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Iranian Doctor defects - Zahra Kazemi murder case
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Liberator



Joined: 29 Aug 2003
Posts: 1086

PostPosted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eyewitness feared retribution
The Globe and Mail


http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/sourc...rce/004178.html


Once Dr. Shahram Azam left Iran to tell his story of how Zahra Kazemi was brutally raped and tortured inside a Tehran prison, he knew it wouldn't take long for Iranian agents to track him down.

That made his asylum request to Canada all the more urgent.

"We took his case very seriously," said a Canadian official who worked on the file. "The Iranians were almost on his track and the life of Dr. Azam was becoming highly endangered and he could not have stayed in Sweden for much longer without witness protection."

Dr. Azam fled Iran for Sweden in August, 2004, but he wasn't convinced he would be safe there and wanted Canada to accept him, his wife and 12-year-old daughter as government-sponsored refugees.

At a news conference in Ottawa this week, Dr. Azam gave the first account by a medical eyewitness of the brutal injuries Ms. Kazemi suffered after her June 23, 2003, arrest. His account contradicted the official Iranian explanation of the Canadian photojournalist's death — that she died after fainting and hitting her head.

Dr. Azam's fear of remaining in Europe was bolstered by the low acceptance rates of Iranian refugees there, as well as by a long and dangerous history of dissidents being assassinated.

According to human-rights and Iranian opposition groups, between 60 and 100 Iranian dissidents were killed in the two decades after the 1979 Islamic revolution, mainly in Europe and the Middle East. And while assassinations of non-violent dissidents appear to have abated in recent years, Iranian secret police attacked an Iranian political science professor and pro-democracy advocate last year in Quetta, Pakistan, where he had sought refuge.

Ms. Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, who flew to Sweden to meet with Dr. Azam, believed the emergency-room physician would be safer in Canada than in Europe: "We interviewed a Swedish filmmaker who had been doing extensive work on the murders that had occurred in Sweden of Iranian dissidents. We thought that because this was a matter that directly concerned Canada, that he should come to Canada," Mr. Hachemi said.

Added Lorne Waldman, a Toronto immigration lawyer who helped with the case: "This man has dramatic testimony that would cause serious embarrassment for the Iranian government. He is much safer in Canada telling the story than he would have been in Europe."

Yesterday, Amnesty International noted that in the early 1990s, dozens of politically active Iranian exiles were murdered, notably Sadiq Sharafkindi, leader of Kurdish rebels, and three aides in 1992 in Berlin's Mykonos Greek restaurant; Kazem Radjavi, an opposition leader, in Geneva, in 1990; and Shapour Bakhtiar, former Iranian prime minister, found with his throat slit in his Paris home in 1991. Other Iranians have been assaulted and killed in Sweden and Norway.

In recent months, Iranian dissidents have been "visited by people who have intimidated them, giving them warnings, suggesting they should return home," according to Keith Rimstad, with Amnesty International in Ottawa.

"To our knowledge, this has not happened in Canada," he added.

Mr. Rimstad remains concerned about the other nurses and doctors who treated Ms. Kazemi, noting they could be questioned by Iranian authorities and warned not to speak about her case. Within Iran, security forces continue to harass, imprison and torture human-rights defenders and democracy activists.

Aurel Braun, a University of Toronto political science professor, said Europe has not vocally condemned Iran's treatment of dissidents because it has pursued a policy of constructive engagement with Tehran in an effort to stop nuclear proliferation in that country.

"They are afraid of irritating or annoying the Iranian government," he said. "Europeans also want to maximize their trade with Iran and are eager to access Iranian oil. They don't want the issue of refugees and dissidents to impair that."

Since 1989, Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board has granted asylum to 12,670 Iranians, although the acceptance rate has dropped to 61 per cent last year, from a high of 92 per cent in 1989.

Not all asylum seekers have had success; for example, Amir Kazemian was forced to seek sanctuary in a Vancouver church after his asylum bid was rejected. Refugee advocates in Canada have also complained about the removal of failed asylum seekers to Iran.
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Liberator



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PostPosted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

PEN Canada Disturbed about New Revelations of Torture in Death of Zahra Kazemi

http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/sourc...rce/004177.html


Toronto, March 31, 2005 - PEN Canada is outraged by the disclosure of information that strongly indicates that Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and raped prior to her death in 2003.

According to information provided by Shahram Azam, an ER doctor who examined Kazemi before she died, "her entire body carried strange marks of violence." Her skull was fractured, fingers were broken, and she had extensive and severe bruising on several areas of her body, including in the abdominal area, which Azam concluded had been the result of "a very brutal rape."

