Iran's human rights violations continue under Ahmadinejad

The American Enterprise Association held a discussion on Iranian society under the current Ahmadinejad presidency, focusing on its impact on civil liberties and political efficacy.

Tom Parker, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, said that the human rights situation in Iran “is not good,” and is “typical of many authoritarian regimes” where minorities are routinely discriminated against and denied basic rights. Targeted groups for whose safety the organization is “greatly worried” include Sunnis, Suffis, women, homosexual men, bloggers, and ethnic minorities like Kurds and Arabs. Parker said there are no Sunni mosques in Tehran because of the discrimination, and that many gay men have been executed on charges of male rape. Discriminations can occur through trumped-up charges or implementation of new laws designed to target certain groups, he said. Parker mentioned a public information film released by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence that displays American politicians--one of whom is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) working in secret below the White House to undermine the Iranian government, whose vilified plans involved cooperation of “subversive” Iranian human rights groups. Parker highlighted the importance of the Iranian blogosphere in spreading accurate information and “getting a debate going” in Iran’s largely silent or nonobjective media.

Mohebat Ahdiyyih, senior Iran analyst at the Open Source Center, said that it really is “that bad” in Iran, and that President Ahmadinejad has upset the balance of various factions in the new country. He said conditions could change if another president were elected. However, Iran Nameh editor Hermoz Hekmat said that while there are elections in Iran, there are no political parties—thus rendering the elections “non-elections.” Because Iranian society has no political parties, no free press, and no influential non-governmental organizations, he continued, the elected president “has absolutely nothing to do” with the people’s vision for their government.

Christians being targeted in Iraq

Congress members Anna G. Eshoo and Frank Wolf held a briefing today on the “Plight of Iraq’s Christians and Other Religious Minorities.” The guest speakers were the vice president of Resettlement of the International Rescue Committee, Bob Carey, the Middle East program officer of Mercy Corp, Emily Gish, the executive director of Chaldean Federation of America (CASCA), Joseph Kassab, and the senior fellow of Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, Nina Shea.

Nina Shea started the briefing by resenting her experiences and the research that she has conducted in the Middle East. She talked about the injustices, discrimination and the atrocities carried out by various Muslim extremists in Iraq. Forty churches have been bombed, twelve priests killed, Archbishops murdered, Christian churches have and are being decapitated. Recently, ten days ago, a priest was killed in Baghdad. Mandeans, a Christian minority are being murdered; only few have remained. These cases are not being investigated or followed by the police or any other international organizations.
As a result of this, two-thirds of the Iraqi Christians have fled the country and found refuge in Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. The remaining one-third lives in the North near the Kurdistan borders.

Shea also touched upon the fact that President Bush had never commented on this issue before, but he acknowledged, during the Papal visit, that Christians and other minorities in Iraq are being targeted for religious reasons. She continued by saying that acknowledgment is not enough and there should be a set U.S. policy to deal with this issue, which has not happened yet. The U.S. failure to adopt policies to help the minorities ranges from being indifferent to minor activities. According to Nina Shea, Iraq is becoming more and more homogeneous and the fear is, when/if the war will be over, minorities will be absent. She also said that the Christians are not the only ones who are being targeted, “the Jewish population is only on double digits if that.” The lack of militias or security in the Christian regions is making it easier for the extremists to carry out their violence against the minorities. Shea said that there are couple of people with no uniforms, who are truing to protect the people and the State Department stated that those men are going to be given uniforms soon. all the minorities in Iraq carry only 12-13 seats of the Parliament.

Another 20, 000 Iraqi Christians have been forced to evacuate due to threats. The U.S. has been very passive about this, not even developed a mechanism, they are not aware of if aid is being reached to the people on the region. for instance, when the Mendean family was “wiped down” two weeks ago, there was no one to investigate. Shea emphasized the importance of the U.S. developing a way of contact with the civic leaders of the minority communities; she added that that particular act is in the U.S. interest, since the minorities are the bridge between the East and the West.

Bob Carey talked about the needs and the challenges for the Iraqi Christians. He presented the activities of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the region. The

IRC has held meetings with U.N., Syrian and Jordanian officials, even the President of the Bashar el Assad, to find a solution for the refugees present in those countries. Carey emphasized that more than 70 percent of the families have witnessed a death of a family member. They have experienced personal threats, received notes on public and notes on bodies. There is a need of an urgent medical care, the community is suffering from different sicknesses and people who have cancer are not able to get meditation. Carey talked about his experience of meeting 3 translators, all of them under the age of twenty four, who have severe physical injuries and were not treated until their arrival to the U.S.

Today, the IRC has 4 million projects operating in the Iraq and the host countries of the refugees. Carey urged the people to contact their congress representatives to add the fund to the Refugee Crisis Act, which will be spent on the refugees and the countries helping them.


