Iran Minority News

Source: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/share.html?s=news01n2c1cqa52

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gwj8cSsT5DfrL1ezcQqcUSdFN9RQ

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran will execute 12 members of a Sunni rebel group, including one of its senior militants, by the end of this week, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday.

Abdolhamid Rigi, brother of Abdolmalik Rigi who heads the shadowy Sunni group Jundallah (Soldiers of God), will be hanged along with 11 others, the agency said quoting Hojateslam Ebrahim Hamidi, head of the judiciary in the restive southeast province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

“They will be hanged, inshallah, by the end of the week,” said Hamidi, adding that the 12 have all been accused of being “mohareb” — enemies of God.

Iran’s state-run English language television station Press TV quoted Rigi as saying that his brother Abdolmalik was on the payroll of the American military.

“My brother Abdolmalik met several times with US forces in Pakistan,” it quoted Rigi as telling a group of tribal leaders in the town of Iranshahr in Sistan-Baluchistan.

“I myself took part in one of those meetings, where we discussed recruitment, training, infiltrating Iran and methods of inflaming Sunni-Shiite sectarianism for three hours. In that meeting, the Americans gave my brother 100,000 dollars,” he said, according to Press TV.

Iran accuses Jundallah of launching regular attacks in Sistan-Baluchestan province which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The province is home to a sizeable Baluch minority which adheres to Sunni Islam. Jundallah strongly opposes to the government of predominantly Shiite Iran.

Source: http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/4205
Iran Press Watch has received through the kindness of faculties of the Baha’i Institute for High Education (BIHE - http://www.bihe.org/) a copy of an email sent to a number students and others associated with BIHE. Iran Press Watch was asked to share this document for the benefit of international media, governmental institutions and human rights activists. It is also alarming that a threat against the group of Yaran, former leaders of the Baha’i community of Iran, is stated in this document. A translation by Iran Press Watch follows:

With peace upon all of you followers of the wayward Baha’i sect, who are affiliated with the illegal and immoral BIHE University:

Following the teachings of Muhammadan Islam, the Unknown Soldiers of the Imam Zaman [Lord of the Age] have learned of unlawful and unethical activities of this outwardly-seeming university, which has direct association with foreign governments, including the Zionist [regime] and England. Should students, professors and officials of this so-called university wish to preserve their own safety, they must sever their association, whatever it may be, with this university. Otherwise, possible consequences of this association will fall upon yourselves, and you will have to expect the revolutionary hanging of a group affiliated with this university and that of your dear Yaran [friends] presently incarcerated.

Peace and blessings be upon the spirits of Islamic Revolution martyrs,

Unknown soldiers of the Imam Zaman

Iran Press Watch has previously published a number of statements by the group known as Unknown Soldiers of Imam Zaman, which appears to be an underground movement organized to attack and harass the Baha’is of Iran.

Source: http://televisionwashington.com/floater_article1.aspx?lang=en&t=floater_censoredculture&id=11918
Washington, 7 July (WashingtonTV)—Norway’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Oslo, Mohsen Bavafa, to express its concern for the human rights situation in Iran.

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere also called on Iran to release protesters arrested after the disputed 12 June presidential election, the ministry said in a statement.

“The authorities in Iran do not respect basic human rights,” Stoere said.

“Norway objects to the politically-motivated arrests, and reacts in particular to the fact that local employees at the British embassy in Tehran have been imprisoned,” he added.

Iran arrested nine Iranian employees at the British embassy in Tehran, and accused them of fomenting post-election unrest. All but one of the nine have been released.

Oslo also condemned the arrests of opposition members, journalists, human rights activists and peaceful demonstrators.

“Iranian authorities are urged to immediately stop political arrests and release those unjustly imprisoned,” said the foreign minister.

Norway also condemned the 4 July execution of 20 Iranians convicted of drug trafficking.

In addition, Stoere raised his concern over the situation of the Baha’i community in Iran, in particular the upcoming trial against seven Baha’i leaders in Tehran.

“I urge the Iranian authorities to respect the religious beliefs of all minorities in Iran,” he said.

