The Fortieth Day

The Grand Mosalla mosque, Tehran, Thursday.
At his request, Mir Hossein Mousavi’s supporters will gather to commemorate the 40th day following the death of Neda Agha-Soltan (she was murdered by the paramilitaries during a demonstration last month), as well as the deaths of all the others who have paid with their lives the struggle to annul last June’s rigged presidential election.
Mousavi has asked for official permission to organize the event, stating that no speeches would be given. Only readings of the Koran would be authorized.
As such, what options does the regime retain to deal with his request ?
the country's regime has no choice but to return to the principles of the constitution and if it does not, then people will force it to return. The more people you arrest, the more the movement will spread. The killings and arrests are a catastrophe, people will not forgive those behind such crimes, Moussavi said.
Other similar events are planned, with the upcoming birthday of the 12th Imam, Imam Mahdi approaching, and the traditional festivities then organized providing the perfect opportunity:
a vast green (-themed) social movement has taken shape in the country, and it has to make best use of these occasions and unveil its initiatives. We can organize programs each day to follow up on the objectives, he wrote on his website.
He seems determined, at last, to lead, to lead his followers to victory:
our success in the future depends on our commitment to our slogans for freedom of expression and our readiness to pay costs for our commitment.
As part of their campaign to further undermine Ahmadinejad and his government, which have received the full backing of the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, 69 opposition leaders, including Mousavi and former president Mohammad Khatami, wrote a letter directly to the marja taqid («source of emulation»), the nine most important clerics in Qom, the center of Shiite learning, deliberately ignoring the Supreme Leader, and appealed instead to the most influential clerics of the land (only one of which congratulated Ahmadinejad after his tainted victory in last month’s election), in order to obtain the release of those detained since the June election:
we call on you, the marja' taqid ... to remind the relevant authorities of the damaging consequences of employing unlawful methods and warn them about the spread of tyranny in the Islamic republic system.
Reports of abuse in Iranian jails have been rife.
The signatories, hence, particularly excoriated those responsible for the handling of detainees: they have resorted to illegal, immoral and un-Islamic methods to obtain confessions.. What legal, Islamic or human rights code can justify the repeated torture of those who live under the banner of Islam?
Mahdi Karroubi, a candidate himself in last month’s presidential election, also wrote his own letter to the head of Iranian Intelligence, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, a scathing attack on the methods used by the regime to counter the unrest:
what is happening to the people of Iran, especially the women, is deplorable. Everyone has seen how the women have (been) beaten with batons and thrown to the ground — this is worse than what the Zionist criminals are doing to the oppressed Palestinian people.
He actually accused the regime’s paramilitary forces of behaving in an even more brutal fashion than the Israelis!! A more vicious insult is inconceivable…
In fact, the regime is currently under pressure, and on the defensive, following the deaths of a number of detainees in Tehran jails these last few days.
Moshen Ruholamini, in his 20s, the son of a former adviser to president Ahmadinejad, died July 11th, two days after his arrest. The apparent cause was meningitis.
His father, Abdolhussein Rouholamini, was far from convinced:
when I saw his body I noticed that they had crushed his mouth. My son was an honest person. He wouldn't lie. I'm sure that he's given correct answers to anything they'd asked him. They probably couldn't stand his honesty and beat him until he died under torture.
Another protestor, Ramin Ghahremani, 30, who was arrested July 17th, died two days after having been released.
Amir Javadi-Langaroodi, 24, wounded by gunshot during a demonstration, died in Evin prison.
Amir Javadi-Far, a student, met a similar tragic fate.
These developments have dismayed even Ahmadinejad supporters, for they objectively serve the political interests of the opposition, and discredit the regime, at home and abroad.
It is widely assumed that those responsible are the Revolutionary Guards and the Basijis, the regime’s ideological watchdogs.
One member of parliament, the Majlis, Hamid Reza Katouzian, who has looked into the issue, said: the police and the Intelligence Ministry have said that they're not at the center of this and are not aware of who is responsible. Those who've created such a security environment and have been going forward with military force need to be held responsible.
The Supreme Leader himself has demanded that Iranian laws be respected.
As a result, the head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, vowed to release all those not suspected of serious crimes, while the fate of the others would be determined within one week.
The brutality of the means employed by the paramilitaries both in the streets and within Tehran’s prison cells may very well be undermining the conservative faction and shattering its unity.
And yet, the regime has not changed strategies. Perhaps it has no other.
On Sunday, a service held in honor of Moshen Rouholamini, was broken up by the paramilitaries. One witness told the The Washington Post:
we sat in the car and saw people being beaten by a crowd of over 200 members of the security forces. A plainclothes man and a policeman smashed the windows of another car and took the number plate. It was very scary.
The day before, Saturday, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other groups, organized demonstrations in more than 80 cities around the world, denouncing the post-election crackdown, and demanding the release of all political prisoners.