"We are outraged by this news, which further confirms our belief that Zahra Kazemi was tortured while in the custody of Iranian security officials before they killed her," said PEN Canada's Writers in Prison Committee Chair Alan Cumyn. "We appeal to Iranian authorities to acknowledge officially that Kazemi was indeed murdered at the hands of Iranian security agents and to identify and bring to justice those responsible for her torture and murder."

Following the trial of an Iranian security agent in 2004, who was later absolved of charges in the killing of Kazemi, the Iranian government later stated that her death was "an accident due to a fall in blood pressure resulting from [a] hunger strike and her fall [to] the ground while standing." However, the declarations of Dr Azam, who recently received political asylum in Canada, provide further, damning evidence that the government has deliberately covered up the real circumstances of her death.

PEN Canada has also written to Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pierre Pettigrew to renew pressure on the Iranian government to conduct an open inquiry into Kazemi's death, punish the perpetrators and have the journalist's remains repatriated to Canada, as per the wishes of her family.

On June 23, 2003, Kazemi was arrested outside Evin prison in Tehran while taking pictures of a student-led pro-democracy protest. She died several days later in custody.

PEN Canada has monitored the deteriorating state of freedom of expression in Iran for several years and advocated on behalf of those persecuted for their writings. It campaigns for the release of four Honorary Members - Amir Fakhravar, Akbar Ganji, Khalil Rostamkhani and Nasser Zarafshan - in prison simply for practising their right to freedom of expression.

About PEN Canada:

PEN Canada is a centre of International PEN that campaigns on behalf of writers around the world persecuted for the expression of their thoughts. In Canada, it supports the right to free expression as enshrined in Section 2(B) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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cyrus
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:10 pm    Post subject: Save the Women, Save Ourselves By Dr. Ledeen Reply with quote

Save the Women, Save Ourselves
Terror, inside and out.


April 04, 2005, 7:52 a.m.

Source URL : http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200504040752.asp

The National Review Online
By Dr. Michael Ledeen


Two summers ago, a middle-aged Iranian-Canadian journalist named Zahra Kazemi was arrested in Tehran while taking photographs of regime hoodlums beating up young people who were demonstrating for freedom. A few days later she turned up dead in a local military hospital. The regime denied requests from the family and the Canadian government to examine the body, insisted that she had fallen in her prison cell and died of injuries to her head, denied that anyone had beaten her, and hastily buried her without any proper autopsy.


The Kazemi family never believed the regime's story, but efforts to get at the truth were predictably fruitless. Until now. Dr. Shahram Azam, a medical doctor who has just been granted asylum in Canada, has presented a firsthand account of the terrible death of Zara Kazemi. He says he examined Kazemi in a military hospital in Tehran on June 26, 2003. He says he found horrific injuries to her entire body that demonstrated torture and rape. By the time he examined her — an examination limited by the Islamic republic's sexist restrictions that made it illegal for a male doctor to look at her genital area — Kazemi was unconscious and her body was covered with bruises. According to Dr. Azam, she had a skull fracture, two broken fingers, missing fingernails, a crushed big toe, a smashed nose, deep scratches on her neck, and evidence of flogging on her legs and back.

"I could see this was caused by torture," Azam told Canadian journalists. He added that the nurse who examined Kazemi's genitals told him of "brutal damage." He believes she was tortured and raped. If he is correct, we can add Zara Kazemi to a long list of women who have been brutalized by the mullah's torturers.

The Canadian government, which briefly recalled its ambassador to Iran to demonstrate its anger when Kazemi died, is now hastily attempting to look tough. Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew condemned Iran for not holding a legitimate trial. "This new evidence, while gruesome, simply reinforces our position that this was not an accident. The family needs answers, Canadians want answers and we will not stop pursuing this case until justice is rendered."

This is the sort of talk one hears from government officials who have no intention of doing anything serious. Listen to Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler: "The Kazemi case is a case study of whether Iran is finally going to come clean, become accountable and show that is a citizen of the international community," Cotler said. "If they don't respond properly, and accountably in this instance then they will expose themselves for all the world to see as an outlaw nation."

The point, however, is that the mullahs have long "exposed themselves" as an outlaw nation. The question is whether the Western world, including the United States, is going to do the one thing required to render justice: Support those Iranians who want to free their people from the grips of this murderous regime.

