MAXMUR (31.01.2006) – A commission consists of United Nations (UN) representatives from Jordan and representatives from Federate Kurdistan Region, had visited the Refugee Camp of Maxmur and interviewed with camp representatives.

Huseyin Seyhan, who is the member of the Committee of Foreign Relations of Maxmur, said that they represented their requests consists of 10 matters, about coming back, to representatives of UN in Kurdish, English and Turkish and Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan’s freedom is of first priority.

The inhabitants of Maxmur Refugee Camp who live in enforced situations for 12 years, hosted another foreign committee. A committee consists of 9 persons; 3 persons from United Nation’s (UN) Jordan Reopresentation and the authorities of Federate Kurdistan Region, Head Official of Maxmur and top level military authorities, had visited the Camp of Maxmur under intensive safety measures.

Huseyin Seyhan, who is the member of the Committee of Foreign Relations of Maxmur gave knowledge about the visit. He said that the foreigners show a great interest to the camp, and talked like this; "The UN committee had made this visit to follow closely, to observe and to take our opinions about the formation of the camp, the problems of infra-structure and the economical difficulties that we have. The system that we formed in the camp, affects the committees which come here to visit our camp. We have got some infra-structural problems. We have got some economical problems. But despite all these difficulties, we have got a system that we formed. We have to leave in diffucilties, we have to organize our life and we did it. This situation is affected an interest to the people from outside and they get curious. This committee also asked some questions to us in this sense. We tried to explain".

WE WANT TO COME BACK

Seyhan said to the UN committee that they organized their lifes in the frame of responsibilities. He talked like this; "We said that we were been immigrated from Turkey by force, when we were explaining the difficulties and our existent system. We determined that we were been immigrated from our places, our houses and villages had been fired. We said that we don’t want to live in refugee situations and we want to come back to Turkey, to our own villages, if the situations will change in Turkey and if our requests will assume”.

Seyhan said that they represented their requests consists of 10 matters, about coming back, to representatives of UN in Kurdish, English and Turkish in oral and written way. He said that beside economical and political requests, they embrace Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan as a political willpower principally and they touched on the increased pressures on him.

Seyhan said that freedom of Mr. Ocalan is the first matter of their coming back requests and talked like this; "Our Leadership is the political willpower of all Kurdish people. A lot of Kurds from different countries of world proved this with their campaigns. But Mr. Abdullah Ocalan who is the leader of a nation, is under arrest in a prison Imrali Island for 7 years alone. His health problems are getting heavier day by day. With the last 27 days cabin punishment, our leadership want to destroyed in this cabin. We explained to the committee that we condemn this tendency and we won’t be silent about this situation in this sense. Expect the pressures on our leadership, and also pressures on Kurdistan are increasing. Slaughters and murders are on our agenda again. The village guard system is continuening deeply. The gangs in the government are also available. Last Semdinli events are the evidence of this".

Seyhan added that, among their coming back requests there are; giving the right of mother tongue in Kurdish, the removing of village guard system completely, making an amnesty consists of political prisoners and the guerillas in the mountains, giving the cultural and social rights, providing the social guarantee and paying the coming back compensation.
www.kurdishinfo.com

KurdishMedia.com-Two men were killed and an oil engineer was kidnapped in the Kurdistani city of Kirkuk while 11 bodies were found west of the capital, Bagdad, on Tuesday, according to local Kurdistani and Iraqi media.

A group of unidentified gunmen kidnapped an oil engineer, known as Qayis Sahaza Atiyan, working for the oil company in the Kurdistani city of Kirkuk, reported local Kurdish media on Tuesday without any further details.

In a separate incident, Ibrahim Hatam Karim, a retired man, was killed in the Askary Quarter of Kikruk. Another man, known as Abbas Abid Khidhir was stabbed to death in front of his house in the Domizi Quarter of Kirkuk, reported Iraqi News Agency.

South of the Kurdistani city of Kirkuk in the capital Bagdad, 11 bodies were discovered in a pickup truck on a motorway west of the city. Iraqi police confirmed that they were shot in their heads and torture marks can be seen on their bodies.

Iran Focus– Iran’s nuclear point-man Ali Larijani said Tuesday evening that the Islamic Republic will end snap inspections of its nuclear facilities by international inspectors if the UN nuclear agency’s board of governors went ahead as is expected to report Tehran to the Security Council.

Larijani, who heads the Supreme National Security Council and is Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, had earlier in the day said that reporting or referring Iran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council meant the “end of diplomacy”.

Speaking to reporters later in the day after a meeting with a official from Armenia, Larijani said that a statement by the Security Council’s Permanent 5 as well as Germany showed that the European Union did not have the “capacity” to resolve the international standoff over Tehran’s sensitive nuclear work.

The West suspects that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons under the pretext of nuclear power production.

Larijani said that the Islamic Republic had to look for a solution other than negotiations with the EU to find a solution the impasse.

“It is not clear that this path is to their benefit, since we are forced in accordance with the law ratified in Majlis to remove all suspension and stop adhering to the [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s] Additional Protocol”.

Under the NPT’s Additional Protocol inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency must be granted access to declared nuclear sites to carry out spot inspections.

While it had been negotiating with the EU, Iran had suspended the enrichment of uranium which can be used in nuclear weapons, but Larijani’s comments confirmed that Tehran plans to resume the activity.

voanews.com
By David Gollust

The United States and other permanent member countries of the U.N. Security Council, including Russia and China, agreed early Tuesday to refer the issue of Iran's nuclear program to the council. The referral will come later this week but any action in the council would not occur until March at the earliest.
The agreement, which U.S. officials describe as a major advance, came at the end of a four-hour ministerial-level dinner meeting of the major powers at the official London residence of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
A joint statement said the five Security Council member countries, and Germany which also took part in the session, agreed that this week's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency governing board should report the issue of Iran's nuclear program to the council.
In what is seen as a compromise giving Iran time to consider rolling-back recent nuclear moves, the participants said any action on the Security Council should await a report by IAEA Director General Mohamed elBaradei to the following meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, set for March 6th in Vienna.
A senior U.S. official who briefed reporters called the joint statement a very strong message to Iran and a reflection of growing frustration about its recent decision to restart nuclear activities it had agreed to suspend two years ago in talks with Britain, France and Germany.
The official said Iran had been banking on abstentions on the referral issue this week by Russia and China, and that the decision by those two countries to go along puts Iran on the defensive, and under pressure to yield to international concern about its nuclear intentions.
The senior official said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice feels good about the big-power agreement, which he described as the most decisive international action on the Iranian issue in several years.
The United States has insisted that Iran's nominally peaceful nuclear program has a secret weapons component, and had strongly backed a referral to the Security Council.
The council could impose broad sanctions against Iran for violating international nuclear commitments, though the U.S. official said there was minimal discussion and no decision here of what the council might do in March if Iran has not been responsive to demands that it fully disclose its nuclear activities.
At a London news conference Monday, Secretary Rice again said the use of force against Iran was not in prospect, and that a Security Council referral does not signify that diplomatic means to resolve the crisis are nearing exhaustion:
"As to military issues, we have said that it is not on the agenda, because we believe that there is a lot of life left in the diplomacy. There is a diplomatic solution for the taking. After all, going to the Security Council is not the end of diplomacy, it's just diplomacy in a different, more robust context. But the President of the United States doesn't take his options off the table," she said. "Frankly I don't think people should want the President of the United States to take his options off the table."
The big-power statement said the parties confirmed their resolve to work for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian problem.
The six countries said they share serious concerns about Iran's nuclear program and agreed that an extensive period of confidence-building was now required from Tehran.
They called on Iran to restore in full the suspension of uranium enrichment-related activity, including research and development, that it ended three weeks ago.
U.S. officials had been saying for some time they believed there were enough votes in the 35-nation IAEA board to send the issue to the Security Council.
They say the decision by Russia and China to join the big-power consensus assures the action, which is expected by Thursday.

TEHRAN, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Any move to report or refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear standoff with the West would spell the end of diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Tuesday.

"We consider any referral or report of Iran to the Security Council as the end of diplomacy," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by state television.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed on Tuesday that the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog should report to the Council this week on what Iran must do to cooperate with the agency.

But with Russia and China opposed to a dramatic escalation of the Iran case, the agreement stopped short of recommending a formal referral of Iran to the Security Council, where it could face economic sanctions.

"This statement does not discuss referral but I believe that the Europeans should be more careful," the semi-official ISNA students news agency quoted Larijani as saying.

"We have asked for talks with the Europeans which shows that Iran wants to try all amicable ways to achieve peaceful nuclear technology," he said.

Iranian officials have previously said any move to inform or report Tehran's case to the Council would lead it to scale back cooperation with U.N. inspectors and resume uranium enrichment

-- the most sensitive phase of the atomic fuel cycle.

NCRI - The growing international consensus on referring the mullahs' nuclear file to the UN Security Council is a major development in dealing with the regime in the world community. The regime's internal consolidation of power, increased internal repression, and de facto declaration of war on the international community, is an indication of its increased sense of vulnerability in the final phase of its rule in Iran. The regime's international isolation, is a consequence of the new belligerence emanating from Tehran, and is considered to be a political turning point. It also necessarily advances the Iranian national resistance to bring down the religious tyranny.

Tehran's totalitarian regime feels a need to go on the attack in order to fend off threats to its existence, according to regime's strategists like Javad Larijani, mullahs' chief nuclear negotiator, and Mohammad Khatami, former president, otherwise it could implode.

The export of Islamic fundamentalism to Iraq, intensification of efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, and continued internal consolidation of power, are all aspects of the regime’s dilemma. The Iranian Resistance has in contrast blocked the regime's aggressive strategy with its principled policies.

The Iranian people and resistance movement have persistently called for a referral of the mullahs’ nuclear file to the UN Security Council and welcome this as a move in support of democratic change in Iran to end religious dictatorship and establish freedom and democracy in Iran.

Opposing a UNSC referral stands the clerical regime and its apologists who have vested interests in maintaining the regime, in clear conflict with the interests of the Iranian people and the growth of democracy in the region. To this end, the anti-referral front speaks about the disadvantages of a UN referral and sanctions, and accentuates difficulties that sanctions might pose for ordinary Iranians. However such an argument is feeble and will fail because sanctions will deprive the regime of the means with which it suppresses the Iranian people and blackmails the international community and is inevitable due to efforts of Iran’s organized resistance and its supporters inside Iran and across the world.

As the campaign to refer the clerical regime's nuclear file to the Security Council gains ground, supporters of democracy in Iran and peace and security in the region and the world should redouble their efforts to end appeasement and push Tehran’s nuclear file and human rights record before the UN Security Council. This would be the first step in isolating the regime which has suppressed the Iranian nation for two decades and poses unacceptable threats to regional and international peace and security.

The policy of appeasement and all its vestiges against Iranian democracy and world peace should be abandoned. The most harmful aspect of this failed policy has been the terrorist designation of the People's Mojahedin and denial of the Iranian people's inalienable right to resist against a brutal dictatorship.

Advocates of appeasement who now openly admit to its failure should act promptly to remove the terror tag from the People's Mojahedin as a moral duty and recognize its right

NCRI – Iranian regime has invited Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister to Tehran to take part in a conference on the Holocaust by the clerical regime.

"It would be good for Mr. Blair to participate in the Holocaust seminar in Tehran," mullahs' foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters today.

"He can also contribute with an article. If he wants to defend the Holocaust in that article, he can do so. We will give him the time to read out his article so others can hear his point of view," he said.

The conference is planned for next spring.

London (KurdishMedia.com) 28 January 2006: Dr. Roya Toloyee, in a recent interview with Radio Farda, said that she was "violently tortured" by Iranian Security Forces while in prison for sixty-six days. The interview conducted in Persian, The Iranian Regime charged with conspiracy and accused her of leading last summers protests in Sine (Sanandaj) in Eastern Kurdistan.

Dr. Toloyee, Kurdish Human Rights Activist and head of Rasan Newspaper, said that she was kidnapped by seven guards in the Iranian Security Forces while her children watched helplessly crying. During her sixty-six daysin prison, she also said that she was placed in isolation for seventeen days.

During the interview, Dr. Tolyee shed some tears and said she could not talk about the tortures in detail. However, she said that was told by the Iranian Security Forces that they would not stop the torture until she would confess for leading the protests in Eastern Kurdistan.

One of the other charges against Dr. Toloyee by the Iranian Government was for writing a book in the Kurdish language, which she had published in Suleymaniya.
Source: Interview by Radio Farda

IranFocus-Clashes erupted between Iran’s State Security Forces and bus drivers and union activists in the Iranian capital Tehran on Saturday after authorities arrested activists in an attempt to prevent a demonstration that had been planned for the day, local residents told Iran Focus.

Agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), Iran’s notorious secret police, raided the homes of bus drivers in Tehran in the early hours of the morning, arresting hundreds of bus union activists and in some cases their relatives as well, one resident reported.

Those arrested have been taken to unknown locations.

Demonstrations began in several locations throughout the Iranian capital from the morning onwards.

Police shot live rounds into the air and fired teargas at the protesters in an attempt to disperse them, an eye-witness who requested anonymity told Iran Focus by telephone.

“Hundreds of armed agents of the State Security Forces were patrolling and attacking the protestors”

“There were also truck loads of etela’aties (MOIS agents) being brought in to arrest bus drivers who refused to work and were protesting”.

The demonstration had originally been planned in protest to Tehran bus drivers’ insufficient pay and hard working conditions.

Telegraph
portal.telegraph.co.uk

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has warned America and Britain that Teheran will respond with its missiles if attacked over the ongoing crisis surrounding its nuclear capability. "The world knows Iran has a ballistic missile power with a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,300 miles)," Gen Yahya Rahim Safavi said on state-run television.
"We have no intention to invade any country. We will take effective defence measures if attacked. These missiles are in the possession of the Guards."
Iran has sparked renewed international concern over its ambitions by announcing it was resuming work at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
There is growing pressure to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, but American Senator John McCain said yesterday that it was important to maintain the "leverage" of the military option.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, rejected talk of military action against Iran, saying it was "not on the table".
Mr Straw was speaking ahead of talks with Mohamed El-Baradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is not a military option. There certainly is not one on the table, let's be clear about that. And no-one is talking about it.
"I have never had a discussion with any senior American from the very top downwards, except to say the military option is not on the table."
Iran's Revolutionary Guards are a separate organization from the regular armed forces, with their own air, naval and ground components.
Iran insists its nuclear facilities are to provide energy, but other countries fear it is trying to develop a capability to make nuclear weapons.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Iran has little chance of avoiding being hauled before the U.N. Security Council unless it changes its stance on nuclear fuel enrichment, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Saturday.
But Straw would not say directly if he still expected the U.N. nuclear watchdog to decide on a Security Council referral next week -- a prospect that has receded in recent days because of Russian and Chinese reservations.
Asked if such a decision was still possible at the February 2 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Straw told Reuters Television that Iran was "very clearly" not complying with its nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
"We are trying to persuade Iran to come back into compliance. There is some intense diplomacy taking place over this weekend. We will make judgments in the light of discussions which will occur on Monday in London amongst the permanent five Security Council foreign ministers," he said.
Speaking earlier at the World Economic Forum, he said the London meeting would discuss what kind of resolution to put to the IAEA's board of governors after Iran this month moved toward resuming sensitive atomic fuel research.
"If that remains the position, then I think the chances of them avoiding a reference to the Security Council are low," Straw said.
"We would much prefer to resolve this within the IAEA, that's what it's there for, but the IAEA statutes also make clear that where you can't resolve this issue and they're non-compliant -- and they are -- then the matter goes to the Security Council."
While Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, Straw reiterated that it needed to provide "objective guarantees" on this.
"We have no certainty that they have those (weapons) intentions," he said.
But he added: "The working assumption in the international community from all sides is that it is prudent to assume at the least that Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability so that they can have the choice at some stage ... to activate it."

Mullahs intensify domestic suppression in step with creating foreign crises with export of fundamentalism and terrorism

The anti-human clerical regime in Iran has executed five prisoners and condemned 10 others to death in a continuing wave of suppression and extensive violation of the Iranian people’s human rights. State-controlled news agencies reported that two of the victims, Ali Khani and Hassan Ghanbari on January 25 in the city of Qom (situated south of Tehran), and another prisoner named Arash on January 23 in Esfahan (central Iran), and another person on January 18 in Varamin (near Tehran), were all hanged in public.

Another of the victims was according to IRNA news agency Behrouz Mehranpour, a blind and deaf person who was 18 years at the time of his alleged crime.

The wave of brutal executions in Iran is meant to intimidate and terrorize the general public and is the flip side of whipping up foreign crises by the medieval clerical regime in Iran. The Iranian Resistance calls for the clerical regime’s record of gross human rights violations to be referred to the United Nations Security Council.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 27, 2006

List of persons executed:
1. January 25, 2006 – Ali Khani and Hassan Ghanbari, public hanging, Qom (IRNA)
2. January 23, 2006 – Arash Sh., 27, public hanging, Esfahan (Fars News Agency)
3. January 18, 2006 – One person, public hanging, Varamin (Fars News Agency)
4. January 16, 2006 – Behrouz Mehranpour, blind and deaf, 18 years at time of his alleged crime, hanged (IRNA)

List of persons condemned to death:
1. January 26, 2006 – Abol-Ghassem, 23, death sentence upheld by clerical regime’s Supreme Court (Sharq newspaper)
2. January 23, 2006 – Mohammad-Reza, 24, death sentence upheld by clerical regime’s Supreme Court (Hamshahri newspaper)
3. January 17, 2006 – Young couple, sentenced by 102nd District General Penal Court of Esfahan to public hangings (Hamshahri newspaper)
4. January 15, 2006 – Young man named Morteza, death sentence by Tehran’s Penal Court (Hamshahri newspaper)
5. January 11, 2006 – Sadegh, 26, death sentence by 71st District Court (Hamshahri newspaper)
6. January 8, 2006 – Farhad, 36, death sentence upheld by clerical regime’s Supreme Court (Hamshahri newspaper)
7. January 8, 2006 – Hassan Gholi, 27, death sentence by 71st Tehran District Court (Sharq newspaper)
8. January 8, 2006 – 50 year-old man, sentenced to death (Sharq newspaper)
9. January 6, 2006 – young boy, death sentence upheld by clerical regime’s Supreme Court (Etemad newspaper)

NCRI – The workers union at Tehran's Sherkat Vahed (Tehran’s bus company) has called for an all out strike on Saturday, January 28, in protest to detention of Mr. Mansour Asalou, general secretary of the union for undeclared reasons.

In a statement issued on January 24, the union pledged its full support for the demands of the workers and stressed: "The Workers Union of Tehran's bus company will defend the rights of its members wholeheartedly and is ready to pay every price for it including greater hardship, loosing jobs and being taken for interrogations in security centers."

The statement complained that the regime has not met with the demands of the workers so far and instead Mr. Asalou was arrested on January 21 for no known reason. The union called on the workers to stop work on Saturday and hold protest gatherings around the capital until Mr. Asalou is released, the union recognized and the demands of the workers met.

Workers at Tehran’s Sherkat Vahed (Tehran’s bus company) have for years suffered from economic hardships, low wages, difficult working conditions, and lack of minimum professional bonuses as a consequence of the Iranian regime’s repressive policies. The situation has deteriorated considerably for bus drivers in recent months, especially after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has taken office as the new president of the clerical regime.

Authorities in the Iranian regime have attempted in recent months to sow division within the ranks of the company’s workers and have delayed responding to their just demands, held back on wage payments, and attempted to prevent workers’ protests and strikes.

The workers in Tehran's bus company were on strike in late December 2005 for the same demands.

International Federation of Iranian Refugees, UK Branch

Campaign for the rights of Iranian asylum seekers in the UK
We have fled the barbaric regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Under this regime,
laughter, happiness and love are a crime and sexual discrimination, flogging and
executions are the norm. The regime imprisons, tortures and executes people for their
beliefs. It executes children and teenagers. It stones women and men to death and
hangs gays for consensual sex. Under this regime, workers are denied the right to
organise and strike; labour activists are routinely beaten up and imprisoned. There is
no freedom of expression and opposition political activity is banned. Women are
treated as second-class citizens and sexual apartheid rules. Young people are denied
the prospect of any meaningful life; their protests for rights and freedoms are violently
suppressed. The list is endless.
To flee such conditions is the basic right of people, and many have already done so
and continue to do so – often at the cost of endangering their lives and that of their
families. They take such risks to find shelter in other countries in order to escape from
the nightmare of prison, torture and persecution. They risk starvation and death at sea
or in freezing mountains to get themselves to a safe place. Hundreds and thousands
have had their dreams buried on the way to safe zones.
Arriving at a safe shore, such as the UK, is not the end of the agonies of asylum
seekers. For many, another nightmare is just beginning! In clear breach of its
obligations under international conventions on the rights of persons fleeing
persecution, the British government has arbitrarily refused the applications of
thousands of refugees who have fled the Islamic dictatorship in Iran. The reasons for
these refusals do not correlate with the truth. When a refugee says she is a woman
who escaped the Islamic reaction, they do not accept her application. If a worker says
that they had not been paid any salary for months, and the response to their protest
had been arrest and torture, they are told that those are not reasonable grounds for
refugee status. If a student says they were persecuted for their activities against the
regime, they are not believed. If someone says that as a youth they did not have any
political, social or cultural freedoms, their applications are denied any consideration.
The current policy of the British government towards asylum seekers is totally
arbitrary, irresponsible and inhumane. Refusing their applications and deporting them
back to Iran is tantamount to denying the crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and
returning victims back to their persecuters.

Address: IFIR, BM Box 1919, London WC1N 3XX
www.hambastegi.org
E-mail ifiruk@yahoo.com
Tel: 07931866985

The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) in the UK protests against
this policy of the British government. Since 16 January 2006 we have started a
campaign for a period of two months with the following aims:
1-Iran under the Islamic Republic is not a safe country. No Iranian asylum
seeker should be deported to Iran;
2-There should be an immediate stop to all detentions of Iranian asylum seekers.
All those currently in detention in British prisons for the ‘crime’ of seeking
asylum should be freed;
3-Given the present suppressive nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the
British government must change its policy towards the asylum seekers and
grant them refuge.
We urge all humanitarian organisations and individuals to support our campaign.
For more information, please contact Siamak Amjadi, the Secretary of the
International Federation of Iranian Refugees, UK Branch.
Tel: 07946 75 25 34 or 07931 866 985
ifiruk@yahoo.com
BM Box 1919
London WC1N 3XX

MARDIN (DIHA) - In the 2005 report of the human rights breaches, made by the Human Rights Association, Mardin department, 129 out of 138 were made by the security forces.

