Iran Focus– Some 60 percent of drug addicts in Iran are between 14 to 16 years of age, according to a study conducted on the national crisis which has reached epidemic proportions.

Agha Balazadeh, head of education and welfare in East Azerbaijan province made the announcement, stating, “The majority of addicts in society are individuals aged between 14 and 16. From the 3.2 million of the country’s addicts, 60 percent are youths whose average age lies between 14 and 16. This is the equivalent of 1.8 million people”.

Previous estimates have put the total number of illegal-drug users in Iran at more than seven million.

Last year, Akbar Alami, a member of Iran’s Majlis (Parliament) from Tabriz, northwest Iran, went public and revealed that the actual number of drug users in Iran stood at 11 million.

An official survey, whose findings were released in 2005, showed that drug smuggling in Iran was a 10 billion dollar market the previous year, nearly three quarters of the total revenue from Iran’s oil market during the same period.

Reuters - Iran is forging ahead with a nuclear fuel enrichment program in defiance of world pressure and stonewalling U.N. probes spurred by fears it secretly wants atomic weapons, a U.N. watchdog report said on Monday.

The report by International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei was circulated to IAEA board members before they meet on March 6 to discuss it. The report will be forwarded to the U.N. Security Council, which could consider sanctions.

"It is regrettable and a matter of concern that the uncertainties related to the scope and nature of Iran's nuclear program have not been clarified after three years of intensive agency verification," said the report, obtained by Reuters.

"We are not yet at the point to be able to conclude that this is a (peaceful nuclear program)," said a senior official familiar with IAEA investigations, who asked not to be named.

The report said Iran had begun vacuum-testing a cascade of 20 centrifuges -- machines that purify uranium UF6 gas into fuel suitable for nuclear power plants or, if enriched to high levels, for bombs -- at its Natanz pilot enrichment plant.

Iran had also begun substantial renovations of Natanz's system handling UF6. IAEA monitoring had been impaired by Iran's removal of agency safeguards seals from centrifuge-related raw materials and components, the report said.

Tehran had further told the IAEA it would start installing the first 3,000 of a planned 50,000 centrifuges in the fourth quarter of 2006, the 11-page report went on.

Some 3,000 centrifuges of the type Iran has at Natanz working nonstop for a year would produce the 20 kg (45 pounds) of highly enriched uranium (HEU) needed for one atomic warhead, nuclear analysts say.

Iran's moves ended a 2 1/2-year enrichment moratorium agreed during since-collapsed talks with EU powers which had offered incentives if it curbed its nuclear ambitions, and spurred the IAEA board to report Tehran to the Security Council on February 4.

"SIGNIFICANT ESCALATION"

"ElBaradei has now reported Iran's intention to go beyond so-called R& D (research and development) and begin installing centrifuges in a full-scale enrichment facility. That's a significant escalation," said a senior Western diplomat.

"Today's report reinforces the board's decision to report Iran to the Security Council since it validates ... international mistrust in the peaceful nature of its program.

"It shows how Iran in the face of growing international concern continues its calculated approach to produce material necessary for nuclear weapons," the diplomat added.

Iran denies seeking nuclear arms, saying its atomic energy program aims solely to generate electricity. But it hid nuclear fuel development from the IAEA for 18 years until 2003 and calls for Israel's destruction, stoking Western suspicions.

ElBaradei's report emerged as the West reacted with deep skepticism to a tentative Russia-Iran deal on uranium enrichment meant to help resolve the nuclear crisis and avert Security Council steps toward sanctions, opposed by Moscow and Beijing.

The Iran nuclear energy program chief said on Sunday Tehran had reached a "basic" agreement with Moscow on a proposed joint venture in which Russia would provide enriched uranium to the Islamic Republic. But Russian officials were later quoted as saying Iran had so far made no commitment to renounce home-grown enrichment as demanded by Russia and major Western powers.

ElBaradei's report said Iran had also produced 85 metric tonnes of UF6 gas at its uranium-conversion facility in Isfahan since September 2005, which would be enough for several atomic bombs once Iran masters industrial-scale enrichment technology.

Probes had not uncovered any diversions of nuclear materials into bomb-making, it said, but the IAEA still could not verify there were no covert atomic activities in the Islamic Republic.

Iran's cancellation of voluntary compliance with short-notice IAEA inspections in retaliation for the February 4 IAEA board decision would make it all that much harder to track down possible underground nuclear work, the report noted.

It made clear Iran had done little to heed the February 4 board resolution except for giving slightly more but inadequate information about intelligence reports of military involvement in nuclear research and about equipment linked to a military-run installation razed by Iran before inspectors could reach it.

"The fact that three years have gone and we still have major open issues, including 'dual-use' equipment with a military connection popping up now and then, shows how difficult it is to get to the bottom of their program," the senior official said.

The IAEA board demanded Tehran stop impeding investigations.

"We didn't learn much more this month. Iran is inching forward. With enrichment resuming, it makes the whole atmosphere much more negative," said another official close to the IAEA, alluding to the specter of a showdown in the Security Council.

Human Rights Watch

New York -- Hojat Zamani, a member of the opposition Mojadehin Khalq Organization outlawed in Iran, was executed on February 7 at Karaj’s Gohardasht prison, Human Rights Watch said today, after a trial that did not meet international standards. Human Rights Watch also expressed grave concern for the safety of other members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization imprisoned in Iran, including Saeed Masouri, Gholamhussein Kalbi, and Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi.
Following the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, the number of executions in Iran has increased sharply. According to news articles in the Iranian media, between January 20 and February 20 alone, the judicial authorities executed 10 prisoners and condemned another 21 to the death sentence.
The Iranian judiciary accused Zamani of involvement in a bomb explosion in Tehran in 1988 which killed three people and injured 22. He was condemned to death in 2004, after a court hearing that did not meet international standards for a fair trial, because Zamani was not allowed access to his lawyers.
Zamani was taken from his cell by the prison authorities and hanged inside the Gohardasht prison on February 7, but his execution was not confirmed until a week later, after mounting international protests, by Minister of Justice Jamal Karimirad.
In addition, Human Rights Watch fears the imminent execution of three persons accused of involvement in hijacking an airplane in 2001. They are Khaled Hardani, Farhang Pour Mansouri and Shahram Pour Mansouri. At the time of the alleged hijacking, Shahram Pour Mansouri was only 17 years old.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18. These treaties also prohibit the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishments. Iran is a party to both treaties.
Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian judiciary to stop applying the death penalty and to abide by its obligations under international treaties, including abolition of death penalty for juveniles and implementation of fair trial standards.
Iranian human rights activists have repeatedly expressed serious concerns that under President Ahmadinejad the government will increasingly resort to violent means to suppress dissent. These worries are accentuated by the presence of several ministers in the cabinet who are suspected of grave human rights violations. The Interior Minister, Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi, for example, is suspected of crimes against humanity for his involvement in summary and arbitrary execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.