The brutal treatment of Iranian women by the mullahcracy is a daily occurrence, not an isolated case. As "Iran Focus" reported on March 2, "at least 54 Iranian girls and young women, between the ages of 16 and 25, are sold on the streets of Karachi in Pakistan on a daily basis," according to "a senior women's affairs analyst...speaking to a state-run news agency." The analyst, Mahboubeh Moghadam, added that there are at least 300,000 runaway girls in Iran right now, the result, in Moghadam's words, of "the government policy which has resulted in poverty and the deprival of rights for the majority of people in society."

Professor Donna M. Hughes, at the University of Rhode Island, one of the few Western scholars courageous enough to keep reporting on these horrors, says that the enslaved women are typically sold to people in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, such as Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. But the slave trade is not limited to the Islamic world:

Police have uncovered a number of prostitution and slavery rings operating from Tehran that have sold girls to France, Britain and Turkey as well. One network based in Turkey bought smuggled Iranian women and girls, gave them fake passports, and transported them to European and Persian Gulf countries. In one case, a 16-year-old girl was smuggled to Turkey, and then sold to a 58-year-old European national for $20,000."


Moghadam suggested (and remember that this does not come from a samizdat network, but from a broadcast on national radio) "that such a task was very difficult to carry out without some sort of government green-light."

As I have lamented these many years, the one word that constantly recurs in accounts of life in Iran is "degradation." This degradation is both physical and moral, encompassing the steady breakdown of the national infrastructure (especially the roads), the health of the people, drug addiction, prostitution, and ubiquitous corruption, from government ministers on down. And as Natan Sharansky reminds us, the regimes that support terror also direct terror at their own people, and thus it is no accident that Iran is at once the world's leading supporter of international terrorism and one of the cruelest oppressors of its own people.

President Bush and his team of self-declared democratic revolutionaries have done a lot of talking about supporting the Iranian people, but they haven't delivered on their promises. As they talk, the toll mounts, from Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to Canadians brutally murdered in Tehran, to the oppression and exploitation of the Iranian people, above all the women.


Faster, please. It's getting embarrassing, you know.

— Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. He is resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.
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BitWhys



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PostPosted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

just so you, the opposition is ripping face in parliament right now.
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cabinet meets tomorrow and the PM meets with the son on Wednesday so I won't be looking for any progress (or not) before then.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Monday was the first time the government faced questions in the House about the recent revelations about Kazemi after MPs returned from their Easter break.

"It turns out for months the prime minister knew the true extent of the brutality inflicted upon Ms. Kazemi. Instead of taking a firm stand against Iran, he sent our ambassador back to that oppressive regime," Harper said.

"What kind of callous, spineless government re-establishes normal diplomatic relations with this kind of regime?"


Tories blast PM for 'spineless' response to Iran

what with pope-a-palooza dominating the news these days its encouraging to see this is still being covered. I don't even LIKE Harper. Laughing

the government is going to be looking for something dramatic to distract the press from a silly $20M scandal that could bring them down in short order. if they have a spine at all...
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

"What kind of callous, spineless government re-establishes normal diplomatic relations with this kind of regime?"

Tories blast PM for 'spineless' response to Iran

This is a very good question by Canadian Tories for all G8 governments.
The Kazemi case is putting the G8 govenments in the same category as the Mullahs regime.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cyrus wrote:
"What kind of callous, spineless government re-establishes normal diplomatic relations with this kind of regime?"

Tories blast PM for 'spineless' response to Iran

This is a very good question by Canadian Tories for all G8 governments.
The Kazemi case is putting the G8 govenments in the same category as the Mullahs regime.


working on it. the NDP hasn't addressed this in Parliament yet.

yesterday's minutes so you can hear it from the horse's mouth...

Quote:
Mr. Paul Forseth (New Westminster—Coquitlam, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, now that we have the first person account of Zahra
Kazemi's murder from the very doctor who examined her remains,
Canadians have proof positive of the inhumane treatment of a
Canadian citizen.

It is time for Canada to get tough with the odious Iranian regime
that stole the revolution in Iran. The Liberal soft diplomacy approach
is simply no longer acceptable.

Canada has one of Iran's largest expat communities in the world.
Two hundred and fifty thousand former Iranians reside here and they
are asking Canada to defend their interests and that of their families.
It is time Canada reaches out to Iran's dissident community
worldwide, finding ways to promote democracy and offering real
assistance to communicate Canadian values.

The government should get past babbling about how horrified we
are over the Kazemi case and get moving on positive fronts to
support those Canadians now working for democracy in Iran. On this
count, Canada should lead the world rather than follow.

...

Ms. Diane Bourgeois (Terrebonne—Blainville, BQ): Mr.
Speaker, last week, Dr. Shahram Azam eloquently and courageously
revealed the details of the brutal rape and torture that Zahra Kazemi
endured.