Source: http://bahainews-uk.info/2009/07/02/irans-bahais-mentioned-in-prime-ministers-questions/

The Prime Minister has promised to continue raising Britain’s concerns with Iran, over the issue of the seven Bahá’ís being detained in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

Gordon Brown’s comments came during Prime Minister’s questions in the House of Commons, in response to the MP for Montgomeryshire, Lembit Opik.

“I have become deeply concerned about the seven Baha’i leaders in Iran facing trial by the revolutionary court on 11 July on serious but unsubstantiated charges, with no evidence being offered against them,” said Mr Opik, who is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of the Bahá’ís group.

Describing current circumstances in Iran as “very difficult issues”, Mr Brown expressed his “disappointment at the restrictions that (Mr Opik) has mentioned on the freedoms of the Iranian people, with people due to stand before a closed court on 11 July.”

According to information conveyed by the authorities at Evin to the family members of the seven Bahá’ís who have been imprisoned for more than a year, a trial date has been set for 11 July. The seven were arrested in the spring of 2008 and have been held without any formal charges or access to their attorneys. Official Iranian news reports have said the Baha’is will be accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”

“Some people in Iran are seeking to use Britain as an explanation for the legitimate Iranian voices calling for greater openness and democracy. However, we will continue, with our international partners, to raise our concerns with Iran, including on the issue that the honorable Gentleman raised,” Mr Brown said.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/
By Daniel Bases

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi called on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday to appoint a personal envoy to investigate human rights abuses in Iran.

In a letter also signed by the rights groups International Federation for Human Rights and the Iranian League for the Defense of Human Rights, Ebadi asked Ban to appoint the envoy to look into abuses in Iran following June’s disputed presidential election.

A spokesman for Ban said the letter had been received by his office. Ban currently is on a trip to Myanmar in a bid to get the military junta there to release all political prisoners and prepare for credible elections next year.

The letter said Ebadi, a human rights lawyer, had made the request to Ban directly in a telephone conversation on June 23, eleven days after Iran’s election. The United Nations at the time disclosed the conversation but did not mention the request for a human rights envoy.

Ebadi was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights, in particular the rights of women and children.

Action by Iranian security forces against demonstrators who charged that the election had been rigged in favor of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drew condemnation from Western countries and from Ban. Iranian authorities said the vote was fair.

“We would like … to reiterate our call upon you to name a Personal Envoy for Iran,” the letter said.

“Such an envoy would benefit from your authority in the relations with the Iranian authorities, an authority which is denied to human rights groups from Iran or from abroad in the context of this active repression,” the letter said.

The June 12 election pitted hard-liner Ahmadinejad against Mirhossein Mousavi. In the aftermath of the vote, which drew the most vigorous organized protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, state media said 20 people died in violence.

Ebadi has called on Ahmadinejad to prosecute those who shot protesters and pay compensation to their families while also calling for fresh elections held with U.N. observers.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://www.iranhr.net/

Iran Human Rights, July 1: Six people were hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison early this morning July 1. reported the state run Iranian news agency ISNA.

None of those who were executed today were identified by name, age or details around what they were convicted of.

The state run news site “young journalist’s club” also reported that one man identified as Alireza (28) was hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison convicted of murdering his friend.

Jerusalem Post , quoting a source in Iran, reported that six poeple were hanged in Tehran in relation with the recent pro-democracy demonstrations in Iran.

Iran Human Rights can not verify this report.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, spokesperson of “Iran Human Rights” said:”We are concerned that none of those executed today were identified by name. Regardless of what they are charged with, we condemn today’s executions, and repeat our concerns about the fact that many of the arrested under the pro-democracy demonstrations in Iran are in danger of torture, forced confession and execution”.

The ISNA report also said: The six people who were hanged today were convicted of murder. The report added that execution of three others that was scheduled to take place today, was postponed. One of them, identified as “Hossein R.” was a minor offender convicted of a murder at the age of 16.

Source: http://www.express.co.uk

IRAN’S hardline leadership has begun a merciless purge of its opponents that could end with children hanging from gallows.

Students are likely to feel the worst excesses of the vengeance being exacted by the country’s religious rulers in the wake of pro-democracy demonstrations.

Anyone who dared to protest over the disputed presidential election result two weeks ago has been warned that their defiance will result in the harshest punishments.

Under Iran’s medieval legal system that could mean children – in theory, girls as young as nine – facing execution.