Iran Focus

London, Feb. 27 – Iran Focus has obtained a list of 20 terrorist camps and centres run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The names and details of the training centres were provided by a defector from the IRGC, who has recently left Iran and now lives in hiding in a neighbouring country. Iran Focus agreed to keep his identity secret for obvious security reasons.

The former IRGC officer said the camps and the training centres were under the control of the IRGC’s elite Qods Force, the extra-territorial arm of the Revolutionary Guards.

“The Qods Force has an extensive network that uses the facilities of Iranian embassies or cultural and economic missions or a number of religious institutions such as the Islamic Communications and Culture Organisation to recruit radical Islamists in Muslim countries or among the Muslims living in the West. After going through preliminary training and security checks in those countries, the recruits are then sent to Iran via third countries and end up in one of the Qods Force training camps”, the officer said.

The Imam Ali Garrison has been a long-time training ground for foreign terrorist operatives. Presently, some 50 Islamists from neighbouring Arab countries are receiving training there in five groups of 10, the officer said.

“Iraq followed by the Palestinian territories have become the focal point of the Qods Force’s activities. Many of the foreign recruits in these camps now come from these two areas, but others come from a wide range of countries, including the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, North Africa and south-east Asia”, he said. “In most camps, the Sunnis outnumber the Shiites”.

“The scale and breadth of Qods Force operations in Iraq are far beyond what we did even during the war with Saddam”, the officer said, referring to the IRGC’s extensive activities in Iraq during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. “Vast areas of Iraq are under the virtual control of the Qods Force through its Iraqi surrogates. It uses a vast array of charities, companies and other fronts to conduct its activities across Iraq”.

“We would send our officers into Iraq to operate for months under the cover of a construction company”, he said. “Kawthar Company operated in Najaf last year to carry out construction work in the area around Imam Ali Shrine, but it was in fact a front company for the Qods Force. Qods officers, disguised as company employees, established contacts with Iraqi operatives and organised underground cells in southern Iraq”.

The officer said Qods Force officers also used the Iranian Red Crescent and the state-run television and radio corporation as fronts for their operations in Iraq.

A special branch inside Iran’s Foreign Ministry is responsible for assisting the Qods Force in bringing in foreign recruits. The recruits first travel to third countries where they are given new passports by Iranian agents to facilitate their entry into Iran. Upon finishing their training course, the new agents leave Iran for third countries from where they use their genuine passports to return to their countries of origin or where missions are planned.

The list of the bases used for training terrorists identified for Iran Focus are as follows:

1) Imam Ali Training Garrison, Tajrish Square, Tehran,
2) Bahonar Garrison, Chalous Street, close to the dam of Karaj,
3) Qom’s Ali-Abad Garrison, Tehran-Qom highway,
4) Mostafa Khomeini Garrison, Eshrat-Abad district, Tehran,
5) Crate Camp Garrison, 40 kilometres from the Ahwaz-Mahshar highway,
6) Fateh Qani-Hosseini Garrison, between Tehran and Qom
7) Qayour Asli Garrison, 30 kilometres from Ahwaz-Khorramshahr highway,
8) Abouzar Garrison, Qaleh-Shahin district, Ahwaz, Khuzestan province
9) Hezbollah Garrison, Varamin, east of Tehran
10) Eezeh Training Garrison
11) Amir-ol-Momenin Garrison, Ban-Roushan, Ilam province
12) Kothar Training Garrison, Dezful Street, Shoushtar, Khuzestan province
13) Imam Sadeq Garrison, Qom
14) Lavizan Training Centre, north-east Tehran
15) Abyek Training Centre, west of Tehran
16) Dervish Training Centre, 18 kilometres from the Ahwaz-Mahshar highway,
17) Qazanchi Training Centre, Ravansar-Kermanshah-Kamyaran tri-junction,
18) Beit-ol-Moqaddas University, Qom
19) Navab Safavi School, Ahwaz
20) Nahavand Training Centre, 45 kilometres from Nahavand, western Iran

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 27 – Iran’s prison population has increased more than 10 times since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the country’s head of prisons announced.

Ali-Akbar Yassaqi, head of the Organisation of Prisons of Iran, said that the total number of prisoners in Iran was 130,118, up from the 13,000 at the beginning of the revolution.

Yassaqi said that 96 percent of prisoners were men and four percent were women.

The latest figure, however, was lower than the prison figures previously announced by Iran’s judiciary.

International human rights groups regularly voice their concern at the plight of political prisoners in Iran, but Tehran maintains it has no political prisoners and describes jailed dissidents as “criminals”.

DIYARBAKIR (DÝHA) - 20 people got injured in the harsh intervention of the police to the mortuary of Ergin Ekinci(Zagros) from HPG who had lost his live in the clash occured in the district of Dargecit, Mardin.

Very seriously injured 20 person, after intervention of police to about 5 thousand person gathered in the square of Dagkapi, were carried to State Hospital and Dicle University Medicine Faculty. Among the police and the groups dispersed occured clashes. A group of 50 who marched to Urfakapi Quarter had clashed with the police. The group who walked from Eskihal to Station square had broken automated tellers of SSK, Ziraat and all banks on the road. The group later began to march towards Regiment. It was learnt that the conflict were continuing in quarters of Dortyol and Melikahmet. The car of mortuary which came off from the crowd had passed from quarter of Ofis and advancing towards cemetery of Yenikoy.

About 2 thousand person had gathered before the mosque of Sefik Efendi which motuary namaz will be performed for Ekinci. The crowd frequently shouts slogans as '' Viva chairman Apo'', '' PKK is people people is here'', '' Martyr does not die'', ''Ocalan'', '' HPG to the Front to retalliation''.
www.kurdishinfo.com

Iran Focus– A man accused of being a “trouble-maker” was flogged in public by police in the northern Iranian city of Rasht, a semi-official daily reported on Monday.

The man, only identified as Farshid N., received 74 lashes in Shik Street, Jomhouri Islami wrote.

A court in Rasht convicted Farshid of “causing trouble” and “frightening people in public places”.

The “Plan to Increase Security in Society” has been in effect in Gilan province, since February 20, according to Brigadier General Ali Aghazadeh, the commander of State Security Forces in the province. Rasht is the provincial capital of Gilan.

Under the plan, individuals accused of being “trouble-makers” have been rounded up for sentencing in special courts.

Iranian officials often refer to millions of unemployed young men, who are largely beset by frustration and despair, as “trouble-makers”.

Iran Focus– Three explosions have rocked the south-western Iranian province of Khuzestan, the Fars news agency, run by the Office of the Supreme Leader, reported on Monday.

The blasts took place in different parts of the province in the early hours of the morning.

One blast occurred in the village of Malashieh nearby the volatile city of Ahwaz which has been a hotbed for anti-government protests and clashes.

A second blast was heard near the Governor’s Office in the city of Dezful and a third blast went off in the lavatory of the Governor’s Office in the city of Abadan.

The report said that three people had been injured in the blasts but gave no further details.

