Saturday, December 12, 2009

Saturday December 12th, 2009 Newsletter

Student Information Center (SIC)

Newsletter Issue 142 - Saturday December 12th, 2009                                                                                                                                                              

Summary of the News
-- Kalameh: Mir Hossein Mousavi called the act of tearing off Ayatollah Khomeini's posters in Azar 16 protests a suspicious act against the revolution and said
"I am sure student would never do anything like that".

-- Radio Farda: After the government arrested student leader Majid Tavakoli and published pictures of him in a chador, the all enveloping black wrap many women in Iran use to cover themselves, in a call for solidarity with Tavakoli, hundreds of Iranian men have posted pictures of themselves, wearing the veil, on Facebook.


-- Tagheer: In the past week, Islamic Associations of Students in Tehran University and Tehran Medical School, have published separate manifestos which could not be published in the main stream media due to censorship of the regime. Full texts of these manifestos are attached to this newsletter.

--AmirKabir Newsletter: University of Tehran students today once again protested to the military forces attack to students of this university on December 7 and 8, and demanded resign of the university chancellor Farhad Rahbar. Dr Habibi, the resigned president of Fine Arts department attended a discussion session with students in Shahid Avini Hall. After students gathering in front of Engineering and Fine Arts departments, they marched towards the main entrance of University of Tehran and continued their protest. A video from this gathering is attached to the newsletter.


-- Kalameh: The Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran has selected Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri as the human rights activist of the year. On the International day of human rights, several DHRC members went to Qom to present the award to Montazeri. In this meeting, Narges Mohammadi read a statement praising the cleric's commitment to human rights.

-- Radio Zamaneh:
A number of Asians human rights organizations on Thursday called on the Iranian Judiciary to stop the "persecution" of members of the Iranian student alumni association, Advar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat. The human rights groups sent an appeal to Judiciary chief, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, expressing "deep concern" over the "systematic repression" of Advar members and urging the Judiciary to review the cases. The rights groups were from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and Mongolia.

-- Deutsche Welle: Heydar Moslehi, the intelligence minister of Iran, after criticizing Hashemi Rafsanjani heavily, mentioned that some actions are being done against Hashemi's children. Moslehi accused Rafsanjani of restating what the reformist leaders have written in their statements in his speeches.

 

-- BBC: A number of Iranian journalists have written a public letter to the General Secretary of the UN, Ban Ki Moon. In this letter they have expressed concern about the situation of their colleagues inside Iran. This letter was written on the 10th of December,  Global Day of Human Rights. In the letter, they have demanded that the situation of journalism should be under careful scrutiny, the freedom of press should be respected in Iran and the journalist detainees should be freed without any preconditions

 

 -- Kalemeh: The scheduled speech of Mohsen Armin, reformist politician and a former member of the parliament,  in Shiraz university on the student day was cancelled since he was not allowed in the city by the security forces.

 

-- Radio Farda: Amnesty International announced on Dec 10th that the situation of Human Rights in Iran has reached its worst position in the last 20 years. In this statement, the post-election tortures, rapes and murders have been alluded to. Furthermore, Ayatollah Khamenei has been addressed and asked to let the inspectors of this international organization visit Iran in order to do research about these happenings.

-- Deutsche Welle: NatureNews, the website associated with Nature scientific magazine, has claimed in an article on Thursday Dec 8th that it has uncovered even more cases of plagiarism committed by current Iranian ministers and officials. This article also mentions a similar discovery a few months ago, which attracted much attention in the media, and that this time it is Hamid Behbahani is the person who has copied scientific findings by others.  It also notes that scientists inside and outside Iran have demanded investigations in these matters.


-- Nowrooz: The Free Speech award was given to Zhila Bani Yaghoob, Iranian journalist and women right's activist, in a ceremony in Toronto without her presence.


Analysis

Bahar Yekta has written an article "where is Islamic Republic going?" in which she has analyses the current situation of Iran. She alludes to Rafsanjani's recent speeches in Mashhad and writes: "it seems obvious that all actions and suggestions of Rafsanjani for the purpose of resolving the situation in Iran have been disregarded and inconclusive and now, the ball is in supreme leader's court to finish this debacle. These are all happening while even the "principalists'"  suggestions that have been sent to the Supreme Leader's office have been delayed for a long time and nothing has been done to soften the situation. The speeches of Hashemi are serious warnings to the regime.  Hashemi, during his first leading of the Friday sermons after the elections, sufficed to giving suggestions and hoped that the predicament would be solved; but after five months, the followers of Mesbah Yazdi are still bullying people and are trying to undermine the vastness of peoples' movement, which is happening amidst all the threats. This is why Hashemi is not giving suggestions anymore and, rather, he issues warnings. He even distances himself from the ruling body by demanding freedom and denouncing censorship. This is the first time that an official is protesting against the confrontation of the government and people, while the same horrible things continued to happen during the student day." She writes at the end: " Hashemi is an experienced politician. Accordning to his past, he does not speak untimely. He took his complaint to "God himself" after the last election. But today, he is appealing to the public conscience and with no fear separates his path from the others. He has a clear message: he sees the day that there will be neither a sign of the vine nor a sign of that who planted the vine."