A damning report of Iran’s flagrant contempt for international laws on capital punishment will next week expose the appalling extent of child executions in the strict Islamic state.

Although UN decrees state that no person under 18 should be executed or sentenced to death, Iran’s prisons echo with the cries of youngsters facing the noose.

Today, 160 young people await their fate on death row for crimes including homosexuality, having sex outside marriage or turning their backs on Islam.

Their chances of reprieve are slim. Over the past five years, 33 children have faced the noose.

By comparison, the other Middle East countries still executing children – Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen – have a combined total of 19 on Death Row.

The report, From Cradle to Coffin, is produced by the London-based Foreign Policy Centre and Stop Child Executions. It reveals many of the cases, including the most recent hanging of a young woman in May.

Delara Darabi spent five years behind bars for a murder she was alleged to have carried out at the age of 17.

She strenuously denied the crime and went to her death sobbing: “Mum, they want to execute me. I see the gallows. Mother, save me.”

Download: The foreign Policy Center’s latest report on Child Executions in Iran

Listen to Podcast from Women’s Hour which contains a section on Juvenile excecutions

Source:http://www.nearinternational.org

The UK’s University and College Union (UCU) has formally condemned the Iranian government after 70 university professors were arrested as part of the state’s crackdown on opposition protestors. The academics were held on the 25 June after meeting the pro-reformist candidate Mr Mousavi, who has accused President Ahmadinejad of rigging this month’s national elections.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “The actions of the Iranian government are completely deplorable and must be condemned by the international community. It is deeply disturbing that academics are being targeted by the state for meeting with opposition leaders. It is criminal that their rights to free speech and assembly are being violated in this way.” Subsequent reports indicate that most of the academics have been released, but that two are still being held.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Hundreds of protesters and activists are believed to have been taken into custody since the vote on 12 June, which saw Iran’s ruling clerics declare President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the winner by a landslide margin. Ali Ansari, director of the Iranian Institute at the University of St Andrews, told Times Higher Education that it was almost inevitable that universities and academics would be in the firing line during the crackdown.

The Scholars at Risk (SAR) Network in New York has also expressed deep concern at the reports of violence on university campuses and towards members of university communities in Iran. SAR has pledged to help any Iranian scholars in need of assistance, with the possibility of temporary opportunities at network universities.

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jun/30/iran-dead-detained-photos
Simon Jeffery on the response to our call for help in naming those who have died or been jailed since the Iran elections

Hundreds – maybe thousands – of people have been jailed in Iran for their part in the protests that followed the presidential election, and we are trying to find out who they are.

Yesterday we asked readers and a wider community on Twitter for help in filling in the missing details on our list and sending in photographs of the dead or detained.

So far we have received hundreds of pieces of information, many new names and several photographs. Below is Mohammadreza Jalaeipour, 27, an Oxford PhD student and spokesman for a grassroots campaign group for the reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. He was arrested at Tehran airport on 17 June as he attempted to leave the country.

Others have pointed us to Facebook profiles and photographs for those involved in the protests. If you know of these people or have them in your networks please let us know. This is an attempt to break through the crackdown on dissent and reporting in Iran since the election. Many of the names would be unknown were it not the for the work of groups such as the New York-based Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Reporters Without Borders/Reporters Sans Frontieres and Human Rights Watch who we owe a great debt to.

All the information and photographs now coming in will be assessed and added to our database as appropriate and the main graphic will be updated. We are also sharing information with the above-mentioned Human Rights Watch and making a spreadsheet available at Datablog.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian
آیت الله طاهری: تصدی مجدد رئیس دولت نامشروع و غاصبانه است

آیت الله سید جلال الدین طاهری اصفهانی، از روحانیون اصلاح طلب ساکن اصفهان از وقایع پس از انتخابات ریاست جمهوری ایران انتقاد کرده و گفته “همصدا با اکثریت مردمِ رای باخته، این انتخابات را مخدوش و آن را باطل و تصدی مجدد رئیس دولت را برای دور بعد نامشروع و غاصبانه” می داند.