Ahwaz, the capital of the Arab-dominated province of Khuzestan, has been the scene of several bombings this year and in 2005.

In January, Iran accused British troops in Iraq of being behind a twin bombing in Ahwaz which left at least nine people dead and dozens injured.

A string of top Iranian officials including hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have accused Britain of being behind the bombings.

London has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks.

Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 26 – Hard-line Islamists staged two demonstrations outside the British embassy in Tehran on Sunday, hurled stones and petrol bombs at the compound and set fire to British, American, Israeli and Danish flags, as they accused London of being behind the bombing of a revered Shiite Muslim shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra.

“By the blood of our martyrs, we will kill you, Blair”, the radical Islamists chanted, as they trampled on an effigy of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. A similar slogan was chanted against U.S. President George W. Bush.

The government-owned news agency, Fars, put the number of protesters at 2,000 and said they were all university students. Eye-witnesses said there were about 500 demonstrators in the first rally and had the appearance of belonging to Ansar-e Hezbollah, a government-organised group of radical Islamists who are used for attacks on dissident rallies.

The second demonstration was larger, but many in the crowd had been seen in the earlier protest.

Marchers chanted, “Death to America”, “Death to Zionists”, and “Death to Britain”, and hurled stones at the embassy compound in downtown Tehran.

The British embassy has been the target of numerous violent demonstrations, attempted seizures, and even drive-by shootings by radical Islamists in recent months.

The marchers demanded the closure of the embassy and the expulsion of the British ambassador from Iran. Several protesters who had thrown petrol bombs at the embassy were briefly held by the police, Fars news agency reported.

A mob leader shouted through a megaphone that the marchers would do everything in their power to harm Western political and economic interests in Iran.

“The agents of Global Arrogance should know their security and political and economic interests will be in danger”, he shouted.

“In particular, the ambassador of this corrupt embassy will not be safe in our streets”, he added.

Today’s demonstration follows several days of escalating attacks on the British government by Iran’s hard-line press. Kayhan, Iran’s largest daily with close ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been calling on the government to retake possession of Bagh-e Gholhak, a sprawling, leafy compound north of Tehran that was once the summer residence of British ambassadors to Tehran. The land was donated to the British embassy by Nasseroddin Shah, a nineteenth century monarch from the Qajar dynasty.

Earlier this month, Kayhan published a letter from Revolutionary Guards General Mir-Faisal Bagherzadeh to the country’s Chief State Prosecutor, in which the General demanded, in the name of the Revolutionary Guards’ Foundation for Preservation of the Values of Sacred Defence, that the Gholhak compound be taken away from the British.

“In view of the fact that after the dissolution of the Qajar dynasty, the contract by which the land was donated to Britain became null and void, the foundation urges the State Prosecutor to take steps to cut the hands of the usurping British government from this land on the basis of Islamic and legal standards”, the general, a member of the IRGC high command, wrote.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have both accused “the occupiers of Iraq and the Zionists” of carrying out the attack on the Shiite shrine in Samarra.

Analysts saw the escalating attacks on the British government by the Iranian theocracy as Tehran’s bid to press London to distance itself from the United States on Iran’s nuclear program.

“The Supreme Leader and his entourage see the British as the key link in the united Western position on Iran’s nuclear program”, said Ahmad Hashemi, a university professor and political analyst. “They feel that if they force London into making concessions, Western unanimity on Iran’s nuclear file will evaporate”.

In recent weeks, Islamist “students” have attacked European embassies in Tehran in response to newspaper cartoons that first appeared in Denmark, depicting the Prophet Mohammad. Independent analysts in Tehran have noted that with security being as tight as it is in the Iranian capital, such attacks could not have been carried out without official connivance.

Reuters
TEHRAN -- More than 500 protesters angered by the destruction of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Iraq gathered outside the British Embassy in Tehran on Sunday, burning flags and calling for the mission to be closed. Iran accused Western forces in Iraq of orchestrating Wednesday's bombing of the Golden Mosque of Samarra, one of the most venerated buildings in Shi'ite Islam, in order to spark civil war between Shi'ites and Sunnis.

Western nations condemned the attack and Washington suggested the al Qaeda network could have been trying to stir up sectarian bloodshed through the bombing.

The crowd in Tehran chanted that the British Embassy should be shut down and burned Danish and U.S. flags.

"We are all here to defend Islam to the last drop of our blood," said protester Hassan Moradkhani, dressed in a Palestinian headscarf.

The United States has no embassy in Iran so protesters enraged by events in Iraq usually focus their wrath on close U.S. ally Britain.

In recent weeks crowds of hardline students have attacked European embassies in Tehran in response to newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

The cartoons, which first appeared in Denmark, caused offence because many Muslims believe representation of the Prophet is blasphemous. Many also found the tone offensive, appearing to show Mohammad as a terrorist.

"Publishing cartoons and bombing shrines is all part of a U.S. and Zionist conspiracy to divide Muslims but the Islamic community is aware of what they are up to," said Maryam Hajizadeh, 26.

The Sunday Times
Peter Conradi
IRAN is believed to have begun small-scale enrichment of uranium, raising the stakes in its dispute with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the extent of its nuclear ambitions.

A report to be published by the United Nations nuclear watchdog tomorrow is expected to claim that scientists at Iran’s plant in Natanz have set up a “cascade” of 10 centrifuges to produce enriched uranium — the fuel for nuclear power plants or bombs.

Iran is a long way from the 50,000 centrifuges it would need for full-scale enrichment, but experts said that getting a small number of them to work together meant it had overcome some technical hurdles.

The report, by Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the IAEA, will also accuse Tehran of continuing to deny inspectors access to crucial people and sites linked to its 20-year-old nuclear programme.

ElBaradei’s findings will set the tone for discussions at the UN security council next month which American officials believe could lead to sanctions against Iran this summer.

Tehran’s relations with the international community hit a low point this month when the IAEA voted overwhelmingly to report it to the security council, expressing doubts that its nuclear programme was “exclusively for peaceful purposes”.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country’s volatile president, responded by vowing to resume “commercial scale” enrichment, suspended in 2004.

International concerns over Iran’s intentions have been increased by the emergence in recent weeks of documents that for the first time appear to provide scraps of evidence of a covert weapons programme.

Attention is focusing on the so-called Green Salt Project, a previously undeclared scheme to process uranium. The project was linked to tests on high explosives and missile design, suggesting a “military nuclear dimension”, the IAEA said. Inspectors travelled to Tehran this weekend to obtain more information.

It is thought that some of the clandestine work was done at a plant in Lavisan, near Tehran, under the auspices of a body known as the Physics Research Centre. Iran denied IAEA inspectors access to Lavisan until 2004 by which time the buildings had been demolished.

Tehran is believed to have persisted in its refusal to allow inspectors to interview up to five research centre officials. “This is a shame because we believe these are high-ranking military officials actively involved in a nuclear weapons programme,” said a US official.