Sherin Ebadi, the Iranian Noble Peace prize winner, spoke in Amsterdam, and advocated new elections supervised by the United Nations.
Attacked by the opposition, and human rights activists inside and outside of Iran, Ahmadinejad was also taken to task by his conservative supporters for having selected as first vice president Esfandiar Rahim Mashai (whose daughter married his son).
Mr. Mashai was considered too incompetent to hold the position, for, last year, he declared, boldly if recklessly, that Iranians were friends with peoples of all nations, including…Israel!
The Supreme Leader himself advised the president to reconsider, but he refused to do so…for an entire week.
Finally, he relented (the nominee withdrew his name from consideration), but then appointed him as his chief of staff.
The hardliners were not amused!
In addition, he fired his Intelligence chief, Gholam-Hossein Mosheni-Ejei, who had protested his choice for first vice president, while the Culture minister, who had done likewise, resigned … Both are close allies of the Supreme Leader.
A week before his inauguration on August 5th, Ahmadinejad clearly seeks to reassert himself, and preserve what little authority he still possesses.
An Iranian analyst, Amir Mohebbian told The Washington Post:
Ahmadinejad is now trying to counter this (the withdrawal of his vice presidential nominee) and wants to show himself as a strong leader. However, such actions will deal a heavy blow to his position among his supporters.
Are the Iranians about to experience a decisive, historical moment?
The fortieth day, the 12th Imams’s birthday, the August 5th inauguration…
These events offer Mousavi the unique (and perhaps his last) opportunity to lead the Iranians toward that noble goal of democracy and justice.
Will he be up to it?
So far, his performance has been uneven…
Iranians yearn for leadership:
the problem is, things are disorganized, one student told The New York Times on Sunday. If there was a leader with a party and they needed the support of the people, things would be different. We don’t want a revolution. We already had one of those and it didn’t work.
In all likelihood, many will follow if he dares to lead.
May he have the necessary fortitude and wisdom to do so…
(the photograph, taken in Paris July 25th, is by Jacques Brinon/AP)
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

An Awakened Nation

On Tuesday, intrepid supporters of Iran’s opposition movement once again demonstrated in the streets of Tehran, this time to commemorate a 1952 nationalist revolt.
Then, the security forces had refused to fire on the crowd.
This time, they adopted their usual tactics, and wielding truncheons, and using tear gas, charged the demonstrators in order to disperse them.
Dozens were arrested and injured.
The thousands who demonstrated did so in many separate groups.
In order to avoid early detection by the Basijis, most were not clad in green this time, the color of the protest movement, but joined the evening throng on the city’s sidewalks, before emerging and shouting opposition slogans such as Death to the Dictator, only to disappear into the crowds once again…
Though demonstrating has become a most dangerous form of protest, thousands were still sufficiently determined to do so, fully aware of what might befall them: Yes, I’m risking my life, one told TIME.
Other, less hazardous forms of protests have emerged, revealing the durability of the movement, and the ingenuity of its leaders.
Opposition supporters were encouraged to turn off all their lights and appliances at 8:55 pm, only to turn them all on again five minutes later, hoping to create a power outage throughout Tehran…The scheme was far from entirely successful…
Once again, however, the authorities shut down all mobile and internet networks in the capital, to thwart opposition efforts to mobilize and organize.
It is more than likely that these demonstrations will continue, as nationalist and religious events of the past provide ample opportunities for commemorations, and thus demonstrations.
Furthermore, the forty-day commemoration of Nada Agha-Soltan’s death next week is certain to mobilize thousands of protestors.
Mir Hossein Mousavi said Monday that the election file will remain open and the legitimacy of the (Ahmadinejad) government will be questioned until the last jailed protestor is released.
The brother of his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, is still in custody.
But it will also be questioned until the legitimacy of the election itself is addressed.
Thus, the protests will continue: it is a national necessity to keep the election issue alive, and nobody should forget how this government was formed, Mousavi said yesterday .
He will not stray from the path of legality to exert pressure on the ruling party, and ensure that the votes and the rights of the Iranian people are recognized: we have to use only legal means to bring the damages caused by current para-coup d'etat to a minimum, he said.
Moussavi clearly states here that he believes the election fraud was in fact a coup organized by the ruling faction, dominated by the security apparatus.
