Sunday, November 15, 2009

Newsletter for Saturday 14th November 2009

Student Information Center (SIC)

Newsletter Issue 129 - Saturday November 14th, 2009                                                                                                                                                              

Future Plans:
--Iranian-style protests, Thursday evening, go to parks and around in the city with family.
--Accompanying mothers of the green movement victims in Laleh Park – every Saturday afternoon.

--Spreading news about Dec 7th (Azar 16th) demonstrations on the anniversary of Student Day in private and public universities across the country; inviting people and students to attend these ceremonies in universities.


Summary of the News:

--Jaras: Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi in their third meeting expressed objection to the security line-up and oppressive, violent behavior of the ruling system against people present on Nov 4 demonstration as part of the Green Movement. In this meeting, Mousavi declared that "Green Movement condemns repression and will not involve in violence itself" and that "All people realize that our weapon is our peaceful and rational slogans." He also said "We demand full implementation of the constitution and release of political prisoners.  We call for ensuring healthy elections, and demand that freedom of the press, thoughts and beliefs be assured."

--Radio Zamaneh:Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi in their third meeting condemned violent attacks against women protesting to the election results. Taghir, the news portal of National Trust party, reports that in this meeting Mehdi Karroubi said attacks and behaviors which have taken place against people in the past five months had not occurred during "Pahlavi regime" with their opposition. Mr. Karroubi also expressed pity over violence against women and said he "cannot figure out" which source issues commands of such behaviors with people. The latest news of such violent crackdowns belongs to Nov 4 protests during which, a video widely published on the Internet shows a special guard police beats a young girl with baton on the head, causing her fall down.

--Norooz: Dr Ramin Pouandarjani who was spending his military service as a physician at Kahrizak detention, committed suicide following disclosure of incidents occurred in this detention center. According to Norooz' report, this doctor and outstanding student who had passed the universities entrance exam with a two-digit rank, has been questioned following the "closed" trial session related to those incidents, and has been the first victim of this case. While the main people involved in the brutal beatings of prisoners in this detention have not been questioned yet due to pressures on the MPs by Judge Mortazavi, this 26-year-old doctor was accused of negligence in testifying in events involved with martrdom of some prisoners and threatened that his medical license would be canceled and he would be sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

--BBC: In an interview with Abbas Jaafari Dowlatabadi, IRNA reported that Mr. Shapour Kazemi's case, the brother of Mrs Zahra Rahnavard, has been forwarded to the Revolutionary Court, but did not present more information on the date of reviewing this case nor Mr Kazemi's charges.  Shapiur Kazemi, 62, is an expert in telecommunications in Iran and was arrested shortly after the presidential elections.

--BBC: On Thursday November 12, in a meeting with a number of faculty from Iran University of Science and Technology, Mohammad Khatami said: "I have repeatedly stated that at this time, no human being accepts any type of tyranny and dictatorship and rejects [it]; evidence to this statement is that nowadays even the dictators claim to be democratic rulers." He also criticized country's political atmosphere becoming "more limited" and said this issue will induce "irrecoverable" loss to the country. Mr Khatami also criticized violent crackdown of the government against the post-election protests.

--Radio Farda: News indicate that Ehsan Fatahian, the 27-eyar-old Kurdish youth previously sentenced to death on charges of fighting against God has been executed. One of his relatives in an interview with Radio Farda confirmed that he was executed at 6 am local time on Wednesday November 11 in Sanandaj Central prison.

--BBC: Shirin Ebadi called the execution of Mr Fatahin on Wednesday November 11 "hasty" and "unprecedented" expressed objection against his family not being allowed to visit him before his execution. Ms. Ebadi said: "Considering the inappropriate behavior unfortunately becoming common in Iran's prisons, especially with political prisoners, one can doubt about the cause of Mr Fatahian's death."

--Radio Zamaneh: Dozens of people in Sanandaj on Thursday protested to execution of Ehsan Fatahian, Iranian Kurdish political activist. Reports indicate that protesters started by leaving from Eqbal Sq. in Sanandaj and were scattered by police forces before reaching Namaki crossroad.

--BBC: The White House announced that US President Barack Obama once again extended the thirty-year sanctions against Iran on Thursday. These sanctions were first applied against Iran during November 1979 hostage crisis.

--BBC: America's Federal government prosecutors called for seizure of a skyscraper and four mosques in possession of Asa Company and Alavi Foundation in New York.