Diplomatic efforts have continued to persuade Tehran to agree not to enrich uranium itself but to be supplied with the material by Russia. Iran wants to be allowed to conduct some enrichment on its territory.

kurdishinfo.com
MARDÝN (DIHA) - While it was stated that the military operations started 2 days ago are continuing with intensifying, the authorities said that close contact has been lived. According to claims many soldiers and 5 guerilla of HPG had died in the clashes.

It was learnt that the military operation started in the region of Belen and Bostanli villages connected to district of Dargecit is expanded. It was stated that the operation which soldiers and rural guards had participated and continued with close contacts and with air support is intensified in the region of Belen village in Hell Stream. It was claimed that in the clash between TSK and guerillas of HPG many soldiers and 5 guerillas of HPG had lost their lives.

According to information got from local sources 2 ambulance came from outside of the district had gone to place of conflict.

Iran Focus– Iranians were surprised to see that the Persian translation of this year’s “The World’s 10 Worst Dictators” published in the New York-based weekly Parade contained only nine names. Who was missing?

Iran’s state-run news agency ILNA carried a report on the list of authoritarian rulers published by the magazine, but the agency deliberately removed the name of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, from the list.

Parade’s list says that Khamenei has “shut down the free press, tortured journalists and ordered the execution of homosexual males”.

“Over the past four years, the rulers of Iran have undone the reforms that were emerging in the nation”.

Khamenei was a new entry in the Top 10, up nine points from his previous standing.

In a report on Khamenei’s role in the Iranian theocracy in December 2004, the U.S.-based Committee on the Present Danger wrote, “In addition to its peace-threatening nuclear program, Iran under Khamenei continues to be the world’s foremost state supporter of terrorism… He is seeking regional hegemony, both ideologically and militarily. His growing oil wealth increases his capacity for wreaking havoc on his own people and the region”.

The following signatures would like to purpose the listed 5 major requests in an effort to curb the current Iranian crisis;

1- To expel the entire Islamic Republic diplomatic corp from the international and diplomatic communities.

2- To stop the Regim’s propaganda outside Iran, including media sponsored by the Islamic Republic.

3- to prevent the Islamic Republic diplomatic corp. and their families from entering any other country.

4-To freeze all assets including bank accounts of the Islamic Republic leadership and their families through out the world.

5- To prosecute and issue warrants for the arrest of the Islamic Republic leadership by an international criminal court and the Interpol.

Post your Agreement click: www.irany.net/e_version.html

Iran Focus– Radical Islamist militiamen affiliated to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps staged military exercises in the western suburbs of Tehran on Friday to defend the Iranian capital against “enemy assaults”, a government-run news agency reported.

Some 2,500 members of the paramilitary Bassij took part in Friday morning’s military drills in Qods (Jerusalem) Garrison in Tehran’s Garm-Darreh district.

“In the military exercises, the Bassij forces destroyed the positions of enemy forces who had been ferried to Tehran by helicopters and mopped up the drop zone”, Isca-News reported.

“The Bassij forces accomplished more than 90 percent of their mission”, the report added.

Deputy Commander of the Bassij forces in Tehran, Brigadier General Ahmad Zolqadr, attended the rally. Zolqadr’s brother, Mohammad-Baqer, is a top IRGC commander who was recently appointed as Deputy Interior Minister.

While the Revolutionary Guards and the Bassij regularly stage military and security exercises in Tehran and its suburbs, it is the first time that the objective of the war games is to destroy heliborne “enemy forces” in the Iranian capital.

The exercises were code-named Imam Hassan Askari, one of the two Shia Imams whose shrine was destroyed this week in Samarra, Iraq.

The Supreme Commander of the IRGC announced on Thursday that God and Muslims would carry out a retaliatory strike against the United States, Britain, and Israel, who he alleged were behind Wednesday’s attack in Samarra.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad each separately announced that the attack on the revered shrine was the work of agents of “the occupiers of Iraq and the Zionists”.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 13/019/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 050
Amnesty International today expressed grave concern about the rate of executions reported in Iran and said it feared for the lives of a number of political prisoners, some of whom are reported to have been on death row for several years. The organization is also outraged that Iran continues to sentence child offenders to death in contravention of its international human rights obligations.

Executions in Iran continue at an alarming rate. Amnesty International recorded 94 executions in 2006, although the true figure is likely to be much higher. So far in 2006, it has recorded as many as 28 executions. Most of the victims were sentenced for crimes such as murder but one of those recently executed was a political prisoner, Hojjat Zamani, a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), who was abducted from Turkey in 2003 and sentenced to death in 2004 after conviction of involvement in a bomb explosion in Tehran in 1988 which killed 3 people (See Urgent Actions AI Index EUR 44/025/2003, 5 November 2003 and MDE 13/032/2004). He was taken from his cell in Gohar Dasht prison and executed on 7 February 2006, though his execution was officially confirmed by Iranian officials only on 21 February.

Hojjat Zamani’s execution has fuelled fears that other political prisoners may be at risk of imminent execution. According to unconfirmed reports that have been circulating since early February, a number of political and other prisoners who are under sentence of death have been told by prison officials that they would be executed if Iran should be referred to the UN Security Council over the resumption of its nuclear programmed (which Iran claims is intended solely for the peaceful production of nuclear energy). These are said to have included other members of the PMOI, which is an illegal organization in Iran. It was the PMOI that was the source of evidence in 2002 revealing Iran’s nuclear programme to the outside world.

Among those feared to be at risk are Sa’id Masouri (See Urgent Action AI Index MDE 13/018/2002), a PMOI member who has been held in solitary confinement in Section 209 of Evin Prison since late 2004; Khaled Hardani, Farhang Pour Mansouri and Shahram Pour Mansouri (See Urgent Action AI Index: MDE 13/003/2005), all three of whom were involved in hijacking a plane in 2001 when Shahram Pour Mansouri was aged only 17; Gholamhossein Kalbi and Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi, both PMOI members, and Alireza Karami Khairabadi.

Amnesty International has also received reports that at least two Iranian Arabs may be facing imminent execution. The province of Khuzestan has been the centre of wide scale unrest since 15 April 2005 (For further information on the unrest in Khuzestan province, see Iran: New Government fails to address dire human rights situation AI Index MDE 13/010/2006). Mohammad Ali Sawari and Mehdi Nawaseri, both said to be in their early twenties, have reportedly been sentenced to death. Mohammad Ali Sawari was arrested following demonstrations in Ahwaz City on 4 November 2005. Mehdi Nawaseri was arrested in October 2005, after previously having been detained in April 2005 and subsequently released.