Joseph Kassab talked about the operations of CASCA in the U.S. and Iraq. Kassab and his co-workers traveled to the affected regions in March. He started off by showing a map of the Christian areas. The region extended from near Mosul to the frontiers of the KRG in the North. Three different forces protect the region. Firstly, Kurds who are financed by the government, secondly, private security force funded by the Finance minister of Kurdistan and lastly, former police with uniform in very small numbers. Kassab said that the three forces are creating confusion amongst the people, because they do not know who to trust and who to talk to. To make matters more difficult, the forces themselves are not well-organized. they are heavily armed, but do not know how to use their weapons. There is another issue as well, Kassab said that the civilians are willing to volunteer to protect the region, but they are being offered to go to different areas of Iraq and not stay in the region.
Migration is another important issue to tackle. There are 3000 students who attend the University of Mosul, have not been able to go to school last year, because of the fear and lack of security in the city. Mosul is one of the most dangerous areas when it comes to this situation. This circumstance in mind, the youth is worried about their future, no jobs, no school. As the first opportunity of moving out of the country arises, they are acting on it.
People fleeing from their homes and coming to the Christian areas is establishing another problem in the community. 85 percent of these refugees are Christians, who have been “kicked out of their areas”. There are two three families living together in one household as a result of this. People are even living in graveyards. Community councils in the area are not able to report on the exact on goings of the region, intimidated by the other council members.
The homes of the families who have fled are being taken by the “murderers” and when the refugees decide on going back, they are referred to as betrayers, infidels and statements such as “you do not belong here.”
in order to gather information, CASCA talked to the people directly and then went to the authorities to find a solution to this problem.
Although the region is very fertile, the economic state of the area is very horrifying. Due to security reasons and fear for their lives, they cannot sell their products in the bigger cities, such as Baghdad and Mosul. Ironically, they cannot sell it in the North, due to certain rules and regulations.
Kassab concluded his statement by identifying the key problems of the IDP (people who fled their homes). Firstly, lack of shelter and housing, secondly, lack of essential food items, lack of jobs, lack of humanitarian and financial support, lack of education and lack of hygiene.

Lastly, Emily Gish touched upon the discrimination against women, children and the disabled. She talked about how women are not allowed to work, even if it is up to them to support their families because their brothers and fathers have been murdered and killed due to the bombings. She talked about the children and their psychological state. Many children, especially in the Christian areas are suffering from psychological illnesses, due to the excessive amount of moving and fleeing. No stable homes are being provided for these children. Mercy Corps has started different programs for these children in the region to keep them preoccupied. Lectures, sports, are only coupe of the projects of Mercy Corp in the region. The organization is even teaching women about their rights. Different projects have been started to minimize and finally demolish the discrimination against the disabled. Activities that bring the both counter parts together to “demolish the stigma.”

All of the speakers highlighted the seriousness of the area and the need to act soon.

Remembering Halabja at the Speaker's Dining Hall

Astonishingly, it has been 20 years since the attacks on Halabja, carried by the former dictator, Saddam Hussein.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Leadership Council of Human Rights jointly organized a commemorational ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the atrocities carried out by the former Iraqi dictatorship at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s dining hall.

The hall was filled with the soft sound of sez (traditional Middle Eastern musical instrument) echoing in the background, pictures of mothers holding their dying kids, bruised babies dead by the river; father’s crying on the side of their dying kids’ beds and the list goes on.
Kathryn Cameron Porter, founder and president of Leadership Council of Human Rights, and Qubad Talibani, son of the Iraqi President and representative of the KRG in the United States, both talked about the importance of remembering such a horrific day. Talibani mentioned that March is a bitter sweet month for the Kurds. It was in the same month that the world experienced the fall of the Hussein regime, that regime that killed thousands of innocent people.

Some 5000 Kurds were massacred at a small town, called Halabja, at the northern region of Iraq. The former dictator attacked the town with gas bombs, planning on eliminating the Kurds from “his” own territory. The country was in war against Iran then and the idea of killing innocent people would have been considered justifiable; yet another “we were in war” excuse. Most of the survivors fled to Iran and found shelter there.

Mohammed Aziz, a 43-year-old survivor explained the horrific activities of that cold Thursday in March. He was with his family eating lunch when six planes started bombarding Halabja. Their first reaction was to run to the basement, as did all the other families. This lasted couple of minutes; however they remained sheltered at the basement for another few hours. Thinking that the planes had gone, everyone started fleeing from their basements and running towards the borders, that is when the deadliest attacks happened. The planes were back, but this time filled with poisonous chemicals. People were losing their eye sights, were having chest pains and were acting hysterically. This was the start of the range of “slow deaths.”

Halabja is only one of the numerous massacres of the twentieth century. The Armenians, Ukrainians, the Holocaust, Kurds, Rwandans and now the people of Darfur have all experienced the non-humane acts of their fellow neighbors. When will the cycle of genocide end? History repeats itself no matter what the circumstances are; Darfur is a great proof of the latter.

Recent Developments in the Politics of the Kurdish Question in Turkey

Problems facing the Kurds in Turkey have gradually accelerated. The US position in this perspective is getting complicated. Kurdish cooperation in Iraq is vastly important for the US as well as Turkey’s support in the region. However, the ongoing rivalry between Turks and Kurds is becoming a major issue for US foreign policy.
The Woodrow Wilson center (WWC) held a discussion today on ‘Recent Development in the Politics of the Kurdish Question in Turkey.” the presenters were Henri Barkey, the chair of the Department of International Relations and a professor at the Lehigh University, Gokhan Centinsaya, fellow at the WWC, Aliza Marcus, author of “Blood and Belief: the PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence” and lastly, Nicole Watts, assistant professor at the Department of Political Science at San Francisco State University.
Gokhan Centinsaya started off presenting the audience the history of the rivalry. He mentioned the Treaty of Lausanne in 1920 and the Baghdad Pact.
Aliza Marcus talked about the foundation of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). She mentioned that the organization is still the dominant political organization amongst Turkish Kurds. According to Aliza Marcus, the PKK has the support of the majority of the Kurds in Turkey, because the Turkish government was not and still is not treating them like true citizens.
Nicole Watts continued the discussion by talking about the importance of a moderate alternative for the PKK to work for the people without any terrorist acts. This moderate alternative should emphasize firstly, the linguistic and cultural rights of the people and secondly, distance itself from the PKK and act independently. DTP, Democratic Society Party, is an example of a moderate alternative, however party’s leadership has proven itself to be weak.
The presentation from the speakers came to its end by a concluding remark from Henri Barkey. He mentioned the recent clash backs in northern Iraq and defined it as a political move from Turkey’s side rather than military.