آقای طاهری با انتشار بیانیه ای آنچه را که “استفاده ابزاری” از سخنان آیت الله خمینی، بنیانگذار جمهوری اسلامی خوانده “تقبیح” کرده و گفته من با دیده گریان و قلبی اندوه بار به عینه می‌بینم که کهنه دشمنان و مخالفان امام راحل که او را برای مبارزه و تاسیس جمهوری اسلامی تخطئه می‌کردند، امروز با تمام قوت و با همان دشمنی، تئوری پردازان قدرتمندان شده و از درون به هدم و نابودی عقاید حکومتی مرحوم امام و به موزه فرستادن عملی آن، فعالانه مشغول هستند.

آقای طاهری از امامان جمعه منصوب آیت الله خمینی بود اما تابستان سال ۱۳۸۱ در اعتراض به “شرایط کشور” با انتشار بیانیه شدید الحنی که حکومت را به “فساد و بی لیاقتی” متهم می کرد، از سمت خود استعفا داد. او در بیانه تازه خود نیز از شرایط حاکم بر ایران انتقاد کرده است.

آقای طاهری در بیانیه خود نوشته است: ” آیا امام معتقد بود کسانی که باید در انتخابات بی طرف باشند، رسما وارد حمایت علنی از کاندیدای خاصی بشوند؟ آیا امام اجازه می‌داد امکانات عمومی و بیت المال مسلمین برای یک کاندیدا بدون هیچ محدودیتی استفاده شود؟ آیا امام اجازه می‌داد حیثیت و آبروی افراد این گونه در معرض و منظر مردم ملعبه بازیگران قدرت قرار گیرد؟ و آیا دین چنین اجازه‌ای به شما داده است؟ چرا چتر حمایت قانون فقط برای شما و دوستان شما است؟”

آیت الله طاهری، پس از استعفا از امامت جمعه اصفهان نیز به مناسبت های مختلف درباره وقایع ایران اظهار نظر کرده است.

او در جریان دهمین دوره انتخابات ریاست جمهوری نیز از نامزدی میرحسین موسوی حمایت کرد.

آیت الله طاهری در بیاینه اخیرش نیز بار دیگر از میر حسین موسوی حمایت کرده و گفته است: ” آیا این از مصادیق عدالت است که سید شریف و مظلومی چون میرحسین موسوی که در سخت‌ترین دوران‌های این کشور مسئولیت اداره دولت را با وجود جنگ هشت ساله و محاصره اقتصادی و گروه‌های محارب و تثبیت انقلاب با موفقیت تمام طی نمود، اکنون عامل استکبار، اغتشاشگر و مستوجب کیفر باشد و باید حقوقش پایمال گردد؟

Source: Iranian Minorities’ Human Rights Organisation (IMHRO)

Ref.IMHRO.56

15/05/09

The Iranian security services have just arrested Abdul Zahra Washahi, a retired 62 year old Ahwazi Arab from Bandar Mahshahr (south-west Iran), who is the father of Reza Washahi – currently working as a researcher with IMHRO.

After a number of threats over the phone, the Iranian government finally arrested Abdul Zahra Washahi on 14th of May 2009. A few months ago Abdul Zahra was told that unless his son stopped his human-rights activities, he would be arrested instead.

This case and similar cases clearly show the tyrannical nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

IMHRO condemns putting pressure on dissident human-rights activists through their families still in Iran. To use the families of human-rights activists as a ransom is clearly an inhumane policy and practice of the Iranian government.

This policy of silencing through intimidation has never worked in the past and is not going to work now. IMHRO requests the international community to act swiftly for the release of Abdul Zahra Washahi, who also suffers with a heart condition.

Source: http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/local/Bahai_Leaders_Await_Trail_in_Iran_20090629

شعارنویسی های شبانه بر دیوار منازل بهائیان سمنان

Source: Telegraph.co.uk
The Iranian football players who wore green wristbands to protest against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have reportedly been banned from the team for life.

A pro-government newspaper reported they had been “retired” from the national team after several members wore green tape on their wrists in a World Cup qualifier against South Korea in Seoul.

Other newspapers said the players were retiring voluntarily, reportedly because of their age, but at least one suggested they were forced out.
The speculation focused on two players who both wore green in Seoul: Ali Karimi, 31, and Mehdi Mahdavikia, 32. However, both had earlier announced plans to quit soon because of their age.