On 14 February 2006, Jamal Karimi-Rad, Minister of Justice and Spokesman for the Judiciary, told the news agency IRNA that seven of the 45 people arrested in connection with bomb explosions in September and October 2005 had been convicted on charges including “enmity with God, corruption on earth and murder” and that their sentences would be announced shortly. The penalty for enmity against God and corruption on earth can be execution, cross amputation, crucifixion for three days, or banishment. On 20 February 2006, the Prosecutor General Ghorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi was reported as stating “some of the convicted in this case have received execution verdict, including the two main culprits, whose presence in the recent Ahvaz incidents was proved and their execution verdict is definitive”. On 21 February, in a statement to IRNA commenting on this report, Jamal Karimi-Rad stated that only two had been sentenced to death and these were under review by the Supreme Court. He noted that “the crimes committed by all the seven convicts do not call for the death sentence”. Amnesty International fears that Mohammad Ali Sawari and Mehdi Nawaseri may be the two referred to and may be at imminent risk of execution.

Amnesty International is also outraged that Iran has sentenced yet another child offender to death. According to reports carried by two Iranian news agencies, Fars, and the Iran Students Correspondents Asscociation (ISCA), an 18-year-old youth, identified only as Mohammad, was sentenced to death by Branch 71 of the Tehran Criminal Court for a murder he committed in August 2003 when he was aged only 16. According to these reports, he had originally been tried by the Childrens’ Court and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and payment of blood money. However, the family of the victim reportedly complained that the sentence was insufficiently severe and the Supreme Court decided that as Mohammad had now reached 18, he could be tried in the Criminal Court, which resulted in his death sentence. The death sentence must be ratified by the Supreme Court before it can be carried out.

On 18 February 2006, IRNA is said to have reported Ahmad Mozaffari, a judge in Tehran’s Appeal Court, as stating that Iran will continue to sentence child offenders to death “without considering other options”.

As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Iran has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18. Nevertheless, Amnesty International has recorded 18 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990. In 2005 alone, at least eight executions of child offenders were recorded

Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities of governments to bring to justice those suspected of committing recognizably criminal offences, but the organization is unconditionally opposed to the use of the death penalty as the ultimate violation of the right to life. It therefore urges the Iranian authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty and to abide by its international obligations not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were a child.

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130192006

By Guy Dinmore in Washington
news.ft.com

The intelligence wing of the US marines has launched a probe into Iran’s ethnic minorities at a time of heightened tensions along the border with Iraq and friction between capitals.
Iranian activists involved in a classified research project for the marines told the FT the Pentagon was examining the depth and nature of grievances against the Islamic government, and appeared to be studying whether Iran would be prone to a violent fragmentation along the same kind of fault lines that are splitting Iraq.
The research effort comes at a critical moment between Iran and the US. Last week the Bush administration asked Congress for $75m to promote democratic change within Iran, having already mustered diplomatic support at the UN to counter Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme.
At the same time, Iran has demanded that the UK withdraw its troops from the southern Iraqi city of Basra which lies close to its border. Iran has repeatedly accused both the US and UK of inciting explosions and sabotage in oil-rich frontier regions where Arab and Kurdish minorities predominate. The US and UK accuse Iran of meddling in Iraq and supplying weapons to insurgents.

US intelligence experts suggested the marines’ effort could indicate early stages of contingency plans for a ground assault on Iran. Or it could be an attempt to evaluate the implications of the unrest in Iranian border regions for marines stationed in Iraq, as well as Iranian infiltration.

Other experts affiliated to the Pentagon suggest the investigation merely underlines that diverse intelligence wings of the US military were seeking to justify their existence at a time of plentiful funding.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rick Long, a marines spokesman, confirmed that the marines had commissioned Hicks and Associates, a defence contractor, to conduct two research projects into Iraqi and Iranian ethnic groups.

The purpose was “so that we and our troops would have a better understanding of and respect for the various aspects of culture in those countries”, he said. He would not provide details, saying the projects were for official use only.

Marine Corps Intelligence defines its role as focusing “on crises and predeployment support to expeditionary warfare”. It also provides threat and technical intelligence assessments for the Marines.

The first study, on Iraq, was completed in late 2003, more than six months after marines spearheaded the US invasion. About 23,000 marines are still in Iraq. The Iran study was finished late last year.

Hicks and Associates is a wholly owned subsidiary of Science Applications International Corp, one of the biggest US defence contractors and deeply involved in the prewar planning for Iraq.

The Strategic Assessment Center of Hicks and Associates advertises one of its current projects as the “Impact of Foreign Cultures on Military Operations”. SAIC confirmed it completed the confidential studies for the Marine Corps.

While most analysts would agree that Iran has a far stronger sense of national identity than Iraq, its ethnic mix is even more complex than its neighbour.

Different in language and divided between followers of Sunni and Shia Islam, the ethnic minorities have little coherence. At times tensions among themselves are greater than with Tehran. Iran’s strongly centralised government does not release statistics on the ethnic groups that mainly inhabit sensitive border regions with Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Farsi-speaking Persians who dominate the central government are generally believed to make up a slim majority, followed by Azeris and Kurds in the north and west, Arabs in the oil-rich southwest and Baluch in the southeast.

A patchwork of Turkmen, Christian Armenians and Assyrians, Jews and tribal nomads are among many groups scattered across a country of some 68m people.

Diplomats in Washington expressed shock at the possible implications of the Marine Corps research.

The Financial Times interviewed several Iranians in the US who were invited to help. Some refused, seeing it as part of an effort to break up Iran. However several exiled politicians representing minority groups opposed to the Islamic regime did agree to take part, although they said they wanted a peaceful transition to a democratic, federal Iran and were opposed to any US military action.

Mauri Esfandiari, US representative of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan which ended its armed struggle in 1997 and is based mostly in northern Iraq, said he believed the Pentagon was acting on its long-standing distrust of CIA and State Department analysis. He thought the Pentagon was looking to counter the prevailing administration view that US support for Iran’s minorities would create a disastrous backlash.

“They want to study and see if the State Department’s chaos theory is a valid hypothesis,” he told the FT. The US could not look to the Kurds to support an invasion as they did in Iraq, he said. “Iran will become democratic only if it is built by the Iranians. The democracy movement is strong enough to find its way without military struggle,” he said.

Karim Abdian, head of the Ahvaz Human Rights Organisation which campaigns on behalf of Iranian Arabs in the south-west, said his meeting with SAIC was video-taped. He was told the report would be made public.

Questions put to him were wide-ranging -- on the ethnic breakdown of Khuzestan province on the Iraq border, populations in cities, the level of discontent, the percentage of Arabs working in the oil industry, how they were represented in the central government, and their relations and kinship with Iraqi Arabs next door.

Mr Abdian said he did not know the motives behind the survey, whether the Marines were seeking a better understanding of the region that directly affects them, or were forming a contingency plan in case they had to “enter” Iran. They were learning from the lessons of Iraq where they had not understood the ethnic dynamics, he suggested.

Mr Abdian, who says his organisation has no government funding, accused Iran of using the threat of a US invasion as a pretext to suppress ethnic grievances rather than address what he called the root causes of land confiscation and discrimination.