Despite this information, it seems that the Iranian government has
no intention of getting to the bottom of this case. It is time for the
Canadian government to put its words into action in order for justice
to be served in this important matter, by taking this case to the
International Court of Justice. Furthermore, Canada must do
everything in its power to ensure nothing like this ever happens
again. This tragic story must also prompt the government to develop
better means of protecting individuals with dual citizenship. Words
are not enough, and the government must take concrete action so that
Zahra Kazemi's death does not remain unpunished.

...

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC):Mr.
Speaker, the judge, the police and Canadians will be the judges of
how involved the Liberal Party has been. (1)

On another subject, last week Canadians finally learned the details
of the brutal torture and murder of journalist Zahra Kazemi in Iran. It
turns out that for months the Prime Minister knew the true extent of
the brutality inflicted upon Ms. Kazemi. Instead of taking a firm
stand against Iran, he sent our ambassador back to that oppressive
regime.

What kind of callous, spineless government re-establishes normal
diplomatic relations with that kind of regime?

Right Hon. Paul Martin (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker,
let me respond first to the preamble. The fact is that Canadians do
merit having the facts and should have the facts. That is why I called
for the Gomery commission. That is why this government put that
commission in place. It is precisely to have those facts. That is why
there should not be an election until Justice Gomery has reported,
because Canadians deserve to know the facts.(2)

Some hon. members: Oh, oh!

Right Hon. Paul Martin: Now if I may respond to the hon.
member's question over the baying on the other side—

The Speaker: I am afraid the right hon. Prime Minister has used
up the time responding to the preamble, but I suspect there might be
a supplementary question from the hon. Leader of the Opposition.

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, let me just say that was a perfect example of what is wrong
with the government. He should have used the opportunity to defend
a Canadian citizen, not the Liberal Party.

A Canadian citizen was tortured and murdered by the Iranian
government. While the family was looking for answers, the
government hid the facts, and the Prime Minister kept silent.
What can we call a government that lets its citizens be murdered?

Right Hon. Paul Martin (Prime Minister, Lib.): If the Leader of
the Opposition wants answers to his questions, he should not mix
questions fundamental to Canadians with partisan questions,
accusations and allegations.

Canada has the intention and has already shown clearly that we
will defend Canadians and that the position of the Iranian
government is unacceptable. We do not accept it. Iran is in the
wrong. It was murder. This is why we brought Dr. Azam here. We
want to show the facts clearly.

We have protected the life of Dr. Azam. We have brought him
here in order to demonstrate to the world the murder in which—

The Speaker: The hon. member for Okanagan—Coquihalla.

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan—Coquihalla, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, that doctor was safe in Sweden five months ago when
this information was revealed. Last week while we were not in
session, the Liberals, red-faced and humiliated, admitted that a
Canadian woman was brutally tortured and murdered. They found
this out in early November and what was their response? In late
November they sent our ambassador back to Iran.

This response was absolutely devoid of principle and absolutely
disrespectful of the most precious human rights. Why? Why did the
Liberals respond this way?

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr.
Speaker, we have facilitated Dr. Azam's coming to this country
precisely because we wanted to say to the face of the planet exactly
what took place in Iran. Dr. Azam's troubling elements, this very
troubling demonstration, is something that we can absolutely put to
every other country. We have been working hard with the
international community to maintain pressure on Iran. We have
been doing it at the United Nations commission in Geneva. We have
done it in New York. We will continue until justice is rendered.

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan—Coquihalla, CPC): They are
so troubled, Mr. Speaker, all they can do is dither.

It is incredible. This government did nothing, while it knew that
outrageous violations of human rights were being committed against
a Canadian. Worse yet, how could the government release this
information five months later without ever rebuking the Iranian
government?

It is high time this government did something. When is it going to
get around to sending a clear message of indignation to the
government of Iran, recalling the Canadian ambassador to Tehran
and demanding that the government of Iran give...

The Speaker: The hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr.
Speaker, I do not know where the hon. member has been. For two
years, this government has said in this House to all Canadians that
what happened in Iran is murder. The member is saying we should
state it strongly and clearly for once. For two years, we have been
saying what Dr. Azam has just stated.

We helped him come to Canada precisely to show the world that
Canada, in its crusade against Iran, with its lack of respect for human
rights, deserves the support of the international community. It is by
working as a team and with the other members of the international
community that we will see justice done in Iran.



(1) this was a followup on an unrelated matter (the "preamble")
(2) responding only to the "preamble"
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BitWhys



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pettigrew is a stubborn idiot who needs a good ***** slap. He's getting trashed in Parliament again (webcast of "question time" - I usually find it quite amusing) and he's talking about fricking UN resolutions. sounds like a few MPs want to go for the throat. One step at a time, I suppose. anyways, some progress...