The Seoul incident was a gesture of solidarity with opposition leader Mir Hossain Mousavi whose supporters accuse the government of rigging Iran’s June 12 election in favour of the hard-line President Ahmadinejad.

Green was adopted as the colour of Mousavi’s campaign and has been widely displayed in opposition street protests in Iran’s post-election turmoil.

At least seven Iranian players wore the bands in the first half against South Korea, although most were forced to take them off before the second.

Mahdavikia is one of Iran’s biggest sports heroes for a goal he scored to eliminate the United States during the first round of the World Cup in 1998. Karimi is also a football star who has played for Germany’s Bayern Munich.

Iran was later eliminated from World Cup qualifying after a draw between Saudi Arabia and North Korea.

Exclusive: By Victoria Kennedy for Mirror.co.uk

In many ways, Nazanin is like any other 19-year-old girl.
She pores over fashion websites and spends hours blogging. Yet unlike Western teens, she writes about bloodshed, fear and oppression.

Like Neda Agha Soltani - the 27-year-old shot dead at an anti-government protest in Tehran last weekend - Nazanin lives under President Ahmadinejad’s hardline regime.

And as the violence continues to mount, the engineering student bravely emailed the Daily Mirror.

Here, in her own words, is her extraordinary account of what life is like for a young woman in Iran’s capital.

‘The situation here is very bad. It’s around 12 days that all the sms lines are closed and the internet connection is very low.

They cut cellphone lines every evening so people cannot be in touch between being at home and protesting. They have blocked Facebook and YouTube and other sites where we got news. We could arrange meetings and protest locations on those sites. The city is full of police and security guards which threaten to attack and kill people.

There’s no difference if you are protester or a normal person. They shoot towards you to make people scared. When you go out it’s not clear if you’ll come back alive.

They have killed many people, around 150 or more, but they don’t let the news spread. They have also beaten and injured lots of people with knife and baton and use tear gas. They have also captured many of the young people and sent them to jail and no one is aware of their situation. They even don’t answer if he or she is alive or dead.

Every night you can hear people go on the roofs and say “God is great” and “Down to dictator” and many other slogans against this dictator rejim.

But no one hear our voices. We can hears shooting every night and they kill innocent people to scare the people and say ‘if u say anything against us u deserves death’. Basijis [the regime's unofficial enforcers] and military and the rejim’s supporters are supporting with guns but we don’t have anything. We should fight with them with anything. Neda is just one of these people who had died on Saturday.
Read the rest of this entry »

By ROGER COHEN for The New York Times
Published: June 23, 2009

TEHRAN — Iran’s 1979 revolution took a full year to gestate. The uprising of 2009 has now ended its first phase. But the volatility ushered in by the June 12 ballot-box putsch of Iran’s New Right is certain to endure over the coming year. The Islamic Republic has been weakened.

During one of the violent clashes here in recent days, I saw a member of the riot police confront a protester holding a cell phone. “Don’t take a photograph of me!” he yelled at the young man.

“Why?” the man shouted back. “You’re not naked.”

But the Islamic Republic is. Everyone knows where everyone stands; it isn’t pretty. All the fudge that allowed a modern society to coexist with a theocracy inspired by an imam occulted in the 9th century has been swept away, leaving two Irans at war.

One of those Irans, embodied in the 12-member Guardian Council, the highest legal body, ruled in a preliminary statement on Tuesday that “no major fraud” had occurred in the vote and that its annulment was therefore impossible. Not much surprise there, in that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, made clear last week that the recount was a waste of time.

Of course, the definition of “major” is up for debate. Khamenei himself said rigging one million votes might be feasible, and the council found irregularities with three million votes.

But numbers have ceased to mean anything here. All the evidence is that percentages were simply allotted to each candidate and the votes cast backward-engineered from there. The Interior Ministry took 10 days to divulge results for all provinces. Such engineering takes time.

Iran has squandered a huge opportunity to bridge the gulf between the regime and an increasingly sophisticated population thirsting for greater freedom. A vibrant election campaign opened a door. It has been slammed shut.

“The Islamic Republic is the flag-bearer of human rights,” Khamenei declared in his Friday sermon. Over the past week, it has looked more like a flag-bearing police state.