The report made by HRA Mardin department was about the breaches of the rights to live, to be secure, right of freedom of thought and expression, and the freedom to work. In the report, arresting, torturing, sentencing without a trial, crimes signed against unknown people, mines' explosions, deserved the attention.

In the breaches, 4 people disappeared, 43 were arrested, 7 were threatened by governmental officers, 23 cases were of the death of people in conflicts in the Mardin department districts, 3 people were sentenced without a trial, and 6 people because of mines.

From 138 breaches, 129 were breaches to the right to be secure, by the security forces, from these; 6 cases by the Gendarmerie, 2 by executive guard members and one by the village protectors. Giving the place for a case of rape, another case was about breach concerning the environment. Concerning the right to think, one person was forced to migrate, and investigations were opened to 50 people, or they were sentenced.

Associated Press
By ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration renewed its claim Wednesday that the United States and European allies have enough support from other countries to take Iran before the U.N. Security Council but also indicated some key nations have not committed to that course.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States is encouraging Russia and other nations to vote to refer Iran's case to the Security Council when the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency holds an emergency meeting on the issue next week.

"We believe it's time. Many other members of the international community believe it's time, as well,'' McCormack said.

Russia, India and China are allies and trading partners of Iran who have been reluctant to see Tehran punished or ostracized through the Security Council. All three sit on the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which meets in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 2.

"Right now, we're talking with the Russians, as well as others, about what the diplomatic next steps should be,'' McCormack said.

President Bush, meanwhile, expressed doubts about Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, citing in particular his statements calling for elimination of the state of Israel. "I am very concerned about a president of a great country like Iran declaring his intent, or his interest in the destruction of one of our closest allies,'' Bush said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "And that should be of concern to people who care for the peace around the world.''

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will have a chance to lobby her Russian and Chinese counterparts Monday, during a special meeting on Iran in London.

As for India, the U.S. ambassador there said a landmark nuclear energy deal between India and the United States will fail in Washington if New Delhi supports Iran in the IAEA vote.

The deal, seen as a cornerstone of the emerging alliance between India and the United States, "will die in the Congress,'' U.S. Ambassador David Mulford said.

McCormack put the issue more delicately.

"We would certainly encourage and we would hope that India would vote for referral to the Security Council,'' McCormack said.

"We deal with the Indian government on these two issues as separate issues. Certainly, they come up in the same conversations; I'll tell you that.''

The administration also stressed that the mere act of referring Iran's case to the powerful U.N. body, which can impose a range of sanctions or other measures, may be enough to persuade Tehran to give up disputed nuclear activities.

"It changes the dynamic to have the Iranian weapons program in the spotlight in the Security Council rather than considered at a technical agency in the U.N.,'' U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton told reporters in Washington.

Russia has said the Iran issue should be resolved at the level of the IAEA, which has repeatedly sent inspectors to Iran to survey what Tehran insists is a purely peaceful program to develop the know-how to produce nuclear energy. The United States says Iran really wants to build a bomb and must be prevented from mastering aspects of nuclear technology that could be misused.

Even if the U.S. and its allies prevail in scheduling and winning a vote at the IAEA, it is not clear that the Security Council would then vote for severe penalties. The United States is not pushing for tough economic sanctions now but has not specified what action it wants instead.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator seemed to warm to a Russian proposal Wednesday that could defuse the nuclear crisis, but he said the plan needs work. Ali Larijani said Tehran and Moscow could discuss the proposal further next month - just when the Security Council could take up the Iranian case.

"Over the years, they have made every effort to try to avoid being referred to the Security Council,'' McCormack said. "I think this is just one more move that they are making.''

Russia has offered to perform sensitive uranium enrichment on Iran's behalf, a compromise that would let Iran pursue legitimate civilian nuclear technology.

Larijani also repeated a threat that any attempt to refer Iran to the Security Council would lead the country to move forward with a full-scale uranium enrichment program.

Meanwhile, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector who turned out to be right that Iraq did not posses unconventional weapons was skeptical of taking Iran to the Security Council.

"I think that would harden Iran's attitude,'' Hans Blix said. "It doesn't help very much to go to the council.''

Blix, a Swedish diplomat who once ran the IAEA, spoke in Washington at the 25th anniversary of the Arms Control Association, a private group.

Iran Focus – Iran’s Defence Minister vowed on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would send arch-nemesis Israel into an “eternal coma” if it attacked any of the country’s suspected nuclear weapons sites.

“Israel wouldn’t dare attack Iran, and if it makes such a huge mistake, the response by the defenders of Islamic Iran will put Israel into an eternal coma, just like [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon”, Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar told a press conference in Tehran.

“Of course, you can’t expect anything other than mischief and violence from the illegitimate state of Israel, which has been set up through murder, robbery, and terrorist acts. Their threats just show the violent and terrorist nature of this regime”, Mohammad-Najjar said.

The Defence Minister said that the “Great Satan and the Little Satan”, or the United States and Israel, had embarked on a psychological warfare against Iran.

Mohammad-Najjar, a veteran commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is tied to the suicide bombing of the U.S. Marines compound in Beirut airport in October 1983, which killed 241 Americans.

He was in command of the IRGC expeditionary force in Lebanon when on October 23, 1983, at 6:22 a.m., a suicide bomber drove a large water delivery truck loaded with explosives into the Marine Barracks, killing 241 U.S. service members.

The Americans quickly withdrew their forces from Lebanon and the suicide operation became a turning point in the increasing use of terrorism by radical Islamic fundamentalists across the world.

Mohammad-Najjar also headed the IRGC’s Military Industries Organisation in 1985 which later developed the 320-mm “super mortars” that were intended for use by the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force for terrorist operations in Europe and the Middle East.

Iran Focus- Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States and Britain of being behind twin bomb attacks in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz.

At least eight people died and dozens were injured when two bombs exploded at a bank and a government building in the oil-rich city on Tuesday.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Tehran Wednesday morning, Ahmadinejad said, “The footprints of the occupiers of Iraq in the events in Ahwaz are crystal clear and they must accept responsibility for their criminal actions”.

Separately, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused Britain of involvement in the two bombings.

“Britain must answer the Iranian nation’s questions regarding the events in Ahwaz and the terrorist explosions in Khuzestan [Province]”, Mottaki said.

Ahwaz, the capital of the Arab-dominated province of Khuzestan, has been the scene of unremitting anti-government protests since the start of 2005. Iran has pointed the finger at Britain as the primary instigator of anti-government violence in Khuzestan.

Mottaki said that London had to be answerable for the “cooperation and support of the occupying forces in Basra and the disturbances, explosions, and events that have occurred in Khuzestan”.

The Iranian foreign minister said that his country’s intelligence service was sure that the attacks were planned in either London or in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where British troops are based.

“Yesterday’s attacks were carried out by individuals who along with their likeminded colleagues in London proudly take photos with British officials. In Basra they are supported by British army commanders. The British government must be held accountable to the Iranian nation”, Mottaki said.

The BBC is reporting that access to its Persian language website is being blocked by Iranian authorities.

The block appears to have taken effect over the past three days, according to the Beeb, as tensions between the UK and Iran increased, depriving Iranian web users of a respected, independent news service.

According to the BBC, its Persian website is the most popular of its foreign language websites but in a climate of growing international web censorship some of the world's most controversial regimes are setting their sites on limiting their people's access to such internet resources.

Nigel Chapman, director of the BBC World Service, said: "BBC Persian.com is a major source of news for Iranians and has the biggest impact of any online site or newspaper in Persian.

"We are very concerned at this action and regret that it deprives a great number of ordinary Iranians of a trusted source of impartial and editorially independent news and information."

Chapman said the BBC will be making representations to the Iranian authorities in an attempt to get access to the service reinstated.

He added: "Online is an important part of life in modern Iran; there is a hugely active and engaged online community. The country is a world leader in terms of the proportion of the population engaged in blogging."

networks.silicon.com

The Associated Press - As the Bush administration pushes to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, many members of Congress are advocating get-tough approaches and say military force should remain an option to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Lawmakers largely back the effort to haul Iran before the Security Council over the Iranian government's refusal to give up its uranium enrichment program. But some say they doubt that a simple reprimand from the council — seen as a likely outcome — will be enough to persuade Iran to change course.

Rather, Republicans and Democrats alike say the United States should seek international economic sanctions that are harsh enough to hurt Iran, while securing assurances from Tehran's major trading partners that they will abide by any restrictions the Security Council imposes.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly emphasized that the United States is committed to addressing the Iran standoff diplomatically and is working to line up support for a vote of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the Security Council.

Rice has shied away from discussions of possible U.S. military action, saying the United States is focused on a diplomatic course. But she has consistently said President Bush reserves the right to use any option, including force.

Lawmakers say the threat that Iran could obtain weapons of mass destruction is so serious that the international community must act decisively to halt Iran's nuclear program. The Bush administration should not rule out other avenues should diplomatic efforts fail, they say.

"It's important to give diplomacy a try, but I don't believe we should take any option — including military force — off the table," said Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, chairman of the Senate Armed Services emerging threats subcommittee.

"If you eliminate the threat of military action, the possibility of it, then there's no way to secure compliance," added Rep. Gary Ackerman (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., a House International Relations Committee member.

The standoff with Iran over its nuclear program has intensified in the month that Congress has been away from Washington for its holiday break.

Iran has broken U.N. seals at a uranium enrichment plant and said it was resuming nuclear research after a 2 1/2-year hiatus. European countries declared dead their negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

The Iranian government claims its intention is purely peaceful — to generate electricity. But the United States and its allies fear Iran has a more threatening objective — making nuclear bombs.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said diplomatic efforts must be exhausted before turning to the "last option," the use of force.

"There's only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option, and that is Iran having nuclear weapons," the No. 2 Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said on "Fox News Sunday."

Some analysts have said that while an American military strike could destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, it would anger U.S. allies, intensify the Muslim world's bitterness toward the United States, drive up oil prices and rally Iranians behind their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said the United States and European countries must do everything possible to secure the support of China and Russia to take Iran before the Security Council, and then stake out "a tough posture" that includes sanctions.

However, said Obama, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, "We have to be judicious in how we apply sanctions — there may be some sanctions that may not make a difference."

Rep. Christopher Smith (news, bio, voting record), R-N.J., vice chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said: "We need to use the diplomatic means very, very aggressively."

Some lawmakers are suggesting that new Iranian leadership is needed.
Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said that for now, the United States and its allies must intensify its pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program. "But ultimately," he said, "there must be change in the country's leadership. The current Iranian government is a corrupt and dangerous regime that's out of step with its citizens."

Cornyn said Iran has become more authoritarian and autocratic. "We need to do a better job of letting pro-democracy forces in Iran know that we are supportive of their efforts of peaceful regime change," he said.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators led by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Norm Coleman, R-Minn., has introduced a resolution condemning Iran's nuclear program, calling for the immediate suspension of uranium enrichment activities and endorsing a referral of Iran to the Security Council.

At the same time, Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record), D-Ind., is pushing his own resolution that in part accuses Bush of ignoring the threat of Iran for years.

NCRI – Iranian regime accused Britain on Wednesday of cooperation with terrorists who bombed southern Iranian city of Ahwaz on Tuesday. Eight people were reported to have been killed in this bombing.

Mullahs' foreign minister Mottaki told a press conference: "Their (British) co-operation, either in London or Basra, is clear and we will seriously express this to British officials." He added: "They enjoy the cooperation of British army commanders and use their facilities in Basra."

"We hope British officials take this seriously, put it on their agenda and act accountably," caustioned Mottaki.

The British government rejected the new allegation as "completely without foundation."

"We reject these allegations from Mottaki," a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP. "Any linkage between HMG (Her Majesty's Government) and these terrorist attacks is completely without foundation."

According to Rooz Online, a site related to supporters of the Reform movement in Iran reported that Rafsanjani cut his trip to Mash'had short and rushed back to Tehran to take part in an "emergency meeting". Ahmadinejad whose meeting with Moqtada Al Sadr was cancelled at the last minute postponed his trip to Khuzestan, till next week. The tone of western media has taken with the Islamic regime is tougher than even that taken with Iraq.

Last week, when 5 world powers refused the Islamic regimes invitation to further discussions, the crisis that the regime has been facing moved into a new phase. Major western countries have formed a coalition with the U.S. and the western press; especially French newspapers have begun to take an extremely confrontational and combative tone against the entire Islamic regime as well as Ahmadinejad himself. On Monday, Jan. 23rd, British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, commented on the Holocaust conference organized by the Islamic regime, calling it "alarming, laughable and idiotic". Touching on Jacques Chiracs comment regarding France's response with nuclear weapons to a state-sponsored terrorist, Blair said: "I agree with President Chiracs concerns regarding existing danger around the world". While German foreign minister, Frank Walter Steinmeyer said: "Where Iran is concerned, we have shown a great deal of patience."

All in all, the quantity of news and information at hand shows that the IAEA, March 6th session of the Board of Governors will probably refer the Islamic regimes nuclear dossier to the U.N. Security Council.

Abbass Abdi, a Reformist supporter of Khatami who was a student leader of the Line of Imam and one of the masterminds of the 1979 U.S. embassy seizure thinks that an attack on Iran will not take place until the regimes dossier has been discussed in the security council however Rooz online, in an article entitled "Our Iran" indicates: "The time frame for U.S. and Israeli military action against Iran is March/April of 2006 which coincides with the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq."

Fidel Castro, a close ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran, expressed grave concern on Monday, January 23rd about a possible U.S. attack on Iran. The Islamic regimes authorities mirrored Castro words. Rafsanjani, the millionaire mullah also spoke of imminent danger several times during the last two weeks and warning the regime called for a united front of all forces. The

representative of the Khamnei, the supreme leader in the revolutionary guards with the usual Mullah spin and dismissals called the U.S. attack "vain", yet the Mullah Moussavi-Khoeiniha plainly stated: "Iran is in the most difficult position it has been in, in 27 years [since the beginning of the revolution]."

Hossein Shariatmadari, the nefarious editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper, Khamneis mouthpiece and broadcaster of the "Hidden factions axis" in two articles printed in that newspaper, also reiterated imminent danger. Addressing the regimes authorities of the regime, he wrote: "Don't nod off and fall asleep because the enemy is wide awake".

In the Monday, January 23rd, emergency meeting that was called in Tehran, the regimes authorities clearly discussed recent dangerous events; the plan is to move 2 simultaneous policies in the front against the west. From one side, Ali Larijani's (the secretary of the High Council of Security of the Islamic regime) team toils to create a rift between the world front while playing the Chinese and Russians and on the other side a regional front in the face of military attacks is rapidly being reinforced. Ahmadinejads sudden trip to Syria, his meetings with the authorities of Lebanese Hezbollah, the gangster Al Sadrs impromptu visit to Tehran to visit Larijani and Rafsanjani are all a part of the actions taken by the middle east power mongers to strengthen their base.

At this juncture six months have passed from the start of Ahmadinejads reign and finally the Islamic regime faces a possible war and direct confrontation with world powers; the countdown to counter-revolution has begun.

iranpressnews.com/english/source/010195.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members and Germany will meet in London on Monday to try to agree on how to tackle Iran's nuclear programme, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
It cited diplomats as saying the meeting would give Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany a last opportunity to forge a common position before the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) holds an emergency meeting on Iran on February 2.
The United States and its European allies want the Vienna-based IAEA to refer Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions. Russia and China are urging caution.
The New York Times report from Vienna also said IAEA officials had flown to Tehran on Tuesday where it said they would give Iran a last chance to cooperate fully with the agency's demands on the country's past nuclear activities
It quoted agency officials as saying Olli Heinonen, deputy director general for safeguards, would press demands for access to a former military site in Tehran, information about Iran's dealings with an international nuclear black market and information about possible work related to nuclear weapons.
Britain, France and Germany, negotiating with Iran on behalf of the European Union with U.S. support, broke off talks this month after Tehran removed IAEA seals on uranium enrichment equipment and announced it was resuming nuclear fuel research.
The West suspects Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic programme. Tehran denies this.

The Associated Press
Steve Gutterman

Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Wednesday that Tehran views Moscow's offer to have Iran's uranium enriched in Russia as a positive development but no agreement has been reached between the countries. Chief negotiator Ali Larijani also reiterated Iran's threat to renew enrichment activities if it is referred to the U.N. Security Council.

Moscow has proposed having Iran's uranium enriched in Russia, then returned to Iran for use in the country's reactors — a compromise that could provide more oversight and ease tensions with the United States and European Union over Iran's nuclear program.

Haggling has continued over the specifics of the proposal, including Tehran's proposal to have China involved in the Russian enrichment process.

After talks with Russian Security Council chief Igor Ivanov, which included discussion of the plan, Larijani told a news conference: "Our view of this offer is positive, and we are trying to bring the positions of the sides closer."

"This plan can be perfected in the future, during further talks that will be held in February," he said.

Larijani suggested it would take some time to work out details of Russia's proposal. Some critics allege the Iranians are using the proposal to stall for time as Western diplomatic pressure on Tehran mounts over its alleged nuclear weapons program.

On Tuesday, Larijani and Ivanov said in a joint statement that Tehran's nuclear standoff must be resolved by diplomatic efforts in the U.N. atomic watchdog agency.

The statement reflected Russia's efforts to delay Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council and Moscow's opposition to international sanctions against Tehran.

"Both sides expressed their desire to solve the issue in a diplomatic way within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency," Russia's Security Council said after the two met.

Iran has warned that IAEA referral to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear ambitions would lead it to move forward with a full-scale uranium enrichment program, a possible precursor to making atomic weapons.

High-level diplomacy has intensified with little more than a week to go until the Feb. 2 meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board.

Prior to that session, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will attend an international conference in London on Jan. 31 focusing on Afghanistan, but department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice is expected to use the meeting to have discussions with key nations on Iran's nuclear program.

The New York Times reported that the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, France, Russia and China, in addition to the United States — as well as Germany would attend the meeting.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged Tehran on Tuesday to seriously consider Russia's offer to enrich its uranium in an effort to end the standoff.

Straw also said in an interview with The Associated Press that he hoped the IAEA would refer the matter to the Security Council.

The West fears Iran wants to develop a nuclear bomb but Tehran says its intentions are peaceful and that it wants only civilian nuclear energy.

Iran removed IAEA seals from equipment Jan. 10, ending a 15-month moratorium, and announced it would restart experiments including what it described as small-scale enrichment. The move led negotiators Germany, Britain and France to call for the Feb. 2 emergency board session.

European countries believe they have enough votes to haul Iran before the Security Council but they want broad support including Russia, China and key developing nations.

In Washington, Rice said that "referral absolutely has to be made" on Feb. 2, while remaining vague on what action she thought the Security Council should take, and when.

The Financial Times
Gareth Smyth in Tehran

Mohammad-Jaafar Mojarrad, Iran's central bank vice-governor, said yesterday Tehran had withdrawn foreign reserves from Italian banks but not from elsewhere in Europe.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Mojarrad said comments suggesting a switch away from Europe from Ebrahim Sheibani, the bank governor, had been "misquoted" on Friday by Iranian news agencies.

Iran had long liked "some mystery" over the size and whereabouts of its foreign exchange holdings as a precaution, he said. But its withdrawal of funds from Italy resulted from a specific legal case, he said, rather than fear of international sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme.

A Rome court in December ordered Banca Nazionale del Lavoro to freeze an Iranian government account over Iran's alleged culpability for the deaths of three Americans at the hands of Palestinian militants in Israeli-occupied Gaza.

Reports of Mr Sheibani's remarks caused flutters in exchange markets, reflecting wider concerns over possible sanctions if the European Union and US persuade next week's board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, to send Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council.

Mr Mojarrad said he wanted to "reassure the financial community" that Iran could redeposit funds in Italy if it received a favourable legal opinion requested from the Bank of Italy on the immunity of the funds of central banks.

But he argued Friday's reports had backed up Iran's view that sanctions would create a "lose-lose" situation if they were imposed.

Mr Mojarrad said the chance of financial sanctions was "very low", and doubted the US would stop Iran receiving oil revenue in dollars. But he said the bank had made contingency plans.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Iran has foreign exchange reserves of $30.6bn (€25bn, £17bn) in hard currency and $9bn in foreign, possibly illiquid, assets. Mr Mojarrad estimated total foreign exchange receipts for the Iranian year ending March 2006 at $52bn, with $42bn from oil sales.

He said about $10bn would be transferred into the Oil Stabilisation Fund, which collects windfall oil revenue for development projects, private-sector loans and budget stabilisation in the event of falling oil prices.

The OSF would contain $18bn at year end, double the level at the end of 2004-05. Mr Mojarrad said Iran could achieve 13.5 per cent inflation in 2006-07 in spite of a draft budget from President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad that envisages a 27 per cent increase in spending, a level most analysts say will push inflation above the current 15 per cent.

Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's proposals, which include new commitments to loans for the less well-off and development schemes in the provinces, still need parliamentary approval.

*Iran yesterday blamed outsiders for two bombs that killed eight people and injured more than 40 in Ahvaz, capital of Khuzestan province, south-west Iran. The explosions came after Mr Ahmadi-Nejad cancelled, late on Monday, a four-day visit to the province due to "bad weather". The bombs went off close to the time and venue of a speech the president was due to make.

IranFocus-The British Foreign Office announced on Tuesday that it was changing its ambassador to Iran later on in the year.

Geoffrey Adams CMG will be replacing Sir Richard Dalton who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment, the Foreign Office said on its website.

The new envoy will take up the post in March 2006.

Adams, 48, had been the Principal Private Secretary to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw from 2003 to 2005.

Prior to that he had been the United Kingdom’s Consul General in Jerusalem, acting as the Representative to the Palestinian Authority.

His diplomatic service dates back to 1979.

NCRI – The ruling regime in Iran insisted on its plan to hold a conference on the Holocaust according to its foreign ministry spokesman on Tuesday. Tony Blair, The British Prime Minister was also accused of "intolerance" for criticising the event. He said: "The comments by Prime Minister Tony Blair insult the intelligence of people around the world," adding, "For half a century, the defenders of the Holocaust have used every tribune to defend their position, and now have to listen to others."

