Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Newsletter for Wednesday 25th November 2009

Student Information Center (SIC)

Newsletter Issue 134 - Wednesday November 25th, 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 7 (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.


News:
--BBC News: In the anniversary of the establishment of Basij, Mir Hossein Mousavi published a statement, warning about the transformation of Basij into the "repression machine" of the government. In his statement that was published today, Wednesday 25th of November, he said: "Basij was not established to become the worker of the government and to get per capita reward when arresting people". He added: "the new generation who are called 'Basij' today are in the darkest doubts and tests. Some want Basij to become the repression machines who beats, arrests, hurts, and murders humans under the mere crime of calling for justice."   
--BBC: Iranian Writers Association, in response to "police preventing them from holding the anniversary ceremony for the victims of the political murders known as murder chain" published a statement. In the statement, objection to "continuation of the repressions" has been announced, and it reads: "even though the ceremony in the previous years have been held under constraints, this year, with unusual lining of police and military forces, any sympathy with families of the victims was prevented."
--ParlemanNews: Mohammad Khatami met with members of Islamic Association of Medical Society and said: "Unfortunately we see today is theorized violence is becoming practical, and this violence is targeted towards many people who were friends of the Revolution and Imam." 
He added: "Of course in this country there are those who do not even accept this regime, but are willing to move within the legal system and we are proud to defend their rights; because as a citizen, they have rights just like others, unless as Imam said, they were after conspiracy and removal of the regime."
--Radio Farda: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran issued a statement on Tuesday, reporting about the arrest of several students in the Islamic Republic of Iran by the security forces, in an effort to prevent further protests in 16th of Azar- the national student day. Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman of the human rights organization, said: "for silencing the student movement, they are suppressing the students completely, which not only is against the students' rights, but also hurts the education path and their families' lives."
--Green path movement (JRS): Ahmadinejad's government once again renewed its pressure on the IRIB(state TV) to stop broadcasting popular sports programs. Government supporters have suggested that even if the program is not stopped, either Adel Ferdosipour should be removed from the program, or the program should move to the hour 3 in the morning. These efforts have increased after recent days in Navad program, serious criticisms has been targeted towards Ahmadinejad government's officials and their policies.
--Green path movement (JRS):  After the Conference "Greens and religion" in the department of Social Sciences in  Tehran University which was held with support of the Islamic Association of this university, on Tuesday 3rd of Azar, the second panel discussion of the conference was held in the Medicine Department of Tehran University. 10 prominent Iranian sociologist were giving speeches in the past two weeks, in which they analyzed and theorized about various aspects of the green movement, including the religious, social, etc.
 
NEWS OF THE UNIVERSITIES
--Green Wave of Freedom: Following protests in recent days in Khajeh Nasir University about continuous illegal detention of "Ali Parviz" and "Soheil Mohammadi", Yesterday, ten students of this university were summoned to the disciplinary committee. These students are asked to report to the committee, to give explanations about the allegations such as attending the protesting gatherings, stimulating other students to participate in the gatherings, participation in the hunger strike, disrupting university's order, and having political activities in student associations.
--Norouz: HamidReza Amirkhani, Mehdi Khosravi and Amin Riahi, students of the Ferdosi University of Mashhad, were charged by the Revolutionary Court to distributing propaganda against regime and working with foreign groups who are against the regime, and they were sentenced to paying fine.
--Green wave of freedom: Close to 16th of Azar, the national student day, about 100 students of Ahvaz Azad University, and 50 students of Najaf Abad Azad University have been summoned to disciplinary committee.


NEWS OF THE ARRESTED, MISSING, AND DECEASED
--Green wave of freedom: Behzad Nabavi was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment by the revolutionary court, and went to a 10 day leave under a bail of 800 million Tomans(800 thousand dollars). 
--Norouz: RamezanZadeh's wife said: Mr. RamezanZadeh has said in their last meeting that we have not commited any illegal actions, but do not believe that we will be freed, because if they were to do that, all their work so far will be in vein. She quoted RamezanZadeh: I am defending the Islamic Republic, but I oppose Ahmadinejad, and I will not step back from my opinion. 