Canada calls for probe of Kazemi 'murder'

Quote:
Canada has called for an international investigation into the torture and death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in Iran.

In a conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharazi, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew called for an international autopsy.

The Liberals have faced increasing criticism over failing to recall its ambassador to Iran after allegations of torture and sexual assault were made last week by Kazemi's doctor.

Kazemi was arrested in Iran in 2003 while taking photos of a demonstration outside a prison. She was admitted to a hospital shortly after her arrest.

Dr. Shahram Azam, who examined Kazemi, said last week that there was evidence the 54-year-old had been flogged and sexually assaulted. Her skull was fractured and she had a burst ear membrane, among other injuries.

Azam's testimony -- the first by a medical official -- contradicts what Iranian officials initially said were injuries incurred from fainting and hitting her head.

Iran denies Azam's claims, and said he invented them to facilitate his refugee claim to Canada.

Canada is also hoping to take its plea directly to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who was in Paris on Tuesday for a UNESCO conference.

"We need an independent autopsy which will help determine precisely what happened during her custody,'' said Sebastien Theberge, a spokesman for Pettigrew.

"Dr. Azam's story reinforces our belief that this was a murder but the Iranian government will not listen to reasonable demands.

"Now the ball is in Iran's court.''

Pettigrew said Monday that Azam was given asylum in Canada "because we wanted to say to the face of the planet exactly what took place in Iran."

However, Stockwell Day, the Conservatives' foreign affairs critic, said the Liberals knew of Azam's story in November.

"And what was their response? In late November, they sent an ambassador back to Iran," Day said.

"This action was absolutely devoid of principle and absolutely disrespectful of the most precious human rights," Day said.

Kazemi died on July 10, 2003. Just over a year later, an Iranian court acquitted the one person charged -- a trial process condemned by Canada and human rights observers as a sham.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BitWhys:
Thanks for the updates, it is really important that you are involved and can let the rest of us know as what's going on.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dear BitWhy's,

All your help is indeed appreciated by all.



Ba Sepaas
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Liberator wrote:
Dear BitWhy's,

All your help is indeed appreciated by all.



Ba Sepaas


np

I wish the opposition would stop chasing scandals and get to the heart of the matter but these things take time. The government is under siege right now in the wake of a small potatos scandal and Kyoto is a huge domestic priority. What's going to matter is how the Liberals (the governing party) respond when the mullah refuse to release the body. IMO everything before that is rhetoric and sophistry. Also IMO, its was the right thing to do so even though I don't really like him I've gotta give Pettigrew credit for that one.

yesterdays "question period" (a daily one hour free-for-all that is rather unique to Canada)...

Quote:
Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan—Coquihalla, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, yesterday the Leader of the Opposition asked the Prime
Minister a very clear question related to the torture and murder of
Zahra Kazemi. The Prime Minister shocked everybody by not even
addressing the issue about Zahra Kazemi but instead focused on the
Liberal financial scandals.

If he can stay focused long enough, will he just tell us when he
found out the details about the torture and murder of Zahra Kazemi?
Why did he respond so weakly by sending our ambassador back to
Iran instead of pulling our ambassador out?

Right Hon. Paul Martin (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker,
the question from the hon. member is actually quite disturbing. The
fact is that the government was asked to keep this matter as secret as
possible. The possibility of a doctor's life being in danger was
uppermost in the government's mind. We wanted to make sure that
we could get him here to a safe haven.

What is disturbing about this is that the hon. member knows about
this and knows the answer to the question. I find it incredulous that
the hon. member would stand in the House and ask that question.

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan—Coquihalla, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, what is incredible is that the Prime Minister could not
answer this question yesterday and still cannot answer it today.

Stephen Hachemi, Zahra Kazemi's son, will have to live his entire
life with the harsh reality that his mother was brutally tortured and
killed by the Iranian regime. And we will have to live with the harsh
reality of a vague and unacceptable response by the federal
government to this tragedy.

When does this government intend to apologize to Stephen
Hachemi and recall our ambassador until such time as our demands
are met? When?

L'hon. Pierre Pettigrew (ministre des Affaires étrangères,
Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, just this morning I telephoned the Iranian foreign
affairs minister. I reminded him of the Government of Canada's
formal requests over the past two years to repatriate Ms. Kazemi's
body so that we can conduct an independent autopsy to confirm what
Dr. Aazam revealed last week.

