The issue is not about a "stolen" election. It is about the lack of
democratic rights. People are aroused by the control over their lives of
unelected clerics and have used Mousavi's complaint about fraud to press
demands that have a dynamic that threatens the whole system.
---
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGMDE130532009&lang=e
Iran: Election amid repression of dissent and unrest
The Iranian presidential elections are to be held this month on 12 June.
The candidates are: the incumbent President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Mohsen
Rezaei, a former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps;
Former Prime Minister, Mir Hossein Mousavi (backed by former president,
MohammadKhatami); and Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliamentary speaker.
While Amnesty International welcomes pledges from some of the candidates
to address the prevailing discrimination against women in the country --
an issue which has been forced to the forefront of the debate by the
efforts of women's rights activists - and ethnic minorities and to
tackle economic issues to improve the welfare of the population, there
are other serious human rights concerns which also need addressing.
These include severe curtailments of freedom of expression, arbitrary
arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, unfair trials and a high
recourse to the death penalty (including against juvenile offenders) as
well as incidents of people being stoned to death.
*
At least 194 people have been executed so far this year in Iran,
including five women and three juveniles convicted of crimes allegedly
committed before they were 18, a practice strictly prohibited under
international law.
*
At least 140 juveniles are known to be on death row in Iran.
*
At least one person has been stoned to death this year in Iran,
despite a 2002 directive from the Head of the Judiciary ordering a
moratorium on stonings. Amnesty International is aware of seven women
and three men currently under sentence of death by stoning.
The election period has also seen increased repression, both of people
expressing their opinions directly about the elections, or of those seen
to be opposed to the system in some way, including students, women's
rights activists, lawyers and unrecognized religious minorities, such as
the Baha'is and the Ahl-e Haq.
Amnesty International is also concerned that all but four of the
candidates have been excluded from standing, including all women, on the
grounds of discriminatory criteria. The Council of Guardians is the body
which screens all candidates for election to "ensure their suitability
for the Presidency". Article 115 of the Constitution of the Islamic
Republic of Iran stipulates that candidates must be from "religious and
political personalities" [Persian: rejal] and possess: "Iranian origin;
Iranian nationality; administrative capacity and resourcefulness; a good
past record; trustworthiness and piety; convinced belief in the
fundamental principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the official
religion of the country." In previous elections, the majority of
candidates registered were disqualified under these criteria, including
all women. The exclusion of women appears to have been as a result of an
interpretation of the word rejalas meaning "men".
Amnesty International is concerned about the increasing number of
arrests in recent weeks leading up to the presidential elections, which
indicates worsening repression of people who want to express their opinions:
In the pre-election period, Amnesty International has received reports
suggesting increased waves of arbitrary arrests and harassment targeting
in particular members of Iran's religious and ethnic minority
communities, including Baha'is and converts from Islam, students, trade
unionists and women's rights activists.
By imprisoning people for merely expressing dissenting views, the
Iranian authorities are stifling the free debate which is a
pre-requisite of elections. Citizens should be able to freely express
their grievances and their demands so that candidates can address them.
*
Jelveh Javaheri, a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign
(also known as the Campaign for Equality), which is collecting
signatures to a petition demanding equal rights for women was released
on bail on 7 June. She is one of around 150 people arrested on 1 May
2009. Most -- including Jelveh Javaheri's journalist husband Kaveh
Mozaffari who is still detained along with several others - were
arrested in Laleh Park in Tehran where a celebration of International
Workers' Day was being held. Jelveh Javaheri, however, was arrested at
home without an arrest warrant when security officials came with her
husband to search their house. She has since been charged with "acting
against national security through membership in the One Million
Signatures Campaign and with the aim of disrupting public order and
security." At least three other women associated with the Campaign for
Equality are currently imprisoned, including Alieh Aghdam-Doust who is
serving a three-year prison sentence.
*
The campaign of Mir Hossein Mousavi -- himself a member of the
Azerbaijani minority - has attracted allegations of racism after a
video posted on YouTube on 14 May allegedly showed former President
Mohammad Khatami (who supports Mr Mousavi) making comments belittling
Iranian Azerbaijanis. Mr Khatami has since stated that the video was a
fake. In the days after the video surfaced, hundreds of Azerbaijani
activists held rallies and organized protests, demanding an apology from
Mr Khatami. Some have been arrested and are being held in incommunicado
detention.
*
For example, on 22 May, in a government-organized rally in El
Goli (also known as Shah Golu) Park in Tabriz, in north-west Iran, a
group of Azerbaijanis protested against the Khatami video and demanded
that education be made available in the Azerbaijani Turkic language. Ali
Reza Farshi, a professor in the Islamic Azad University of Marand,
north-west of Tabriz, along with 14 other protestors were reportedly
arrested and are believed to be still detained. Four of the protestors
are reported to have suffered injuries and were bleeding as they were
taken away. There is no information on their health.
*
On 27 May, Emad Bahavar, head of the youth wing of the Iran
Freedom Party who was campaigning for the presidential candidate
Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was arrested on charges of "propaganda against the
system". He has since been released on bail.
*
At least two university students -- Abbas Hakimzadeh and Mehdi
Mashayekhi remain detained without trial by the Ministry of Intelligence
in Section 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran following their arrests in
February 2009. Other students arrested with them who have since been
released have said that they were tortured in detention. On 28 April
2009, a Revolutionary Court judge said that eight students, including
those still detained, had been accused of cooperating with the People's
Mojahedin Organization of Iran, an opposition group based in exile. He
added that they had intended to carry out some activities in the
university during the forthcoming election.
*
Following a fierce clash in April between members of the Kurdish
armed opposition group, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK)
and security forces in which at least 18 policemen were killed, dozens
of Kurds are reported to have been arrested. Others were said to be
detained following the eight-day visit of the Supreme Leader, Ali
Khamene'i, to Kordestan Province in mid-May.
*
In the run-up to the elections violent unrest has intensified in
Sistan-Baluchistan province in south-eastern Iran. A member of the armed
Baluch group, the People's Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI), carried
out a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in the provincial capital of
Zahedan on 28 May. Up to 25 people were reported to have been killed and
dozens more were injured. The PRMI said that the attack was a reprisal
for the execution of several Sunni clerics in recent years. Amnesty
International has condemned the attack on the mosque.
*
Less than 48 hours after the bombing, three men were hanged in
public near the site of the attack amid claims that they were
responsible. Later comments clarified that the three men had been in
detention at the time of the bombing, but they had "confessed" to
providing the explosives used in the bombing. Further unrest broke out
afterwards with up to ten people killed, and dozens arrested.
*
Iran's Baluch minority - in common with other minorities in Iran
- suffer discrimination by the state authorities leading to gross
violations of their economic, social and cultural rights. They live
mainly in the provinces of Sistan-Balouchistan and Kerman and are
believed to constitute between one and three per cent of the country's
total population of around 70 million. They are mainly Sunni Muslims,
whereas the majority of Iran's population are Shi'a Muslims.
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