--Jaras: Families of political prisoners in their gathering in front of the Judiciary addressed the judicial system and demanded release of political prisoners and the Green Movement detainees, and enforcement of law and justice for all.

--Jaras: Following the failure to pay salaries of Abadan Oil Refinery workers, a number of these workers held a protesting assembly yesterday. The protesters whom were estimated to be over 300 have not received their salaries for the past 3 months. 

--Radio Zamaneh: In response to the arrest of a number of its members, Tahkim-e Vahdat Alumni Organization in a statement announced that it will "stand before despotism with all its power". This organization has condemned arrests of student activists and declared that along with leaders of the protesting movement of Iranian people, it "will strive to take back concepts such as republicism, Islamicism and justice which were confiscated by a number of power-greeds during the recent years.

--Radio Zamaneh: On Saurday evening, the Corps' commander while mentioning the recent change in the IRGC structures, said these changes arise from the will of the Leader and have been implemented to "protect the Islamic revolution and system better and more powerful". He said confronting with soft threats is one of the most important missions of the provincial corps.


Analysis

-- In an analysis entitled "transformation in the ranks of Ahmadinejad supporters 100 days after his inauguration", Ali Asghar Ramezanzadeh claims that in the very begining it seemed that the demostrations would die away as time passes and Mr. Ahmadinejad and his supporters would eventually dominate the situtation. However, as we pass the 100 days mark, he has yet failed to contain the crisis and quel the demonstrations. Also, in the process, he has created a rift among the ranks of his supporters and he has even lost a number of his moderate supporetrs. These moderates, who in the begining were trying to forge a deal to solve the crisis, are now marginalized and Mr. Ahmadinejad is not trying to appease them. In practice, his government has preferred to lean on its most zealous supporters. In his previous term, these forces, such as Basij and Revolutionary Guards, were independent of the executive system; however, in this term they have garnered direct power in the bureaucratic system. On the other hand, as the supreme leader clearly voices his support for this presidency, a part of the conservative fraction has reduced its criticism. Nevertheless, they fail to see a bright future for this cabinet.


Recommendations and Warnings:

-- A new anti-filtering strategy: 1- Visit AOL.com, 2- register an account (sign up for a free email), 3- download free software (AOL 9.5), 4- sign into your account in AOL 9.5, 5- enjoy surfing high speed internet without filtering.

-- Mohsen Sazegara in his Thursday update indicated:

-       Sepah has paid each of their agents 400 dollars. There were around 35000 agents, which would be 14 million dollars in total.  He added that the goal  of such activities is to invoke violence in people. Such violence would cause the ordinary people to detach themselves from the movement and, therefore, Sepah's image would be improved!

-       In order to paralyze Sepah, Sazegara mentioned, the pressure from people on Sepah agents to join the people should increase.  He added that the new efforts from Ahmadinejad's side to avoid the responsibility for the recent clamp-down of the protests and blaming the government's inefficiency is a sign of division in the government.


-       Sazegara said that the movement should organize ceremonies in all the country's universities on the student's day. The people and highschool students (after the schools close down) should be invited to these events.

In his Friday update, Sazegara indicated:

-       He alluded to the recent gathering of  the families of the political detainees in front of the judiciary department. He mentioned that these families have threatened that they will continue demonstration and then food strike, if their demands are not met.

-       He mentioned that the recent demonstrations in Sanandaj, protesting against the execution of Ehsan Fattahian ( a Kurdish Marxist activist), the demonstrations in Science and Technology university and Khajeh Nassir University, the strike of almost 300 laborers in Abadan refinery, the strike of 450 workers in Bandar-abbas refinery because of their overdue salaries, and, in addition, the renewal of the American sanctions are positive developments for the movement . He insisted that the Green and Worker's movement should become more and more connected.

On Saturday Sazegara mentioned the following:

-       The beggar-like words of the head of Iran's Armed Forces towards Russia in the quest for the S-300 missile are embarrassing and humiliating for any Iranian.

-       Sazegara noted that the strike of workers in Khorramshahr municipality, the harsh conditions in the city  and the protests of workers in Kanaf Kar in Rasht are aimed towards solving the problems of the workers and this is in harmony with majority's will and also the dismissal of the coup leaders.

-       With regards to the Students' day, he asked the heads of reformists (Khatami, Mousavi and Karroubi) to give speeches in different universities.

The audio file of Sazegara's complete addresses for Thursday, Friday and Saturday  is attached to this newsletter.


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