E-letter to World Leaders: Call on the IRI to allow protests, release detained opposition figures

Background
Write to the world's foreign ministers and ask them to address the increasingly brutal crackdown on Iran’s human rights activists, opposition members, and peaceful protesters in recent weeks. Urge the international community to call on the IRI to immediately desist its oppression and violence and to respect the basic human and civil rights of their own citizens, including the right to assembly, association, and expression. Ask the world's leaders to step-up and call for the release of the four illegally detained opposition figures, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, Mehdi Karoubi, and Fatemeh Karoubi.

With the IRI having set a precedent for government sanctioned violence, oppression, and arbitrary detention, share your concerns about the safety of the Iranian people and of the detained opposition leaders. Send a letter urging world leaders 1) to call on the IRI to respect the right to freedom of expression, assembly, and association as set forth by international rights standards; 2) to urge the IRI to immediately halt its government sanctioned policy of oppression and brutality; 3) to call on the IRI to release all prisoners of conscience and protesters detained during rallies and immediately end the “enforced disappearances” of the four opposition leader; and 4) hold Iran's rights abusers accountable by blacklisting, freezing the assets of, and instituting travel bans on them.

Directions
The letter is below. If you choose to add a personal message to the e-letter, please keep it polite, human rights focused, and without rhetoric. To the right of the e- letter page are the recipients of the e-mail you send. You don't have to send a letter multiple times (one click will send your message to all of the listed officials). Below the letter are personal fields to fill out. Enter as much information as you feel comfortable. A VALID e-mail address is required; however, if you don't feel comfortable sharing your e-mail, consider making an e-mail account just to use for actions like this.

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If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us at info@united4iran.org

Subject:

Your Letter:

CC: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay
CC: UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon

Your Excellency,

I write to you out of deep concern for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) increasingly brutal crackdown on the country’s human rights activists, opposition members, and peaceful protesters in recent weeks. At this juncture, it is imperative that the international community takes a stand and urges the IRI to immediately desist its oppression and violence and to respect the basic human and civil rights of their own citizens, including the right to assembly, association, and expression.

Opposition leaders applied for a permit to peacefully rally, but the Ministry denied the request. Despite this, Iranian activists rallied on February 14, 2011, only to be met with violence. Special forces reportedly used electric batons, tear gas, and paintball pellets to disperse protesters. According to reports by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI), about 1,500 people were arrested during the February 14 and 20 protests, with two protester deaths confirmed on February 14 and another on February 20. Many of those arbitrarily detained are at great risk of facing prison abuse and trumped-up charges that could lead to severe and unjust sentences.

The first protester killed was Sane Jaleh, a 26-year-old drama student at the Tehran Arts University, who was shot at directly while trying to escape from plainclothes forces. The second protester killed was 22-year-old Mohammad Mokhtari. The IRI attempted to manipulate the deaths by falsely claiming that Sane Jaleh and Mohammad Mokhtari were both killed by the Mojahedin eh Khalq (MEK).

The IRI tried to manipulate the situation further to its advantage by claiming that Jaleh was a member of the Basiji forces, going so far as to publish a fake Basiji membership card. Sane Jaleh’s brother has vehemently denied that his brother was a Basij and it is reported that authority’s threatened not to hand over the body if Jaleh’s family continued to speak to the media. The Basij and security forces disrupted Sane Jaleh’s funeral procession on February 16, overtaking the ceremony and preventing students from gathering.

Peaceful Iranian protesters took to the streets again on February 20, 2011, with one young protestor killed and demonstrators met with live ammunition and tear gas. The ICHRI reported that many of the police and plainclothes security forces present at the protest were minors aged 15-16, who were armed with clubs, strongly suggesting that the IRI has resorted to using child soldiers to supplement its security forces.

--Opposition Figures’ Enforced Disappearance--
Four major opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard, Mehdi Karoubi, and Karoubi’s wife Fatemeh Karoubi, have faced alarming government pressure in recent weeks. Iran’s parliament has even called for their executions despite the fact that judicial authorities have not indicted or summoned them to court. The IRI has also declared limitations on the proposed trials of Mousavi and Karoubi and has stated that their verdicts would not be based on Iran’s judicial criteria and laws. This only further illuminates the IRI’s lack of independence within its own judiciary and the thoroughly politically motivated nature of Mousavi and Karoubi’s arrests.