This morning I asked the Iranian foreign minister to repatriate the
body of Madam Kazemi to Canada. I have asked him that we
conduct a third party autopsy to verify—

...

Mr. Paul Forseth (New Westminster—Coquitlam, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, the government's relationship with Iran appears muddled
and pretty confused. It admits the tragedy of the Kazemi case and
then withdraws its ambassador for a while, but has shown no
leadership among our ally nations.

Why does the government not have any plan at all to be a leader at
the UN with our allies to make human rights mean something and to
create a circle of pressure on this rogue state?

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr.
Speaker, this is very much what the Government of Canada has been
doing. For two years in a row, it has been Canada, at the very United
Nations to which the member is referring, that has been sponsoring a
resolution condemning the situation of human rights in Iran. For two
years in a row we received the support of the international community.
We will continue to put pressure on Iran, as I did this
morning when I called the minister of foreign affairs of Iran.

Mr. Paul Forseth (New Westminster—Coquitlam, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, maybe they are waking up over there.
The government knows the inside story of Iran. The people are
ruled by fear, torture and payoff bribes to their religious police. The
government knew for months the facts of the torture of Kazemi. Its
excuse made today is rather late and is not very credible.
Why did the government provide political cover for Iran and why
did it hide the graphic details of the doctor's report?

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr.
Speaker, it is the opposition that is waking up. This is the very work
we have been doing and that we have been involved in. He can go
back to the United Nations General Assembly last year and this year
again. He should read the speech I made last month in Geneva at the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

This morning I reiterated a demand I have made, and one which
the Minister of National Defence made in the past, and this is
something we will not give up on. We know that Iran has presented
us with lies and cover-ups and this is totally unacceptable.


Lib = Liberals = governing party but by a minority
CPC = Conservative Party of Canada = official opposition
BQ = Bloc Quebecios = Quebec nationalists
NDP = New Democratic Party = democratic socialists

the CPC and BQ together have enough seats to defeat parliament and force an election. The CPC are considered big business and staunch USA supporters (they cooked up the Free Trade and North American Free Trade Agreement packages. no one is forgetting that very quickly. some like it. most don't). The NDP have labour union and farmer's cooperatives roots. They're a long way from getting into power but many of their platforms are adopted by government in the long run.

We haven't heard from the NDP yet about this in Parliament. My guess is they're leaving the pain-in-the-ass-be-annoying-in-chamber work to the CPC for now.

I've been thinking about the idea of seizing assets. That's going to be a tough sell. I don't even think there's precident for it. I'm thinking it may be easier to pitch the idea to a popular magazine that does that sort of thing. something with a buy-line of "The Mullah Amongst Us" but it'll be tough since there would be a lot of leg-work involved and I can't really offer any leads. If this escalates someone might be open to the idea though. We'll see.
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:06 am    Post subject: We will not forget all Enemies of Iranian Freedom Reply with quote



We will not forget all Enemies of Iranian Freedom & EU3 Criminal Supporters

THIS IS A REMINDER

Iran's Sex Slaves Suffer Hideously Under Mullahs
Posted June 8, 2004
By Donna M. Hughes


A measure of Islamic fundamentalists' success in controlling society is the depth and totality with which they suppress the freedom and rights of women. In Iran for 25 years, the ruling mullahs have enforced humiliating and sadistic rules and punishments on women and girls, enslaving them in a gender apartheid system of segregation, forced veiling, second-class status, lashing and stoning to death.

Joining a global trend, the fundamentalists have added another way to dehumanize women and girls: buying and selling them for prostitution. Exact numbers of victims are impossible to obtain, but according to an official source in Tehran, there has been a 635 percent increase in the number of teen-age girls in prostitution. The magnitude of this statistic conveys how rapidly this form of abuse has grown. In Tehran, there are an estimated 84,000 women and girls in prostitution, many of them are on the streets, others are in the 250 brothels that reportedly operate in the city. The trade is also international: Thousands of Iranian women and girls have been sold into sexual slavery abroad.

The head of Iran's Interpol bureau believes that the sex-slave trade is one of the most profitable activities in Iran today. This criminal trade is not conducted outside the knowledge and participation of the ruling fundamentalists. Government officials themselves are involved in buying, selling and sexually abusing women and girls.

Many of the girls come from impoverished rural areas. Drug addiction is epidemic throughout Iran, and some addicted parents sell their children to support their habits. High unemployment -- 28 percent for youth 15 to 29 years of age, and 43 percent for women 15 to 20 years of age -- is a serious factor in driving restless youth to accept risky offers for work. Slave traders take advantage of any opportunity in which women and children are vulnerable. For example, following the recent earthquake in Bam, orphaned girls have been kidnapped and taken to a known slave market in Tehran where Iranian and foreign traders meet.