Blair branded the plan "shocking, ridiculous, stupid" in a comment on Monday. But mullahs' foreign ministry spokesman reiterated on the views of the regime brazenly and said: "Sadly, blind intolerance and political interests and objectives have closed the eyes of the Holocaust defenders to the realities of the world, and they even reject the very principle of a scientific conference."

The date for the event has not yet been announced.

ILNA, the regime-run news agency reported that a court in the Province of Gilan, in the second round of hearings sentenced journalist and blogger, Arash Cigarchi to 3 years in prison for insulting Khamnei, the supreme leader. Last February, branch 3 of the revolutionary court of Gilan sentenced Cigarchi who was the editor of Gilan Emrooz (Gilan Today) Newspaper, to 14 years in prison. He was charged with "cooperating with the terrorist government of America" because he had given an interview to Radio Farda (The Persian Broadcast of Radio Free Europe); his other charges were "insulting the leadership", "stirring public opinion against national security and publicity against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s rule". After serving 60 days, Cigarchi accompanied by his attorneys appeared at the court of appeals where he was released on $100,000 bail and had been free until his recent sentencing.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Bombs ripped through a bank and government building in Iran's mainly Arab southern city of Ahvaz on Tuesday, killing four people, police said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been due to visit the city on Tuesday, but his office said he had cancelled the trip on Monday night because of sandstorms which would have stopped him doing his hallmark walks through the streets.
However, Lebanon's al-Manar television, run by the pro-Iranian Hizbollah group, said the bombs had been intended to kill Ahmadinejad. Its Tehran correspondent said the president had called off his trip after a security tip-off.
Iranian news agencies said fire had gutted the Saman bank and broken glass littered streets around the blast sites.
"Four people have been killed and 40 injured up to now," police spokesman Mehdi Ahmadi said.
Officials at Ahvaz's Mehr hospital said it had transferred one person to another hospital to have a leg amputated and said another three of the wounded might need similar operations.
Iranian authorities are sensitive about protests and discontent among the Islamic Republic's Arab minority in Ahvaz and the surrounding province of Khuzestan, which sits on most of the country's oil reserves, the second biggest in the world.
Ahvaz has been tense since April, when five people died in protests sparked by rumours the government was considering settling non-Arabs in Khuzestan to dilute Arab influence there.
Seven people were killed in bombings in June and six died in a blast in October.

Explosions in bank and government building, news agency reports

Bombs exploded in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, killing four and wounding others, Iran's Mehr news agency reported Tuesday.
Fire engines and ambulances rushed to the site of the explosions, Mehr News Agency said. The report did not identify the site of the blasts nor did it say who were the suspected perpetrators.
State television(IRNN) said the explosions occurred in a bank and a government building.

NCRI

Iran’s vast oil and gas reserves have been used to perpetuate the life of the religious dictatorship ruling that country. Now, the mullahs are brandishing the “oil weapon” in an attempt to blackmail the international community.

Tehran’s top nuclear negotiators boast brazenly that if in the case of referral to the UN Security Council and the imposition of sanctions, they will use their "full national capabilities" against the West. This "full national capabilities" is a clear reference to the use of oil as a weapon.

In reaction to EU's expressed intention to refer the clerical regime's nuclear file to the Security Council, Tala'ee Nik, a member of the regime’s parliamentary committee on security, said: "A chaotic oil market and a weak European market will prevent any sanctions against Iran."

During the EU3 meeting in Berlin last week, the state-owned media in Iran repeatedly said that as soon as the Tehran’s nuclear case is referred to the Security Council oil prices will jump to $100 a barrel as Iran is the forth largest oil exporter. Although it might appear to be obvious, but highlighting the issue so frequently indicates the regime's fear of the world community's change of attitude and its attempt to pre-empt any move towards a firm policy.

Tehran also warned that the primary loser in an oil embargo will be Western countries, in particular the EU. With this hollow sabre rattling, the regime is hoping to coerce the world to back down and allow it to push forward with its nuclear ambitions.

If the world blinks from imposing sanctions for defiance now, the regime’s leaders might conclude that their oil threat will deter real penalties at each future step in the confrontation.

That's a formula for disaster. As U.S. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana put it, "If we knuckle under" to oil blackmail today, "tomorrow it could be nuclear-weapons-based blackmail, and that is a place we cannot allow ourselves to go."

Withholding its oil supplies would be painful for the regime: Oil accounts for about 80% of its exports and about half of its government revenue.

In face of the mullahs' blackmail, especially now that its deceptive policies have led to the present impasse, the following three points ought to be noted:

1. In principle, giving in to blackmail is wrong and unacceptable. The theocratic dictatorship ruling Iran must be made to understand that any form of blackmail such as hostage taking, terrorism and use of oil as a weapon are totally and decisively rejected.
2. Giving in to the regime’s blackmail will only embolden it to demand more concessions. The experience of the past two years is clear proof of the failure of appeasement. If the mullahs succeed in their blackmail now, there will be no limit to their demands when they possess nuclear weapons.
3. Despite its blackmail, the regime needs to export oil as this has helped it to prolong its suppressive rule, and to spread insecurity to the region and world.

In view of this, the only appropriate approach to the problem in Iran is firmness. The clerical regime should know that they cannot take the world hostage in their desire to establish an Islamic empire of medieval fundamentalists.

The Washington Post
Ivo Daalder and Philip Gordon

Iran's decision to resume nuclear enrichment activities -- a key step in the process of making nuclear weapons -- is a direct challenge to the United States, Europe and the rest of the world. For more than two years now, Europe -- with Washington's support -- has offered Tehran a reasonable deal: End the nuclear enrichment work it had been doing in secret for nearly two decades and receive technical support for a civilian nuclear energy program as well as expanded economic and diplomatic ties.

Last week, the new Iranian government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad basically told the international community to get lost. It resumed research and development activities that had been suspended during the talks with the Europeans, still claiming that its nuclear program was entirely peaceful. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel made clear on her visit to Washington this month, even those most committed to a diplomatic solution with Iran now accept that diplomacy has run its course, and the time for decision and action has arrived.

But what decision, and what action? In the debate about how to respond to Iran, two opposing camps have emerged: One wants to give in to Iran; the other wants to bomb it. Both are wrong.

In the first camp are those -- mostly in Europe, but also in many other parts of the world -- who accept Tehran's argument that it has a right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. And while they would oppose an Iranian bomb, they argue that there is little we can do to prevent a determined Iran from building one eventually and that, in any case, a nuclear-armed Iran can be contained. It would be difficult to get international support for economic sanctions, they say, and even if Russia and China were somehow to agree to them, sanctions would fail to change policy -- as in Iraq, North Korea and Cuba.

This view is entirely too complacent. It's a delusion to believe that Iran's program is for civilian purposes only and that allowing Iran to master nuclear enrichment is therefore no big deal. Given Iran's long track record of hiding and lying about important aspects of its nuclear program, allowing it to develop enrichment and reprocessing capabilities -- even under an international inspection regime -- would remove the most important technical barrier to its acquiring nuclear weapons and leave the decision of going nuclear entirely in the hands of Ahmadinejad's radical Islamist government. That is an unacceptable risk.

The dangers of an Iranian bomb are clear. Others -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey -- could follow suit, both in order to deter Tehran and in the well-warranted belief that a world that allowed Iran to build a bomb would surely allow them to do so as well. This would be a fatal blow to the already shaky nuclear nonproliferation regime, which for nearly 40 years has helped convince countries as diverse as Sweden, South Korea, Brazil and Ukraine that the costs of acquiring nuclear weapons far outweigh the benefits. Moreover, a nuclear-armed Iran would represent a major threat to regional and global security. It could deter the United States and others from responding to Iranian aggression or to Tehran's support for terrorism in the Middle East and beyond. And given the messianic streak of Tehran's current leaders, do we really want to run the risk of them passing nuclear materials or even a weapon on to al Qaeda?

On the other side of the debate are those -- mostly in the United States -- who think that the time has come to use military force against Iran. Because diplomacy has failed and we are, as President Bush has said, "all sanctioned-out" as far as Iran is concerned, the only option left is a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities before it is too late. If ever there were a case, they argue, for making good Bush's vow -- that America will "not allow the world's most dangerous regimes to possess . . . the world's most dangerous weapons" -- this is it.

This view, too, is wrong. U.S. air strikes probably could destroy Iran's critical nuclear facilities -- at least those we know about. But our intelligence is hardly perfect, so we would not really know if Tehran's nuclear program was in fact destroyed. A military attack against Iran would also undoubtedly generate strong public support among Iranians for an otherwise unpopular regime. Any lingering doubt that they needed a nuclear deterrent would be erased.

And are we prepared for what Iran could do in return? Through its Shiite partners in Iraq and Afghanistan, it could wreak havoc on our forces and undermine our efforts to stabilize both countries. It could threaten oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than one-third of the world's oil flows, and urge its terrorist friends to launch retaliatory strikes against our allies and us.

The option of relying on Israel to strike Iranian targets -- as alluded to last year by Vice President Cheney -- would be even worse. The Israelis would conduct the operation less effectively because of their more limited military means (striking targets in eastern Iran would be a stretch for Israel's limited-range F-15s), and the United States would bear the responsibility anyway, not least if it allowed the Israelis to fly over U.S.-controlled airspace in Iraq.

Given these bad options, what should the United States and Europe do instead? The answer is that they should do what they said they would do -- make Iran pay a real price if it refuses to suspend its uranium enrichment activities again. This means first making a concerted effort to win Russian and Chinese support for tough action at the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N. Security Council next month. Ideally, the Security Council should not only denounce Iran's actions but agree on an oil embargo and a ban on investment in Iran.

The credibility of sanctions would be enhanced if it were clear that negotiations could resume -- and punitive actions be suspended -- as soon as Tehran terminates the enrichment activities it recently resumed. The offer to support a civilian nuclear energy program, increase trade and investment -- and even engage in regional security talks and restore diplomatic relations with the United States -- would also remain on the table.

But if Tehran refuses to back down, it must pay a price. And while Russia and China may not go along, Europe, Japan and the United States should not hide behind their refusal. The argument that sanctions won't work without China, Russia and India on board is overstated. Only Western companies at present possess the sort of expertise and technology that Iran's energy sector needs, and in an integrated world oil market, whatever oil China and India purchase from Iran liberates supplies elsewhere. Iran could, of course, retaliate by pulling its oil off the world market, which would cause a price spike. But if Americans and Europeans are unwilling to run the risk of a temporary rise in oil prices as part of what it takes to prevent an Iranian bomb, then they had better be prepared to live with the consequences as well.

The Iranian government believes, as Ahmadinejad put it recently, that "you [the West] need us more than we need you." Do we really want to encourage him in this belief?

There is no guarantee that making the threat of sanctions more credible or actually imposing them will have an immediate and positive effect, but given the alternatives it certainly makes sense to find out. And even if sanctions don't work in the short term, they would still be useful to give future Iranian leaders an incentive to cooperate and to send a message to other potential proliferators. At the very least, serious sanctions would slow the nuclear program by squeezing the Iranian economy and cutting off key technologies, would further strain the already disgruntled middle classes who might one day push the current regime aside, and would serve as leverage in the future if Iran ever does decide to engage the West.

Iran must be presented with a clear choice: It can become an impoverished, isolated pariah state with nuclear weapons -- like North Korea -- or it can begin to reintegrate with the international community, meet the needs of its people and preserve its security in exchange for forgoing this capability. The choice will be for the Iranians to make. But we must force them to make it.

Authors' e-mails: pgordon@brookings.edu, idaalder@brookings.edu

Ivo Daalder and Philip Gordon are senior fellows in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. They are editors, along with Nicole Gnesotto, of "Crescent of Crisis: U.S.-European Strategy for the Greater Middle East," which has just been published by Brookings.

Appointmetn of Pour-Mohammadi to head State Security Council
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian regime’s president, appointed Mullah Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Interior Minister and one of the key officials involved in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, to head the State Security Council.
The State Security Council coordinates domestic security affairs between the State Security Forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and other security forces and agencies. Pour-Mohammadi’s appointment to the post follows another appointment on January 2 by Khamenei when Pour-Mohammadi was named the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the State Security Forces (SSF). The aim of the appointments is intensified repression in the face of an unprecedented increase in social protests in recent months.
Pour-Mohammadi was a deputy minister of the Intelligence Ministry since its inception in 1984 and its representative in the three-man “Death Commission” in 1988 that was tasked with implementing Khomeini’s fatwa (religious decree) to massacre 30,000 Mojahedin and other dissident political prisoners in that year. Pour-Mohammadi was among the principals in the "chain murders" in the 1990s, in which dozens of dissidents, writers and intellectuals were abducted and brutally murdered.
Atrocities perpetrated by Pour-Mohammadi are the most manifest examples of crimes against humanity for which he must be brought before an international criminal court.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has transferred no money from its foreign accounts, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Sunday, denying reports from the central bank governor that such transfers had begun.
"So far we have not moved any hard currency, we have not transferred it," he told reporters at a news conference.
Iran faces possible U.N. economic sanctions over its disputed atomic programme and has bitter memories of its U.S. assets being frozen after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Central Bank Governor Ebrahim Sheibani was quoted on Friday as saying Iran was transferring money from its foreign accounts, a statement which sent brief jitters through currency markets.
He had said earlier in the week that Iran stood ready to repatriate its oil earnings held in foreign accounts, should that prove necessary.

Please Be Extremely Careful especially if using internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning from Microsoft and Norton. Please send it to everybody you know who accesses the Internet. You may receive an apparently harmless email with a " Life is beautiful. pps". If you receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES , and delete it immediately. if you open this file, a message will appear on your screen saying: " It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful", subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and the person who sent it to you gain access to your name, e-mail and password. This is a new virus ! which started to

circulate on Saturday afternoon WE NEED TO DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE
-----------------------------------

ئاگادریه کی زور گرینگ !

تکایه زۆر زۆر وشیار بن ئه گه ر له ئه و ئیمه یڵانه وه ک

Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL

که لک وه ر ده گرن ،ئه م به یانیه له لایه ن مایکرۆسافت و نۆرتن ئه م ئاگادایه بلاو کراوه ته وه .

تکایه به رێکه بو هه مو ئه وانه ی ئینترنت به کار دێنن . ئێوه ئیمه یلیکی له زاهیردا بێ ئازاره که له

دروست کراوه به ناوی Power Point presentation

به ده ستتان ده گات . ئه گه ر به ده ستتان گه یشت " Life is beautiful. pps".

به هیچ عینوانێک مه یکه نه وه و خێرا بی سڕنه وه . ئه گه ر ئه و فایله باز بکه ن په یغامێک دێته سه ر شاشه ی کامپیوتره که تان که ده ڵێ : زۆر دره نگه ژیان ئیتر جوان نیه ، له هه مان کات دا هه مو

فایله کانت له کامپیوتره که ت دا له ده ست ده ده ی . ئه و که سه ی ئه و فایڵه ی ناردوه ده ستی

به هه مو نهێنیه کانت وه کو ئیمه یل و کۆدی ره مز و شتی دیکه ده گات . ئه مه ڤایرۆسێکی تازه یه که

له ڕۆژه شه مه وه ده ستی به کار کردوه

www.rojhelatpres.com/jan-06/21-3.htm

KIRKUK (DIHA) - The convoy of Celal Talabani, Iraqi President was attacked with bomb while returning Federal Kurdistan Region to Baghdad. It was reported that Talabani was not in the convoy and 5 personnel from the presidency were wounded.

Iraqi President Celal Talabani's convoy was bombed while returning from Fedaral Kurdistan Region to Baghdad. Iraqi police stated that the bomb in question was blown up in Tuz on the 70 kilometer south of Kirkuk while the convoy was returning from Fedaral Kurdistan Region on Friday.

The police said that the Iraqi president Celal Talabani was not in the convoy. According to explanation from the police, Talabani is not among those wounded but one of his counselors was. While there was not information given about the wounded, spokesman of presidency did not make an explanation about the event.

On the other hand, an Englishmen working for a private security company in Iraq lost died when a bomb set up near the road. There is not information about the place and the identity of the English citizen.

While the international stand-off over the Iranian regime’s nuclear program goes on, the ruling mullahs in Tehran are in hot pursuit of the Atomic-Bomb.

At a Westminster news conference on Friday, January 20, Ms. Dowlat Nowrouzi, the United Kingdom representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said "According to the information obtained by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, a part of the vast illegal nuclear weapons program of the mullahs’ regime is being conducted in a top-secret site well away from the eyes of international inspectors."

Based on the information obtained from within the regime, the site is called the “Materials and Energy Research Center” which operates under the cover of a scientific and industrial research centre affiliated to the Ministry of Science. The site is located on the edge of Meshkin-Dasht some forty kilometers to the west of Tehran.

"The mullahs’ regime has succeeded in obtaining two types of equipments, the Hot Iso-static Press and the Hot Press, to shape enriched uranium as part of the production of the atomic bomb and both of these machines are banned items," Nowrouzi revealed, adding, "these machines are able to use simultaneously pressure and heat to produce uranium spheres for production of nuclear bomb."

The mullahs’ regime tried to obtain these machines from western countries, including Belgium, under the cover of scientific research at Tehran University.

In addition to these illegal activities, the mullahs’ regime has attempted to reproduce these machines in Iran.

The Belgian daily, Le Soir, in a report on April 29, 2005 refers to a secret fax from the Belgian Finance Ministry which was sent to custom services throughout the country. The document as reported by Le Soir reads: “An investigation has revealed that some of the Belgian companies, on behalf of European community, have tried to export equipments with 'Dual use' without an official license."

The document particularly refers to “pressing equipment used for Iso Static nuclear materials” which could be “exported to Iran.” The pressing machines are used to adjust pressure within a mold consisting of liquid, gas and rigid materials.

In a report submitted by Mr. Al-Baradei, the director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency on November 18, 2005, it said: “Among the documents was one related to the procedural requirements for the reduction of UF6 to metal in small quantities, and on the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms,…”

Labour peer Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, chairman of the Parliamentary British Committee for Iran Freedom, described this information as further evidence of the regime’s intention to acquire nuclear weapons.

Lord Corbett and Ms Nowrouzi called for the immediate referral of this matter to the UN Security Council for the adoption of comprehensive sanctions against the regime.
www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/913/76/

NCRI - A young couple were hanged in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for alleged murder according to media reports today.

The couple were identified by their first names, Raheleh (wife) and Babak (husband). The sentences were carried out after they were endorsed by the clerical regime's high court.

Total number of executions since the appointment of Ahmadinejad as mullahs' president last June has gone over 140. This is a figure based on media reports and does not take into account the secret executions.

The Organization of the Defense of Human Rights of Kurdistan reports that a political activist from the town of Oshnoviyeh was returned to prison for another 3-year sentence after being released from having served nearly 8 months. Soleiman Minapaak, 33, a resident of the Sowjeh village in Oshnoviyeh Township, was released on a $330000 from Oroumiyeh prison, on December 27th, 2005. However, based on the latest regulations he has once again been sentenced to another 3 years to be served at Daryaa prison. Minapaak has been charged with cooperation with the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran, which has said it is shifting its money out European accounts as the threat of U.N. sanctions mounts, will not move its currency assets to Asia, a deputy central bank governor said on Saturday.

Tehran has bitter memories of its U.S. assets being frozen shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution and many foreign and domestic media speculated that Iran was eying accounts in Malaysia, Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong.

"Iran at the moment has no plan to transfer its currency accounts to those countries," Mohammad Jafar Mojarrad told the official IRNA news agency, when asked about the reports on Tehran shifting its holdings east.

The Central Bank of Iran confirmed to Reuters that his remarks were a correct representation of policy but declined to comment further.

Several economists have speculated Iran could prefer to move its assets to Gulf and other Islamic accounts.

Iran faces referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions after failing to allay the world's suspicions it is seeking atomic weapons. Iran says it needs atomic power only for generating electricity.

Central Bank Governor Ebrahim Sheibani said on Wednesday that Iran would repatriate its assets held abroad should that prove to necessary.

It is unclear how much of Iran's copious oil wealth is kept in foreign accounts. The Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO), the trade and financing arm of the state oil company, is based in Switzerland.

Economists estimate Iran will have earned more than $40 billion in oil earnings by the end of the 12 months to March 2006. Of this, $16 billion goes straight to budgeted government spending.

The rest goes to the Central Bank of Iran which keeps an unknown amount of holdings in foreign accounts

Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan said ''Turkish Government will be responsible if I will be destroyed in Imrali Prison''. The lawyer of Mr. Ocalan, Ibrahim Bilmez gave explanations to ANF, after the yesterdays 1 hour interview with Mr. Ocalan in prison. He said that; Mr. Ocalan is straining to a death like suicide in Imrali and he is under pressure.

Bilmez also said that, except 20 days cabin punishment also 7 days cabin punishment was applied de facto.

Mr. Abdullah Ocalan commented to his lawyers. Mr. Ocalan explained that except 20 days cabin punishment also 7 days cabin punishment was applied de facto. Also he said that he is straining to a death like suicide. He said that he knows the bad results of this, and also he knows that Kurdish People don't want this and because of this he won't make an action like this. But Turkish Government will be responsible, not him, if there will be a death.

Bilmez said that this de facto 7 days cabin punishment is not legal. Because they didn't certify this to Execution Court. He noticed that Prison Management apply this punishment de facto.

Cabin punishment which was given on 21st November, was applied continuous 27 days. The punishment had been finished on 16th December. In the cabin punishment Mr. Ocalan can not read books, can not listen radio, they were hindered. Also the daily newspapers wasn't given to him.

Ocalan said that this punishment was given to him, because of he was stimulated people to rebellion and he gave instructions to organisation. But he didn't accept this crime. He said "I didn't provoke the people, I didn't give instructions to organisation, I only defend the education in mother-language".

THEY WANT TO SILENCE ME

Ocalan said like this; "I believe that education in mother-language is the basic right of the people. This right is in all international agreements. This won't be a crime. But despite my good will, they give this punishment to me. This application is a reflection of Semdinli. There is a strategical coo peration between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Deniz Baykal. They want to silence me. I don't understand this. Because the thing that want to do is clear, for 7 years. I tried to live in these cabin situations for 7 years just for peace. I was resisted to live. Despite this, they want to silence me, and they want to destroy me for these last punishments.

