THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC IS "A POLITICAL APARTHEID", STUDENTS SAY
TEHRAN 8 July (IPS) As Iranians are taking their breath and the world is watching carefully what will happen on Wednesday 9 July, a crucial date that the clerical authorities have mobilised all their forces for preventing any demonstrations or meetings, leaders of Iranian students, in an open letter to Mr. Kofi Annan, the General Secretary of the United Nations, have complained from the present regime in Iran, one that they described as a "political apartheid that ignores systematically the right of its citizens for human rights and deny them any freedom".
"We are complaining to you because the political apartheid has taken all hopes from the Iranian people, because it is denying us self rule and the right of choice, the right to be master of our own destiny, because it has lowered our expectations to the lowest limits possible and also because we are worried to see the experience of our neighbours be repeated here", the signatories, representing students associations from thirty Iranian universities said.
In the letter, the students not only openly call for a secular, free, democratic State in Iran, but also the removal of all kind of discriminations, being it political, social, religious, ethnic and cultural and denounce the privileges the clerical cast and their families enjoy against the rest of the population, regarded as a second class cast.
Observers said this is the first time that such a direct, clear cut plea against the Islamic Republic is addressed to the international community, represented by the UN's General Secretary.
With the government having ruled out against students’ demands for commemorating the fourth anniversary of the 9 July 1999 uprising by the students, an event that was crushed ruthlessly on orders from Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic and the approval of President Mohammad Khatami, the students have decided to organise a sit in at the doors of the office of the United Nations in Tehran.
"We are complaining to you because the regime, with its huge apparatus of repression, does not consider itself responsible towards the people, because it sees its survival in the continuation of crackdowns, not even listening to any advise", the students told Mr. Annan.
Noting that the Islamic Republic does not respect any clause of the universal declaration of human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, freedom for unions, groups, parties, associations, freedom to organise meetings and assemblies, freedom to chose one’s own religion, free elections, freedom for women, freedom to chose one’s dress and the way to wear it, freedom to immunity in one’s individual life, freedom to a just justice etc., the signatories add that "not only all the things that are related to the human rights are violated by the Iranian regime but also it behave in such a way as it has no obligations".
"The Iranian clerical regime has effectively divided the Iranian people in two categories of "ours" (Khodi) and "others" (Qeyr Khodi), separating the same way thinkers from the otherwise thinkers, the revolutionaries from the non-revolutionaries and the first class citizens from the second class that has no possibility to power, wealth, dignity and information but by obedience to the present authority", the signatories said, adding that the Iranian students are "well aware that reaching progress, development, prosperity, freedom and democracy is not possible but by respecting human rights and peacefull struggle".
Although the authorities have reiterated forcefully that they would not tolerate any commemoration of the 9 July massacre, the students have stressed on their determination to stage meetings and protest movements, in spite of repeated calls from some reformist lawmakers to refrain from provoking the government.
"This is a crucial test for both the regime and the clerical rulers who were badly denounced and criticised during the two weeks of continuous protests by the students and the people", one political analyst said, adding that if the students comes out from their campuses, they would "certainly" face the conservatives-led and controlled thugs "ordered to crush them mercilessly as enemies of God".
The authorities confirmed the arrest of at least 4.000 demonstrators, whom they described as "thugs, hooligans and trouble-makers hired by foreign powers" but independent sources say not only the number is much higher, probably the double of that announced by the public prosecutor, but also a dozen have been killed in clashes with the pressure groups such as the Islamist vigilantes of Ansar Hezbollah and the basij volunteers who have also abducted a hundred of demonstrators, mostly students, taken to "private prisons" controlled by the conservatives. ENDS STUDENTS UNRESTS 8703
http://www.iran-press-service.com/