To further advance his cause, Mousavi plans to create a political party consisting both of opposition figures and conservatives, so as to lay the groundwork for a large-scale social movement, he said. Power is always inclined to become absolute and only people's movements can put a hold on this inclination. The only way out of the current conditions is to pay attention to people's wills. That, along with the inclination for civil protests, can set the stage for political prosperity in the future.
The aim of the party is to reflect and embody the will of the Iranian people, a clear condemnation of the current ruling faction, and its handling of the last presidential election, for it brazenly ignored the will of the voters, so as to protect its interests and privileges. This faction is led by Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader (one newspaper close to Rafsanjani, Aftab News has now eliminated the term Supreme whenever it refers to him) Ali Khamenei, backed by the powerful, influential and wealthy security apparatus.
In essence, Mousavi has deliberately and publicly ignored the Supreme Leader’s injunctions. On Monday, the latter declared, anybody who drives the society toward insecurity and disorder is a hated person in the view of the Iranian nation, whoever he is. Addressing the elite directly, he added: the elite are undergoing a test, which is a big one. If we fail in this test, we will not only fall behind for one year, it will also lead to downfall. In order not to have that fate, we should use the yardstick of reason, which invites mankind to worship God.
He was demanding the allegiance of the country’s elite, and that it wholeheartedly and unequivocally endorse the nation’s newly elected president.
Mousavi, no less unequivocally, refused.
The regime’s stalwart supporters have attempted to depict the protest movement as one created and manipulated by the West, in order to overthrow the regime.
Mousavi dismissed these accusations. They are not only silly, but also revealing.
The conservative faction clinging to power has indeed lost touch with reality, the realities of a new Iran: you are facing something new: an awakened nation, Mousavi told the ruling clique on Monday, a nation that has been born again and is here to defend its achievements.
Referring to the demonstrators, he added, who believes that they would conspire with foreigners and sell the interests of their own country? Has our country become so mean and degraded that you attribute the huge protest movement of the nation to foreigners? Isn't this an insult to our nation?
In order to resolve the issue of legitimacy, former president Mohammad Khatami made an interesting if audacious suggestion: why not organize a referendum on this question? Surely that will resolve the matter of faith in the government, were Mr. Ahmadinejad to win. If the majority of people accept the situation, we also will accept it, Mr. Khatami declared.
Predictably, the suggestion was rejected!
The hardliners have their own proposal to resolve this issue. One solution to restore the lost confidence is to lay bare the dangerous scenarios designed by anti-regime think tanks led by reformist groups. It is necessary to broadcast the confessions of the detainees for the people so that they would understand who had designed the 'win by any means' strategy, General Yadollah Javani, a leader of the Revolutionary Guards, said.
It is not clear who, apart from the hardliners and their supporters, would believe a word of these confessions, extorted by the usual and vile means employed by the scurrilous servants of oppressive regimes everywhere, abuse and torture.
The security apparatus seems to have gained the upper hand, and is visibly guiding and leading the regime’s response to the crisis.
Its leaders are even promoting their own candidates for prominent cabinet positions.
Our organization intends to become the government's think tank. We want to introduce our elite into the government to serve the country. No obstacle is on our way, even the current climate of mistrust, said Lotfali Bakh-tiari, a leader of a scholars association linked to the Basij militia.
They are quite ready to govern the nation without any popular support whatsoever. Their legitimacy lies elsewhere: they hold the guns!
According to Rasool Nafisi, of the Rand Corporation, a coup did indeed take place election day last month: it is not a theocracy anymore. It is a regular military security government with a facade of a Shiite clerical system.
Yet, the opposition is not devoid of supporters of its own, including within the clerical establishment itself.
Two prominent clerics have openly sided with the protest movement.
Yesterday, Ayatollah Asadollah Bayat Zanjani said: the supreme leader's confirmation of a president born out of a rigged election could not grant him any legitimacy. Both the supreme leader's confirmation and the president's swearing-in are acceptable if and only if the president is elected in a clean vote.
Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Dastgeib Shirazi, for his part, declared: using firearms and crude weapons against people and incarceration of the revolutionaries would never help safeguard Islam and the establishment.
The struggle continues, as the brave people of Iran refuse to be cowed into submission.
The repression should intensify, for the faction in power has a lot at stake, and much to lose.
Yet, the Iranians have been waging this battle for a hundred years. Every day brings them one day closer to claiming what is rightfully theirs: a free and democratic Iran.