MY HEALTH SITUATIONS BECAME HEAVIER

Mr. Ocalan said that, it is possible for them to give another punishment because of this interview. Even he is expecting a punishment until 3 months. He explained that the situation of the cabin is very hard. He said "I strained to look same white wall in the cabin. They want to batter me in psychological way. Except this, during this time, all my communication with external world had been cut off. And my health situation became heavier.

THE WINDOW SYSTEM HAD BEEN CHANGED

On the other hand it was learned that the window system in Mr. Ocalan's room had been changed. The window of Mr. Ocalan opens completely or closes completely. Sometimes he said that the room becomes airless, but while he opens the window he feels cold. The lawyers said taht his helath became worst, and he strained during the interview.
kurdishinfo.com

Asia News -Marginalized and the target of repression for more than 40 years, the 2.5 million Kurds living in Syria are a potential resource for the U.S. in its struggle against the Assad regime.

Marginalized for over 40 years, when not the actual target of violence and killings, by the Baathist regime of the Assad, father and son, to a great extent ignored by international public opinion, but now, in the wake of developments in northern Iraq, the 2.5 million Syrian Kurds could become an important wire for the U.S. to pull in its plans for the Middle East.

Syrian Kurds make up some 10% of the population, and many of them are considered stateless and have no access to ordinary state services; the areas in which they live have undergone a long process of impoverishment and have recently witnessed well-documented uprisings, ethnic violence and pro-U.S. demonstrations, which have garnered international media attention. Most notably, rioting broke out in Qamishli in March 2004 which left at least a dozen people dead, hundreds more arrested and mass looting, culminating in a tense atmosphere in the region, which has been further compounded by the murder of cleric Maashouq al-Haznawi, in Aleppo last June, which instigated further rioting and violence.

But still today, as a result of Law 93 of 1962, some 300,000 Kurds, classified as foreigners, still have no access to state health, education, and other services and are unable to travel. Ever fearful of cross border influence from Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, Syria sought to create an Arab Belt, but failed given the newfound political power of Iraqi Kurds.

Now, under international pressure from the U.N. resolution for an international inquiry into the death of Lebanons former prime minister, Rafic Hariri, and the newfound unity of Syrian opposition groups, the Kurds could prove to be more useful to the U.S. than a great military arsenal in its quest to oust the current regime.

Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Overview

Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and opinion, deteriorated considerably in 2005. The government routinely uses torture and ill-treatment in detention, including prolonged solitary confinement, to punish dissidents. The judiciary, which is accountable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been at the center of many serious human rights violations. Abuses are perpetrated by what Iranians call “parallel institutions”: paramilitary groups and plainclothes intelligence agents violently attack peaceful protesters, and intelligence services run illegal secret prisons and interrogation centers. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elected in June 2005, appointed a cabinet dominated by former members of the intelligence and security forces, some of whom are allegedly implicated in the most serious human rights violations since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established twenty-six years ago, such as the assassination of dissident intellectuals.

Freedom of Expression and Opinion
The Iranian authorities have systematically suppressed freedom of expression and opinion since April 2000, when the government launched a campaign involving closure of newspapers and the imprisonment of journalists and editors. Consequently, very few independent dailies remain, and those that do self-censor heavily. Many writers and intellectuals have left the country, are in prison, or have ceased to be critical. During 2005 the authorities also targeted websites and Internet journalists in an effort to prevent online dissemination of news and information. Between September and November of 2004, the judiciary detained and tortured more than twenty bloggers and Internet journalists, and subjected them to lengthy solitary confinement. The government systematically blocks websites with political news and analysis from inside Iran and abroad. On February 2, 2005, a court in the province of Gilan sentenced Arash Sigarchi to fourteen years in prison for his online writings. In August 2005, the judiciary sentenced another blogger, Mojtaba Saminejad, to two years in prison for “insulting” Iran’s leaders.

Torture and Ill-treatment in Detention
With the closure of independent newspapers and journals and the suppression of reporting on human rights abuses, treatment of detainees has worsened in Evin prison as well as in detention centers operated clandestinely by the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The authorities have subjected those imprisoned for peaceful expression of their political views to torture and ill-treatment. Judges often accept coerced confessions. The authorities use prolonged solitary confinement, often in small basement cells, to coerce confessions (which are videotaped) and gain information regarding associates. Combined with denial of access to counsel, prolonged solitary confinement creates an environment in which prisoners have nowhere to turn to seek redress for their treatment in detention.

The judiciary issued an internal report in July 2005 admitting serious human rights violations, including widespread use of torture, illegal detentions, and coercive interrogation techniques. However, the judiciary failed to establish any safeguards, follow up on its findings, or hold any officials responsible.

Impunity
There is no mechanism for monitoring and investigating human rights violations perpetrated by agents of the government. The closure of independent media in Iran has helped to perpetuate an atmosphere of impunity.

In recent years, public testimonies by numerous former prisoners and detainees have implicated Tehran’s public prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi and his office in some of the worst cases of human rights violations. Despite extensive evidence, Mortazavi has not been held responsible for his role in illegal detentions, torture of detainees, and coercing false confessions. The case of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in the custody of judiciary and security agents led by Mortazavi in June 2003, remains unresolved. Lawyers representing Kazemi’s family revealed that in addition to signs of torture including fractures to her nose, fingers, and toes, Kazemi received heavy blows to her head, once during her initial detention by the head of the intelligence unit at Evin prison on June 23, 2003, and another blow during an interrogation led by Mortazavi three days later. According to autopsy reports, Kazemi died of severe blows to her head. The judiciary had accused a low-ranking Intelligence Ministry official, Reza Ahmadi, of Kazemi’s unintentional homicide, and had proceeded with a hastily organized trial held in May 2004 which cleared Reza Ahmadi of the charges. Following an appeal by lawyers representing Kazemi’s family, an appeal hearing was convened in July 2005, in which the lawyers demanded that the judiciary launch an investigation into charges of intentional homicide, but the judge refused their request. The judiciary has taken no further steps to identify or prosecute those responsible for Kazemi’s killing.

Human Rights Defenders
In 2005, the authorities intensified their harassment of independent human rights defenders and lawyers in an attempt to prevent them from publicizing and pursuing human rights violations. The judiciary summoned Noble Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi in January 2005 without specifying charges against her. After she challenged her summons as illegal, and following an international outcry, the judiciary rescinded its order. In July, the authorities once again threatened to arrest Ebadi after she publicized several high-profile human rights cases. On July 30, the judiciary detained Abdolfattah Soltani, a lawyer and member of the Center for Defense of Human Rights, after Soltani and Ebadi protested the judiciary’s inaction in Zahra Kazemi’s case. No formal charges have been filed against Soltani; the judiciary appears to be using his illegal detention as a way to intimidate and silence other human rights defenders and lawyers. Prominent dissident and investigative journalist Akbar Ganji, who exposed the role of high-ranking officials in the murders of writers and intellectuals in 1998, remained imprisoned for a sixth year.

Minorities
Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities are subject to discrimination and, in some cases, persecution. The Baha’i community continues to be denied permission to worship or engage in communal affairs in a public manner. In April 2005, protests erupted in the southern province of Khuzistan, home to nearly two million Iranians of Arab descent, following publication of a letter allegedly written by Mohammad Ali Abtahi, an advisor to then-President Mohammad Khatami, which referred to government plans to implement policies that would reduce the proportion of ethnic Arabs in Khuzistan’s population. After security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrators in Ahvaz, the confrontation turned violent and spread to other cities and towns in Khuzistan. The next day, Abtahi and other government officials called the letter a fake. During the clashes, security forces killed at least fifty protestors and detained hundreds more.

In July 2005, security forces shot and killed a Kurdish activist, Shivan Qaderi, in Mahabad. In the wake of this incident protests were held in several cities and towns in Kurdistan demanding that the government apprehend Qaderi’s killers and put them on trial. Government forces put down the protests, killing at least seventeen people and detaining several prominent Kurdish journalists and activists. In October 2005, they were released on bail.

Key International Actors
In 2005 the policy of the European Union towards Iran was dominated by negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programs, with human rights concerns a secondary matter. The European Union has pledged to tie Iranian respect for human rights to progress in co-operation on other issues, but so far with little impact. Australia and Switzerland also have “human rights dialogues” with Iran but have not made public any relevant benchmarks for assessing progress.

Against strenuous Iranian objections, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in November 2004, noting serious violations and the worsening of the human rights situation in Iran. However, in 2005, unlike in previous years, no resolution was introduced at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights concerning the human rights situation in Iran. Under a standing invitation issued in 2002 from Tehran to the thematic mechanisms of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression visited the country and subsequently issued reports critical of government practices. However, the government has failed to implement their recommendations, and in some cases there were reprisals, such as re-arrest, against persons who testified to the experts. In January 2005 the special rapporteur on violence against women visited Iran, and the special rapporteur on adequate housing made a visit in August. Iran has not responded to requests by the U.N. special rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial executions to visit the country.

Relations between the United States and Iran remain poor. President Bush in August 2005 said that U.S. military action against Iran was an “option on the table,” but the administration reportedly remains divided on this point.
hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/iran12214.htm

The Washington Times
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Douglas Hanson

The mullahs' desire to be the world's newest atomic power is only the most visible manifestation of its decades-old plan to isolate Saudi Arabia and to pressure the United States to reduce its presence in Southwest Asia. In fact, Iran has been implementing a long-term operation to secure choke points in the strategic waterways in the Central Region; developing nuclear weapons is simply the icing on the cake.

Sometimes, Third World diplomatic spats and minor conflicts seem insignificant, especially if they are not placed in the proper strategic context. In Austin Bay's commentary of Jan. 6 in The Washington Times, "Mullah's quest and fears," he says that in the 1990s, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) "quarreled" over islands in the Persian Gulf, and he referred to this fracas as "lightweight sparring." I respectfully disagree with this view, because this "quarrel" was one of the opening maneuvers by Iran to seize areas that would allow the mullahs to slow or stop shipments of a large portion of the world's oil supply.

One of the islands in this dispute between the UAE and Iran is Abu Musa. In March of 1992, Iran started its gambit to effectively shut down the Straits of Hormuz by seizing this strategic island. Abu Musa is located in the Persian Gulf about halfway between Iran and the UAE, and is positioned at the narrow mouth of the straits. If the right weaponry were to be deployed there, Iran could potentially seal off the straits.

After gaining control of the island, this is precisely what Iran did. The mullahs moved in additional troops and began construction of improved defensive positions and emplacements for Chinese-made HY-2 Silkworm anti-ship missiles. Iranian engineers also started to expand the airfield, and began a large-scale upgrade of the port facilities. In October 1994, when Iraq was conducting one of its "saber rattling" exercises against Kuwait, Iran increased its troop strength on Abu Musa. When the crisis was over, the additional troops remained.

In 1995, troop strength increased from 700 to 4,000, many of them being Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) soldiers. Abu Musa's defenses ultimately included SA-6 surface-to-air missiles, 155-millimeter artillery, Silkworm and Seersucker anti-ship missiles, and a U.S.-made Hawk anti-aircraft missile battery. Reports also indicated that Iran had deployed the highly capable C-801 anti-ship missile system, which has a range of 22 miles, and the advanced C-802 anti-ship missiles with a 60-mile range. As if this weren't enough armaments and troops to defend an island a few square miles in area, in March 1995, during a week-long trip to the Gulf, then-Secretary of Defense William Perry dropped the bombshell when he stated in a press conference that Iran's buildup on the island involved chemical weapons.

The Horn of Africa was another strategic chokepoint that coupled, with the seizure of Abu Musa, would complete the double envelopment of the Arabian Peninsula. In the early 1990s, Iran's agents quickly allied themselves with Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid in the failed state of Somalia, and provided materiel, training and intelligence support. By the time of President Clinton's inauguration in January 1993, military observers said that Gen. Aidid's tactics in the urban guerrilla war with the United States and United Nations were a direct lift from their Iranian mentors. Our withdrawal from Somalia after the "Blackhawk Down" ambush not only solidified the mullahs' hold in the Horn, but years later U.S. and Western troops were forced to use the former French colony of Djibouti as a base for global war on terror operations.

In the wake of our victory in Operation Desert Storm, the national security establishment tended to look down on our adversaries in the Central Region, confident that they had been put in their place and would play nice. Nor did we seem to care that our allies in the Cold War were deep into dealing with both Saddam and the mullahs to prop up their failing socialist economies.

The too-severe drawdown in the 1990s limited our military options, so we largely ignored Iranian maneuvers or tried the nearly useless tactics of sanctions, diplomatic threats and containment. The United States placed stability over security at all costs; eventually failing to achieve either one.

It was realism carried to the extreme. The bill for our slack responses and strategic retreats of the past is now coming due, but it's not as if we didn't see it coming.

Douglas Hanson is the national security correspondent for the American Thinker.

IranPressNews- "The Servants of Allah Hezbollah of Kurdistan" have issued a bulletin for the physical "elimination" of journalists, civil and human rights activists.

Journalists whose names have appeared in the bulletin have had old charges reinstated against them, however they are respectively free on $12,000 bail. Said journalists have requested that the individuals behind the issuance of this menacing bulletin be exposed as they are afraid for their lives and have said that though it is possibly futile, their only recourse is to bring charges against the individuals who issued such a bulletin, with the judiciary.

Reportedly, this is the second such bulletin; in this one, The Servants of Allah Hezbollah of Kurdistan have also called for the judiciary to meet the defiance of the publishers and editors of the already banned publication PAYAAMEH MARDOM'EH KURDISTAN (The message of the people of Kurdistan) with utmost force.

The Islamic regime, in a "spectacle" Kangaroo court has sentenced Donald Klein, a German stonemason to 18 months in the Bandar Abbas prison. Klein who was arrested on November 29th while fishing with a French friend off the coast of Abu Mousa island was captured by the regimes coast guard and charged with encroachment on Iranian waters. Following Klein’s tribunal, his wife who is in Germany announced the details of his sentence; authorities from the German ministry of foreign affairs in Berlin said however, that the verdict of the Bandar Abbas court had not as of yet been officially announced to them. Mrs. Klein said that the sentence was unacceptable and has appealed to German Chancellor Merkel for help in her husband’s case.

Akbar Ganji, the Iranian investigative writer and journalist has been in prison for 2094 days now. Masoumeh Shafiee, Ganji's wife has given up seeking compassion from Iranian officials and asked God to save her imprisoned husband from harm. In her last letter, Mrs. Shafiee criticizes the ultimate heartless, ruthless and authoritative officials that have no mercy for the family and children of a prisoner, let alone the prisoner himself. She writes:

Today is Monday Jan. 16, 2005 and Ganji has been in prison for 2094 days, which includes 139 days of solitary confinement. His children were only allowed to visit their father twice during the last 145 days. They are thirsty to see their father. In our last visit to prison, we witnessed that he is left with nothing but flesh and bone, and weighs only 50 kg with an extremely low blood pressure. He is still kept in the intelligence division in cell number 2-A. They have severely restricted his food and medicine. These officials do not respond to our requests to visit him and they are trying to torture him by pressuring his family. Based on prison laws, a prisoner who has spent his sentence in prison, should be transferred to the general ward and should be allowed to have regular phone contact and weekly family and lawyer visitations. He should be able to go on monthly vacations and have access to food and medical facilities. Neither of these legal measures is adopted in the case of Akbar Ganji. The last time that he was allowed to go on a visit was 8 months ago. We are gravely concerned about his health and life. Weekly meetings are our legal rights but unfortunately the authoritative officials are so ruthless that they do not even have any mercy on a prisoner's family and children. They are ready to murder even Ganji's family to put still more pressure on him.

I pray for the manifestation of the global liberator. I do not pray for the eradication of these fake pretenders of God's justice and ruling of the people. I pray for a liberator to save an innocent family that has waited and stared at the door, suffered, miserably cried, is heart broken for long and has built up hatred.

Lord, you witness how our dreams and wishes are demonized and life is nothing but a suffering in a country where all values are mortified and disgraced.

Lord, I plead that you take my beloved prisoner to your own care and mercy. You have been witness that he has no will but to reform. He is neither looking for power nor wealth. He has a spotless past and his bright record is proof of his humanity.

Lord, pave the way for service of those who are in love with you and your children. This house is doomed and devastated, and perhaps it is because of this that Iran's authorities, including those in the judiciary are reluctant to change reform themselves.
http://r0ozonline.com/11english/013496.shtml

PNA

The bodies of two Kurdish youths were found dead on Sanandaj-Hamadan highway, two of the major cities of western Iran (Eastern Kurdistan), the Kurdish news agency of Peyamner reported Friday.

Aram Kermani, a residence of Mariwan, a Kurdish city in southwest of Iran as well as Fayeq from Blchasoor Village in Mariwan were shot at the aforementioned site.

Their relatives have announced that their sons had relations with someone named Khalid, related to Islamic fundamentalist groups. On the other hand, Aram and Fayeq had allegedly smuggled guns to Sanandej for two other persons connected to Khalid.

The two are said to have previously informed their families about their problems with Khalid as well as the other two individuals that Khalid had ties with.

This is following strong tensions between the Iranian forces on one side and the Eastern Kurds on the other, which have witnessed dramatic changes during the last few months.

dailyireland.televisual.co.uk

A five-year-old boy battling the H5N1 bird flu strain in Turkish-ruled Kurdistan was reported to be in a critical condition yesterday.
Experts awaited test results on three children in Istanbul who had been admitted to hospital with symptoms.
Muhammet Özcan, whose 12-year-old sister Fatma died on Sunday of the disease, was listed as critical at a hospital in the city of Van. He was being treated for fever and a lung infection.
Both children came from Dogubayazıt, the same town where three siblings died of bird flu about 11 days ago. Fatma was the fourth Turkish child to die of H5N1, according to preliminary tests, and the country's 20th human case.
Five patients have been discharged from hospitals, leaving only 11 still in being treated, the health ministry said on Monday.
In Geneva, World Health Organisation spokeswoman Maria Cheng said the agency had accepted the 20 human cases reported by Turkey but was waiting for the results of further tests by a British lab before changing its official toll. That official toll stands at four cases, including two deaths.
Samples had been held up by a religious holiday in Turkey but were expected to arrive in Britain, Ms Cheng said. Results would start coming back this week, she said.
The WHO has stressed that it has no evidence of person-to-person infection occurring in the Turkish state.
Greek health minister Nikitas Kaklamanis urged Greeks to avoid travelling to Turkey. Syria said it had begun disinfecting people and vehicles at border crossings.
Akhmed Bilalov, a deputy in Russia’s state Duma, said his government would fly home more than 8,000 hajj pilgrims who had travelled to Mecca via Turkish-ruled provinces to avoid subjecting them to further risk.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that bird flu might already have spread from Turkish-ruled areas to neighbouring countries, though it said it had no confirmation of that. It said Armenia, Georgia, Iran and Syria were at risk, along with Bulgaria, Iraq, Moldova and Ukraine.
“You have to face the fact that the virus is in their neighbourhood,” said Samuel Jutzi, who heads the food agency's animal health division.
Turkish agriculture minister Mehdi Eker asserted that the disease had spread.
“Certain closed regimes are hiding this. We know for fact that this disease exists in other places but there are some [countries] that are hiding it,” he told the television station NTV.
With Turks complaining of symptoms still checking into hospitals, there were concerns the virus might still be spreading despite the slaughter of 931,000 chickens, geese and turkeys.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip's cabinet met to discuss further measures to combat the outbreak. On Monday, authorities banned the transport of all birds and hoofed animals, except race horses, as a precaution.

VAN (DIHA) - In Van which still continues the danger of avian influenza it was claimed that the dead winged animals have not been collected.

The citizens ,who reported that the chickens had died one after the another in the Bostanici district, said that although they reported the case to the City Agriculture Directorate the authorities did not come to get the chickens and thay said that in the television it was said that the people hide the animals from authorities but there is not such thing, the authorities hide themselves from us, they said.

For the bird influenza which until now 4 people has died the necessary precautions has not been taken in Van. In the Bostaniçi district many dead chickens had been thrown to the streets randomly. The residents of district who buried the chickens by their means complained about indifference.

' we telephone everyday'

Savas Yildirim who is resident of the district said that his duck has been ill and he was worried for this. Yildirim who stated that he did not know the cause of illness said that he was afraid that the illness will pass to the children. Yildirim who stated that he telephones everyday to the City Agriculture Directorate said that ' they said that they will come but we are waiting by the time that the avian influenza had started.We dont know when they will come. The chickens are dying one after another in our many neighbours.In the television it was said that the people hide the chicken from authorities. There is no such thing the authorities hide themselves and don't come, he said.

'The dead chickens were put into nylon bags and burried to snow'

The resident of the district Mehmet Yonali said that he cut his chickens and put into the nylon bags and had burried to the snow. Yonali who stated that he estimates that he has 16 ill animal said that ' our children always have contact with these animals, the remedy should be found to this and the district is a place where the children are together with the winged animals.We want authorities to come to this district, he said.

'The City Agriculture Directorate: we will speed up the works'

The assitant of City Agriculture Directorate İbrahim Görentaş said that they are taking frequently denunciations and they are going to start to the work of destruction tomorrow.

Gorentas who stated that they started the destruction in Van said that:

'There comes denunciation from many places.We firstly started the destruction in the districts of Van.With the team of 40 the works of destruction still continues. To the mentioned Yalim Erez district we will start the work by tomorrow that is to say we will start the work of destruction in villages from there. Firstly the works have been done in the direction of denunciations.

There are not supplies in the municipality

The chairman of Bostanici Municipality Gulcihan Simsek said that there are not supplies for starting the work of destruction. We openly avoid the destruction of the chickens. Nor we have experienced personnel nor supplies. We had applied to the City Agriculture Directorate but we did not receive any answer, she said.

HAKKARI The cabin punishment which was given to Kurdish National Leader Abdullah Ocalan had been protested in Yuksekova by a march in which there were approximately 3 thousand people.