True, the regime has not opened fire Tiananmen Square-style on the millions who have taken to the streets. I don’t believe it has the unity to do that. Significant cracks have emerged within the establishment, certainly the largest since the bloody first couple of years after the revolution. Relentless official attacks on foreign agents as the instigators of unrest have not papered over these divisions.

As the Association of Combatant Clergy, which represents more liberal mullahs in Qom, said in a statement: “What sane mind believes that a peaceful movement of millions of informed people — including workers, shopkeepers, farmers, students, clergy and others — could be agents of a so-called enemy?”
Read the rest of this entry »

Source:http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/26/world/worldwatch/entry5116173.shtml
Reports that Iran’s ruling regime has put the country’s most feared, hard-line prosecutor in charge of interrogating arrested protesters and journalists have raised the ire of human rights groups and the Canadian government.

Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s prosecutor-general since 2003 and a judge previously, has been implicated by several inquiries in the death that year of a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist who was arrested, tortured and then killed in custody.

“We are deeply concerned by reports that Saaed Mortazavi has been put in charge of the investigation of detained reformist leaders and party officials in Iran,” Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said.
Thursday, according to a report in The Canadian Press.

Those concerns will likely be compounded by remarks made during Friday prayers in Tehran by one of Iran’s senior clerics. Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Ahmad Khatami warned those behind the recent unrest that they were in violation of Islamic law, and he urged the Judiciary branch to deal with them harshly.

“I call on the officials of the Judicial Branch to deal severely and ruthlessly with the leaders of the agitations whose fodder comes from America and Israel, so that everyone learns a lesson from it,” said Khatami, who is a member of the powerful Assembly of Experts.

Mortazavi has earned a reputation in Iran as the “butcher of the press” for shutting down more than 100 newspapers and blogs deemed a threat to the regime.

“The leading role of Saeed Mortazavi in the crackdown in Tehran should set off alarm bells for anyone familiar with his record,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch told The Times of London.

The Times also reports that Mortazavi was allegedly behind the arrest and three-month detention of American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi earlier this year. Saberi was released and returned home to her family in North Dakota about three weeks ago.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5in7Myb76J9CPFgqTM8IzK5X9zV_QD992B0280

TRIESTE, Italy (AP) — Foreign ministers from Group of Eight countries on Friday said they deplored postelection violence in Iran and urged Tehran authorities to ensure that the outcome of Iran’s disputed election reflects the will of the Iranian people.

A statement by the ministers meeting in the northeastern Italian city of Trieste said the door must remain open to dialogue on Iran’s nuclear program but expressed “deep concern” over the proliferation risk.

The statement was the result of negotiations between countries such as Italy and France that wanted to send a tough message to Iran to halt the crackdown and demand a recount, and Russia, which has said it backs the results that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

The statement, issued on the second day of the three-day meeting, said G-8 ministers deplored the postelection violence.

“We express our solidarity with those who have suffered repression while peacefully demonstrating and urge Iran to respect human rights, including freedom of expression,” it said.

It called on Iran “to guarantee that the will of the Iranian people is reflected in the electoral process.”

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of human lives,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said at a news conference, other G-8 officials by his side. “We have stressed the need that violence cease immediately.”

Italy originally invited Iran to attend the three-day gathering as a special guest, arguing that it could play an important role in talks on Afghan stabilization. But Rome retracted the invitation after Iran failed to respond, and amid concerns over the violence in the streets of Tehran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow wanted to express its “most serious concern” over the use of force by Iran and the death of peaceful protesters.

“At the same time, we will not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs. Our position is that all issues that have emerged in the context of the elections will be sorted out in line with democratic procedures,” he said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, whose government expelled two Iranian diplomats earlier this week after Iran did the same to two British envoys, said that the violence was “deplorable” and that Iran’s accusations that the protests were mobilized by Western powers were “without foundation.”

“We deplore violence but we remain committed to engagement as a means to an end,” said Miliband.

Watch Footage : http://rbhendershots.shutterfly.com/videos/3?eid=112

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=217363970462&ref=nf

Source:http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/22/iran.basij.militia.profile/index.html

(CNN) — They may wear a uniform, or ordinary street clothes. Their numbers are unclear. They rush the streets with brute strength.
They are the Basij, Iran’s volunteer paramilitary group that for more than a week has cracked down on the thousands of protesters in the bloody aftermath of the Islamic republic’s disputed presidential election.