(the photograph, taken June 18th, is by AP Photo/Graham News)
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Remembering Natalia Estemirova...

Here below are portraits of Natalia Estemirova written by those fortunate enough to have known and worked with her…
There is also a tribute written by Natalia herself, one year after the murder of another fearless human rights activist, Anna Politkovskaya…
May Natalia’s daughter, Lana, 16, find solace in the admiration and respect that her mother inspired in all those who knew her well…
　
July 18, 2009
The Saturday Profile
A Fearless Activist in a Land of Thugs
By C. J. CHIVERS
NATALYA ESTEMIROVA is gone now. Her executioners forced her into a car in front of her home in Chechnya and sped away with her on Wednesday morning. She managed to shout that she was being kidnapped, her last known words documenting the beginning of the crimes against her, just as she had documented crimes against uncountable others.
Her killers worked quickly, as if on orders. They drove to a remote place, shot her and left her near the road, killing her in exactly the manner her friends had long feared would be her fate. Her purse was nearby. Her killers did not want it. This crime was about something else (more)…NYT
　
Another Voice Silenced in Russia
By Tanya LokshinaFriday, July 17, 2009
MOSCOW -- They found the body of my friend Natalya Estemirova on Wednesday. She had been abducted by unidentified men that morning in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, where she lived and worked as a human rights defender. She was seen being bundled into a sedan and was heard calling out, "I'm being kidnapped!" Calls to her cellphone went unanswered all day; she missed several important meetings, including one at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and she failed to pick up her daughter as scheduled at 2:30 p.m.(more)…WP
　
The Courage of Anna Politkovskaya
By Natalya Estemirova
October 4, 2007
Editor's Note: On the first anniversary of the murder of crusading Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Natalya Estemirova, of the Russian human rights group Memorial, tells a harrowing story about Politkovskaya's confrontation in Chechnya with the notorious Sergey Lapin, a police official responsible for the imprisonment, torture and murder of Chechen civilians. She received the first annual award commemorating Politkovskya's work from the international human rights group RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in War) in London October 5.
Natalya Estemirova, an activist with the international human rights group Memorial, was awarded the first annual Anna Politkovskaya Award by the international human rights group RAW in WAR in London October 5. (more)…The Nation