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 Sazgara released his daily videos of Tuesday and Wednesday:
- He said the installation of the camera in the universities is a problem and we should either stop them from working, or use masks to cover our faces when attending political gatherings.
- He gave news about the gathering of Mazandaran Textile workers because of the non-payment of their wages.
- His mentioned the statement of a group of liberal activists, who had pointed out the importance of resistance of student movements against the pressures.
- He invited people to protest to the sentence given to Ahmad Zeidabadi.
- About paralyzing the government he gave examples of Italian strike (white strike), not completing the works and general strikes, boycotting goods produced by state government, especially those produced by the Revolutionary Guards or those who broadcast ads in state TV.
- The lack of investment, he said, is another way to cause paralysis. (In Tehran, housing market has fallen 60%)
- He said outside of Iran to the Iranians are pressuring to boycott companies that Iranian Revolutionary Guards have shares in.
- He said other pressures are under way to condemn the revolutionary guards in international courts for terrorist operations.
- He mentioned five gaps: sexual, generational, economical, scientific and ethnic in current Iranian society, and said that the green movement must fill these gaps to be able to reach its goals. 
- He said so far, the actions to paralyze the government has been effective, because even now the economy of the country has been affected and the government is not capable of running the country, and said that the end of this process will be when general and simultaneous strikes will overthrown the coup government. But he said this is dependent on the government being paralyzed, or divided such that some parts stand up against others and some parts join people.
- He reminded that every day we don't need million scale demonstrations, and that when the repression rises, other methods like writing slogans on walls and on the bills, scattered protests like that of 16th of Azar, and similar actions work better. 


Email: student.information.center@gmail.com


Posted by مرکز اطلاع رسانی دانشجویی‌ at 5:13 PM 0 comments www.tips-fb.com Balatarin  

Monday, November 23, 2009

Newsletter for Monday 23rd November 2009

Student Information Center (SIC)

Newsletter Issue 133 - Monday November 23rd, 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 7 (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.


News:
--Radio Farda: Ahmad Zeidabadi, a journalist and the Secretary of Advar Tahkim Vahdat organization, after spending more than five months in detention, was sentences by the Revolutionary Court to six years in prison, five years in exile in Gonabad, and a lifelong deprivation of right to engage in social and political activities.
--Radio Farda: Islamic Iran Participation Front condemned the treatment of political activists in prison and dismissed the announced sentences, and warned that "people of Iran will certainly not submit to the regime's authoritarian and repressive methods" The statement says: "the performance of the government over more than five months after the elections, has left serius and successive impacts on the whole system, specially with regard to popular support and the value content."
--Radio farda: Freedom Movement of Iran published a statement about  after elevtion developments in Iran, regarded the contiuouation of the protests despite the passing of five months, a sign of the depth of the green movement, and said that the victory of this movement depends on the pursuite of peaceful methods. Freedom Movement of Iran pointed to the "very heavy spending of funds for control and repression of the green movement by the government" and added: "the widespread presence of protestors in official and public gatherings in the Qods day and 13th of Aban, made evident the fact that this movement can not be turned off with the military and security methods ".
--Radio farda: Parastou Forouhar, Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar's daughter, on Sunday had an Interview with Radio Farda and gave news of the heavy presence of police and security forces to prevent the gathering of public and even close family relatives in the eleventh anniversary of the murder of her parents. Referring to the anniversary ceremony at the home of the  Forouhars, she said: "The police and security forces, with their extensive presence around the house of the Forouhars, stopped people from getting close to the house. Dariush Forouhar, leader of the Iranian nation party, and his wife Parvaneh Eskandari, were murdered on the first of Azar (23rd of November) in 1377 by knife in their house. Few months later and after two other writers and intellectuals were murdered -a case which was known as the "serial murders"-, the security officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced "self-motivated and wronged members"in the Ministry of Intelligence as the responsibles for the murders.
--Change for Equality website: Mehrnoush Etemadi, activists One Million Signatures Campaign was arrested in Isfahan on Monday. On Monday evening in a phone call to her home, she gave news of her transfer to Dastgerd prison of Isfahan. One Million Signatures Campaign, which has been formed three years ago, aims to revise the discriminatory laws against women in Iran. So far dozens of members of this campaign have been arrested and tried.
--Radio farda: In continuoution of the wave of arrest of students and journalists, on Sunday 1st of Azar(23rd of November), Sasan Aghayi, a journalist and blogger, was arrested by security agents. Sasan Aghayi, a 28-year-old journalist, was one of the authors of the banned newspapers Farhikhtegan, and nEtemaad Melli(national trust).
--BBC News: Deputy Minister of Culture said the Hamshahri newspaper has been banned by the Press Supervisory Board, due to release a photo of the Baha'i temple in India. Hamshahri newspaper is affiliated to Tehran Municipality publications, and on its first page in the first day of Azar, advertised for a trip to India, which included a photo of a temple, which according to supervision cometee, is owned by Baha'is. 
--Radio farda: Hundreds of Brazilians on Sunday, ahead of the journey of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to this country atended protesting marchs in Rio de Janeiro and condemned this trip. According to the reports, more than 500 Holocaust survivors, African-Brazilian artists, Christians, Jews and homosexuals right activists, with a demonstration in the city of Rio de Janeiro gave slogans against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and protested to his trip to Brazil. 
--Norouz: Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran prosecutor has been arrested in 2007 because of a case of several financial and moral corruption charges, under a sentence from Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the judiciary at the time. A lawyer with told Norouz that: The arrest of Saeed Mortazavi was not made public at all. He added: Former prosecutor of Tehran who was arrested by an order of Hashemi Shahroudi, was freed after two nights, with supports from higher power institutions.