Amateur video shows members of the Basij, wearing plain shirts and pants and wielding clubs and hoses, dispersing protesters and beating a handful of Iranians at a time.

“The Basij militia forces tried to break up the demonstrations using batons, electric shock and water cannons,” a student in Tehran, whose name was withheld for his safety, told CNN’s Don Lemon on Sunday. The student said he was injured at a protest by the feared militia.

Monday’s demonstrators dismissed a warning from the Revolutionary Guard that people who “disturb the peace and stand up to security forces” would be met with a strong response. “The guardians of the Islamic revolution and the courageous Basiji together with the security forces are following the orders of the supreme leader and following him unquestioningly,” the Guard said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. Video Watch protesters clash with Basij militia »

While the Basij — the word means “mobilization” in the Farsi language — is often described by outsiders as shadowy and mysterious, Iranians have had run-ins with the militia for three decades.

The Basij was established in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who famously declared that Iran could never be destroyed with a 20-million-man militia. Khomeini, who ushered in the Islamic revolution that ousted Iran’s ruling shah 30 years ago, felt that his country suffered from Western influences that the shah embraced.

He created the Basij as a popular auxiliary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, a military unit under the direct control of Iran’s supreme leader, to defend the principles of the movement.
The group, at least at first, was made up of men either too old or young to serve in the Revolutionary Guard. Until now, they were perhaps best known for the “human wave” attacks during the Iran-Iraq war that reportedly cleared out minefields for the professional military. Many of the Basij reportedly received plastic keys to wear around their necks like dog tags, marking their entry to “paradise” when they died in martyrdom.

“Basij members made up with zeal what they lacked in military professionalism,” said Michael Eisenstadt, a senior fellow and director of The Washington Institute’s Military and Security Studies Program.

After the Iran-Iraq war, the Basij returned to its role as an internal security force to enforce Islamic morality. While Iran in recent years has claimed more than 12 million in the ranks of the group, Middle East experts put the figure closer to 300,000 — though they concede it’s difficult to quantify a sprawling militia that has full-time and reservist cadres.

The militia is known to recruit members from rural and urban areas and to organize mainly at mosques around Tehran and other major cities. Video Watch report on Basij militia »

“Through the mosques, they have funds, ideological and political indoctrination and military training,” said Ali Alfoneh, a fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute who has researched the relationship between Iranian civilians and the Revolutionary Guard.

The Basij has had a growing role since 2003, when it was beefed up as a first line of defense amid suspicions of a possible U.S.-led invasion, Eisenstadt said

“I think cannon fodder is a fair way to characterize them,” said Eisenstadt, who noted the militia seems to emerge during the initial moments of an uprising as the Revolutionary Guard and law enforcement forces organized their reaction. See timeline of events in Iran »

While experts say there is a hardline ideological core to Basij, its members, who often come from lower-class backgrounds, are attracted to the perks that the Basij (and its superior agency, the Revolutionary Guard) has to offer: a little cash, a seat at a university and a bit of authority.

“Not every single one is devout, not every single one is ready to kill,” said Alfoneh, a native of Iran.

The Basij noticeably took the lead in crowd control last week when tens of thousands of Iranian demonstrators spilled into the streets of Tehran to protest the presidential election. Iran’s election authority declared hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the presidential race, sparking outrage in supporters of popular opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi.

“The first people who were really available were the Basij,” Eisenstadt told CNN. “There are Basij bases throughout the city and beyond, and they were able to respond quickly.”

As the government got a handle on the massive demonstrations in recent days, the Basij remains present and vigilant in the aftermath of the June 12 election.

Badi Badiozamani, an Iran analyst, has sifted through scores of amateur video from the frontlines of the protests. Dozens of those clips show Basij members, wearing black shirts and pants or plainclothes with camouflaged vests, detaining young men outside their homes as their mothers and sisters scream in the background.
One clip shows a young man whose head is hooded in a dark cloth, squatting behind a car, while another man is shown face down with his hands tied behind his back.

“We saw that these forces took the detained person out into the alley, and into an unmarked car,” Badiozamani said. “Today I saw again Basijis grab a young man, put him on a unmarked motorcycle and take him away.”