News of the Detained, Missing and Martyrs
-- Advar News: A warrant has been issued for arresting Arash Bahmani, a journalist and activist. But he has not been apprehended yet.
-- Advar News: A group of members of the committee of human rights reporters, met with the family of Hassan Asadi.
-- BBC: Hadi Ghabel the cleric member of the Jebheh Mosharekat, who was sentences to 40 months in prison, was released. He spent more than half of that time in prison.
-- Advar News: Saeed NoorMohammadi, a young member of Jebheh Mosharekat, who was arrested 50 days ago in a religious ceremony, got permission to meet with his brother. When his brother asked him if he was being hurt and harmed in the prison, he (in the presence of two guards) answered: "yes, a lot!".

-- Advar News: Dr. Mohammad Maleki's trial will start this Saturday.
-- Jaras: The tribunals of Bahman Ahmadi-Amouei and Mohsen Safaei-Farahani were held today. The request for releasing Ahmadi-Amouei was rejected; Safaei-Farahani's last defenses were submitted and he is waiting for a ruling in his case.
-- Jaras: Reporters Without Borders (RWB) published some statistics of the extensive suppression of freedom of speech in Iran: 100 detained journalists, $3 million bail, and more than 65 years [of combined sentence] in prison.


Recommendations and Warnings

In his video broadcast on Thursday, Mohsen Sazegara mentioned the following points:

- Students in University of Tehran protest [what happened on campus in the day of Dec. 7 when] 1200 members of Basiji militia entered UT Central Campus and beat and arrested students. They also want Dr. Kamarei- the Dean of College of Engineering- and Farhad Rahbar- the University of President- to resign.

- Yesterday [Wednesday] some students in Sharif University of Technology also held a big gathering in which they requested for the release of their friends [arrested on Dec. 7].

- Like other places, students of Kerman's Bahonar University chanted slogans against Saffar-Harandi- the Culture Minister in Ahmadinejad's first Administration- as he tried to give a speech there. 

- More than 1200 students in Khaje-Nasir University of Technology (KNUT) [located in Tehran] held a rally in solidarity with the students in University of Tehran and for the release of students arrested in other universities; this rally was mostly in defense of [violated] rights of students in other universities.

- Students in Esfahan University [in the Central city of Esfahan] held a huge gathering on campus; when their right for protest on campus was denied, they got out to streets where some ordinary people also joined their protests.

- Mr. Fazli, the former Commander of Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, who according to some people holds a cleaner record [compared to other current IRGC commanders and was the same person who had talked about revolutionary guards giving flowers to protesting students on Dec. 7] was replaced yesterday [Wednesday] and transferred to work under the supervision of Gen. Naqdi, the hard-liner Commander of Basiji militia.

- He also talked about the most recent editorial of Keyhan daily in which more violent crackdown of protestors has been requested; the main message in this editorial is that it is time to mercilessly beat, kill and arrest the protestors.

- The major initiatives during the first ten days of Muharram should be: 

-chanting Allah-u-akbar [God is the Greatest] during the first nine nights of Muharram,

-green flags of 'Ya-Hossein' should be an indespendable part of all religious gatherings.

-Centralized huge rallies should held in all cities during Tasu'a and Ashura [the 9th and 10th days of Muharram].

 

On his video broadcast on Friday, Mohsen Sazegara mentioned the following points:

- Some senior Army Officers have issued a statement condemning the way the IRGC treated people [in post-election turmoils].

- President Obama mentioned Iranian people and their struggle for freedom in his Peace Noble Prize acceptance speech in Olso,

- During the Nobel Prize Ceremony, the University of Oslo also names 'The Worst Dictator of the Year'. This year, this title went to Ayatollah Khamenei [the Supreme Leader of Iran].

- Dec. 7 protests once again drew world's attention towards Iran.

- Heydar Moslehi, the Intelligence Minister in Ahmadinejad Administration, has fiercely attacked Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani [in his most recent speech in Qom]. The most thrilling part of Hashemi-Rafsanjani's speech [in Mashad], which has been the most difficult for them to swallow, is the phrase in which he asserts "If people do not like us, we shall go."

- Human Right Protectors Organization granted its 'Human Rights Struggler' to Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri. 

- Popular rallies of Tasu'a and Ashura will be a referendum against the regime.

 

In his video broadcast, Mohsen Sazegara mentioned the following points:

- People should attract Army officers towards themselves [after their recent statement of some Army Officers in support of people].

- Regime's huge propaganda efforts after the alleged offense to Ayatollah Khomeini by tearing a  photo of him [in Dec. 7 protests] reveals that no red line exists for them; it is also more interesting to note that they already know that tearing the photos of Ayatollah Khamenei [the current Supreme Leader] will have no effect on people; however their efforts have not been successful so far and it does not seem that such efforts can ever save them from the major challenges they face right now.

- Regime's effort to humiliate Majid Tavakkoli- a renowned student activist- by publishing a photo of him in Islamic female garment has backfired and a 'Campaign of Men with Hijab' has already started in the world.

- The death of Mr. Soleymani [the CEO of E'temad-e-Mobin, an IRGC-affiliated firm which won the bid in the privatization of Iran's Telecommunication Company a few months ago] and his spouse is considered to be suspicious.

- As before, regime's threats have become louder [prior to anticipated rallies in Muharram which starts next week].

- Two articles about 'Nonviolent Struggles' which are attached to this newsletter.




Newer Posts Older Posts Home

Google Groups
If the videos or photos are not available on this page, please subscribe to the group's mailing list. The newsletter and the videos and photos will be send to you directly. Your email address will not be released to any third party organization, and we will not use it for anything except sending the newsletters.

To subscribe please enter your email address in the form below:
Email:
Visit this group