Popular destinations for victims of the slave trade are the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. According to the head of the Tehran province judiciary, traffickers target girls between 13 and 17, although there are reports of some girls as young as 8 and 10, to send to Arab countries. One ring was discovered after an 18-year-old girl escaped from a basement where a group of girls were held before being sent to Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The number of Iranian women and girls who are deported from Persian Gulf countries indicates the magnitude of the trade. Upon their return to Iran, the Islamic fundamentalists blame the victims, and often physically punish and imprison them. The women are examined to determine if they have engaged in "immoral activity." Based on the findings, officials can ban them from leaving the country again.

Police have uncovered a number of prostitution and slavery rings operating from Tehran that have sold girls to France, Britain and Turkey as well. One network based in Turkey bought smuggled Iranian women and girls, gave them fake passports, and transported them to European and Persian Gulf countries. In one case, a 16-year-old girl was smuggled to Turkey, and then sold to a 58-year-old European national for $20,000.

In the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan, local police report that girls are being sold to Pakistani men as sex slaves. The Pakistani men marry the girls, ranging in age from 12 to 20, and then sell them to brothels called "Kharabat" in Pakistan. One network was caught contacting poor families around Mashad and offering to marry girls. The girls were then taken through Afghanistan to Pakistan where they were sold to brothels.

In the southeastern border province of Sistan Baluchestan, thousands of Iranian girls reportedly have been sold to Afghan men. Their final destinations are unknown.

One factor contributing to the increase in prostitution and the sex-slave trade is the number of teen girls who are running away from home. The girls are rebelling against fundamentalist-imposed restrictions on their freedom, domestic abuse and parental drug addictions. Unfortunately, in their flight to freedom, the girls find more abuse and exploitation. Ninety percent of girls who run away from home will end up in prostitution. As a result of runaways, in Tehran alone there are an estimated 25,000 street children, most of them girls. Pimps prey upon street children, runaways and vulnerable high-school girls in city parks. In one case, a woman was discovered selling Iranian girls to men in Persian Gulf countries; for four years, she had hunted down runaway girls and sold them. She even sold her own daughter for $11,000.

Given the totalitarian rule in Iran, most organized activities are known to the authorities. The exposure of sex-slave networks in Iran has shown that many mullahs and officials are involved in the sexual exploitation and trade of women and girls. Women report that in order to have a judge approve a divorce they have to have sex with him. Women who are arrested for prostitution say they must have sex with the arresting officer. There are reports of police locating young women for sex for the wealthy and powerful mullahs.

In cities, shelters have been set up to provide assistance for runaways. Officials who run these shelters are often corrupt; they run prostitution rings using the girls from the shelter. For example in Karaj, the former head of a Revolutionary Tribunal and seven other senior officials were arrested in connection with a prostitution ring that used 12- to 18-year-old girls from a shelter called the Center of Islamic Orientation.

Other instances of corruption abound. There was a judge in Karaj who was involved in a network that identified young girls to be sold abroad. And in Qom, the center for religious training in Iran, when a prostitution ring was broken up, some of the people arrested were from government agencies, including the Department of Justice.

The ruling fundamentalists have differing opinions on their official position on the sex trade: deny and hide it or recognize and accommodate it. In 2002, a BBC journalist was deported for taking photographs of prostitutes. Officials told her: "We are deporting you ... because you have taken pictures of prostitutes. This is not a true reflection of life in our Islamic Republic. We don't have prostitutes." Yet, earlier the same year, officials of the Social Department of the Interior Ministry suggested legalizing prostitution as a way to manage it and control the spread of HIV. They proposed setting up brothels, called "morality houses," and using the traditional religious custom of temporary marriage, in which a couple can marry for a short period of time, even an hour, to facilitate prostitution. Islamic fundamentalists' ideology and practices are adaptable when it comes to controlling and using women.

Some may think a thriving sex trade in a theocracy with clerics acting as pimps is a contradiction in a country founded and ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. In fact, this is not a contradiction. First, exploitation and repression of women are closely associated. Both exist where women, individually or collectively, are denied freedom and rights. Second, the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran are not simply conservative Muslims. Islamic fundamentalism is a political movement with a political ideology that considers women inherently inferior in intellectual and moral capacity. Fundamentalists hate women's minds and bodies. Selling women and girls for prostitution is just the dehumanizing complement to forcing women and girls to cover their bodies and hair with the veil.