Approximately 3 thousand people from Yuksekova People Initiative came together in front of earlier DEHAP district building and walked towards Oslo Hotel. There were grand pancartes on which written "PKK is the castle of resurrection and boycott, burrow of martries", "Kurdish National Leader is my political willpower" and also slogans like; "Biji Serok Apo ( Long live leader Apo)", "Ocalan is our political willpower", "We will destroy the world which is without Ocalan", "AKP don't be surprise, don't cascade us to mountains", "Tooth for tooth, blood for blood, we are with you Ocalan". The mayor of Yuksekova M.Salih Yildiz, earlier mayor of Yuksekova Hetem Ike, representatives of DTP and demarchs also support the march.
After the march Serkan Baki made an explanation in the name of People Initiative. He noticed that, the cabin punishment was given during the referendum of "Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan is our willpower". And he said like this;
"Especially, in the last period, the attacks and obstacles against this referendum which is a democratic campaign means that they want to play with a people's willpower. Our people have got consciousness, that they are signing this document in spite of attacks and obstacles, especially for Kurdish Natinal Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan, but actually for Kurdish People. In spite of all these attacks people never dreaded, never submited. They know that they have to claim the referendum and leader for a freely life with peace, love and brotherhood. The punishment which was applied to Mr. Ocalan actually was given to all Kurdish People. We want that tomorrow, the interview with Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan will actualize.
After the statement, crowded group walke to DEHAP building with slogans and then they were spreaded.

Reuters - Iran called Tuesday for the resumption of talks on its nuclear activities, but Western powers were scornful of the offer, and Russia said Tehran would have to halt atomic fuel research if it wanted negotiations.

"Talk is cheap," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

A senior British official labeled as "vacuous" the Iranian offer, contained in a letter from Javad Vaeidi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, to restart talks.

Russia told Tehran to restore the basis for negotiations by reversing last week's resumption of nuclear fuel research. "Talks presuppose an obligation. The Iranian obligation was to stick to the moratorium … on scientific research," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov said.

Britain, France and Germany called off the talks after Tehran removed U.N. seals on uranium enrichment equipment, deepening Western suspicions that it is trying to develop nuclear arms. Iran insists that it seeks only a civilian energy program.

NCRI – A man was hanged in Tehran's notorious Evin prison today for alleged murder charges. Death sentence for the man identified by his first name Esmail, was endorsed by the mullahs' supreme court.

His wife, Masoumeh, was also sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment for involvement in the murder and to death for adultery.

The number of executions since Ahmadinejad's appointment as president in June 2005 has gone over 140.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 18 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would never abandon its nuclear activities despite the looming threat of United Nations Security Council referral.

In a meeting in Tehran with Tajikistani President Imomali Rakhmonov, which was also attended by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khamenei said, “Obtaining nuclear expertise is one of the indicators of the progress by Iranian scientists over which there has been a lot of uproar. The main reason for the West’s commotion over the issue is that our country’s young scientists have the ability to obtain this advanced technology domestically”, the state-run ISNA news agency reported.

“The Islamic Republic, relying on its principles and without any fear of this uproar, will continue on its path of technological advancements. The world cannot effect the will of the Iranian nation”, the Supreme Leader said.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – the EU-3 – are lobbying the 35 member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors to refer Tehran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council at the upcoming February 2-3 emergency session after Iran breached an agreement between them in which it had promised not to resume nuclear activities at its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.

IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei has called on Iran to suspend the activities, but Tehran has officially rejected such an action.

Reuters - A draft resolution to be submitted to the U.N. nuclear watchdog asks the agency to report Iran's nuclear programme to the U.N. Security Council, according to the text, dictated to Reuters by an EU diplomat on Wednesday.

The resolution, drafted by France, Britain and Germany, asks Iran "to help the agency clarify questions regarding possible nuclear weapons activities" and calls on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei "to transmit a copy of this resolution to the security council".

Referral of the matter to the 15-nation council opens the door to possible U.N. sanctions, though diplomats and analysts say such punitive measures would be a long way off.

The so-called "EU3" decided last week to join Washington in calling for Iran to be hauled before the U.N.'s top body after Tehran said it would resume research on uranium enrichment, technology the West fears would enable Iran to produce atomic weapons.

Iran says its nuclear programme is aimed solely at the generation of electricity.

The text will undergo changes as the wording is discussed by key members of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, which holds an emergency meeting on Iran early next month.

Russia and China, which are on the council and the IAEA board, have signalled doubts about the benefits of a U.N. referral.

The resolution, if approved, would put the matter into the hands of the council for the first time since the standoff with Iran began in August 2002.

However, it keeps the issue of inspecting Iran's nuclear programme firmly in the hands of the Vienna-based IAEA.

The resolution "requests the director general (ElBaradei) to continue with his efforts to implement the agency's safeguards agreement with Iran ... with a view to providing credible assurances regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear materials and activities in Iran".

DERSIM-AMED (17.01.2006)- Turkish Military Forces started a military operation in the mountains Zage, Haydaran, Markasor and Buyer Baba which are taking place in the back parts of the Kutu Dere region in Dersim.
In the early times in the morning Commandership of the Central Gendarme Regiment made a military forwarding to this region with cobra helicopters. It has been learned that the operation area will widen because the amount of snow is very little in this region.
It has been learned that also in the district of Amed, Silvan, Turkish Military Forces started an operation.
It was learned from the local sources that in the country of Silvan Turkish soldiers had started an operation.
The soldiers from the Commandership of Gendarme of Silvan make this operation in the highland parts of Demirkuyu (Derika Miqure), Beynat and Catalkopru villages.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Tuesday lifted its ban on CNN after the U.S. news network apologised for misquoting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Tehran wanted nuclear weapons, a top culture ministry official said.
Iran banned CNN journalists from working in the country on Monday after its simultaneous translation of Ahmadinejad's news conference on Saturday included the phrase "the use of nuclear weapons is Iran's right".
In fact, what the Iranian president said was that "Iran has the right to nuclear energy". CNN later apologised for making a mistake.
"Following a request from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the ban on the activities of CNN's stringer in Iran was lifted," Mohammad Hossein Khoshvaght, director of foreign media at Iran's culture ministry, told Reuters.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, saying it wants atomic technology for generating electricity.
"I want the channel to be allowed to resume its work owing to the apology it made," Ahmadinejad said in a letter sent to the culture ministry, a copy of which was faxed to Reuters.
CNN does not have a permanent bureau in Iran but a local journalist contributes to the network and visiting correspondents are occasionally given permission to enter the country on short assignments.
The ban came as CNN's Iranian-born chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour was in Iran to report on the nuclear issue.

Iran Focus
London, Jan. 17 – British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described Iran’s decision last week to resume previously-suspended uranium enrichment-related activities at its massive nuclear facility in Natanz as “very unreasonable” and a matter of “serious concern”.
In an interview on Channel 4 television Monday evening, Straw said that “very extreme” comments by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had called the holocaust a “myth” and said that Israel had to be “wiped off the map”, had made it “more likely to put Iran in the dock”, a reference to the United Nations Security Council.
“I think that as a result of the Iranian's very unreasonable actions on the nuclear dossier and also the very extreme statements from President Ahmadinejad on other issues, particularly the Holocaust and the, the right of Israel to exist, there is now stronger and more serious concern across the board internationally”, the Foreign Secretary said.
He added that the onus was on Tehran to satisfy the international community that it was not pursuing a nuclear weapons program since it had previously been declared by the International Atomic Energy Agency of having acted over the years in non-compliance with its safeguard obligations.Straw said that a February 2-3 emergency meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors would likely see Tehran’s nuclear file sent before the UN Security Council, though he added that he could not say for certain.

BBC News

At least eight Iraqi coastguards have been detained by Iran after a clash on the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which marks the Iran-Iraq border, officials say.
Basra Governor Muhammad al-Waili said the Iranian Navy attacked them after they boarded a merchant ship believed to smuggling oil. Mr Waili said one Iraqi coastguard was killed and that the boats had been taken to the Iranian port of Abadan.

The Shatt al-Arab has long been a source of tension.

Formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, the waterway is Iraq's main access to the Persian Gulf.

The exact line of the border in the Shatt Al-Arab is disputed, and was one of the causes of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

Iran detained eight British servicemen for three days in 2004 after they allegedly strayed over the maritime border.

IranFocus- A top human rights group called Monday on Iran to end the execution of child offenders after death sentences were handed down to two teenage girls for crime they allegedly committed when they minors.

Amnesty International said that the sentences were in breach of Iran’s obligations under international human rights law.

It called on Iran to suspend the execution sentence of 18-year-old Nazanin who was accused of stabbing to death one of three men who attempted to rape her and her 16-year-old niece in a park in Karaj in March 2005. She was seventeen at the time.

“Another child offender, 19-year-old Delara Darabi, was sentenced to death by a court in the city of Rasht for a murder committed when she was 17 years old. She denied the killing but the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court at the beginning of January, though her lawyer is reportedly appealing the decision”, the group reported.

Amnesty International in a statement said, “In 2005 alone, at least eight executions of child offenders were recorded”.

It added that “over the past two years, the number of child offenders executed has risen”.

NCRI - The American news TV network CNN has been banned from working in Iran for practices "contrary to professional ethics," state-owned news agencies reporeted on Monday.

An official of the clerical regime told the AFP that the ban was imposed on the network for quoting mullahs' president Ahmadinejad as saying his country was seeking nuclear weapons.

During CNN's live broadcast of a press conference by Ahmadinejad on Saturday, he was quoted as saying "we believe all nations are allowed to have nuclear weapons" and that the West should not "deprive us to have nuclear weapons."

"Taking into account CNN's actions contrary to professional ethics in the past years and their distortion of the president's comments during his press conference on Saturday, the activities of the CNN journalist in Tehran will end and no journalists from CNN will be authorised to come to Iran," a statement from the Iranian culture ministry said.

Agence France Presse, LONDON - It is up to Iran to reassure the international community that it really is not pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday.

Speaking at a security conference in London, where senior diplomats were holding a closed-door meeting on Iran, Straw underlined the danger of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists.

"This is why the international community's stand against Iran's continued non-compliance with its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations and successive resolutions of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency is so important," he said.

"The onus is on Iran to act to give the international community confidence that its nuclear programme has exclusive peaceful purposes -- confidence, I'm afraid, that has been sorely undermined by its history of concealement and deception."

Britain, France and Germany called last Thursday for the IAEA to refer Iran to the UN Security Council -- a step that could lead to sanctions -- after Iran moved to end its voluntary moratorium on uranimum enrichment research.

Tehran insists its nuclear intentions are strictly peaceful, but the IAEA declared last September that it had failed to live up to its non-proliferation obligations, amid fears that it secretly intends to build atomic weapons.
Senior diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and the United States were meeting in London on Monday with Chinese and Russian counterparts, hoping to get Beijing and Moscow to back Iran's referral to the Security Council despite the two nations' closer trade and energy links with the Islamic republic.

Straw, speaking at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said: "It is because of Iran's failure up to now to bring itself into compliance that we are now considering with our partners in Europe and the permanent five of the Security Council a referral of Iran to the Security Council through an emergency meeting of the IAEA board."

By Sue Pleming

MONROVIA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday Iran "crossed the threshold" with its recent nuclear actions and the world must act fast to send Tehran to the U.N. Security Council.

The Security Council's five permanent members and Germany are holding talks in London on Monday in search of a common strategy to tackle Iran's resumption of atomic fuel research and development after a two-year moratorium.

Rice said the United States wanted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to hold an emergency meeting as soon as possible, fearing if IAEA members waited until a scheduled meeting in March this would give Iran a chance to further "obfuscate" over its nuclear weapons plans.

"We just can't let them do that," she told reporters traveling with her to Liberia for the inauguration of Africa's first woman president.

Tehran denies Western accusations it is trying to build nuclear weapons under cover of an atomic power programme and says it only wants to generate electricity.

Rice said she had "very good" conversations with many IAEA foreign ministers over the weekend and she was optimistic of their support in referring Iran to the Security Council where it could ultimately face sanctions.

"We have got to finally demonstrate to Iran that it can't with impunity just cast aside the just demands of the international community," Rice told reporters, without specifying which ministers she had spoken to or which countries backed an immediate referral.

"There is some work to do because you would like there to be a strong consensus for a vote. But whatever the numbers of the vote, I don't think there is any doubt that people are quite clear that Iran has crossed the threshold," she added.

The United States and European powers taking the lead against Iran -- France, Germany and Britain -- need the support of Russia and China to get Iran referred to the Security Council.

Rice would not be drawn on whether she thought the U.S. had the support of Russia or China, but she said Moscow voiced strong disappointment after Iran removed U.N. seals at its uranium-enrichment plant and resumed nuclear fuel research last week.

In addition, Iran had spurned Russia's offer to help Tehran meet its civilian nuclear needs without increasing proliferation risks, she added.

While countries might have "various tactics" in dealing with Iran, she said no nation had spoken out in favour of Iran. "They are getting nothing but condemnation."

On Sunday, Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona said the United States might ultimately have to undertake a military strike to deter Iran.

Asked about military options and whether force should be used now or at least threatened against Iran, Rice reiterated that the current focus was on diplomacy.

"I don't think it helps really to speculate. We have said all along that the president always keeps all of his options but the course that we are on is the diplomatic course."

She said it was unlikely that Iran could stand the kind of isolation that would result from Security Council action.

"They are putting a lot at risk here and I am hopeful and hoping with others that when this regime recognizes or faces the fact that it is about to be really pretty fundamentally isolated that they will reconsider their options," said Rice.

LONDON, Jan 16, 2006 (AFP) - Senior officials from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany were holding talks in London Monday regarding Iran's resumption of controversial nuclear activities.

Representatives of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States were expected to discuss a date for an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors, which could refer Iran to the UN Security Council.

A British Foreign Office spokeswoman refused to provide details about the meeting, which is taking place at the level of political directors, saying only that it was to discuss "next steps" regarding Iran.

Britain, France and Germany, which led drawn-out negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, said last week the talks were dead and called for UN referral after Tehran broke IAEA seals at three nuclear plants to resume uranium enrichment research.

Enriched uranium can fuel nuclear reactors, but if highly enriched it can also form the explosive core of an atomic bomb.

The United States suspects that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at building a nuclear weapon, a charge that Tehran has repeatedly denied.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, en route to Liberia, said she wanted to see the IAEA board convene "as soon as possible".

"The problem with waiting for the regular meeting in March or waiting for a long time is that I think the Iranians will try to take advantage of it to start to throw chaff now and to obfuscate" on its nuclear intentions, she said.

Sources in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, told AFP last week that the EU troika hopes to use the London talks to convince China and Russia to back their calls for referral to the Security Council.

Both nations have growing trade and energy links with Iran.

Last September the EU and United States forced a motion through the IAEA's board of governors calling for Iran's referral to the Security Council.

But it was expressly not acted upon, in order to allow time for further talks and because there was no agreement with China and Russia on what action the UN should take.

Tehran has threatened to withhold cooperation with IAEA inspectors if it is referred to the Security Council, and warned it would not submit to any decisions imposed on it.

Russia, which has offered to let Iran enrich uranium on its territory as a possible solution to the crisis, has hinted it may not object to referral.

While pushing for Iran's referral to the council, European leaders have said it is too early to begin talking about sanctions. They also stress that there is no talk of pre-emptive military action.

An emergency IAEA board meeting could be called before the end of the month, according to diplomats.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he has been unable to determine whether Iran's nuclear program, which was kept secret from the world for 18 years, was peaceful.

"For the last three years we have been doing intensive verification in Iran, and even after three years I am not yet in a position to make a judgment on the peaceful nature of the program," he was quoted as saying in Newsweek magazine.

Speaking to a Spanish newspaper, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said his nation -- the only nuclear power in the Middle East -- would not allow a "totalitarian" Iran to have a nuclear capability.

"It would be the first step for atomic bombs to fall into the hands of terrorists of the (Shiite fundamentalist movement) Hezbollah, the (Islamist) Hamas or Al-Qaeda for example," Katsav told the ABC daily.

"We don't have a conflict of interest with Iran, we don't have a common border but we cannot allow a totalitarian country which exports international terrorism to have a nuclear capability," he said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, in London for a conference on global terrorism, told the BBC that it would be "wise" to pursue diplomacy to defuse the crisis.

"We hope they don't (acquire nuclear weapons). They promised they won't, and we believe in their promise and we hold them to it," he said.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 15 – A top commander in Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has more than 300 nuclear sites scattered across the country, Iran Focus has learnt.

Speaking at a seminar in the northern city of Rasht, Brigadier General Mostafa Haji-Najjar, deputy director of the IRGC’s political bureau, also said that Iran had “an absolute right” to develop nuclear bombs.

The senior IRGC commander said that despite the high costs of construction and maintenance of nuclear sites, these installations have been dispersed in more than 300 sites across the country.

“Because of the sensitivity of these sites and their installations, their distribution comes at a high cost for the government. For example, for each of these sites air defence systems must be designed, and these are very expensive. But our nuclear sites are not just limited to several cities such as Isfahan, Natanz, Arak, and Ardakan. We have nuclear sites at more than 300 locations throughout the country”, Haji-Najjar said.

“Since the Islamic Republic of Iran is under the atomic umbrella of and neighbours with countries such as Pakistan, many foreign geopolitical analysts believe that Iran has an absolute right to have nuclear bombs”, Haji-Najjar said.

The seminar, which was organised by the paramilitary Bassij force in Gilan Province, was held at Qods Mosque in Rasht.

Haji-Najjar said that since the election of former Revolutionary Guards commander Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s new president, the West has become increasingly concerned over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

“Unfortunately, the last [nuclear] negotiations team included individuals that easily retreated when faced with European and American positions. One of them is even currently facing corruption charges”, he said, referring to former nuclear negotiator Sirus Nasseri.

Haji-Najjar said that Iran’s previous nuclear negotiators failed to show resilience and determination in the face of “threats by the enemy”. “With the change in the makeup of that team, this weak diplomacy was transformed into active diplomacy”.

January 15, 2006
The Jerusalem Post
Jpost.com Staff

IAF pilots have completed their mission training and fighter jets have been prepared for an Israeli attack on Iran, the British Sunday Times reported. The article reported that "the elite 69 strategic F-15 I squadron" had been equipped with weapons that will be tested in combat for the first time, and that two missile submarines were on standby: one in the Persian Gulf and the second in Haifa Bay.

The Times also said that special IDF forces would be helicoptered into Iran to take out targets that could not be destroyed in an air strike.

Iran's nuclear facilities, according to the newspaper report, are widely dispersed at some 40 underground sites throughout Iran, which would make any attack by Israel - or any other nation - exponentially more difficult that Israel 's successful attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.

Col. [res] Ze'ev Raz, the former IAF pilot who led the Osirak mission, was quoted by the Times as saying, "What we now have is a lot of targets, which makes the operation much more difficult."

Raz believes an aerial assault on Iran's nuclear facilities is possible. There are many things that the IAF has done over the past few years that the public is not aware of, and it has made many important advances in mid-air refueling. Israel can strike the Iranian nuclear program, Raz said on Israel's Channel 1 TV's Politika program last week.

Former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Uzi Dayan said last week that if Iran gets nuclear weapons, then so would terror organizations, like Hizbullah. "Israel needs to be ready to act on a military option," Dayan said. "Without getting into details, Israel is capable of doing these things."

When Dayan was head of the National Security Agency (Shin Bet), he advised the government not to allow a situation in which Israel, and the world now finds itself, with a radical regime in Tehran on the verge of attaining nuclear weapons. Dayan laid much of the blame on the United States, which allowed this to happen. "The military option does exist, but only if the international community works together. The government that arises in Israel after the elections will have to deal with this issue," he said.

Shabtai Shoval, a former operative in the Israeli intelligence community, who wrote a book that Iran will reach nuclear weapons capability by 2009, says that covert action, for example by the Mossad, is the most interesting option, but would still not stop Tehran's push for nuclear weapons.

Dr. Reuven Pedatzur, a senior lecturer at the Strategic Studies Program at Tel
Aviv University, believes Israel would be making a "disastrous strategic error" if it embarked on a full-scale attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. "The military option is not relevant, we simply don't have the right amount of intelligence and information; many of the targets are buried deep under ground.

Only if the Americans decide to do it, then that option is possible," Pedatzur said last week. Pedatzur added that the day Iran gets a nuclear weapon, Israel will have no choice but to abandon its policy of nuclear ambiguity.

Amir Mizroch contributed to this report.

NCRI – Iranians residing in Australia called for immediate referral of the clerical regime to the UN Security Council for its secret nuclear project to acquire nuclear weapons and gross violations of human rights.

Demonstrating in central Sydney on January 14, the Iranians also condemned the fundamentalist regime for its meddling in Iraq and terrorist threats to members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) residing in Camp Ashraf, north-east of Baghdad.

The event organized by "The Association in Defense of Freedom and Human Rights in Iran," condemned recent terrorist threats by mullahs' president Ahmadinejad and called for an end to the disgraced policy of appeasement by the EU and the US.

"The Iranian regime has taken advantage of the conciliatory policy of the West to proceed with its nuclear weapons program," said Akram, an Iranian university lecturer and human rights activist living in exile.

Complaining of the injustice against the Iranian people, she added: "The West has awarded many concessions to the regime in order to maintain lucrative trade with the reactionary mullahs. They have closed their eyes on brutal human rights violations in Iran and even worse, branded people's leading opposition movement for democracy and freedom, the PMOI, as terrorist, which has strengthened the suppressive rule in that country." She warned: "Iranian people are paying for the West's wrong policy but this will not be limited to Iran as the mullahs want to spread their fundamentalist rule to the region threatening the West's interest. This has already started in Iraq."

Her views were reflected in the mode of the demonstrators when they chanted loudly "Send mullahs' nuclear file to the UN Security Council," "Remove PMOI from terror list," "No war, no appeasement, support regime change through Iranian people and their resistance," "condemned human rights violations in Iran" and "condemn mullahs meddling in Iraq."

The demonstration received a warm welcome from the public and many local residents joined Iranians in their demands against the ruling regime in Iran.

Iran Focus

London, Jan. 15 – A secret document obtained by Iran Focus shows that recent political developments in Syria and Lebanon have aroused deep anxiety among the top commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), who see the events as “a direct threat to the national security” of the Islamic Republic and who want to speed up the development of nuclear weapons.

The document, provided to Iran Focus by a reliable source in Iran, is a political analysis of the situation by the IRGC leadership prepared earlier this month for circulation among the clerical regime’s top officials. The paper, entitled “Recent occurrences in Syria and their effects on the region”, warns that the “rapidly changing” political climate in the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Lebanon, would be “significantly detrimental” to Tehran’s interests.

The IRGC leadership identified the United States military presence in the Persian Gulf region as “the root of evil” and said “greater measures” were needed to counter it.