Exiled Iranians from various ethnic groups held a “Congress” of nationalities in London a year ago. They issued a “manifesto” for a federal, democratic Iran with separation of mosque and state. Seven organizations included Baluch, Azeris, Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen.

Iran has recently experienced some of the worst unrest and violence among its Kurdish and Arab populations in recent years.

Although the root causes of the unrest -- economic and cultural grievances -- are long standing, analysts in the US believe that events in Iraq – where the new constitution has embraced the concept of federalism and a Kurd has become president -- are serving as a catalyst.

Last month two bombs exploded in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province close to Iraq. Eight people were killed on the same day that President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad had been due to visit. Six people were killed in bombings last October. Oil installations have been attacked. Iran has repeatedly accused the UK and US of being behind the violence, using separatist Arab groups in southern Iraq to foment instability inside Iran.

“We are very suspicious of British forces’ involvement in terrorist activities,” Mr Ahmadi-Nejad was quoted as saying last October. He accused British troops in Iraq of “hiring terrorists for sabotage”.

London and Washington have strongly denied Iran’s allegations.

Tehran cannot afford to dismiss minority grievances out of hand and seeks to blame the violence on outside forces, says Bill Samii, an Iran analyst with Radio Free Europe.

“The regime can crush dissent when it is localised and relatively small,” he commented.”But if sporadic incidents of ethnic unrest occurred across the country simultaneously, or if such troubles coincided with labour troubles and student demonstrations then the regime would have its hands full.” Given these developments, the question of Iran’s minorities has aroused interest across Washington.

State Department officials met representatives of the London “Congress” in the first such talks between the Bush administration and a coalition claiming to represent Iran’s minorities, participants told the FT.

Last October, the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) held a conference chaired by Michael Ledeen, a proponent of regime change in Iran. It triggered uproar among exiled opposition groups, especially Persian nationalists. Mr Ledeen called the conference “Another case for Federalism?” and denied that AEI was seeking to foment separatism.

Reuel Gerecht, also with AEI and a former CIA specialist on the Middle East, says the State Department under Condoleezza Rice, and not the Pentagon, is running Iran policy. He said State was “several steps removed” from discussing covert action and “nowhere near the point” of trying to use separatist tendencies among minorities as traction against the Tehran regime. No one knew whether that would work, he added.

However, he complimented the Pentagon for “looking down the road”.

A former intelligence officer said the Marines’ probe reflected the “contingency planning” mindset of the US military. Nonetheless, he said, it was important to note that the ultimate purpose of the intelligence wing was “to support effective ground military operations by the Marine Corps”.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ed436938-a49d-11da-897c-0000779e2340.html

EDINBOURG (24.02.2006)- A conference, named as "EU, the candidacy process of Turkey and the future of Kurds" is organized in Scotland Parliament. Patrick Harvie, Scotish Deputy, who is one of the organizator of this conference, defined that he will send a letter to European Commission about creating the re-judgement of Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan.

To the conference, which was organized by Green Party Group of Scottish National Parliament in Edinbourg and Peace Campaign to Kurdistan, Green Party deputy Patrick Harvie presided. KNK member Akif Wan and President of Federation of England Kurdish Associations (FEDBIR) Arzu Pesmen, who were the lecturers of this conference, gave informations about Kurdish Question in general lines.

In the conference, the isolation on Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan and his health problems and the re-judgement decision of European Court of Human Rights were discussed. Also the representatives of Socialist party, Scottish National party and Scottish Liberal Democrats from European Parliament, joined to the conference.

Member of KNK and president of FEDBIR, gave informations about how will be the future of Kurdish people during the European Union candidacy process of Turkey and how will be the solution of Kurdish Question. And they defined that Mr. Ocalan has got an important role about solution of this question and the re-judgement decision of European Court of Human Rights must be folllewed by EU.

EU must see Kurds as a formal collocutor

Patrick Harvie and representatives of other parties defined that they will support the solution of Kurdish Question in their campaigns. Harvie, who said that they are watching the developments in Turkey nearby, reminded that he went to Turkey as an observer and he stated that the infringements about human rights, must be eliminated. Harvie, who underlined that Turkey can not enter to European Union, without finding a solution to especially Kurdish Question, said that it is impossible for Turkey to join to EU in this present situation.

Arzu Pesmen defined that EU must receive Kurdish representatives as collocutors in a formal level, and wanted that the requests and problems of Kurds must be listened. Pesmen, talked like this; ‘’Kurdish side is ready for the solution. But there is no formal collocutor in a formal level. And this remain the problem without solution. Furthermore, we don't consider ourselves as a minority’’.

Question proposal about Mr. Ocalan will be given to Scottish Parliament

Pesmen wanted, Mr. Ocalan to be judged in a independent and just court with two ways. Patrick Harvie said that he will write a letter to European Commission about re-judgement. Patrick stated that he will also give a question proposal to Scottish Parliament about the situation of Mr. Ocalan. Besides, Harvie also said that, he will write a letter about ROJ TV, which exposed to close pressures, to European Commission.

Member of KNK Akif Wan and president of FEDBIR Arzu Pesmen stated that, Kurds give countenance to Turkey about entering EU, but in parallel to this EU must make efforts about solving Kurdish Question. The conference, which was started on Thursday night at 17.00, continued for 2 hours.
www.kurdishinfo.com

kurdishinfo.com
MAHABAD-A demonstration was organized in the city of East Kurdistan, Mahabad to protest the Mako and Sine massacres.
Hundreds of poeple who came together in the Mahabad Revolution Plazza and Þehid Þiwane junction this night, chanted slogans in the favour of Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan.
In the demonstration, in which there were slogans against Turkey and Iran, the massacres of Sine and Mako are condemned. Demonstrators announced that they will continue their protesting actions.
Iranian security forces opened fire on the crowd of people who wanted to protest the 15th February conspiracy in Mako and killed 11 persons.
On 22th February 1999, Iranian security forces also opened fire on the people who made a demonstration to condemn the 15th February international conspiracy in the city Sine, they murdered 18 persons and they arrested hundreds of people.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Turkish security forces have killed five Kurdish guerrillas in the country's troubled southeast, security sources said on Friday.

They said the rebels, members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), were killed during a gun battle in the province of Mardin near the Syrian border on Thursday night.

"Our anti-terrorist operations are continuing," a security official told Reuters.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for an independent Kurdish state in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States.

Turkish police told a weekly news conference in Ankara on Friday that Turkey's eastern neighbour Iran had handed over 10 PKK militants during 2005.

"Iran handed over the PKK militants to us as part of the ongoing cooperation between the two countries," police spokesman Ismail Caliskan said.

Iran handed 28 PKK rebels to Turkey in 2004, he added.

An estimated 5,000 PKK rebels are holed up in the mountains of mainly Kurdish northern Iraq. Turkey has been pressing U.S. troops based in Iraq to crack down on the organisation.

VIENNA, Feb 24, 2006 (AFP) - Iran is now running a 10-centrifuge cascade in a step forward in enriching uranium as part of its nuclear program, diplomats told AFP Friday ahead of a crucial UN watchdog report next week.

