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October 2000, Week 3 |
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Weather
forcast of 50 cities in Iran
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US Congress Members Call for Change in Iran Policy
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of members of the House of Representatives and more than 20 senators Wednesday called for tougher U.S. policies toward Iran, saying Tehran continues to violate human rights and President Mohammad Khatami has failed to bring about any improvement. Some 225 House members and 28 senators said hundreds of executions, torture, attacks on dissidents abroad and the recent trial by an Islamic court of 13 Iranian Jews behind closed doors "lead us to conclude that any talk of political openness or moderation is ill advised." The lawmakers, who included Democrats and Republicans, urged the U.S. State Department to drop its policy of quiet rapprochement with Tehran and provide recognition and support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group trying to topple the ruling theocracy in Tehran. "With the statement we are releasing today, a majority of members of the House are making clear that our Iran policy must be changed to reflect the genuine desires of the Iranian people," declared Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York, one of the leaders of the Congressional group. "Now is not the time for American policy to go mushy." Many in Congress have grown disillusioned with Khatami's record in office and failure to press Iran's conservative religious leadership to reform. AGGRESSIVE NUCLEAR PROGRAM Lawmakers are also angry and frustrated at what they see as Iran's continued support for terrorism and its aggressive nuclear weapons program, which has surged ahead in recent years with technological help from Russia and other nations. "Not one of the United States' conditions for improving ties, namely Iran's ceasing its human rights abuses, support for terrorism, pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and opposition to the peace process has been met, yet the administration has decided to waive many of the economic penalties prescribed by law," said Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Lawmakers cited a crackdown on the press, suppression of student demonstrations, torture of political prisoners and a rise in the number of executions as evidence that Khatami's presidency had brought no positive changes. "Such savage punishments continue to be meted out under President Mohammad Khatami," the statement said. "It has also become clear that contrary to some accounts in the West, the parliamentary election in Iran was neither free nor fair, but designed to reinforce the ruling system." The growing pressure in Congress for Washington to take a harder line with Tehran follows a similar move in the British parliament where 335 members signed a statement in June calling for political and trade relations with Tehran to be made conditional on Iran's respect for human rights. Members of the U.S. Congress urged the State Department to immediately remove the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political wing of the Iraq-based Mujahideen Khalq armed group, from its list of "terrorist" organizations. "The State Department is completely closing its eyes to reality," said Soona Samsami, the council's representative in the United States. "This (congressional action) gives it some balance."
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Iranian Democracy Progresses but Executions High
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Iran is making progress toward democracy, but the reformist press has been suppressed, executions remain suspiciously high and deaths and disappearances of intellectuals and political dissidents remain unsolved, a U.N. expert said in a report Tuesday.
Maurice Copithorne, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights' special investigator on Iran, said in his report to the General Assembly that the period from January to mid-August has been "tumultuous" in Iran. "The most dramatic development was the accelerating attack on the press, which ... led to the suppression of the entire reformist press and the imprisonment of many journalists," he said. Iranian reformists backed by President Mohammad Khatami want increased social and political freedoms and a loosening of the strict Islamic rules that govern the day-to-day lives of Iranians. The hard-liners believe in strict adherence to the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Hard-liners have shut down 25 pro-reform publications and jailed dozens of reformist writers and political activists since April in an apparent backlash against their Feb. 18 defeat in legislative elections. In his report, Copithorne said the economic plight of the poor and marginalized worsened this year and Iranians took to the streets to protest against unemployment, inflation and inadequate municipal services. They also protested against treatment of students and detainees and rallied in support of freedom of the press, he said. Paramilitary vigilantes often had a role in suppressing these demonstrations, he said. The promised reform of the judiciary has not gotten off the ground, prisons are vastly overcrowded, and some 130 people were executed between January and the end of July, said Copithorne, who has been barred from visiting Iran since 1996. "Evidence of the use of torture by law enforcement agencies, usually in illegal detention centers, is becoming a matter of public record," he said, urging the government to uphold its own constitutional ban on torture. Copithorne's report said the status of women remained largely unchanged and the rights of ethnic and religious minorities remained largely neglected. Iran continues to make progress toward democracy, he said, but the Guardian Council, a hard-line body which oversees elections, "is an obstacle" to making the government more accountable to the people.