(the photograph taken at Natalia Estemirova's funeral is by Keystone)

"Azadi, Azadi"

Yesterday, the traditional Friday prayer in Tehran was led by Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran, who supported Mir Hussein Mousavi during the recent election campaign, and who was present for the occasion.
Tens of thousands of supporters attended, the first mass demonstration against the regime in several weeks…
It is surprising that Rafsanjani was able to lead the event! For, during the weekly prayer three weeks ago, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei officially endorsed the results of the disputed election, thus declaring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner. The Supreme Leader’s word being law, the matter should have ended there…
That Rafsanjani should be present today is an indication of the clout he still wields in Iran.
Contrary to custom however, the event was not carried live on Iranian television.
Throughout the sermon, chants of Azadi, Azadi (freedom in Persian) were heard!
Some in the large crowd urged Rasfanjani to unequivocally support the opposition’s cause: if you maintain silence, you commit treason, they chanted…
He directly addressed what he called the crisis currently confronting Iran:
Doubt came down on our nation like the plague. Of course, there are two currents. One doesn’t have any doubt and is moving ahead with their job. And there are a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt.
Rafsanjani clearly indicated that the status quo was untenable, and that the authorities would have to make concessions to resolve the crisis.
Yet, though he urged all Iranians to respect the law, he also insisted on the need for the current conflict to be debated freely and openly, and for those arrested to be released:
We need to have an open society in which people can say what they want to say... We should not imprison people. Let them rejoin their families. We need sympathy for the people who are in mourning or have been injured.
During the sermon, cries of Death to the Dictator (Ahmadinejad) were answered by Death to the Opponents (of Supreme Leader Khamenei) on the part of Ahmadinejad supporters, the Death to America, Death to Israel of the hardliners countered by the Death to Russia, Death to China of Mousavi supporters (both of these nations being seen as pro-Ahmadinejad).
By explicitly attacking the regime’s handling of the election and the post-election turmoil, and thus, obliquely, the Supreme Leader himself, Rasfanjani clearly buttressed Mousavi’s position:
We could have taken our best step in the history of the Islamic Revolution had the election not faced problems. Today, we are living in bitter conditions because of what happened after the announcement of the election result. All of us have suffered. We need unity more than any time else.
Rasfanjani astutely avoided potential accusations of being a divisive influence by preaching the need for unity…
Predictably, violence erupted after the meeting. Security forces, including Basijis wearing helmets and riding motorcycles, confronted the demonstrators, wielding batons and firing tear gas.
Many were beaten and molested, including Mahdi Karroubi, a reformist candidate in last month’s presidential election. Scores were arrested.
Shadi Sadr, a lawyer and human rights activist, was one of them. She was on her way to Tehran University, accompanied by some friends, to attend the Friday prayer meeting.
Accosted by policeman in civilian clothes, a friend of Shadi Sadr present at the scene, described the arrest:
“Where are you taking her?!!” That’s also when Shadi tried to struggle and started to cry for help, pounding the car door. My friend then tried to open the door, and we were pulling Shadi out but an official who was inside the car was grabbing onto her. He was pulling onto her in such a way that her manteau (overcoat) was coming off but one of my friends still held onto Shadi’s hand and her blouse and pants that were once intact started to come off when caught in the car. At that time she escaped. The officials in civilian clothing and also me and my friend were running after her. It was then one of the officials from the opposite side attacked her and was pulling onto her scarf. Shadi was resisting his force when the scarf came undone. Shadi again escaped. This time two other people appeared unexpectedly, one of them carrying a spiral baton. They took Shadi and beat her violently while she continued to resist them. We weren’t allowed to go towards her. By force they had taken her and put her in the car. The official manhandled Shadi and it was apparent that for them, her hejab wasn’t even important!! When they brought her to the car, they didn’t even give her the scarf back. The car turned around and sped away.
Her home, as well as her office, were also searched shortly after her arrest.
Shadi Sadr is a prominent defense lawyer who has specialized in promoting women’s rights, and has defended those risking capital punishment.
She has participated in various campaigns defending women’s rights in Iran (see here) and in particular, the Stop Stoning Forever campaign.
In 2007, she was also arrested along with 33 other women. They were peacefully protesting the trial of five women accused of various crimes against the state for having participated in a demonstration the year before. She was held for two weeks, then later charged with illegal assembly, colluding against national security, disruption of public order and refusal to obey the police.
She is being held in the notorious Evin Prison.
She had been the defense lawyer of Shiva Nazar Ahari, a human rights activist, arrested two days after the presidential election last month.
She is also being held at Evin
Amnesty International immediately demanded her release:
'This was an illegal, arbitrary and violent arrest in which no attempt was made by the authorities to show identification or provide any explanation for their action.
'This is the latest of a continuing series of high-profile arrests of Iranians - students, journalists, intellectuals, political and civil society activists - in the wake of protests over the disputed outcome of the presidential election, declared Middle East and North Africa Director Malcolm Smart.
Though the faction led by Supreme Leader Khamenei did its utmost to crush all resistance to the fraudulent Ahmadinejad election victory, the power struggle among the elite clearly has not been resolved.
Now that those divisions have once again been brought to the forefront by Rafsanjani’s clear endorsement of the Mousavi party’s cause, it is now the Supreme Leader’s responsibility to find an acceptable way out, and to restore the people’s faith in the regime if the Iranian Islamic Republic is to survive as such, that is to say, both as Islamic, and as a republic.
Yet, judging by the fierce reaction of the regime’s security forces to yesterday’s mass demonstration, he may not yet be ready to forsake Ahmadinejad, and negotiate a settlement acceptable to both factions…
(the photograph is by the Mehr News Agency)　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Who will answer for this?