NEWS OF THE UNIVERSITIES
--Radio Farda: More than 50 students in Najaf-Abad Azad University  were called to the disciplinary committee, due to the presence in the gatherings of 13th of Aban. Reports say that the installation of cameras around the universities and colleges, as well as implementation of gender separation travel services and intensified security has stirred more protests after 13th of Aban.
--Green Wave: More than 150 graduates of Sharif University signed a statement demanded the release Hojjat Sharifi and Nafiseh Zare' Kan.   
--Green wave of freedom: Few weeks before the 16th of Azar, and to create atmosphere of fear in universities, more than 10 student activists in Shahrekord University were summoned to the intelligence office of this city.
--AUT news: Following the student rally held on Sunday, Azar 1st(23rd of November),  protesting to the detention of Ali Parviz and Soheil Mohammadi in Civil Engineering Department of Khajeh Nasir University, plainclothes and Basiji members of the university attacked the protesting students and caused chaos in campus area.


NEWS OF THE ARRESTED, MISSING, AND DECEASED
--BBC News: Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the legal and parliamentary consultor of the president during Mohammad Khatami's presidency, who was arrested after the Iranian presidential election in June, was freed with a 700 million toman(700 thousand dollars) bail. Mr. Abtahi the most prominent cleric arrested after the election, has been sentenced to 6 years of prison in 30th of Aban(22nd of November)by preliminary court.
--Green wave:, Saeed Habibi, former office secretary of Consolidating Unity Organization(Tahkim Vahdat Organization), and a member of Human Rights Committee, was charged with propaganda against the Islamic Republic and collusion against national security, and was sentenced to three-year imprisonment.


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 Sazgara pointed to the followings in his daily videos on Sunday and Monday:

-About the student arrests and increasing violence in universities, he said that Coup supporters are trying to disorganize the Iranian student movement by imprisoning student activists and preventing the student activities. But since the student organization has a bottom ip organization, imprisonment of the activists does not impact the movement, and in 16th of Azar, you will see how student movement will present its political action.
- He said the establishment of a military government in Kurdistan, Sanandaj and other cities is a repeated step that the coup government takes to scare people, and said that given the reactiton of people in the past 5 months, this is no longer effective. 
- About the weekly gathering of mothers of victims of the after election protests in Laleh Park, he said that the repressive forces wanted to arrest a young man, but mothers used the right way to protect the person, by surrounding him and standing between him and the forces, and at the end security forces where forced to leave.
- He reviewed the movement's aims, and said that the final goal is to remove the coup government but that goal depends on three other sub goals:
1 - removing the legitimacy of the coup government and any governmental instituation that supports this government.
2 - to wear this government out and create a division in between them
3 - paralysising the coup government
He said the revolutionary guards is the core of the power of the coup government, which is holding key positions in security, financial and military and repressional fields, and so it must be our main target.
- He said the political actions taken place so far are of three categories: Category I: Actions that strengthen solidarity and public resistance, such as Allaho Akbar slogans at nights, or boycotting or protesting in million scale. Category 2: Actions that wear the coup government out, such as actitons that puts financial burden on their military budget(best type in this category would be scattered, geographically spread protests), and Category 3: paralysising actions.