The upcoming report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "will confirm that Iran is now running 10 centrifuges" in Natanz with a feedstock gas used to manufacture enriched uranium, a diplomat said.

Enriched uranium can be fuel for nuclear power reactors or the raw material for atom bombs.

The report will include an assessment on Iran's nuclear program, which the IAEA is to forward to the UN Security Council after the agency's governors meet here on March 6.

Iran earlier this month began small-scale uranium enrichment work, defying the IAEA's call for it to suspend this activity.

Uranium enrichment is seen as a red line by the United States and European Union in the international dispute over Iran's nuclear program, as it is the so-called "breakout capacity" for making atomic weapons.

Iran had started this month with single, stand-alone centrifuges but is now progressing, as shown by putting a series of cascades, the diplomats said.

Arranged in series, or cascades, that can number thousands, centrifuges spin uranium gas to distill out the U-235 isotope, whose quantity determines the level of enrichment.

A second diplomat, who like the first asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the 10-centrifuge cascade cannot enrich uranium very far, "maybe to one percent or slightly more," far below the three to five percent needed for nuclear fuel and the over 90 percent preferred for atomic weapons.

Nor could it make large amounts, as even the 164-pilot cascade the Iranians want to start in Natanz would take years to make enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb.

Iran wants eventually to install over 50,000 centrifuges in Natanz for industrial-scale enrichment.

A Western diplomat told AFP: "If Iran is able to master the technology of uranium enrichment ... it would be able to apply that technology to a covert program to manufacture nuclear weapons."

Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity and that it has a right under international law to enrich uranium.

Dissidents arrested in Southern uprisings receive death sentences

NCRI - The clerical regime in Iran has intensified the wave of executions and suppression in an attempt to stem the tide of popular uprisings. In the past three days, the state-run media have reported four hangings and 17 death sentences issued for prisoners.

Reports indicate that on February 20, two young men, Abdi and Ali, were hanged in the southwestern city of Andimeshk prison. A 22-year-old was also executed in the northwestern city of Ardabil.

The head of the regime’s judiciary on February 20 announced, “Two prisoners have received death sentences for participating in the Ahwaz bombings and five others will receive sentences shortly.”

On February 19, an appellate court of the regime approved a death sentence for Mostafa Rasoul-Nia who was arrested during the Mahabad uprising. The regime’s Supreme Court has also approved a death sentence for a political prisoner in Sanandaj. Two other political prisoners have disappeared from Sanandaj and Zanjan jails since February 20.

On February 20, the regime’s Supreme Court issued a death sentence for a prisoner in Bojnoord and on the same day the Intelligence Ministry reported the execution of Khalid Hardani for hijacking a plane. In Ghazvin a man was executed for “corruption on earth” and a sentence for two executions was issued for another prisoner in Isfahan for alleged armed rubbery.

The Judiciary issued death sentences to a 20-year-old, a 45-year-old Khan-Ali, 33-year-old Gholam-Reza, and 36-year-old Abbas. In addition, the regime’s Supreme Court approved another death sentence.

The Iranian Resistance draws the attention of the UN Security Council, Human Rights Commission, High Commissioner for Human Rights, and other human rights organizations to the increasing trend of executions in Iran. The Iranian Resistance also calls for referral of the violations of human rights in Iran to the UN Security Council for immediate action.
www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/1060/69/

Body of Hojjat Zamani still not released to his family

NCRI - The Iranian regime’s henchmen in Gohardasht Prison are setting the stage for the massacre of political prisoners who are currently on a hunger strike. The henchmen have started rumors that prisoners were planning to commit suicide.

Two of the prisoners, Valiollah Feiz-Mahdavi and Assad Shaghaghi, have released a statement announcing, “We are under extreme danger. They have told us that we will stab ourselves to death or by consuming hair-removing substance.” Fearing for their lives the prisoners add, “We are declaring publicly that we shall in no way harm our own well-being. In case of any incident, our countrymen should press charges against Gohardasht warden, Haj Kazem, and other officials. We are hereby authorizing the people of Iran to press lawsuits on our behalf against them.”

Following the execution of Hojjat Zamani, political prisoners were transferred to wards with ordinary criminals, where some inmates attacked and stabbed them. Two of the prisoners are currently in the hospital because of their wounds.

Reports also indicate that the hunger strike, which started in protest to the execution of Hojjat Zamani, is continuing.

According to these reports just before his execution, Hojjat Zamani, was under extreme torture and pressure to confess to planting bombs. Officials wanted to record his confession on a camera for later use. Hojjat refused to do so.

The Iranian Resistance draws the attention of the United Nations Security Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international Human Rights Organizations to the deteriorating situation of political prisoners. It also calls for immediate action to save the lives of these prisoners and to prevent the massacre planned by the regime.

Based on received reports, on Friday, Feb. 17th, Youssef Rastee, a member of the Ansar al-Rasool brigade of the revolutionary guards who was based in the town of Javonrood (Province of Kermanshah) shot himself in the head, committing suicide. The reasons behind his suicide are still unclear. However, it is actively rumored that many members of the revolutionary guards stationed in Kurdistan having been exposed to the desperation and destitution of the masses, have begun to show increasing signs of resentment toward the rampant corruption in the upper ranks of the regime and revolutionary guards; it is also said that many are horrified by the realization of an inevitable and massive uprising, which could lead to bloodshed.
iranpressnews.com

kurdishinfo.com
Turkish Government, which can not take a result from the attempts about closing Kurdish television Roj TV, from Denmark and international area, determined a new concept against Roj TV.

In the action plan which consists of 61 articles and which was determined by the High Commission of Struggle with Terror (TMYK) it was said that it will open a trial to every person who joined to the programs of Roj TV.

According to the action plan of TMYK; it will open a trial to every person, who will join to the programs of Roj TV from Turkey, by phone or who will be studio visitor.

According to the action plan which was determined last week in the meeting of TMYK, it is stipulated to give terror punishment to the participants of Roj TV programs from Turkey principally. To every person who will join to the programs of Roj TV, from politicians, academicians, writers, singers, artists to ordinary citizen will be given punishment.

The clossing attempts of Turkey about Roj TV found a great reflection in international area and hundreds of famous intellectuals and atists and politicians had been sent letters to Denmark Government not to close Kurdish television.

kurdishinfo.com

In the past week in East Kurdistan (Iran) during attacks on mass demonstrations by the Iranian security forces a total of 11 civilians were killed, 250 people were wounded, 40 heavily, and 800 were taken into custody. The wounded are afraid to go to hospital for fear of the state, and families are unable to get any information on the wounded taken into custody.

People are forcibly taken into custody, their homes are raided and they are tortured. It was the day of the seventh anniversary of the illegal capture of the Leader of the Kurdish people Mr. Abdullah Ocalan as part of an international conspiracy. The Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan in many cities democratically protested the event with mass demonstrations calling for the freedom of Mr. Ocalan. It is the legitimate and democratic human right of a people to organise democratic mass demonstration expressing their loyalty to their National Leader. However, the Iranian regime has demonstrated yet again that they refuse to tolerate this legitimate and democratic right, and they responded brutally with police and military forces obstructing and killing demonstrators.