Natalia Estemirova’s body was found Wednesday morning in the neighboring province of Ingushetia, her hands tied and with gunshot wounds to the chest and head.
She had been kidnapped earlier that day in Grozny, the capital of the restive province of Chechnya, where she lived and worked.
She disappeared at 8:30 a.m., in front of her home, as several men were seen shoving her into a white Lada.
A researcher at the Russian human rights organization Memorial, she investigated abuses in Chechnya. She had been doing research on a series of house burnings, believed to have been committed by members of the local security apparatus, and part of a campaign to punish the relatives of Islamic militants, and to stamp out the rebel movement. On the day that she was murdered, a report she helped compile was issued. It claimed that sufficient evidence existed to prosecute senior Russian officials, including former president, and current prime minister, Putin.
Described by her friend, Tom Parfitt, of the Guardian, as one of the bravest people in Russia, she had been doggedly investigating human rights abuses since 1999, the beginning of the second war in Chechnya, and provided essential information to organizations such as Human Rights Watch.
She worked in a little office in central Grozny, near (of all places) Putin Avenue.
There, she received, daily, scores of mothers, sisters and relatives of those who have been tortured, murdered, or had simply disappeared in the campaign waged by the authorities to crush the Islamic rebel movement.
The BBC journalist, Lucy Ash, who recently met with Natalia Estemirova in Grozny, described her working environment thus:
Much of Natalia's work concerned unexplained disappearances. According to officials there are currently 5,000 people missing in Chechnya - but the real number could be much higher.
On the couple of occasions that I visited Natalia's Memorial office, it was filled with people patiently waiting their turn, all clutching tattered documents - all with the same desperate look in their eyes.
"I'll be lucky if I get out of here before 10 o'clock," said Natalia, her face grey with exhaustion.
The crimes, never elucidated, are widely believed to have been the grizzly work of the paramilitaries controlled by the local government, and its president, Ramzan Kadyrov, a 32-year-old former rebel who is now Moscow’s protégé, the son of the previous president, assassinated in 2004.
Memorial’s chairman Oleg Orlov had no doubt as to who was responsible for this latest killing: I know, I am sure of it, who is guilty for the murder of Natalia ... His name is Ramzan Kadyrov. Ramzan already threatened Natalia, insulted her, considered her a personal enemy.
Kadyrov and his paramilitaries, known as kadyrovtsy, have succeeded in restoring a semblance of order in Chechnya, but only by resorting to the most brutal of means.
According to Parfitt, he brooks no dissent in his republic, and the kadyrovtsy have repeatedly been accused of torture, kidnappings and extra-judicial killings.
Those who have had the boldness to investigate these crimes have paid a dire price.
The journalist Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated in 2006 in her Moscow apartment building, (on Putin’s birthday! Was it his birthday present?) after she had exposed the involvement of Kadyrov in a series of heinous crimes, and in particular, those committed by Sergei Lapin, a Chechnyan policeman…
Stanislas Markelov, a human rights lawyer, was gunned down January 15th, along with an aide, Anastasia Baburova, a 25-year-old journalist. Markelov was working on a case involving the killing of a young Chechnyan woman by a Russian officer, Yuri Budanov.
In addition, Kadyrov’s main political opponent, Sulim Yamadayev, a former commander in the Russian Army, was assassinated last March in Dubai.
Umar Israilov, a former presidential bodyguard, who had publicly accused Kadyrov of having tortured him, was murdered in Vienna last January…
With no opponents or rivals, Kadyrov, to quote Parfitt, has transformed the republic into a personal fiefdom with full support from Moscow and his patrons, MM. Putin and Medvedev.
In all likelihood, therefore, Mr. Kadyrov is responsible for the murder of Natalia Estemirova, as well as as the assassinations of those who seek to establish some accountability for the terrible crimes committed in Chechnya over the years.
But he is not the sole responsible party. For, he serves at the pleasure of MM Putin and Medvedev.
The Gestapo tactics he has used to restore order have been fully endorsed by both leaders.
Memorial’s chairman added: the highest officials of Russia in recent years and today — including Putin and Medvedev — are to blame for the creation in Chechnya of a climate of permissiveness, impunity and the carrying out of massive, grave crimes by representatives of the state.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the human rights organization the Moscow Helsinki Group added: I blame both of them for the killing — for involvement in the killing.
The Secretary General of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, came to the same conclusion: Natalia Estemirova's murder is a consequence of the impunity that has been allowed to persist by the Russian and Chechen authorities.
Naturally, the accused deny any involvement. Mr. Kadyrov, who has called the assassination a monstrous crime, vowed to supervise the murder investigation himself.
President Medvedev actually praised the victim: Estemirova was doing a very useful thing — she was telling the truth, she was making open, at times perhaps harsh, assessments of some of the processes that are under way in the country. That is why human rights activists are valuable, even if those in authority find them inconvenient and unpleasant.
This is a positive reaction indeed, when compared to former President Putin’s after the Anna Politkovskaya murder, the significance and importance of which he had publicly belittled.
And yet, none of the assassinations mentioned above have been solved…No one, no one at all, has paid for having murdered human rights activists and journalists.
It is difficult, hence, to take Mr. Medvedev’s words seriously.
His previous inaction and lack of interest in these cases are much more eloquent.
If telling the truth is important, if exposing the unconscionable processes that are under way in the country, is useful, than we are entitled to expect that Mr. Medvedev will at long last break with the Putin era, and his scorched earth policies, and that justice and the rule of law will finally prevail on Russian soil.
It is Mr. Medvedev’s responsibility to ensure that those who murdered Natalia Estemirova, Anna Politkovskaya and all the others, are brought to justice and pay for what they have done, particularly in Chechnya…
Natalia Estemirova, Anna Politkovskaya did not deserve to die the way that they did, and if the word justice has a Russian equivalent, then they will not have died for nothing…