“From a strategic point of view, any change in, or destabilisation of, Syria will reduce or eliminate the calculations and reach of the Islamic Republic of Iran to counter the threats posed by the Zionist regime”, the Revolutionary Guards commanders said, referring to Israel.

“The plot that is being implemented in Lebanon with quickening steps aims to change the political makeup of the country and its officials and their positions, so that they force Hezbollah to accept the new imposed realities”.

Elsewhere in the report, Iran’s nuclear program is highlighted as the “next target” of the international community. The paper argues that the West will attempt to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear capabilities and that the Islamic Republic must push forward with its nuclear advancements in order to ensure its survival.

The paper concludes by saying, “Altogether, in all the regions mentioned from Syria to Iraq, and Lebanon to Palestine, the desire of Arab leaders to remain in power in return for cooperating with America brings with it active and potential threats which directly threaten Iran’s interests and national security, while at the same time progressively and quietly limiting the areas that are within our reach and weakening our regional tools and assets”.

“These two points, when considered alongside other active threats, can be significantly detrimental to the Islamic Republic’s interests and security. Vigilance, wisdom, and well-planned and comprehensive measures are required to deal with these threats”, the top IRGC commanders noted.

According to a report from the site IRAN ASRAR (Iran Camouflaged) http://iranasrar.com/ , the political branch of the revolutionary guards in an internal analysis [produced in December 2005] entitled "Recent Changes in Syria and the Security Ramifications on the Region" expressed the Islamic regimes anxiety in the face of the recent political changes in both Lebanon and Syria; the report stressed that the regime will be confronted with incalculable and frequent adversities.

In view of the current multitude of transitions taking place within the Middle East, not to mention the mounting international pressures against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its political allies in Syria and Lebanon, the regime is facing the most precarious situation ever. In a section of the analysis, the regimes sense of danger is evident: "...From a strategic standpoint any change or weakening within Syria, will undermine or defeat the Islamic Republic's calculations and access in the face of threats from the Zionist leadership. This very construct has taken place in Lebanon with gradual measures taken for change within the political formation, the transition of command and its upshot is that Hezbollah is being faced with having to accept results that is forced upon them..."

Further in the report, under the heading "The Islamic Regimes Nuclear Dossier, the Next Objective" it specifically mentions the nuclear issues facing the regime and the dire political need for obtaining nuclear capability.

In the final segment the subject of the dissolution of the revolutionary guard and the weakening of the position of the regime has been explicitly articulated. It specifies: "In whole, where all mentioned areas are concerned, from Syria to Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, as well as the inclinations of Arab leaders for the preservation of power in lieu of cooperation with the U.S., with either potential or actual threats on the horizon, on the one hand the area of interests and national security hangs in the balance and on the other, gradual and imperceptible measures weakens the regimes area of regional access and indoctrination."

IranPressNews

Homeless and hungry children are all over Iran and their numbers are soaring; they are only able to feed themselves out of garbage bins. ILNA, the regime-run news agency published a report on Wednesday, January 11th that reads: "The Society for the protection of children against slave-labor and homelessness has begun a project entitled Garbage Bin Picking Kids. This project is divided into several levels; it will start with measures to identify the areas as well as the working children that are likely to gather in said area, the submission of I.D. and healthcare cards, registering the children with individual files, fitting the children out with proper clothes and personal gear such as gloves, glow-in-the-dark armbands and belts to prevent them from being accidentally hit by a car at night. In addition regular medical checkups will be conducted by trained pediatricians and if need be hospitalization and medication will also be provided. Personal heath and hygiene starting with dental care and bathing, as well as one warm meal per week will be among the things being provided in the program."

NCRI – A group of Iranians from the private sector issued a statement in Tehran earlier this week expressing their deep concern over the plight of political prisoners who are on hunger strike in Iranian prisons.

The statement complained that while the world public opinion was preoccupied with the nuclear crisis in Iran, the political prisoners were continuing with their strike which has been on for several weeks.

The group called on international human rights organizations to act immediately and send humanitarian missions to investigate their plight and get them freed.

The striking political prisoners in a number of jails throughout the country (Evin Prison in Tehran, Rajai-Shahr Prison in Gohardasht, and prisons in Semnan, Bandar Abbad, and Birjand) issued a declaration in December calling on the UN and its Secretary General to form an international fact-finding committee to identify those responsible and involved in the massacre and suppression of freedom activists in Iran.

The prisoners stressed in their declaration they would continue their hunger strike until the formation of a fact-finding committee. The declaration states: “The responsibility for our well-being rests directly with Mr. Kofi Annan and other heads of human rights organizations that are charged with the defense and protection of the rights of peoples throughout the world.”

The Iranian Resistance has appealed to all human rights organizations throughout the world to support the striking political prisoners in Iran and called on the Secretary General of the United Nations to urgently respond to their request.

The Independent
By Kim Sengupta

Iran could take retribution against British troops in Iraq if the British government continues with its leading role in the campaign against the country's nuclear programme, senior defence sources have warned.

The Tehran regime is known to have immense influence with the Shia militias in Iraq and has been accused of directing their violent campaigns.

America and Britain have, in the past, charged Iran with involvement in the supply of explosives used to kill British soldiers in Iraq, although a recent review of intelligence has failed to show a direct link between the bombings and the Tehran regime.

The Iranians are also suspected of involvement in "death squads" responsible for the torture and murder of suspected insurgents.

Iraq's Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr, has been accused of links with the death squads - charges he denies. Mr Jabr is a former commander of the Shia Badr Brigade, which was formed in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein's regime.

In Basra, the capital of the British-controlled south of the country, the police force has been heavily infiltrated by the Badr Brigade. They are believed to have been responsible for the abduction of two British special forces soldiers who had to be rescued with the storming of a police station.

A defence source said: "It is logistically eminently possible for Iran to take action against British and other coalition forces in Iraq. They have a lot of control over Shia forces and it is a leverage they are prepared to use, as we have seen already.

"It does not even have to be military action for the Iranians to retaliate. We may well see an upping of destablisation efforts if Britain is seen to be leading calls for sanctions. This is something we recognise and we are preparing to meet if necessary."

Meanwhile, another senior military figure, Admiral Sir Alan West, the head of the Royal Navy, warned that any military action against Iran could have "horrendous consequences" and "must be avoided".

Sir Alan said even air strikes - let alone a full-scale invasion - would be extremely problematic and could have "disastrous" results. Sir Alan was the first Western military commander to express his disquiet over the possibility of an armed intervention in the growing crisis over Iran's nuclear programme. It came amid reports that the US and Israel may bomb the nuclear facilities if Tehran refuses to back down from its belligerent stance over its nuclear testing, despite international anger.

Admiral West said: "The consequence of military action would be quite horrendous. We should not do it, the matter should be resolved some other way."

Talking about a previous example - an Israeli strike at Iraq's nuclear plant at Osirak in 1981, Admiral West said: "That was just one target. With Iran you have got to get every single one. There will awful repercussions if that does not happen."

Iran could take retribution against British troops in Iraq if the British government continues with its leading role in the campaign against the country's nuclear programme, senior defence sources have warned.

The Tehran regime is known to have immense influence with the Shia militias in Iraq and has been accused of directing their violent campaigns.

America and Britain have, in the past, charged Iran with involvement in the supply of explosives used to kill British soldiers in Iraq, although a recent review of intelligence has failed to show a direct link between the bombings and the Tehran regime.

The Iranians are also suspected of involvement in "death squads" responsible for the torture and murder of suspected insurgents.

Iraq's Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr, has been accused of links with the death squads - charges he denies. Mr Jabr is a former commander of the Shia Badr Brigade, which was formed in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein's regime.

In Basra, the capital of the British-controlled south of the country, the police force has been heavily infiltrated by the Badr Brigade. They are believed to have been responsible for the abduction of two British special forces soldiers who had to be rescued with the storming of a police station.

A defence source said: "It is logistically eminently possible for Iran to take action against British and other coalition forces in Iraq. They have a lot of control over Shia forces and it is a leverage they are prepared to use, as we have seen already.

"It does not even have to be military action for the Iranians to retaliate. We may well see an upping of destablisation efforts if Britain is seen to be leading calls for sanctions. This is something we recognise and we are preparing to meet if necessary."

Meanwhile, another senior military figure, Admiral Sir Alan West, the head of the Royal Navy, warned that any military action against Iran could have "horrendous consequences" and "must be avoided".

Sir Alan said even air strikes - let alone a full-scale invasion - would be extremely problematic and could have "disastrous" results. Sir Alan was the first Western military commander to express his disquiet over the possibility of an armed intervention in the growing crisis over Iran's nuclear programme. It came amid reports that the US and Israel may bomb the nuclear facilities if Tehran refuses to back down from its belligerent stance over its nuclear testing, despite international anger.

Admiral West said: "The consequence of military action would be quite horrendous. We should not do it, the matter should be resolved some other way."

Talking about a previous example - an Israeli strike at Iraq's nuclear plant at Osirak in 1981, Admiral West said: "That was just one target. With Iran you have got to get every single one. There will awful repercussions if that does not happen."

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 14 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Saturday that the Islamic Republic would never abandon its nuclear efforts even if it meant facing the United Nations Security Council.

The European Union has announced that it would seek to refer Tehran’s nuclear file to the UN’s top security body because it resumed nuclear research and development at its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in breach of previous agreements with the EU.

In a press conference in Tehran, Ahmadinejad told reporters that suspension of nuclear research was not part of the agreement it had with the EU and that it was legally allowed to carry out the activity.

Referring to an announcement by EU states that talks with Tehran had reached a dead-end, Ahmadinejad said, “They came and said lets negotiate, and we said fine, lets negotiate. Now they come and say lets not negotiate, so we also say lets not negotiate”.

“What is this that you say? … Do you think that you are fooling a kid?”, the Revolutionary Guards commander-turned President said in an address to EU states.

Ahmadinejad said that the EU had no right to demand Iran be referred to the Security Council. “Don’t do something that you will later regret”, Ahmadinejad said, in threatening language.

He warned that Iran would pursue “paths other than negotiations”, if the West increased the pressure.

Asked whether he would use oil exports as a weapon, the hard-line President said that Tehran had many such options at its disposal and that the West was ten times more dependent on Iran than Iran was on the West.

He added that the world’s superpowers wanted to “control the 21st century”. However, he said that the nations of the world had awakened and would not allow such an outcome.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called on Iran to suspend work at Natanz as a confidence-building measure, given nearly two decades of deceit by Tehran which had kept its atomic program hidden from the international community.

“The time has come that the West carry out confidence-building measures”, Ahmadinejad said, adding, “The Iranian nation will not accept any threats”.

Iran Focus-Iran’s former President declared on Friday that the Islamic Republic would drive ahead with its efforts to obtain nuclear capabilities despite the growing international furore over its decision to begin previously-suspended nuclear activities in its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.

Speaking to a gathering of clerics in the northern province of Gilan, Rafsanjani said that the West’s main reason for its opposition to Iran’s nuclear pursuit was its “colonialist spirit”, the state-run news agency reported.

The West wanted “other countries, especially the Islamic Republic, to be left behind from having modern technology”, Rafsanjani, who presently chairs the State Expediency Council, said.

Rafsanjani said that Tehran had decided to “ignore these threats” and “end up were it wanted to reach”.

The West suspects that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program under the cover of energy production.

NCRI - Residents of Ahwaz, southern Iran, clashed with the suppressive agents of the State Security Forces in a rally on Eid al-Adha, a religious festival, on Thursday.

Demonstrators took to the streets after special Eid al-Adha rituals and demanded the freedom of political prisoners arrested during a demonstration about two and half months ago.

Protesters, particularly the youth, marched towards Ahwaz prison chanting anti-government slogans. According to independent reports government agents using tear gas and electric truncheons attacked and beat the protestors.

Fearing the spread of news of the clashes, the local authorities cut off all communication and public internet facilities in the city.

Ahwaz is the capital of the oil-rich province of Khuzistan which was the scene of bloody clashes last summer leaving hundreds dead and wounded. The regime had to enforce a marshal law to bring the explosive situation under control after two weeks.

Hundreds were arrested during and after the unrest followed by widespread public hangings and mysterious killings in the city.

telegraph.co.uk

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, has said that Iran may face UN sanctions over its resumption of nuclear activities, but insisted that military action was not being considered. Mr Straw called on the international community to take a "sensible, patient" approach to ending the nuclear stand-off, and advised using pressure before imposing sanctions.

Asked if there should be sanctions, Mr Straw told BBC Radio: "That will be on the table but there are prior stages here.

"Our approach is firm but it has also got to be a sensible patient approach which ensures that there is a continuation of the very substantial international consensus which we have built up."

Mr Straw said military action was "not on the agenda" - either in Britain or America.

"This can only be resolved by peaceful means; nobody is talking about invading Iran or taking military action," he said.

"To quote the White House 'Iran is not Iraq'."

The Foreign Secretary yesterday conceded that talks over Iran's nuclear programme had hit a dead end and called for Teheran to be referred to the UN Security Council.

Iran claims its uranium enrichment programme is needed to produce electricity but other countries fear it plans to build nuclear weapons.

The Japan Times: Jan. 13, 2006
By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

Six Kurdish asylum-seekers, whose identities were revealed to Turkish authorities in 2004 along with those of eight of their family members, reapplied for refugee status Thursday at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward.
The six Kurdish men had previously sought refugee status between 1996 and 2001, but all were turned down and they have been issued deportation orders. The asylum-seekers have taken their cases to court, seeking to have the decisions by the immigration authorities reversed.
"We hope that the Justice Ministry will reconsider its decision and recognize (the asylum-seekers) as refugees," their lawyer, Takeshi Ohashi, told reporters Thursday after the papers were filed.
"Because of the immigration officials' action, the asylum-seekers have been placed in even more danger than before," he said.
According to Ohashi, immigration officials visited Turkey to investigate the cases of more than 10 Kurdish asylum-seekers. Their identities were disclosed to Turkish authorities there, Ohashi said.
Immigration officials also "visited the homes and villages of the asylum-seekers with (members of) the Turkish military or the police," he said.
Last month, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations issued a warning -- the strongest admonition the group can level -- to the Justice Ministry over the 2004 probe conducted in Turkey. The federation stressed that leaking personal information to the Turkish government could infringe on the rights of the asylum-seekers and put them in danger.
"The Japan Federation of Bar Associations recognized the graveness of this issue," Ohashi said. The federation "stated that (the investigation in Turkey) was a serious human rights violation."
Ohashi added that he and other supporters of the Kurdish asylum-seekers collected 7,500 signatures on a petition asking the Justice Ministry to either recognize the Kurds as refugees or issue them special residence permits. Ohashi said he plans to submit the petition to the ministry in the near future.
http://japantimes.co.jp

BATMAN (DIHA) - Thousands of people who came together for the visiting of Fest of Sacrifice protested the enforcements against Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan and Roj TV. In the speechs they want from the Prime Minister Erdogan to remember the promises about "We will solve Kurdish Question" and "We won't let Hasankeyf under the water".

In Democratic People Party's (DTP) Batman building there were a lot of people to celebrate the fest. In thois celebration there were Mayor of Batman Huseyin Kalkan and also a lot representatives from NGO's.

Imret: We are expecting an explanation from Prime Minister

The old administrator of DEHAP Celil Imret made a speech in Kurdish and he reminded the words of Erdogan in Diyarbakir meeting. And he said "Words had been finished, now it's the time of practice. Anymore Kurdish People are expecting practical applications. Word is honour, you claim your honour".
After the speech President of the Association of The Families of Prisoners and Detainees (TUHAY-DER) Islam Koyuncu started to talk. He started his speech celebrating at first the fest of Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan and all the prisoners and detainees.
In his speech Koyuncu attracted notice to the isolation against Mr. Ocalan which is continueing in the fest, and also he attracted notice that the right of clear visibitiliy in fests which is given to all prisoners and detainees didn't give to Mr. Ocalan.

Demonsration for Ocalan

After the speechs thousands of people celebrated Kurdish National Leader Mr. Ocalan's fest with the slogans of "Cejna te piroz be ey Serokê Netevî" ( Congratulations to your fest National Leader)
The people who had got pancartes "Claim your promises Prime Minister" "Ocalan, Ocalan", "Slav ji tere lawê Mezepotamya, slav ji tere roja me", (Salute to you, son of Mesopotamia, Salute to you, sun of us) "Without Ocalan Kurdish Question can not be solved" "The interlocutor of Kurdish People is in Imralý", "ROJ TV can not be silenced" walked to the Batman Municipality to celebrate their fest.

Kalkan: The shame of Turkey is ROJ TV broadcasting in Europe

Mayor of Batman Huseyin Kalkan said that they are very happy, because of peoples interest. He made a little speech and said that; "The shame of Turkey is ROJ TV broadcasting in Europe. Turkish Republic can not see this shame. And if they close Kurd's only channel, voice, language, culture and everything it will bring a lot of problems.
Kalkan also wanted from Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to claim the promises of him about Hasankeyf.

ANF-Mehmet Ocalan and Havva Keser went to Gemlik this morning to see the Kurdish Peoples Leader Abdullah Ocalan. However permission to see Mr Ocalan was denied due to a cell confinement penalty. One of his lawyers Mr Bekir Kaya said that Our client is already being kept at the Imrali island as the sole inmate. This is why there is no reason to receive such a penalty.

Mehmet Öcalan and Havva Keser were refused entrance to Imrali Island when they arrived at the Gemlik Gendarmerie Station. The soldiers informed them that they have a court decision and that Mr Öcalan has been given a penalty of 20 day cell confinement.

Mehmet Öcalan said that the soldiers showed him some paperwork and said you can not see him, Öcalan has a penalty of 20 day cell confinement through a court decision.

Mehmet Öcalan said that "the soldiers told us that this is a court decision. I wanted to have a look at the paper work but I was not allowed. They would not tell me anymore details. I wanted to send newspapers to him but they would not allow me to do that either.

The lawyer of Mr Öcalan Bekir Kaya has said that they are doing all they can do to get more details however they are unable to find anyone whom can answer their queries. Mr Kaya has told our agency that due to the national holiday period Bursa Courthouse is closed and added that however the reasoning for such a decision must be included. Such decisions are made by the execution courts. Our client is already kept at the Imrali island as the sole inmate. Hence there is no need for such a penalty. Such penalties are initated through the application of the administration of the prison.

Amnesty International
Public Statement
Amnesty International has written to the head of Iran’s Judiciary to express concern at continuing abuses committed against the country’s Baha’i community and to urge him to ensure that no-one is imprisoned on account of their religious or cultural identity or because of their peaceful activities in support of their community.
The organization said it was greatly saddened by the death in custody of Dhabihullah Mahrami, a Baha’i prisoner of conscience who had been detained for 10 years solely on account of his faith. Amnesty International urged the Iranian authorities to order a thorough and impartial investigation into the cause and circumstances of his death.
Dhabihullah Mahrami was arrested in 1995 and was sentenced to death for apostasy in 1996. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1999. Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience in 1996 and campaigned for his immediate and unconditional release, highlighting his case in a report entitled Iran: Dhabihullah Mahrami: Prisoner of Conscience (AI Index: MDE 13/34/96).
According to reports, Dhabihullah Mahrami was found dead in his cell in Yazd prison on 15 December 2005. His family were apparently informed that he had died of a heart attack and were given his body, which has since been buried. However, Dhabihullah Mahrami was reported to be in good health shortly prior to his death and was not known to be suffering from heart disease, though he was apparently made to engage in strenuous physical labour while in prison raising concern that this may have caused or contributed to his death. He is also said to have received death threats.
In its letter to Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of Iran’s Judiciary, Amnesty International urged that any investigation into Dhabihullah Mahrami’s death in custody should be carried out in conformity with the UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions and that any person found responsible for his death should be brought to justice and given a prompt and fair trial.1
Amnesty International also criticised an apparently increasing pattern of harassment of the Baha’i community which has seen at least 66 Baha’is arrested since the beginning of 2005, apparently on account of their identity as Baha’is or their peaceful activities on behalf of the Baha’i community in Iran. Most have been released but at least nine reportedly remain in prison, including Mehran Kawsari and Bahram Mashhadi, respectively sentenced to three and one year prison terms in connection with a letter they addressed to former President Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami demanding an end to human rights violations against Baha’is. Six of the seven others - Afshin Akram, Shahram Boloori, Vaheed Zamani, Mehraban Farman-Bordari, Sohrab Hamid, and Hooshang Mohammad-Abadi – were arrested on 8 November 2005 but neither they nor the ninth man, Behrooz Tavakkoli, are known to have been charged or tried. Amnesty International believes they may be prisoners of conscience who should be released immediately and unconditionally.
In addition, members of Iran’s Baha’i community have reportedly been attacked by unidentified assailants in recent months and Baha’i cemeteries and holy sites have been vandalized and destroyed. Some Baha’is have had their homes confiscated by the authorities. Baha’is generally are subject to discriminatory laws and regulations which limit their access to employment and to benefits such as pensions, and for many years young people belonging to the Baha’i community have been denied access to higher education by an official requirement that applicants state their allegiance to Islam or one of three other recognized religions. Although this requirement is no longer maintained, Baha’i applicants have had their applications returned with their religion designated as Muslim, apparently to persuade them to renounce their faith to improve their chances of gaining access to higher education. In 2004, despite promises that this designation would be removed, only ten of the 800 or so Baha’i applicants who passed were eventually admitted. These ten refused to attend university in protest at the exclusion of their fellow Baha’is.
Amnesty International has urged the Iranian authorities to take steps to ensure that no one in Iran, including those who belong to unrecognized religious minorities, is imprisoned or discriminated against solely on account of their faith or their peaceful religious activities.
-----------------------------------------------------
1The UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions Recommended by Economic and Social Council resolution 1989/65 of 24 May 1989, state, in Principle 9:
There shall be thorough, prompt and impartial investigation of all suspected cases of extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions, including cases where complaints by relatives or other reliable reports suggest unnatural death in the above circumstances. Governments shall maintain investigative offices and procedures to undertake such inquiries. The purpose of the investigation shall be to determine the cause, manner and time of death, the person responsible, and any pattern or practice which may have brought about that death. It shall include an adequate autopsy, collection and analysis of all physical and documentary evidence and statements from witnesses. The investigation shall distinguish between natural death, accidental death, suicide and homicide.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130042006

tmcnet.com

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Jan. 12_(Kyodo) _ Six Kurds from Turkey seeking asylum in Japan, whose identities were earlier leaked to Turkish authorities by Japanese immigration officials, and seven members of their families submitted new applications for refugee status in Japan on Thursday.
The Kurdish men and their wives and children had initially applied for refugee status beginning in 1996, but their applications were rejected.