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National Iranian TV Pleads for Worldwide Media
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LOS ANGELES,PRNewswire/-- Zia Atabay, chief executive officer and founder of National Iranian Television (NITV), today appealed to worldwide media to assist him in reinstating the station's satellite programming after being knocked off the air in Europe and the Middle East by a mysterious Iranian-based rogue carrier. The station lost satellite transmission on Oct. 1. Los Angeles-based NITV independently operates a 24-hour a day satellite TV station that reports Iranian culture and world news. Not affiliated with any political or governmental organization, NITV reaches an estimated sixty million viewers worldwide, including several million in Iran. ``I cannot express my despair about being blocked from the airwaves for more than one week,'' said Atabay. ``I implore media worldwide to unite with us in asking the Iranian government how this happened. It must be stopped immediately. It is an affront to our rights to broadcast freely throughout Europe and the Middle East.'' The NITV signal is supported GlobeCast, a French-based satellite transmission company and Eutelsat, one of Europe's leading satellite operators. Both companies confirmed on Oct. 6 that the signal, which began experiencing interference on Oct. 1, was interrupted by a rogue carrier located outside of Tehran. Eutelsat has filed an official complaint with the Iranian government stating, ``By means of measurements, with the support of a dedicated system for interference detection, we found that this interference most probably comes from the territory of your Administration. Pursuant to S15.25 of the Radio Regulations, your administration is kindly asked to enquire about possible sources of the above described emission and to take the necessary measures in order to prevent such interference to occur again in the future.'' No word as of yet has been heard from the Iranian administration. ``We have received hundreds of thousands of calls from viewers, particularly in Iran, who want our station to resume broadcasting,'' said Atabay. ``Young Iranians are especially fond of our programming. It allows them a glimpse of the world from which they have been cut off. The viewers enjoy seeing how Iranians in America live and what their culture is like. ``NITV is about sharing the Iranian-American culture and goodwill between the Iranian communities here and abroad,'' added Atabay. ``We report world news from several sources, but we are not a political forum for any group or government. My family and I moved to this country to have freedom of speech. I appeal to media worldwide to assist me in overcoming this tyrannical power.''
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US Congress Members Call for Change in Iran Policy
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of members of the House of Representatives and more than 20 senators Wednesday called for tougher U.S. policies toward Iran, saying Tehran continues to violate human rights and President Mohammad Khatami has failed to bring about any improvement. Some 225 House members and 28 senators said hundreds of executions, torture, attacks on dissidents abroad and the recent trial by an Islamic court of 13 Iranian Jews behind closed doors "lead us to conclude that any talk of political openness or moderation is ill advised." The lawmakers, who included Democrats and Republicans, urged the U.S. State Department to drop its policy of quiet rapprochement with Tehran and provide recognition and support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group trying to topple the ruling theocracy in Tehran. "With the statement we are releasing today, a majority of members of the House are making clear that our Iran policy must be changed to reflect the genuine desires of the Iranian people," declared Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York, one of the leaders of the Congressional group. "Now is not the time for American policy to go mushy." Many in Congress have grown disillusioned with Khatami's record in office and failure to press Iran's conservative religious leadership to reform. AGGRESSIVE NUCLEAR PROGRAM Lawmakers are also angry and frustrated at what they see as Iran's continued support for terrorism and its aggressive nuclear weapons program, which has surged ahead in recent years with technological help from Russia and other nations. "Not one of the United States' conditions for improving ties, namely Iran's ceasing its human rights abuses, support for terrorism, pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and opposition to the peace process has been met, yet the administration has decided to waive many of the economic penalties prescribed by law," said Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Lawmakers cited a crackdown on the press, suppression of student demonstrations, torture of political prisoners and a rise in the number of executions as evidence that Khatami's presidency had brought no positive changes. "Such savage punishments continue to be meted out under President Mohammad Khatami," the statement said. "It has also become clear that contrary to some accounts in the West, the parliamentary election in Iran was neither free nor fair, but designed to reinforce the ruling system." The growing pressure in Congress for Washington to take a harder line with Tehran follows a similar move in the British parliament where 335 members signed a statement in June calling for political and trade relations with Tehran to be made conditional on Iran's respect for human rights. Members of the U.S. Congress urged the State Department to immediately remove the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political wing of the Iraq-based Mujahideen Khalq armed group, from its list of "terrorist" organizations. "The State Department is completely closing its eyes to reality," said Soona Samsami, the council's representative in the United States. "This (congressional action) gives it some balance."
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