(the photograph is by Musa Sadulayev/AP)

Democracy and the Supreme Leader

An editorial in yesterday’s Kayhan, an influential pro-government newspaper, accused Mir Hossein Mousavi of being a foreign agent.
The writer, Hossein Shariatmadari, an adviser to the Supreme Leader, Ali Khomeini ,who appointed him as editor of the newspaper, further accused him of leading a corrupt movement that has been implementing a foreign mission in order to encourage unlawful activities, kill innocent people, create a rebellion, plunder public property and weaken the power of the Islamic system…His aim is to escape from definite punishment for the murder of innocent individuals, inciting riots and rebellions, hiring some thugs and ruffians to attack the lives, property and honor of the people, clear collaboration with foreigners, performing the role of the fifth column inside the country, and scores of other undeniable crimes.
Finally, he recommended that Mousavi and his most prominent supporter, former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, be tried in an open court in front of the eyes of the oppressed people who demand that the blood of their loved ones should be avenged.
The regime seems to be preparing the nation for his arrest and prosecution (the indictment is a long one and includes treason), for he has steadfastly refused to accept Ahmadinejad’s victory in last month’s presidential election.
On his website, he wrote the following:
a majority of the people, including me, do not accept (the government's) political legitimacy. It is our historical responsibility to continue our protests and not to abandon our efforts to preserve the nation's rights. A ruling system that relied on people's trust for 30 years cannot replace this with security forces overnight.
Mousavi is demanding that basic rights, such as freedom of the press and the right to demonstrate be preserved. He is also calling for the release of all those detained since last month’s election.
As such, he intends to create a political party in order to promote these ideals and defend the right of all Iranians…
Yet, since the founding of the regime, did they ever possess the democratic rights he is now so keen to restore and protect?
Mousavi had written earlier that it’s not yet too late. It is our historical responsibility to continue our protests to defend the rights of the people . . . and prevent the blood spilt by hundreds of thousands of martyrs from leading to a police state.
In essence, he has opted to continue recognizing the regime, but oppose its leaders politically, by becoming the leader of a loyal opposition.
Is that concept possible within the context of an Islamic republic?
Will Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader allow Mousavi and his supporters to exist politically, if they remain defiantly in the opposition?
In other words, in today’s Iran, is a political reform movement, and an opposition one, possible?
Mousavi’s strategy demonstrates his belief that reform and clerical rule, democracy and the paramount authority of the Supreme Leader are compatible.
Yet, if that is so, why did the regime rig the election?
If the existence of an opposition loyal to the regime of the Islamic Republic was tolerated and legal, then why was it not allowed to win an election?
It seems clear that the most conservative wing of the regime does not believe in democracy (an invention manufactured in the West designed to morally and politically corrupt Islamic societies) and simply will not countenance any of its most essential attributes, such as free and fair elections.
The fundamentalists around the Supreme Leader cling to the notion that their authority and legitimacy, are divine in origin, and thus cannot possibly be called into question, and certainly not by an election.
The regime’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, believed that establishing an Islamic government was God’s will, until the day the 12th Imam would return to Earth in order to establish his reign of justice. According to this doctrine, velayat-e faqih, or, rule of the Islamic jurist, the clerics would govern under the guidance of the Supreme Leader.
That is why, in this system, the Supreme Leader’s word is law. Even moderate clerics wholeheartedly believe this:
following the Supreme Leader's commands is a religious obligation, declared Ayatollah Hashemzadeh Harisi, who is close to the reformers. The Supreme Leader having endorsed the election results, that should have been the end of the matter!
Mousavi’s election and a reformist agenda which would have entailed improving relations with the West, and Obama’s America, in particular, were perceived as an existential threat to the regime itself by the Supreme Leader and his most important supporters, the security apparatus.
To guarantee its continued existence, a coup was engineered, and Ahmadinejad’s victory assured.
As Imam Ali, the first successor to the Prophet Mohammad, reportedly said, a tyrant is better than trouble, and Mousavi could have brought plenty, for a more progressive and democratic government would have threatened the supremacy of the fundamentalists.
It was also in the interests of the ideological guardians of the revolution, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and the Basij militia to back the Supreme Leader.
If they have staunchly supported Ahmadinejad, and brutally cleared the streets of Tehran of all demonstrators, it is because they have prospered under his administration.
Thanks to the president, they have become a major economic force in the country. They control over 100 companies, particularly in the energy, real estate and construction sectors.
According to a Rand report, the IRGC’s growing economic might has increased its sense of political privilege and entitlement.
They are also highly influential politically: 18 out of 21 cabinet ministers are former members, as is Ahmadinejad himself.
They clearly had a vested interest in ensuring that he won, and that the status quo was maintained.
As such, to think that Ahmadinejad, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and their key supporters, the security forces will allow an opposition to develop and thrive may simply be fanciful.
On the contrary, many Mousavi supporters and moderates of all shades have been arrested, some 2000, according to the International Federation for Human Rights, based in Paris, and hundreds more are unaccounted for.
Through ill treatment, and various forms of abuse and torture, the security apparatus has obtained confessions, supporting the regime’s insistence that the demonstrators and Mousavi supporters are part of a plot hatched abroad to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
Trials and convictions are most likely in the offing.
If that is the case, can the elimination of all political opposition be far behind?
They hope with this scenario (the foreign-based plot) they can expunge them completely from the political process. They don’t want them to come back as part of a political party, Hadi Ghaemi, of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, told the New York Times..
Hence, Mr. Mousavi’s strategy may be doomed to fail.
It seems unlikely the regime will allow him to pursue his political activities if he does not relent, and cease denouncing the election results.
He is facing quite a dilemma: resist and face prosecution, jail and maybe death, or concede and face irrelevance, political oblivion and the scorn of all those who believed in him, and took to the streets of Tehran and elsewhere…
Preservation of an Islamic Republic is more essential than any religious duty, once observed the Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini.
Yet, in what guise?
The advice seems to suggest that the end-preserving the regime-justifies the means, repression.
But does the Islamic Republic exist?
It remains Islamic in inspiration, and is led by a Supreme Leader who embodies God’s will on Earth.
But what of the Republic?
It was slain on June 12th.
Interestingly, however, influential clerics within the establishment have recognized this fact, and do not approve!
The Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum ,founded, no less, by Ayatollah Khomeini himself, condemned the election results yesterday.
Remarkably, the group also attacked the Guardian Council, a key institution, for having certified the results, and implicitly, the Supreme Leader himself for having done the same:
the voice of people seeking justice was marred by violence which unfortunately left several dead and wounded and hundreds arrested, they said. How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardians Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of these infringements is a legitimate one?
In another daring broadside, the Association compared those killed while demonstrating in the streets last month (officially 20) to those who died during the Revolution in 1979, and the brutal Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, and who are considered martyrs by the regime. It demanded that the dignity that was earned with the blood of tens of thousands of martyrs be respected.
Are not Ahmadinejad and his patron being accused of having sullied, if not betrayed the Islamic Republic?
A key group of clerics, the pillars of the regime, have significantly weakened and undermined the Supreme Leader’s authority by denouncing Ahmadenijad’s bogus election, thus conforting Mousavi’s position.
Will it embolden other clerics to follow suit?
The foundations of the Islamic Republic of Iran are shaking.
May Mousavi and his brave supporters make the most of it…