In a religious dictatorship like Iran, one cannot appeal to the rule of law for justice for women and girls. Women and girls have no guarantees of freedom and rights, and no expectation of respect or dignity from the Islamic fundamentalists. Only the end of the Iranian regime will free women and girls from all the forms of slavery they suffer.

Dr. Donna M. Hughes is a professor and holds the Carlson Endowed Chair in Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island. She wishes to acknowledge the Iranian human-rights and pro-democracy activists who contributed information for this article. If readers have information on prostitution and the sex-slave trade in Iran, contact Hughes at dhughes@uri.edu. Read more at: www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/.



Last edited by cyrus on Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:16 am    Post subject: Canada demands Iran return photojournalist's remains Reply with quote

Canada demands Iran return photojournalist's remains

Tue Apr 5, 4:29 PM ET Canada - AFP

Source URL: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050405/wl_canada_afp/canadairanbody_050405202910

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew telephoned his Iranian counterpart to demand the return of the remains of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi who died in Iranian custody.

"This morning, I phoned the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran," Pettigrew told the House of Commons, a day after lambasting Tehran over its denial that the 54-year-old dual Iranian-Canadian citizen had been tortured and murdered.


Pettigrew said he told Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi that Iran should return the remains and permit an independent autopsy on Kazemi, who died in July 2003.


Kazemi died after being jailed for taking pictures outside an Iranian prison. Tehran denies she was murdered, claiming she died when she fainted and hit her head.


But a dramatic account of Khazemi's alleged torture and rape was given here last week by former Iranian military doctor Shahram Azam, who has been granted refugee status in Canada.


Pettigrew on Monday said that Iran's position was "unacceptable."


"Iran is in the wrong, it was murder, and that is why we brought the doctor here, to clearly show the facts," he said.


Azam said the photojournalist was unconscious when she was taken into hospital and had injuries consistent with torture, including broken fingers, evidence of rape, missing fingers and genital damage.


Iran hit back on Saturday, branding the charges "baseless and completely false" and denied that anyone named Shahram Azam ever worked in the hospital.
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We demand the Canadian Government to break all its diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime for its heinous state crime!

To: Canadian government


The International Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada expects the Canadian Government to break all its diplomatic relation with the Iranian Regime for its heinous state crime!

An Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi was brutally murdered. Her “crime” was preparing a report of the political prisoners’ families who were protesting outside of a prison in Tehran. According to Dr. Azam, who was present at the emergency hospital, Zahra Kazemi was savagely beaten, had bruises all over her body, had her fingernails pulled out, fingers broken, was raped and her skull was fractured. She was deeply unconscious.

The slaying of Zahra Kazemi was not the first murderous crime committed by the regime of Iran and will not be the last. Ten of my own close associates who were all women’s activists were slain by the police and judicial systems of the Islamic regime in Iran. I have directly experienced living under the rule of a regime of religious terror. It is precisely out of this experience, as well as my first hand knowledge of the move of political Islam and the capacity of its leaders for anti-human acts, that I have, alongside thousands of other Canadians, began a relentless, extensive campaign against Islamic tribunals in Canada, which are in the process of being established in the province of Ontario. Various Islamist currents utilizing the provincial arbitration Act of 1991 are involved in promoting this cause.

A regime founded on the principles of terror, imprisonment, torture, execution, and stoning, a regime with a judicial system resting upon unjust religious laws, gender discriminations and denial of all social and personal freedoms, a regime whose judicial authorities are themselves torturers and murderous; such a regime can deliver nothing but travesties of justice through its so-called courts of law. Expecting justice to be served by the organs of such a regime is nothing but a grand illusion.

In view of the above, the international Campaign against Sharia Court in Canada demands:

The legitimacy of the court in the Islamic Republic of Iran to be completely and publicly rejected by the Canadian Government. This is a minimum standard that any government, as well as any political organization, is expected to observe in adopting a principled approach towards this crime.

An international tribunal to be set up to consider this case. It must have the necessary authority to summon all and every official and agent of the Islamic Republic of Iran directly or indirectly involved in this crime.

The Canadian Government to break all its diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime.

The above demands are basic demands of the oppressed Iranian people along with millions of civilized people across the world. If the Canadian Government is genuinely resolved in its demand for the criminals involved in the murder of Zahra Kazemi to be punished and the justice served, it can adopt and support only such a stand. It represents the lowest of this case. Unfortunately, this has not been the attitude of the Canadian Government so far.

By signing this petition, you emphasize on the individual and civil rights. Your support will push back the political Islam and will strengthen the move for secularism.

Homa Arjomand

Coordinator of the International Campaign
against Shar’a Court in Canada


http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?Mskazemi


.
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