Japanese officials leaked their identities to Turkish authorities during background checks in 2004, prompting the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to announce that the action had put the applicants in danger.
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations issued a warning to the Justice Ministry on Dec. 26 last year, urging the ministry to give special consideration to those who may be exposed to danger by background investigations.

One of the men told reporters Thursday that after Japanese immigration officials leaked his identity to Turkish authorities, the military came to his parents' residence to conduct investigations.

The asylum seekers, who are staying in Japan on provisional release status, have pending lawsuits over the government's refusal to grant them refugee status and its order for them to be sent back to Turkey.

A decision on the new applications, filed with the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, is expected in about six months to one year, according to Japan Lawyers' Network for Refugees.
www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/jan/1279675.htm

Istanbul, 10 Jan. (AKI) - Whatever their ethnic origin and religion, all citizens are Turks, affirmed Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer in his 2006 New Years Message, stepping into a heated national identity debate. The taboo question of Turkish identity has emerged in recent months, as the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) resumed attacks after a 1999 unilateral ceasefire and as Ankara faces tough scrutiny on human rights in its EU membership bid. Since the PKK began its battle against the Turkish state in 1984 some 35,000 people have been killed. Kurds make up 12-14 million of Turkey's 70 million inhabitants.

Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan triggered the discussion over Turkey's official ‘one nation-state’ policy, following violent protests following an attack on a bookstore in the southeastern town of Semdinli on November 9. Several people were killed in clashes between police and protesters. Three Turkish security officials have been charged in connection with the attack, thought to have targeted the shop's owner, who is Kurd, allegedly linked to the PKK.

Seeking to calm unrest in the Kurdish areas Erdogan said: “All citizens of Turkey are united under the primary identity of being a citizen of Turkish Republic, however all Turks have sub-identities. No one should be offended by this. A Kurd can say I am a Kurd.”

His break with state orthodoxy - the rigorous defence of the secular unified state as envisaged by the country's founder Kemal Ataturk - received enthusiastic applause from some in the European Union and from a small group of intellectuals in Turkey itself. But it unleashed a tide of anger and criticism everywhere else.

Turkish nationalists were furious warning that any redefinition of Turkish identity could lead to the break up of the country. And even the main opposition party, the social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP) through its leader, Deniz Baykal said any redefinition of Turkish identity might tear the country apart, like the former Yugoslavia.

The powerful armed forces were predictably enraged. Hursit Tolon, former First Army Commander General, echoed soldiers reaction saying that Turkey doesn't have a Kurdish problem and that proposing the concept of sub-identity would serve the PKK.

The military wing of the National Security Council at a year's end meeting said: “Redefinition of identity is violation of the constitution. Discussions like those harm the structure of the state based on one nation.”

The same fears that Turkey might disintegrate are being echoed in the media. Taha Akyol, columnist in Milliyet wrote: “Ethnic differentations can lead to bloody decomposition. We should develop cultural pluralism while keeping one-nation state structure.”

However other commentators put the 'Kurdish question' in different terms.

“Of course the constitution says all citizens of Turkish state are Turks. But ‘Turk’ is also ethnically the name of a race. Someone who does not belong to this ethnic group may not be happy to be called Turk. The crucial point is to loyalty to the Republic of Turkey. We denied Kurdish identity for 80 years but this can not continue" said Ismet Berkan, editor-in-chief of pro-EU left-wing Radikal.

But how Turks define who they are and what that means for their large Kurdish population is no longer a purely internal issue. After some tension over Turkey's refusal to fully endorse the US-led war on Iraq in 2003, and a refocussing of foreign policy towards Europe, Ankara's axis with Washington now seems to be being reinforced. Particularly as Turks become increasingly aware of the reluctance of some European nations to include them in the 25-member bloc.

On the EU side, the first flash point is Roj TV, which still broadcasts in Denmark despite Ankara’s insistence that it supports the PKK, which the EU considers a terrorist organisation. The second is Joost Lagendijk, the co-chairman of the EU-Turkey joint parliamentary committee who is being probed by an Istanbul court for recent comments. Lagendijk, “The Turkish military wants clashes with PKK since it makes the army feel powerful and important” he allegedly said.

On the US side however, top officials of CIA and FBI paid visits to Ankara last month. It is reported that Ankara wanted the US to act militarily against the PKK top ranks in northern Iraq. It wants help in finding a military solution to the violence by the guerrilla group.

The government of Ankara has made some moves towards improving the rights of Kurds. Turkish media watchdog ‘RTUK’ announced in December that private television and radio stations will be able to start broadcasting in Kurdish as of January. The state broadcaster TRT started airing weekly half-hour programmes in Kurdish dialects in 2004.

While giving the green light for broadcast in the Kurdish language - something it had resisted for decades - Ankara is still demanding that Denmark ban the Kurdish satellite broadcaster Roj TV.

Turkey’s estimated 12-14 million-Kurds are not regarded as minority under the country's constitution. Under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, Turkey granted minority rights only to non-Muslims. The EU is eager to have the Kurds classified as a minority and see their demands for some autonomy addressed.

In June 2004, the PKK cancelled its ceasefire declaration dating from 1999 when its leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in Kenya. According to official government figures, since 2004 about 1000 members of PKK have infiltrated to Turkey from Northern Iraq where PKK has allegedly set up its base with about 3000 militants. From that time PKK violence has gradually re-emerged in Turkey, with nearly 200 soldiers and civilians killed over the past year.
/http://www.adnki.com___##0##___ /http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.247483678&par=0

By Parisa Hafezi

By Parisa Hafezi
Reuters- Prime Minister Tony Blair called on Wednesday for the U.N. Security Council to consider action against Iran after it resumed nuclear fuel research, but former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said any sanctions would be futile.
Iran removed U.N. seals at uranium enrichment research facilities on Tuesday and announced it would resume "research and development" on producing uranium fuel, prompting angry reactions from Washington, the European Union and Russia.
Blair vowed to haul Iran before the Security Council, which can impose punitive measures.
"I think the first thing to do is to secure agreement for a reference to the Security Council, (if) that is indeed what the allies jointly decide as I think seems likely," Blair told parliament.
"Then .. we have to decide what measures to take and we obviously don't rule out any measures at all," he added.
Blair made no direct reference to military force, but his remarks seemed stronger than those of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who said on Tuesday military action was not on Britain's agenda and that he believed it was not on anyone else's.
Iran says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and the U.N. nuclear watchdog has found no firm proof to the contrary.
"Adopting harsh measures like imposing sanctions cannot bring about the desired outcome," Rafsanjani said at Tehran University in a sermon to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain will meet in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the crisis caused by Iran's move to reactivate a nuclear fuel programme mothballed under a November 2004 deal with the EU trio.
European diplomats say they expect an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors to take place, probably towards the end of the month.
EU diplomats say there is a clear simple majority on the IAEA's 35-nation board in favour of referring Iran to the Security Council. However, they said EU and U.S. officials would work to achieve as much consensus as possible.
Russia and China, which have major energy interests in Iran, have previously opposed moving the dispute to the Security Council, where they both wield veto powers.
However, Iran's latest action appears to have disconcerted Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the row with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by telephone.
"Both sides...expressed deep disappointment about Tehran's decision to abandon the moratorium," a Russian foreign ministry statement said.
Iran's action rattled oil markets on Tuesday, helping push up the price of crude for a while.
Rafsanjani said diplomacy, not confrontation, remained the best way to solve the dispute.
"We will stand by our right to nuclear technology. They will regret creating any problems for us," he told worshippers.
Any embargo on Iranian oil exports would be a double-edged sword -- Iran is the world's fourth biggest crude oil exporter.
The United States already has a full embargo against Iran, but the EU could impose trade restrictions.
Neither the EU nor Washington is actively calling for sanctions against Iran, but any referral of the Islamic republic to the Security Council would bring that possibility closer.
The Council could impose sanctions ranging from travel curbs on government officials to a full trade embargo such as those previously imposed on Libya and Iraq.

EU3 TO BREAK OFF TALKS WITH IRAN

German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said the "EU3" had no choice but to end talks with Iran unless it promised not to begin enriching uranium.
He said Iran's plan to resume research on uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for atomic energy or weapons, violated a 2004 agreement in which Iran pledged to freeze enrichment-related work to ease fears it wants the bomb.
"There can be no further negotiations without a guarantee from Iran that it will not conduct any activities related to (uranium) enrichment," Erler told German radio.
Germany has issued some of the harshest EU condemnations of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said he doubted the Holocaust happened and called for the destruction of Israel.
Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Council which arbitrates on legislative disputes, called for more diplomacy.
"They cannot take this (nuclear) know-how from us. The issue could be resolved through patience and wisdom," he said.
The EU has not ruled out further talks with Iran but has made clear that Tehran would first have to re-suspend its nuclear fuel programme. Iran began reactivating this in August 2005 when it resumed uranium processing at its Isfahan plant.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Berlin, Madeline Chambers in London and Oliver Bullough in Moscow)

By: Kameel Ahmady

I covered war in Iraq for media agencies such as BBC and CNN; some two years on I am on my way to visit south Kurdistan and Iraq. This time not purely for media work but to present papers to Kurdistani universities as well as to Baghdad to talk about diaspora communities and examine how the identity changes when they migrate to new locales. Next to me as I write there are two young Iraqi Kurds, who seem very happy and excited that they are about to see their families after three years of distance and separation. Hiwa from Dohuk mistook me for a northern Kurd from Turkey by my Kurmanji and he was keep talking about PKK. He told me of what he remembered when the Saddam army chased him and his family across the border to North Kurdistan(Turkey). Our small plane landed in Diyarbakir airport and I left them but not before we exchanged telephone numbers and I promised them a visit in weeks to come.
Sign welcome you to Kurditan
Meeting two friends who were waiting for me we head for Diyarbakir’s town centre; I have been to north Kurdistan many times before so I didn’t plan to go sight-seeing. Getting near the centre you can’t miss huge red sign reading: I am so happy being a Turk - what Ataturk said and is now immortalised in almost any town in Turkey’s Kurdistan. Chi xana, the tea house near the Kurdish Cultural Centre which I frequent whenever I am in Diyarbakir, is thick with smoke and full of young men and women debating or engrossed in their mobile phones. My next stop was Dijla University, where I hoped to present a paper on identity and its changes in the diaspora; however, apparently after reading my abstract the university officials told me they can’t allow me to present at their university, as it was politically sensitive topic and I had to bring official permission from the Ministry of Education in Ankara. I left Diyarbakir for Mardin, near the Syrian border, thinking all the while that there is a much longer road for Turkey to take in order to bring about real changes in how the government thinks about identity and their treatment of non-Turkish minorities to flourish in their sense of belonging and cultural identity.
Mardin is a beautiful, historic town built in the 13th century, its town centre and shops dominated by Arabic speakers who claim they come from Syria and Jazira town. Walking through the bazaar and speaking to the locals almost everyone told me they are in fact either mixed raced Arab and Kurd, or their grandparents were Kurds from Jazira but after moving to Mardin now speak Arabic for trading purposes as well their native Kurdish and of course Turkish. The most interesting part was to observe that most children were talking in Arabic with their parents. In contrast, I had noticed in other towns in north Kurdistan Turkish was used as the primary language inside and outside the family.
I spent a day in a village near Kazimia Castle speaking to the Kurdish villagers who were all from the same clan, and were very keen to find out about Kurds of Iran after I told them that I am an Iranian Kurd. They were surprised when I said there are estimated 7 to 8 million Kurds lives in Iran and also a large Kurdish community who speaks the Kurmanji dialect. They were full of questions such why we don’t hear much about the Iranian Kurds and wanting to know if we are treated the same as the Kurds in Turkey, and many more questions which I felt I wouldn’t be able to answer with any real sense of knowledge, being only one person with one set of experiences. I was almost forced, by typically strong Kurdish hospitality, to stay for dinner by heval Boran, in his rather small houses which is shared with his family of 8 people. His family were really trying to offer whatever they could to make me feel comfortable and the children didn’t leave my side for whole time I was there, and were keen to pose for my camera.
Silopi, like any other border town in the world, was chaotic, dirty, and its streets packed with lorries and oil tankers bringing oil from south Kurdistan into Turkey where it’s refined and turned to petrol to be returned to Iraq. I wasn’t allowed to walk through the border there, but had to hire a car to take me over; after some time waiting to do the paper work and many aggressive looks and questions from Turkish border guards at the last Turkish check point, we dealt with an officer who appeared to be very annoyed with a truck driver, whose flag of Kurdistan and picture of Mala Mustafa Barzani, the founder of Kurdistan Democratic Party, was overlooking the Turkish flag and Ataturk’s portrait.
Dohuk, stronghold of the KDP, is traditionally known as the best policed town in Kurdistan. The people of Dohuk, who speak Kurmanji, have close economical and trade links with their follow Kurds to the north, in Turkey’s Kurdistan. Although I had been stopped for taking photographs and had my press card car fly-checked by the police in the city, I found the people of Dohuk very welcoming and friendly. At times I was mistaken for a Kurd from Turkey because my Kurmanji did not sound local.
Dohuk has recently seen fighting when, on the 07- 12 this year, four people were killed when members of a Kurdish Islamic party that is challenging the dominant Kurdish bloc in current Iraqi elections were attacked by mobs and young angry students. This event was still hot news when I was there, my hotelier told me that one senior official of the Kurdistan Islamic Union was among those killed when angry youths threw stones and set fire to party buildings in six towns. Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani appeared on television and condemned the violence. Attacks also took place in Arbil, the Kurdistan capital, and Zakho near the Turkish border, as well as three other towns.
He also went on to say how the KDP and PUK fought a civil war in the 1990s, but that they have set aside rivalries, hoping to gain as much power as possible in Iraqi national politics through elections that have followed Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003. He said “we must not give room for another civil war, it will only make Iran, Syria and especially Turkey happy”.
Dohuk University is built just outside the town on a massive piece of a land; signs of active construction work are still visible in parts of the campus. The university is divided between 5 schools; I visited art and langue as well as policy and economics, where I met some really interesting students with a variety of stories to tell. Some just came back from years of living in exile in Iran, where they fled when the Barzani tribe lost its armed struggle in Iraq and many were forced to migrate to Iran’s main cities in Karj, Tehran, Asfan and so on in 1970s; others were large groups of Syrian Kurds who had come specifically to study there, as well some from Turkeys Kurdistan and a few from Iran.
The university has a small language department; visiting one of the lessons I was asked to talk to the students about my work and respond to there questions in English. The most interesting part was that from a total of 47 students, 39 one them were female. When I asked the reason behind it most said because women are better in languages. I then asked them if this is how their society looks at gender, and they replied that they were told like this - that females are suited for certain careers and not for others. Still, it was heartening to see so many young women, the voice of a new generation in free Kurdistan, actively pursuing education which will give them the opportunities they have been denied up until now.
Hawler castle
As a result of 1991 and the creation of the semi-independent Kurdistan, most of the teaching and text books are in Kurmanji written in Arabic fonts, which looked very interesting to me as my exposure to Kurmnaji is with the Latin alphabet. Shivan was my guide through the university, himself an MA history student. He told me how difficult it is to be accepted as an MA student as you would need to have 2 years of work expertise such as university work or teaching.
I arrived in Hawler (Arbil), which is considered Kurdistan’s capital city, after a proper check at the main check point where a very polite police officer welcomed me: Bakir bit to free Kurdistan. In town I noticed a large presence of armed forces, army offices and traffic police on the main streets; a taxi driver told me that Hawler nowadays is like a large army headquarters, most of which was KDP offices flying the yellow flags, and pictures of Mala Mustafa Barzani and current Kurdistan president Masud Barzani. People of Hewler have a reputation for being very friendly and welcoming, and taking pictures of the street life I was always greeted with respect and constantly offered drinks of tea.
Hawler castle is the most important land mark to the Kurdish capital; some few thousand live and work inside the surrounding walls. Some complained that the regional government wants them to leave as they want to transform the area into tourist attraction; it is also easy to observe the downside of development and ‘progress’, when many regular people do not get its benefits. Around the Galai is a famous hot spot for young people, mainly men, to walk around while eating corn seed and drinking fresh juice. Its lively atmosphere is one of social life and getting back to a feeling of normalcy after so much media attention in recent months.
Election posters still hang fresh almost every where, Kurdistan flags are apparent in every corner, and, tied with car radio aerials, even some bicycles are flying it! The two main Kurdish political parties choose to be one list to gain the maximum votes in 3 provinces in Kurdistani regions.
The next day, and before leaving Hawler, I went to Sallahadin University of Hawler, which was large and overcrowded. Students, like those everywhere on campuses around the world, were walking slowly from one side of the university to another in groups 2 or 3, while cars cruised, observing the opposite sex. It was heartening to see such signs of universal adolescent behaviour. I met with Hawar, who I had previously arranged to meet to show me around. He too was waiting to be accepted as an MA student in history. He said you have two options, either you go to the university officials and they will tell you how good is their work and how much success they had or you simply go to the students and they will give 90 degrees opposite to what the officials told you, then he started telling how corrupt the universities are and how they are run by deans who only care about figures rather then real achievements. He give me some examples of intellectuals who had come back from Europe with the aim of teaching at the university but who were turned down because they were considered a ‘threat’ to those have hang on to the posts. Hawar told me he thinks they as students deserve new, young and educated people to lead their universities. In speaking to such students, I also learned that despite the images of modernity I witnessed, there is a long way to come in reforming systems in Kurdistan. Let us hope that the commitment and enthusiasm of such young people as Hawar will help to develop these changes.
To find out more I went to the Social Science department to speak to the dean and tutors and find out more about what they teach. Although I was given permission to sit in some of the classes, when I asked about how the university is doing and tried to find out about their plans and future projects, largely I had to agree with Hawar as I was told very briefly how great they are doing but not much about there future plans as they said they look great and will be running very soon.
Although I planned on visiting Kirkuk and Baghdad on my trip, I choose to go to Suleymaniyah in order to be in Hallabja to witness the sentencing of war criminals. We had to cross from kurdish town of Kirkuk, a city which is hotly contested by Kurds, Arabs and nowadays by Turkmen as well. It has large oil fields whose flames were noticeable from kilometres way. Getting close to Suleymaniyah, when the driver and passenger find out there is no one from Hawler in the car, they start telling jokes about the Hawlerians. People in Suleymaniyah are famous for their subversive and sometimes black humour.
Hallabja cemetery
I chose to go to Hallabja to cover the story of how the European Court in Den Haague is about to recognize the Anfal as a genocide against the Kurdish people. My first stop is to see the Hallabja Memorial Centre, which was closed for refurbishment, (unfortunately, due to the historical timing), then I visited the town’s cemetery where most of the fifty thousand which were buried in mass graves are now buried. One of them as small as 3x4, is a grave to 1500 people. Looking at this, and seeing uncounted numbers of white grave stones, I just couldn’t accept so many thousand people at the hands of the Iraqi regime and that Mr Franc Van Anraat was acquitted of genocide charges but was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The Dutch court found him guilty of complicity in war crimes for selling more than 1,000 tons of chemicals to the former Iraq government, used in gassing Kurds in Iraq also in Iran.
There was loud music and groups of men dancing in traditional Kurdish style outside Hallabja’s chemical support office, but then it was a very emotional and sad moment when the group of people gathered inside the office to watch the court hearing live on Kurdish TV. Talking to people on the street I was invited to meet some families who lost many members; the few survivors told how the chemical attacks happened. Shokri, a woman in her 50s, lost 6 members of her family. She said: “Hallabja was hit by Saddam because the Iranian, army helped by PUK Kurdish peshmargas, took over the town and pushed Iraqi out of Hallabja”. She was crying, saying many people wouldn’t get killed if peshmerga forces had allowed people to leave the town. “I don’t know why they sealed around the town and didn’t give permission for us to leave before the bombing started”. Her story was reiterated by others who I met later.
Almost whoever I spoke with felt the Kurdish authorities and western powers used Hallabja for their political purposes and in particular USA, as one of their cases to justify war in Iraq. The streets were dirty and apparently in need of a lot of work; water and sewage systems were in very bad shape and electricity was only available half the day and early evenings. These people, although now recognised as victims of the most profound human rights abuses, continue to suffer its consequences, ignored by the world.
Work need it in Hallabja
Spending the night in a local home I got to know more from the family and their guests about Hallabja; how it has been forgotten. They told me terrible stories about when they were migrated to Iran and many died because of lack of medicine and proper shelter. I met up with a nearby town’s human rights worker who works in a branch of a human rights office set up by the PUK. He said something very interesting, although the way it was said was funny. He told me because we are not independent and there is a lot of corruption within the system, and at times complaints would not go far as the accused use their party connection and the matter gets ‘dissolved’ by itself. He said: “when we receive a complaint such as torture or unlawful imprisonments for member of the public we open a file and send through various channels to be examined and investigated - at the end the system will confront the individual and ask if he or she has been involved in torture. When it’s denied by the person the complaint will get back to us and we will close the file due to lack of evidence. But the sad thing is the member of the public who launched the complaint most of the time get terrorised even more as an act of revenge and get beating up even more why he or she complained in the first place”.
Leaving Hallabja to Pinjavin and Bash mage near to Iranian Kurdistan, passengers had told me how many towns and village was flattened to the ground by Saddam Hussein and how thousands from the locality were never seen after Anfal. Two men in their 50s were almost shouting that Saddam dare speak out at the court and how he has groups of lawyers. One of them was so angry, saying they should cut pieces by pieces from him and put salt in his injuries to make him feel the pain caused by how he killed 18200 Kurds in Anfal - 5000 in Hallabja and thousands from the Barzani family and Iraqi Shiits. “How Saddam and his circle have not yet been found guilty in the Iraqi court? Why and how the priority of the Iraqi court was given to the killing of over 100 Shiia and Sunni Arabs in the village of Dujel, not to the genocide of Kurds by the former Iraqi government?”, he wondered incredulously. He shook his head, saying that he just doesn’t understand.
Oil smuggling at the Border of Iran and Iraqi kurdistan
I went to Bashmage to make a documentary about the mountain porters. I had previously shot a short film while I was in Iran in 2004, but wanted to do something more with the topic. Young men, mostly Iranian Kurds, every day smuggle litres of oil and petrol from Iran to Iraq, to a country who itself is one of the largest oil resources in the world. There is corruption at the border, the Iranian guards are taking money from people in the day light even while we were filming from distance. As far as the oil smuggling was concerned, there were large groups of porters who had carried two 20 litre tanks of oil in their backs, using more hidden spots and back hills to run through the border in order to escape arrest and court fine by the Iranian soldiers.
Sulaymaniyah has expanded so big that the nearby hills and villages are nowadays considered part of the town. In recent years many had left their villages and small towns nearby and settled in Sulaymaniya. Traditionally this town is known as heartland of intellectuals, and has seen many demonstrations and civil rights movements which contributed to some reforms. For two nights I was a guest of IWPR (Iraq war and peace Reporting), Iraq’s War and Peace Reporting Centre aiming to train journalists in the area as well as publishing almost daily reports about the situations in Iraq and Kurdistan. My host Jessica had a lot to say about her experiences and her view about Kurdistan and Iraq. She said she is aware of the fact there are strong feelings of nationalism, which can be dangerous and may undermine the rights of other ethnic minorities if and when Kurdistan get its independence. She said: “I really like it here, people are really friendly and hospitable, I have many friends but there is not much social life for women outside family life and few other open air spaces”. She also said “everyone wants you to be 100% Kurdish”.
Sulaymaniyah University
The next day I had a presentation at the Sulaymaniyah University to talk about Kurdish media and its impact on other parts of Kurdistan. My focus was on Kurdistan TV and Kurd Sat TV and some radio and newspapers. The university was so busy that you had to push your way in order to get through, the size of some of the classes was around 80 students. Students were very keen to find out the way media worked outside of Kurdistan and were fighting each other to get a time to put their questions forward.
Latter that day I agreed to give an hour live radio interview to radio NAWA considered one of the very few semi-independent media sources in Kurdistan, and originally set up by the help of the USA before the Iraq war. It is now funded by some NGO’s and the radio is very popular with people Programmes such as without censorship, gave people the opportunity to discuss matters never before said. Talking about how Kurdish media is independent and discussing the relationship between the two main satellite TV channels and KDP and PUK brought a large wave of telephone calls from listeners, agreeing and disagreeing with the topic. It made me really happy to see that a platform such as this radio is giving the voice to people of Kurdistan.
Hawlati is another example of free Kurdish media, so I went over to visit their office. I had written articles for Hawlati in the past ,Shawn told me more about the paper and its new management, I put an idea to them as in the days to come I will return to Hawler, the stronghold of KPD, accompanied by a Hawalti reporter, and will seek to see Dr Kamal Syied Quder who is sentenced to 30 years.
Taking a taxi inside the town my driver was a young man, who was very happy with life there. A few flags of Kurdistan inside his taxi and outside and many pictures of actresses and pop stars decorated the car. He said he is grateful to PUK and KDP for giving him such comfort. He said: “I am free to say whatever I like and do. My life is just perfect, I have a car, money and most nights I drink a quarter bottle of whisky with my friends”. He looked at me and said: “The only thing missing is women, you can’t get this easily. I mean you can but you can’t be with them the way you should be, you know what I mean? I have a girl who I kissed a few times but no more, there is no place for such things, or at least not for us. I have to meet her in the dark near to her brother’s house when she can disappear for some time and meet me at that spot”.
Although later many university students told me its difficult to have open relationships, some boys told me these days you can do whatever you like. “Do it and just keep it quite”. Some of the girls were complaining how some boys use their mobile phones and take pictures of them and send to each other some time even with graphic some where they change the picture and make it look as something else. They said there has been one suicide over picture messaging when a picture of a young lady was sent around between young men, and later one the girl killed herself. The violation of privacy which this represents is one thing, made worse in a situation where feelings of shame and secrecy hold influence. It was obvious that the experiences and freedom of young boys and girls was different with respect to this issue of relationships.
Visiting Kak Mazaher Xalagi
The Kurdish Heritage Institute, has gathered a small but very influential group of intellectuals trying to bring about a rich and unique archive of books and music. It is run by Kak Mazaher Xalagi, himself a Kurdish singer from Iranian Kurdistan. He told me: “the opportunity of coalition forces and US gave to Kurdish people is unique and we need to use this opportunity to bring our long dreamed independent Kurdistan to reality and Kurds from all parts of Kurdistan should make contribution to this small but free part of Kurdistan in order to expanded this to other parts”.
I spent the night among a family of Kurdish of Jewish origin, whose son is my friend in London. The mother Haji Amina, told me about her family and how some of them, including her father, became Muslim while others didn’t and left Kurdistan for Israel. Her husband, also Haji, thanked God for being Muslim, and doesn’t agree with what is going on in Israel in respect of the Palestinians. Most of the night was passed by responding to their questions about Israel and Palestine, where I spent 2 weeks earlier this year.
Once again I am in Hawler, and it seems I have entered another country before mobile roaming service existed. My kurdistani mobile which is giving to me by a friend won’t work here as in Sulaymaniyah, where the network is called Asia Cell. This network is blocked from working in Arbil, and vice-versa, seemingly for political reasons. There is little cooperation between authorities on coordinating business plans. Hawler Mobile network called Korek Mobile also wont work in PUK area. This has become a national joke in Kurdistan.
Inside our 5 seat private taxi from Sulaymaniyah to Hawler there was debate about Kurdistan’s situation, the election and Dr Kamal’s arrest. Our driver was a funny man who just seemed to have no patience with other drivers on the road, he kept honking his horn and pushing through. He said: “if this guy Dr Kamal, or whoever his name is, did swear at him the way he did to Sarok (Masud Barzini) I would go to the airport and wait for him and with the hand gun I have at home I would shoot him dead, how can someone call me all this? No way”. The other passenger was very hopeful about Kurdistan’s future, he was saying: “no matter how bad or corrupted the political parties are, they are still better than Saddam and Arab authorities. Yes we all see there problems but it will be sorted in time, we shouldn’t just blame the Kurdish government”. He said: “we have a lot of enemies, all our neighbours are waiting like hungry wolves to tear us apart, especially Iran and in particular Turkey, these days even Iraqi Arabs”.
Town centre,Sabonkaran
I am determined to see Dr Kamal Syied Qudar, who has been kept in special detention for the past 2 months. Dr Kamal Sayid Qudar, an Austrian citizen and law expert has been sentenced to 30 years imprisonment by Arbil (Hawler) court. He published a number of articles in which he criticised the Barzani family and Kurdistan’s leader Masoud Barzani, also talking about the presence of Israelis and their future in Kurdistan. He also spoke about Sheikh Zana’s terror group, who killed a large number of people in the last few years before they were arrested by KDP.
Apart from his sisters and some relative he has not been visited by the press. I was the first independent visitor which was allowed to see him; I was expecting there would be no chance to see him and even advised not to go. I was informed by Hawalti newspaper that he has been kept at Hawler central police station. With me was Kak Faisal, a reporter from Hawalti newspaper, Kurdistan’s most successful paper. We went to the station and asked to see him, and I was surprised quickly I managed to visit Dr Kamal; I was not sure if it was my international press card or because I was living in UK and visiting Kurdistan, but the official told me there no restriction if himself agrees to see me. They shortly came back to me saying he had agreed to meet me. I met him after he finished teaching English to his 32 new students. His captors and himself told me that he volunteered to teach English as he did not have much to do and its his duty to teach where ever he was.
Our minder never left the room even though we complained of his presence. I was not allowed to write notes but our guard jokingly said that I can remember them in my head and write them down later. The young minder apologised by saying he had been order to do so. Dr Kamal looked very upset and, as he said later, pissed off. He was talking constantly and had a lot to say especially about the way he was sentenced at the court.
He said: “the day I was taken to the court I was lied to by the authorities”. He was apparently told he was being giving pardon by the Kurdistan president Masoud Barzani and would be released that day. “I was taken to court were 3 judges were present. It was worse then Saddam’s era or even Hitler. I was given no time and opportunities to talk or defend myself or either to my solicitor who I didn’t know and who had never seen me before. It was very quick, something around 10 minutes. The judge read out the charges and the next thing I realised I was sentenced to 30 years. Something like this has never happened to anyone except in the most undemocratic societies”.
“I want to go back to my academic life, this shouldn’t be the way any civil society deals with free and independent views and it breaks fundamental human rights” said Dr Kamal. “I am here because I have no connection within the authorities, because I criticised the system, I am vulnerable man from a poor family and also from a martyr’s family, if I was from a rich family or had special connection to the government officials I wouldn’t be here. I am sorry for what I wrote about Barzani family, I have written 3 letters to Kak Masoud Barzani asking for forgiveness, one of them was even published on the internet, but what I said in my other articles about Israelis and their presence in Kurdistan is something everyone in the streets talks about it, why should I have to pay for it?”
Dr Kamal continued to explain what he said in his articles about Dr Gasamlo, KDPI (Kurdistan democratic party of Iran) leader who was gunned down by the Iranian authorities in Austria, and the abduction of Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya with the help of Israel’s Mosad and US’s CIA. “This is something the entire world is aware of”.
He expressed his concern about some of Kurdish media and groups using his cause and trying to take adventures his situation in order to criticise the Kurdistan regional government and in particular the KPD, led by Masoued Barzani.
At the end he said if he gained no success from his appeal and was kept in prison he will end his life and bring further shame to the Kurdish government. “I was used as a scapegoat, I still don’t know why I am here” I am political prisoner says Dr Kamal. Before I leave him he asks me if I can ask police officials if he can be allowed use of a telephone and computer in order to use the internet. Dr Kamal, an international law expert, has two Phds, and was in the process of pursuing his 3rd PHD in anthology.
I felt how trapped Dr Kamal is and how unfairly he has been sentenced. Later on that day I logged into one of the internet chat rooms where there is constant campaigning set up for the release of Dr Kamal, and has been kept alive for over two months. After telling the chartroom about my meeting, shockingly I was accused of being a spy for Parasten (KDP’s intelligence services) by the room administrator. In one way I understand their suspicion as others didn’t have such access to him and this matter has been closely watched by Kurdish people outside of Kurdistan. The only thing I could do at that point was to ask the person who holds petitions to apologise. He said he will apologise only when I draw myself out this matter and do not proceed with publishing this news, and also not to give interviews to radio and press. Realising how sensitive the issues are I agree with myself to leave this matter untouched. It is apparent that some people do use this in order to voice their anger with the Kurdistan authorities, something that Dr Kamal himself said to me when I met him. On the other hand, I feel sorry for him that he has been heavily punished for something as a means to try to scare other writers and intellectuals about freedom of speech.
I have been to Lalash once before. It is our next stop to this pilgrim’s site for Yazidi Kurds, based in the heart of the mountains, a beautiful and natural place it is home to religious sites and prayer places for the Yezidi community, which attracts Yezidi Kurds from other parts of Kurdistan a few times a year. Setting off from the historical town of Amediye, which was build on top of a mountain, to meet Shik Tahssin Beg with my historian accompaniment and the film crew we all know that we will spend the new year in Lalash temple. Perhaps we will witness praying to start a new year.
My journey is to continue to Haji Omaran, where as a joint team with some film makers I will start shooting a documentary about border smuggling and the fact that the Iranian authorities are shooting young people engaged in this work dead on a weekly basis. Ancient, poor desperate people who are forced to find their daily living by carrying cigarettes for as little as 2$.
Historical town of Amediye
There was an angry scene and heated debate on most Turkish and Turkmen television last night about why Real Madrid agreed to open up training football school in Hawler. There was a very strong reaction from the Turkish authorities seeing Kurdistan’s success and forming its international image in many angles. It was so funny to see what they showed as a reputed film clip about Hawler, old men drinking tea wearing Kurdish clothes and some women wearing very strict garments, and dirty streets. None of this was the image of Hawler and the life there that I had witnessed. Instead, it was carefully edited to focus only on negative points.
As 2006 begins I wish this year to be a year of prosperity and success for all parts of Kurdistan and in particular for this part which is nowadays considered by Kurds as the future hope for us as Kurds of other parts of Kurdistan to reach such international recognition. Although there is a long way for Kurdistan to reach international standards comparing with some parts of the world, what I saw in Kurdistan is a progressive start for a bright future. The promise of an increasingly democratised middle east, with prosperous, happy, peaceful societies co-existing is a dream that can become a reality if we continue to work with the new resources we have before us. As this new year begins, I hope that we all work towards this goal, and to recognise the important point in history we find ourselves. I share my hope with you, and look forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Kameel Ahmady
Kameel14@hotmail.com
Mob: 07958 647 705