(the photograph is one of a seminary in Qom)
　
　
　
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Justice for Gaza

Last Wednesday, the Israeli Navy intercepted a Greek ship, the Spirit of Humanity, operated by the American aid group, the Free Gaza Movement, that set off from Cyprus and was bound for Gaza. Its cargo, immediately confiscated by the Israeli authorities, consisted of humanitarian aid, including three tons of medicine, desperately needed by the beleaguered and besieged Gazans.
All twenty-one on board were arrested, including former US Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, and 1977 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire.
Ironically, they are to be deported for illegally entering the state of Israel…
Greta Berlin, a founding member of the Free Gaza Movement, told Ynet news:
they simply kidnapped the passengers. I call on the Israeli occupation forces to release our people immediately. It’s funny. What are they going to do? Deport us? The last place we wanted to reach was Israel.
At Israel’s request, the ship had been searched prior to departure, and no weapons of any kind were found on board.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Aharon Leshno-Yaar accused the future deportees of having launched a publicity stunt: clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel, he told Reuters.
For his part, the Israeli Consul in Atlanta claimed that Mrs. McKinney’s sole interest was to get in the papers.
Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, described the Israeli seizure as unlawful.
Yet, would Mrs McKinney have made the headlines had Israel not intercepted a ship chartered by peace activists and full of humanitarian aid, aid that Israel has deliberately and systematically withheld for years?
One would have thought that the most efficient way to dispose of officious foreign do-gooders would be to deprive them of their cause in the first place.
Gazans would not be in such desperate need of help, and outsiders would not be attempting to attract attention to their plight if Israel did not maintain a near-total embargo on the territory…
Israel’s policy of deliberately victimizing an entire population, misguided by the delusional belief that a deprived populace will turn against its leaders and not those directly responsible for its plight, has had dire consequences.
According to a recent report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
1.5 million people are now trapped in despair.
For, after having destroyed much of the enclave last January in its military onslaught to eliminate Hamas, Israel has refused to authorize the entry of basic materials to rebuild the 50,000 homes, 800 industrial sites, and some 200 schools its armed forces damaged if not destroyed outright.
No steel or cement has been allowed to enter. Houses cannot be rebuilt or repaired, pipes replaced, machines repaired, hospitals rehabilitated.
There are no dairy products, no fertilizers or the farm equipment required for the agricultural sector.
Patients cannot receive adequate treatment, but are forbidden from going abroad for care.
The naval blockade has virtually destroyed Gaza’s once flourishing fishing industry.
In 1994, after Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords, Gaza fishermen could fish up to 20 nautical miles from the shore.
After the start of the second Intifada in 2002, Israel reduced that distance to 12 nautical miles…
When Hamas took over Gaza, the fishing zone was reduced further, unilaterally, it goes without saying, to 3 miles…
Erminio Sacco of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, told the Christian Science Monitor : we are witnessing a huge crisis where the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen, associated laborers, and their dependents have been decimated by Israel's blockade and closure.
Most fish and particularly sardines can be found in abundant quantities only 12 to 15 nautical miles from Gaza’s shores.
As such, Israeli policy has condemned the 45,000 Gazans who worked in the fishing industry, and their families to destitution…
According to Mr. Sacco, during March 2007, 248 metric tons of fish were caught. In March 2008 this figure dropped to 121 tons and in March this year, the catch was only 89 tons.
This, in a nutshell, is what life has become in Gaza today: little quality food or water, inferior health care, no jobs, and no prospects….The most vulnerable in such a context are children.
Nor can the latter be consoled with toys or other objects children enjoy, and take for granted everywhere else. As Jimmy Carter told his audience at a UN Human Rights Graduation in Gaza recently:
last week, a group of Israelis and Americans tried to cross into Gaza through Erez, bringing toys and children's playground equipment – slides, swings, kites, and magic castles for your children. They were stopped at the gate and prevented from coming. I understand even paper and crayons are treated as "security hazards" and not permitted to enter Gaza. I sought an explanation for this policy in Israel, but did not receive a satisfactory answer – because there is none.
Since practically nothing can legally enter the territory, most essentials are smuggled through the tunnels originating in Egypt. Prices of these commodities, therefore, have skyrocketed, though fewer and fewer Gazans have the means to earn a living and can thus afford them.
One resident told Ynet news: two tires which used to cost 400 shekels, I had to buy for 1,400 shekels, which is nearly four times more and at a terrible quality compared to the ones which used to come from Israel. Even when we eat we know that we're not eating flour of the best quality, and the same is true in regards to dairy products…
Since the siege we pay much more and get a much lower quality. Both in fuel and in all other products the quality is poor.
And yet, the plight of the Palestinians in general, and the Gazans in particular, does not interest anyone, perhaps because their conflict with Israel is now over six decades old.
There are no prominent campaigns, either in Europe or America to seek justice on their behalf, even though the efforts of Jimmy Carter and the Free Gaza Movement are genuine and thus commendable.
Will justice ever visit these people?
It should.
Amnesty International, in a recent report, accused Israel of committing war crimes in its anti-Hamas January invasion : much of the destruction was wanton and resulted from direct attacks on civilian objects, the organization concluded.
More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed, as well as 13 Israelis. Three hundred children were among the dead:
Hundreds of civilians were killed in attacks carried out using high-precision weapons, air-delivered bombs and missiles, and tank shells.
Others, including women and children, were shot at short range when posing no threat to the lives of the Israeli soldiers. Most of the cases investigated by Amnesty International of close-range shootings involve individuals, including children and women, who were shot at as they were fleeing their homes in search of shelter.
Others were going about their daily activities. The evidence indicates that none could have reasonably been perceived as a threat to the soldiers who shot them and that there was no fighting going on in their vicinity when they were shot, Amnesty International added….
Furthermore, it accused the Israelis of using civilians, including children, as human shields.
Human Rights Watch issued its own report (entitled Precisely Wrong ) condemning Israel’s use of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCLAV), or drones, in the conflict. They accounted for about one third of all Palestinian deaths: mistakes can happen, concluded Marc Garlasco, a senior analyst at HRW, but here there is a clear pattern – many civilians were killed. It seems Israeli rules of engagement were very loose – keeping Israeli casualties to a minimum, valuing the lives of soldiers more than those of Palestinian civilians.
The Israelis refute all accusations, and routinely present its army as the most moral in the world…
They have offered to compensate the UN however, for the Israeli armed forces destroyed many UN buildings during its offensive, including schools and clinics…
What good can ever come from gross injustice and the wanton killing of innocent men, women and children?
What are the Gazans supposed to do?
Nothing will ever justify the launching of crude rockets on Israeli neighborhoods. Those who resort to such tactics serve their own interests, and certainly not the Palestinians’.
But what is an 18 year-old Gazan to think?
He is most likely without a house, a job, or prospects.
If he goes to college, he will find no job, and will be prevented by the Israelis from emigrating abroad to obtain one. He is probably mourning the loss of family members and friends, killed indiscriminately by Israel’s most moral army, while the outer world, enthralled by the Green Wave, the unexpected demise of the King of Pop, and the next event ignores him and his people…
The third Intifada has probably already begun, with an entire generation of young Palestinians at its service…
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