Source: Los Angeles Times
By Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi
June 23, 2009

Guardian Council says it can find no evidence of ‘major’ irregularities in the presidential election. Meanwhile, a special court is being set up to try ‘plotters and hooligans’ involved in protests.

Reporting from Tehran — Iran’s Guardian Council today ruled out the possibility of nullifying the country’s disputed presidential election that returned hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, saying it could find no evidence of any “major” irregularities, according to a report carried by the website of the state-owned English-language Press TV satellite news channel.

“Fortunately, in the recent presidential election we found no witness of major fraud or breach in the election,” said Abbas-Ali Kadkhodai, the council’s spokesman, according to the report. “Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place.”

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124571865270639351.html
By FARNAZ FASSIHI

TEHRAN—The family, clad in black, stood at the curb of the road sobbing. A middle-aged mother slapped her cheeks, letting out piercing wails. The father, a frail man who worked as a doorman at a clinic in central Tehran, wept quietly with his head bowed.

Minutes before, an ambulance had arrived from Tehran’s morgue carrying the body of their only son, 19-year-old Kaveh Alipour.

On Saturday, amid the most violent clashes between security forces and protesters, Mr. Alipour was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said.

The details of his death remain unclear. He had been alone. Neighbors and relatives think that he got trapped in the crossfire. He wasn’t politically active and hadn’t taken part in the turmoil that has rocked Iran for over a week, they said.

“He was a very polite, shy young man,” said Mohamad, a neighbor who has known him since childhood.

When Mr. Alipour didn’t return home that night, his parents began to worry. All day, they had heard gunshots ringing in the distance. His father, Yousef, first called his fiancée and friends. No one had heard from him.

At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.

Upon learning of his son’s death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a “bullet fee”—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.

Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn’t amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour’s body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows the Alipour family. In addition to their slain son, they have two daughters. Shopkeepers and businesses pasted a photocopied picture of Mr. Alipour on their walls and windows. In the picture, the young man is shown wearing a dark suit with gray stripes. His black hair is combed neatly to a side and he has a half-smile.

“He was so full of life. He had so many dreams,” said Arsalan, a taxi driver who has known the family for 10 years. “What did he die for?”

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hRixgyWbLct-v0YUJfwp8Rl0-WgA
OTTAWA (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Monday called on Iran to halt its assault on press freedoms and release all political prisoners and journalists, including Canadians.

Iranian authorities should “immediately cease the use of violence against their own people, to release all political prisoners and journalists — including Canadians — who have been unjustly detained,” he said.

Tehran must “allow Iranian and foreign media to report freely on these historic events, and to conduct a full and transparent investigation into allegations of fraud in the presidential election,” he said.

On Sunday, a Canadian journalist working in Iran for Newsweek magazine was detained without charge by Iranian authorities, the magazine said, adding Maziar Bahari had not been heard from since.

The New York-based magazine also said in a statement that as many as 20 journalists and bloggers were reported to have been detained since Iran’s June 12 elections, which set off mass protests after official results gave incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory.

Among them, a reporter for the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper was briefly detained last week after being swept up in police crackdown. Authorities eventually apologized and released him.

Harper said: “The reaction of the Iranian authorities to the demonstrations in Iran is wholly unacceptable.”

He accused Iran of trampling on freedoms of assembly and free expression, beating demonstrators and then arresting them when they arrive at hospital for treatment.

“Journalists have been prevented from covering protests and subjected to arbitrary detention and arrest,” he said. “Foreign press credentials have been revoked.”

“The regime has chosen to use brute force and intimidation in responding to peaceful opposition regarding legitimate and serious allegations of electoral fraud,” he said.

Canada’s distaste for these goings-on in Iran would be strongly conveyed to its envoy in Ottawa, he added.

Read article in full and watch footage : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8114085.stm

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate end to arrests and the threat and use of violence by authorities in Iran.

He urged them to respect fundamental civil rights, “especially the freedom of assembly and expression”.

His comments came as there were further clashes in the capital Tehran.

Iran’s legislative body, the Guardian Council, said there were no major polling irregularities in the 12 June election and ruled out an annulment.

The ruling was reported by state television on Tuesday.