Email: student.information.center@gmail.com


Posted by مرکز اطلاع رسانی دانشجویی‌ at 7:06 PM 0 comments www.tips-fb.com Balatarin  

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Newsletter for Saturday 21st November 2009

Student Information Center (SIC)

Newsletter Issue 132 - Saturday November 21st, 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.
--Attending Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar's memorial service on Sunday, November 22, 3-5 pm; No. 18, Moradzadeh St, Hedayat St, Tehran
--Spreading the word about Dec 7 (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: In his second interview via internet with "Kalameh", Mir Hossein Moussavi discussed the events in the aftermath of the election, the bill for targeted subsidies and its economic and social implications. He also commented on the vast number of security forces confronting people of Nov. 4th, implying that "such efforts are aimed at threatening people and instilling fear in the society". In this interview, he emphasized on the constitution as a minimal anchor around which all the forces of the green movement should gather. He also highlighted the fact that the people should refrain from violent clashes, even if they're treated harshly on the streets. (The complete text of this interview is attached online).
-- BBC: The UN General Assembly human rights committee adopted a resolution that condemned Iran for human rights violations against its citizens who protested during the highly disputed presidential elections. The resolution censured Iran for its human rights record, including the arbitrary arrests, detentions and the disappearance of Iranians who protested after the elections this year.
-- BBC: The United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has called the death sentences imposed by Iran for five people in connection with protests following the country's disputed presidential election, "distressing and very unfortunate". Mrs. Clinton made these comments in Kabol, where she is to attend Hamid Karzai's inauguration.
--JARAS: The families of the political detainees in a recent statement condemned the continued detention of their family members and stated that they will hold a rally in front of the office of public prosecution in Tehran on November 23rd.
-- JARAS: Pictures released by Mehr News Agency shows a cold reception of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by the people of Tabriz. Despite high levels of publicity, a population of 10,000 from the 1,000,000 people of Tabriz gathered in the Baghshemal stadium to welcome the president. The number of people was not high enough to even cover half of the grass.
-- BBC: The "office of strengthening unity" (Tahkim-e-Vahdat), has reported widespread arrests of student activists as December 7th (16 Azar) approaches. They have also released a statement in response to the detentions of Abbas Hakimzadeh, a member of this office in Amirkabir University. According to this statement, Mr. Hakimzadeh and a number of other students were detained for four and a half months last year while being tortured and coerced for false confessions. In this statement, the members have also voices their "serious" concern regarding the detentions of many students from Khaje-Nasir, Azad (Tehran and Tafresh), Sharif, Amirkabir and Elm_o_Sanat universities.
-- JARAS: Shirin Ebadi, the peace nobel laureate, in an interview pointed out that she's been repeatedly threatened by the security forces of the Islamic Republic. She deems these threats to stem from an effort to minimize her human rights activities. She mentioned that "her espouse and her family have been told that she'll not be safe, no matter where she is in the world". She mentioned, however, that these tactics would not be effective.
-- Radio Zamaneh: The Webby Awards, the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, released its list of the Top 10 Most Influential Internet Moments of the Decade. Among the top 10, is the use of Twitter during the Iranian election protests (2009). The New York-based International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences which bestows the annual Webby Awards (a.k.a the "Oscar of the internet") since 1996.

News of the Detainees, Martyrs and Missings
-- Deutsche Welle: More than 15 student activists were arrested in Tehran and other cities on Nov 19th. It seems that these detentions are aimed at controlling potential demonstrations on Dec 7th. A member of the "office of strengthening unity", however, believes that the demonstrations are driven by the student body and not the leaders. (SIC: the news snippets below contain the names of some of these detainees).
-- Advar News: Moahammad Ali Abtahi has been sentenced to 6 years in prison. Given the verdict, Mr. Abtahi's lawyer is going to prepare his bail. A primary version of Mohammad Atrianfar's verdict has also been announced but the sentence is not made public yet.
--Advar News: In continuation of the arresting of the student activists, Alireza Mousavi, Ahmad Mirtaheri, Alireza Zargar, Hamin Ghahvechian, Amir Kazempour and Yaser Masoumi were arrested on Thursday night in a coffee shop.
-- Advar News: Saeed Habibi, the chairman of the former Tahkim Vahdat organization and human right activist has been sentenced to three years in prison for advertising against the Islamic Republic regime and action against national security.
--Advar News: A group of current and former liberal activist university students in Tehran were arrested after a meeting they had in one of the group member's apartment. These activists include Mehrdad Bozorg, Soorena Hashemi, Alireza Mousavi, Farzan Ra'oufi, Ehsan Dolatshahi, Sina Shokoohi, and Alborz Zahedi.
--Advar News: Thursday afternoon, Neda Eskandari and Khadijeh Ghahremani were arrested by the security forces in Shiraz University.