ISNA, the regime-run news agency reports that now cameras are being installed in universities in order to control the students. The first wave started from the Teachers Training College of Tehran (Pardeess Karadj), which has led to a surge of protests by the students themselves.

The college authorities irreverently commented: "Installing these cameras in certain sectors and public areas are meant to operate as an electronic eye and surveils the building, the gates and several of the key spaces of the university; without these our expenses would increase as the money would have to be paid to guards in order to monitor those posts. We did not however install cameras in dorms and the students rooms."

The Organization of the Defense of Human Rights of Kurdistan reported the execution [by hanging] of Massoud Showkeh, a prisoner who was incarcerated in Oroumiyeh prison. Showkeh was the second prisoner who had been sentenced to death in Oroumiyeh prison.

Showkeh was the son of a rural family, from the village of GEEVLON (outside the city of Sardasht); he had spent 9 years and 4 months in prison and finally on January 1st, he was hung. He was 37.

Additionally, based on the ruling of branch number two of the courts of Qazvin, 3 people: 29-year old Ahmad, as well as Mohammad-Javad and Abolfazl, both 23 have been sentenced to death and will be executed soon.

In the Northern Province, in the Bojnourd Township, branch 102 of the prosecutor's office confirmed the ruling [handed down from Islamic regimes high tribunal number 28]; a man by the name of Hasan Khaani was also executed. During recent weeks more than 10 people in Tehran, Arak, Shirvon, Saqez, Gachsaran, Oroumiyeh and Sabzehvor, have been hung and the many more await execution at the hand of the nefarious Islamic regime.

iranpressnews

Organization for the Defense of Women's Rights

O17 year old Nazanin was sentenced to death for protecting her chastity against three rapists who attacked her on April 20th, 2005 [on the Akbarabad road that
leads to the Tehran suburb of Karadj], with a knife. She stabbed one of her assailants, named Youssef, in self-defense; he was stabbed in the heart and later died in the hospital. The mysoginist regime of the Mullahs that has ruthlessly violated the rights of all girls and women in Iran since it's inception in 1979 continues to savagely punish (either by public execution or stoning to death) all women for defending themselves.

During Nazanin's court hearing, onlookers who witnessed the attack, confirmed Nazanin's claims against her assailants; the penal court, branch 71 decided however that the death sentence must be imposed. In her last court hearing, Nazanin said: "I only wanted to defend myself and protect my family's reputation and good name." One of the Mullah judges replied: "How could you murder a young man? We will teach you a lesson so that the likes of your filthy whores cannot raise a hand on men ever again."

Later it turned out that her attackers were in fact Basijis (a mobilization force created by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini; they are extremely Radical malitia - overseen and supported by Khamenei and Ahmadinejad) from Karadj.

Freedom-loving women and youth,

We hereby announce that we will take to the streets and hold massive demonstrations against the immoral regime of Mullahs in order to show them, once and forall that they cannot play with the lives of Iranian women in order to promote and protract their political and despotic goals.

If you rise
If I rise
Everyone will rise.

Onward toward the evermore massive protests against the mysoginist ruling Mullahs

IranPressNews

BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog confirmed on Tuesday that Iran had broken U.N. seals at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, setting the stage for a showdown between the Islamic republic and the West.

"The Iranians have begun removing (U.N.) seals at Natanz in the presence of IAEA inspectors," said a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

"We are in contact with our inspectors in Iran and once we get the full details we will report these to the (agency's) board of governors today."

She said she had no further details. One European Union diplomat told Reuters on Monday Iran intended to begin producing nuclear fuel using 164 centrifuges at Natanz.

Centrifuges are machines that purify uranium for use in nuclear power plants or weapons. The United States and EU suspect Iran wants to enrich uranium for bombs, though Tehran denies the charge.

Diplomats from France, Britain and Germany said on Monday they would probably call for an emergency session of the IAEA's 35-nation board if Iran removed the IAEA seals at Natanz.

They said the board would discuss whether to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions.

according to the RMMK news sunday evining a memebre of kurdish human right organization, miss serwa kamkar has been kidnapped by iranian intellegent services for no spicific reason.
she kidnapped during her walking through on of the street in mohabad town. as she divulaged after her reales, kidnapper were from iranian secret intellegent services has taken her for interrogation. but, it is plian that she has been tortured by islamic intellegent services through the marks on her body and specifically on her face.

By Associated Press
Published January 10, 2006

DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey - Marifet Kocyigit was finally able to hug her only surviving child Monday, days after burying a son and two daughters, the victims of a bird flu outbreak in eastern Turkey.

Six-year-old Ali Hasan did not contract the deadly virus, but he had been hospitalized since Dec. 31 while tests were performed. He was released from the hospital in Van on Monday and traveled 120 miles over difficult, snowy roads to his home in Dogubayazit, a largely Kurdish town bordering Iran.

"This is my whole world," a relative translated the Kurdish-speaking mother as saying after she received her son on the doorstep of her house. "It's like I'm forgetting everything."

The boy didn't yet know that his brother, Mehmet, 14, and his two sisters, Fatma, 15, and Hulya, 11, are dead, the family said.

The three children had been seen playing with a sick chicken, from which they are believed to have contracted the virus, uncle Mustafa Kocyigit said.

Mehmet and Fatma became the first confirmed fatalities from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu outside East Asia, where 74 people have been killed since 2003. The World Health Organization has yet to confirm if it also killed Hulya.

Authorities urged Turks to keep children away from dead birds Monday as preliminary tests showed five more youths had been stricken with the deadly H5N1 strain, bringing Turkey's reported total to 15 suspected or confirmed cases, including the three deaths. The new cases were in four separate provinces, indicating the disease was spreading.

Indonesia and China also each reported a new case, and WHO warned every new human infection increases the virus' chances of mutating into a form easily transmitted between people.

WHO officials have said the Turkish victims appear to be catching the disease from infected domestic birds, the normal path of the disease, and not from each other. But they fear the virus could mutate to a form easily transmissible among humans and create a deadly pandemic.
www.sptimes.com

The Washington Times
Sharon Behn

Shi'ite clerics are recruiting young Iraqis to go to neighboring Iran for political indoctrination and militia training, said the uncle of one young man who recently returned from a one-month session...Upon the return of the young man -- whose name has been withheld from this article to protect his family -- he was recruited into the armed wing of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) political party, the uncle said.

Shi'ite clerics are recruiting young Iraqis to go to neighboring Iran for political indoctrination and militia training, said the uncle of one young man who recently returned from a one-month session.

Upon the return of the young man -- whose name has been withheld from this article to protect his family -- he was recruited into the armed wing of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) political party, the uncle said.

The claim is consistent with remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, who has repeatedly warned about Iranian meddling in Iraq's affairs.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) -- an exiled opposition group -- also charges that Tehran has been training Iraqi and other nationals in intelligence gathering and terrorist operations at garrisons across Iran.

The uncle, who agreed to be identified only as Muhammad, said the young man and a number of others were recruited from Husseiniya mosque, a large Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad. The young man told his father he was going to visit a religious site in Iran.

But, Muhammad said, "They took them to a camp and gave them a briefing on what is happening in Iraq, and what Iran is trying to do: Support the Shi'ites and help them retain power. ...

"They trained them for militia purposes -- to go out on patrol, to get people out of their houses, execute them and leave them on the street," he said, adding that his nephew had boasted about his training to the family when he returned in early December.

"He was brainwashed; he was very proud when he was talking to us. He told us all the details in order to try and make us afraid. He had an AK-47. He didn't say who arranged his passport, but he is getting his orders from one of the imams in the Badr office," Muhammad said.

The Badr Brigade is a major Shi'ite militia affiliated with SCIRI.

Karim al-Musawi, SCIRI's spokesman in Washington, dismissed the claims as "propaganda."

Iraq's eastern border with Iran "is guarded by the Iraqi military and coalition troops, so I don't think it is easy for those young people to go there and come back. This is part of the propaganda against the United Iraqi Alliance, not just SCIRI," said Mr. al-Musawi.

According to preliminary results, the United Iraqi Alliance -- which includes SCIRI -- won a plurality in the Dec. 15 elections and will control the largest bloc of seats in the new national assembly.

Mr. Khalilzad alluded to the training of Iraqis in Iran in December, when he told reporters the region included "predatory states ... with aspirations of regional hegemony in the area, such as Iran."

"We do not want Iran to interfere in Iraqi internal affairs," the ambassador added. "We do not want weapons to come across from Iran into Iraq, or training of Iraqis to take place."

The Badr Brigade was deployed in Iran even before the fall of Saddam Hussein. Now in Baghdad, the militia has been tied to the Ministry of Interior and its commando units. U.S. officials have voiced concern that these units are behind human rights abuses in secret prisons that have been discovered in the capital.

"Iran has had contacts with the Badr Brigade, and it is possible they are still doing training," said Jim Dobbins, director of international security and defense policy at Rand Corporation.

"I find it plausible, but I could not confirm it. But it sounds consistent with what one has heard regarding Iranian support for militia and party militias," said Mr. Dobbins.

Sunnis in Baghdad have repeatedly complained about Badr Brigade-led hit squads that target Sunni leaders and members of Saddam's former military.

The NCRI, an umbrella organization of groups intent on overthrowing Iran's religious rulers, claims that the al-Quds force, part of Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, "has dozens of garrisons across Iran in which it trains its non-Iranian operatives."

Among those are the Khomeini Training Base on the Khavaran-Semman highway near Pakdasht, southeast of Tehran, "where a large number of foreign forces from Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine are being currently trained," the group says

The NCRI is respected among some members of Congress for its inside information on Tehran, but is listed as a terrorist group by the State Department.

Muhammad, sitting in his Baghdad office drinking tea and chain-smoking cigarettes, said Iran's Republican Guard had been in charge of his nephew's training.

The young man was paid the equivalent of 75 cents a day for the one-month training, but he had just received $330 from the Badr Brigade for an upcoming four-month period in the militia.

"All the training he received was required training for the militia. They also had political classes, and classes in how to kidnap people if they are against the Islamic people of Iraq and Iran," Muhammad said.