Despite the lack of a warrant, a summons, or any charges, the four dissidents have been under “house arrest” since before the February 14 for which they’d called protests. Mousavi and Karoubi were integral forces during the post-election protests during 2009, and have assumed unofficial roles in spurring the opposition to action.

Zahra Rahnavard is an outspoken activist and formerly the chancellor of Alzahra University – the first woman to have been appointed to this position since 1979. Following the 2009 protests, she was removed from this position. Fatemeh Karoubi, like Zahra Rahnavard, campaigned openly with her husband during the 2009 presidential campaign, which has previously been a rare occurrence since the 1979 revolution.

Reports indicate that prior to being moved to the safe house, security forces cut all of Mousavi’s communications with the outside world and cordoned off his home with iron bars, imprisoning him and his wife. There were also reports that plainclothes agents threw an acoustic grenade into Mehdi Karoubi’s building, broke windows, and called for the “beheading of Karoubi and his wife.” A number of clergymen have also called for Mehdi Karoubi to be defrocked.

Both men’s families have been subjected to harassment by security forces. Mehdi Karoubi’s younger son and his wife were arrested during the raid (though his son’s wife was released a few hours later). Security forces also continue to harass Karoubi’s oldest son, recently breaking and illegally entering into his house, where they ransacked the home, occupied it for several hours, and only left after they could not find or arrest him.

Mehdi Karoubi, Fatemeh Karoubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Zahra Rahnavard have been moved to a safe house in an undisclosed location. Fatemeh Karoubi and Zahra Rahnavard were no doubt also taken for being vocal activists themselves. Safe houses are often reserved for the secret detention of high security-value detainees. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and intelligence agencies are known for using safe houses to force confessions while avoiding monitoring from legal bodies. As noted by the ICHRI, international law declares that secret holding of the four opposition figures is an “enforced disappearance.”

--Call on the IRI to Halt Rights Abuses-- 
Despite the violence protesters faced during the February 14 and 20 rallies, new demonstrations have been announced in Iran for the first three Tuesdays of March 2011 (March 1, March 8, and March 15).

With the IRI having set a precedent for government sanctioned violence, oppression, and arbitrary detention, I am increasingly concerned about the safety of the Iranian people during the upcoming protests and the safety of detained opposition leaders.

Please use every mechanism to urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect the right to freedom of expression, assembly, and association as set forth by international rights standards.

Please, work with your colleagues to urge the IRI to immediately halt its government sanctioned policy of oppression and brutality. Call on the IRI to release all prisoners of conscience and protesters detained during rallies and immediately end the “enforced disappearances” of the four opposition leaders.

The United States’ recent targeted sanctions against and blacklisting of Iran’s major human rights violators, and the EU’s similar steps, have been warmly welcomed across the human rights community. Please work with the world’s governments to ensure more countries can take a similar stand by blacklisting, freezing the assets of, and instituting travel bans on those responsible for human rights abuses in Iran.

I urge you to work with the international community to respond to the human rights crisis engulfing the people of Iran. By expressing concern loudly, the IRI will realize that continued abuses will lead to an insufferable level of disruption in its international relations. With your help, support, and immediate action, the people of Iran can move one step closer to realizing the freedoms all world citizens deserve.

Thank you for listening to my concerns. I look forward to your response.

Yours Sincerely,

Uri Rosenthal

NL - Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ne

William Hague

United Kingdom

Beatriz Lorenzo

Spain - Human Rights Office

Michael Spindelegger

Austria

Steven Vanackere

Belgium

Guido Westerwelle

Germany

Peter Balazs

Hungary

Ossur Skarpheoinsson

Iceland

Michael Martin

Ireland

Franco Frattini

Italy

Jonas Gahr Store

Norway

Carl Bildt

Sweden

Micheline Calmy-Rey

Switzerland

Dilma Rousseff

President - Brazil

Navanethem Pillay

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Hillary Clinton

US Department of State

Kathy Stewart

US Bureau of Democracy & Human Rights

Ban-ki Moon

United Nations Secretary-General

Alain Juppe

France - Foreign Minister

Jean Asselborn

Luxembourg

Arvin Bolell

Mauritius

Radoslaw Sikorski

Poland

Miroslav Lajcak

Slovakia

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