Analysis

-- A summary of a report by Mehdi Hassani, entitled "An increase in the number of detained students; incompetence of the regime in handling the student movement", published in JARAS: Everyday, we hear of students being arrested all across the country. Nevertheless, the appearance of the supporters of Ahmadinejad in the universities is accompanied by mass reactions from the student body. Demonstrations, which started from a number of key universities, is now going rampant in many universities, including Azad universities that lacked independent student committees. As we approach December 7th, the day that may mark the demonstrations of the "green" students, pressure on the students is drastically increasing. In the meantime, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ezheyi, the chief public prosecutor, cautioned the opposition that "from now on, the Islamic Republic of Iran would firmly act against any action deemed deranging". A student activist tells JARAS, "...In the past several months, many students from universities such as Isfahan, Babel, Tehran, Shaharmahal, Beheshti, Shiraz, Amirjabir, RAzi, Ghazvin, Elmo Sanat and Mazandaran have been summoned to disciplinary committees or security institutes. But did they get any results? Have the demonstrations subsided? Has Saffar Harandi and those like him been able to enter universities and say whatever lies they want? or they've been massively confronted by the students?". the "office of strengthening unity" has released a memo stating that "as we approach Dec 7th, the widespread arrest of students in many universities (e.g. Khaje Nasir, Azad Tehran, Sharif, Amirkabir, Azad Tafresh and Elmo Sanat) and the chaotic behaviour of the official forces in controlling the protests has only resulted in a competition of social clashes and impediment". This statement adds, "what you see is the unified rage of the whole nation against the cruelty that you've served them in the name of religion. Sacrificing those whose words have always been in the framework of critique and enlightenment, would never benefit those in power".


Recommendations and Warnings:

--In his video broadcast on Thursday, Mohsen Sazgara mentioned the following points:
    -He re-emphasized that since November 4 rallies, Regime has adapted a strategy of pushing the Green Movement into violent activities, and this is something that we should be cautious about [especially] on December 6th Rallies. He added that the best way to stand against the suppressive violence [of Regime operatives] is for [the protestors] to stick together and stop beatings and detentions [by forming concentrated patches of crowd). He also emphasized that for December 6th rallies it is important to decide the location of protests [and gather altogether in those places].
    -Sazgara also emphasized that all Green Movement activists should specify a replacement for themselves to assume their responsibilities in case of their arrest or inability to perform their duties. He also added that he has already specified a replacement for himself since he continues to receive several threats every now and then; his replacement will be announced by his family if necessary.

On his video broadcast on Friday, Sazgara mentioned the following points:
    -He talked about Ahmadinejad's recent trip to [the northwestern city of] Tabriz , a trip which he sees as a blunder for Ahmadinejad since despite his supporters efforts to mobilize one hundred thousand people in welcoming him in Tabriz Stadium, only a few thousand showed up in his speech. This was such a shame that his supporters had no choice but to fabricate pictures of his visits [showing fake huge crowds welcoming him].
    -Sazagara also talked about the arrest of Abbas Hakimzadeh, Mehrdad Bozorg, Surna Hashemi, Ehsan Dolatshahi, Farzam Ra'ufi, Alborz Zahed, SIna Shokuhi and Alireza Mousavi, all student activists and emphasized that the Regime is still under the illusion that the December 6th rallies can be stopped by arresting student activists; however incidents of the last five months have shown that this [huge] popular movement with extensive human networks organized from the bottom is never hurt by such arrests and will continue working despite them.

In his video broadcast on Saturday, Mohsen Sazgara mentioned the following points:
    -He mentioned that the passage of a UN resolution condemning human rights violations in Iran with a wider margin this year shows that the international community has a close eye on what is going on in Iran.
    -He also talked about the widespread strikes in Kurdistan Province on Wednesday; however he complained about lack of photos/videos from those events. He emphasized that every act of protest, big or small, successful or unsuccessful, should be captured on camera since such photos/films can be used both to inform people and educate protestors.
    -At the end, in his response to a question, he mentioned that weakening the country's economy will handicap the Regime and will reveal their incompetence in being in charge. Despite possible difficulties that might be inflicted on ordinary people [in the short run], such an economic weakening is in the interest of people and the Green Movement in the long run.


Posted by مرکز اطلاع رسانی دانشجویی‌ at 9:02 AM 0 comments www.tips-fb.com Balatarin  

Newer Posts Older Posts Home

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
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