in the Ahmadinejad ‘crackdown’. Karroubi, who gave publicity to the rape claims (see below), describes himself as being in ‘a delicate position’. The authorities want him to come across with details of cases ─ presumably so they can shoot the victims. Fortunately, the United Nations is entering the fray with an evaluation of first hand evidence. This will help Karroubi.
In any case, though the Iranian parliamentarians may not realise it, photographic evidence of the most appalling kind, too terrible to reproduce, is all over the internet. Here is the video testimony of one brave Kurdish woman, Azar Aal-Kanaan.
The Rat, however, has resorted to his habitual tactic in any adversity ─ sacking people at the top and replacing with cronies, most recently ousting four more senior Intelligence Ministry officials.
All this exposes the increased and increasing power of the Revolutionary Guards, IRGC or Sepah for short:
The same day [August 9th], reports trickled out that, following Ahmadinejad’s dismissal of the Intelligence Minister late last month, as many as 20 officials in the ministry who disapproved of the public airing of confessions by political dissidents were purged, including the deputy minister and chief of counterintelligence. The move, according to Hassan Younesi, the son of a former Intelligence Minister, was engineered by Hussein Taeb and Ahmad Salek, two top Guards commanders. “Never has the Intelligence Ministry witnessed such a politically motivated purge since its establishment,” Younesi wrote on his personal blog.
The question arises whether Ahmadinejad is their leader or their puppet. At any rate, each purge adds mightily to the ranks of those disaffected with the Regime of the Rapist Rat.
The names and details of all 69 people documented killed in the uprising (there are many more, possibly 369) are given at the bottom of the page here. My German’s not up to this, but I am assured that Bahman Niromand, an Iranian reporter in Berlin, Germany, also talks about the tortures and sexual attacks on the prisoners.
A little help to our friends
Two MPs in the Iranian parliament have said that $280 million have been given to Bolivia as a loan, without the parliament’s knowledge. Ahmadinejad has been dishing out money without any security of its return left, right and centre. There have been many more contracts signed with Russia recently for buying equipment, cars, etc. from Russia. The Russians must be rubbing their hands with delight at finding such a monkey to do business with.
Glorious day of the Rat
The Rat’s swearing-in was apparently shrouded in more havoc and tear gas than was reported at the time. A quorum of the Guardian Council was not to be had; lesser MPs had to be fetched in to fill empty seats; the entire Tehran business (bazaar) district was closed down for several hours; the Rat had to be brought by helicopter; and Khomeini’s totemic grandson was absent.
Conclusion?
It has now dawned on the country’s rulers that the protest movement is here to stay and is probably gaining in strength.
Life goes on
Here is the work of the celebrated Tehran pavement artist, who is interviewed. Street riots and upheavals are daily events, which do not perturb this artist in coat-hangers.
The ancient source of human rights tradition
Persians date their human rights consciousness to the ancient Achaemenid emperor, Darius the Great (reigned 522 to 486 BC). His last will and testament ─ and prayer against ‘the lie’ ─ may be seen (in Farsi) here. It is inscribed at Takht-e-Jamshid (the throne of Jamshid) or Persepolis and advises his successor to respect the cultures and religions of the 25 nations within the empire. An English translation exists in the form of a video of screened texts. His celebrated inscription at Behistun may be inspected in English here.
The cartoon opposite means well but may have got the wrong Achaemenid.
With repeated acknowledgement of the favour of Ahuramazda, the supreme being in Zoroastrianism, Darius commanded many things to be written:
After [the murder by Cambyses of his full brother, Smerdis], the Lie waxed great in the country, both in Persia and in Media and in the other provinces … These are the provinces which became rebellious. The Lie (druj) made them rebellious, so that these (men) deceived the people. Afterwards Ahuramazda put them into my hand; as was my desire, so I did to them … Darius the King says: You who shall be king hereafter, protect yourself vigorously from the Lie; the man who shall be a Lie-follower, him do you punish well, if thus you shall think, “May my country be secure!”
Darius, rather like Confucius, explicitly connects misbehaviour with the culture of lies that proceeds from violence.
Opposition currents
Mohsen Kadivar is a doughty opposition figure and outspoken mullah. He was released from Evin Prison, that well known health resort, on July 17th, 2000.His critiques of the regime have become still less inhibited, since they have been delivered from the University of Virginia and Duke University. His typology of democratic and theocratic polities are felt useful by some. He once campaigned against the Shah aged eighteen, but now articulates the disappointments of divine rule. He believes democracy and Islam are compatible.
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