The following cities in Iranian Kurdistan are danger places which pose a serious threat for the Kurds: Mahabad, Nexede, Piransehr, Meriwan, Sine, Kirmansah, Urmiye, Soma, Mako and Poldesit.In the cities of Mako, Poldesit and Soma 11 people lost their lives. For this reason special attention needs to be paid to the military build up, tensions and continuing siege. Intense pressure is also building up for people in the region to become village guards and act as paramilitary forces for the state.
All these developments indicate that the situation could escalate any time. The Kurdish people facing a serious situation of injustice where there is no recourse to any democratic law and human rights. We call on the international community to the end the deaths and destruction that has continued till today. Democratic public opinion should not keep silent, it must take any action necessary to stop this. The Kurdish people who have suffered oppression and injustice by the regional states should not be left alone. Kurds have always insisted on and called for democracy, freedom and human rights. We call on the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), European Parliament (EP), Council of Europe, and the United State of America:This is not just about the Kurdish people, but for peace, stability, democracy, human rights, and freedom of the entire region and everyone and every organization must act responsibly. The attacks on the Kurdish people must be stopped immediately and a solution should be found for the Kurdish question and pressure should be brought to bear on the Iranian State as tomorrow may be too late.

Kurdistan National Congress

kurdmedia.com

ANKARA -- Two Turkish television stations have been authorized to begin broadcasting in Kurdish beginning next month, television executives said on Tuesday, in a move that reflects the country's efforts to grant its minority Kurd community increased rights.

The heads of Gun TV-Radio and Soz Radio-Television, private stations that broadcast from Diyarbakir in the majority Kurd-populated southeast, were invited on Monday to the Turkish media control board (RTUK), said "Radio Gun" program director Cemal Dogen.

"It was a very important meeting because for the first time we have been officially invited by the RTUK to talk about broadcasting conditions," said Dogen.

The broadcast agreement came after several months of negotiations.

The Kurdish language programming will most likely begin on March 21, which is the Kurdish new year also known as Newroz and the first day of spring.

The number of broadcast hours is still fairly limited, with radio given five hours a week and television four.

In 2004 Turkish state television broke taboos by broadcasting the country's first Kurdish language program in a move seen as complying with European Union wishes ahead of membership talks with Turkey.

Turkey's Kurd population is estimated at between 10 million and 15 million, out of a total population of around 70 million.

Some 35,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) picked up arms for self-rule.

The situation has calmed since the 1999 arrest and life imprisonment of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 23 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said late Wednesday that the toppling of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had turned the country into a “strong bastion” in defence of Iran’s Islamic revolution.

Ahmadinejad was speaking in Shahre-Kord in the south-western province of Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiyari Wednesday night, the state-run news agency ISNA reported.

“Those who imagined that by removing Saddam they would create a power base in the region today see that, through the blessing of the Islamic revolution, Iraq has been transformed into a strong bastion in defence of the Islamic revolution”, Ahmadinejad said.

“The Islamic revolution is the flag-bearer of people’s freedom from the dominant Arrogance (U.S.) and the Order of Plunder (the West)”, Ahmadinejad said.

He said that the roots of all of the world’s problems were in the “existence of a few hegemonic countries”.

The hard-line president added that for the past 27 years, the West had been forced to retreat and the “revolutionary front of the Iranian nation” was moving forward.

“In Palestine, the hegemonic regime had created a base for itself and chanted the slogan ‘from the Nile to the Euphrates’ but today despite the enemies’ wide-scale propaganda the Palestinian nation has with the highest level of innocence empty-handedly cornered the illegitimate regime of Israel and is constantly gaining victories”, Ahmadinejad said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese vice foreign minister will fly to Iran on Friday to start three days of talks on the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters on Thursday.

China said earlier on Thursday that there was still room to defuse the nuclear standoff between Iran and Western countries, who have threatened sanctions against Tehran.

Vice Foreign Minister Lu Guozeng will visit Iran from February 24 to 26.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Iran's foreign minister said Thursday his country had not ruled out Russia's uranium enrichment proposal, but stressed several issues still needed to be discussed, including timing and location.

``With such an understanding ... maybe we can reach some compromise,'' Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters during a brief visit to Indonesia.

Iranian and Russian officials held talks this week to try to find a way to end a standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, but no visible progress was made.

The discussions centered on a proposal to transfer Iran's uranium enrichment program to Russia, a move that could prevent the process from being used to make atomic weapons.

Washington Post Foreign Service
By Peter Finn

MOSCOW,Iran continued Tuesday to parry a Russian offer to enrich uranium on Russian soil for its nuclear energy program, putting off any move to finalize a deal because it has no real incentive to bend yet, according to diplomats and Russian analysts.

Instead, the analysts say, Iranian negotiators are probing for divisions within the informal coalition of Russia, China, the United States and the European Union that is opposed to Iran developing a nuclear weapons program.

The Iranian delegation left Moscow on Tuesday after two days of inconclusive talks at the Kremlin, although the head of the delegation, Ali Hosseinitash, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, described the discussions as "positive and constructive."

"We have decided to continue discussions," said Hosseinitash, speaking on Iranian television from Moscow. "There are elements in these negotiations that give us grounds for hope that we will reach an agreement."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks: "I think it is too early to speak of either failure or success." The talks are scheduled to continue this week in Tehran.

Under Russia's proposal, which is backed by its three coalition partners, Russia would enrich uranium at a facility here and deliver it to Iran for use in its nuclear power plants. That would remove a key process in the development of a nuclear program from Iranian hands but still allow Tehran to develop the peaceful energy program it says it wants. Iran insists that controlling the nuclear fuel cycle from start to finish is its sovereign right.

Analysts say talks with Russia are likely to continue inconclusively until Russia and China are forced to make a decision at the U.N. Security Council on whether to punish Iran by imposing sanctions.

"Iran is looking for weak spots and trying to play on the natural differences between the parties," said Vladimir Sazhin, an Iran expert at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. "When Iran finally says no to the Russian proposal, that's when Russia will make its choice, and, I think, it will not be in favor of Iran."

Some Russian analysts say they believe the Kremlin will not countenance a break with Iran, a longtime ally with which it has close economic ties. Protracted negotiations would allow it to avoid a decision it does not want to make, they said.

"You may have a long stalemate where Iran and Russia say an agreement is possible but the technical details are complex and are still being worked out," said Sergei Mikheyev, a foreign policy analyst at the Center for Political Technologies in Moscow. "It's important for Iran to drag this on so the West can't draw a line. And it's not advantageous for Russia to take a tough stand."

Russia has so far said that it does not support sanctions against Iran, and officials refuse to say what, if anything, might lead the country to reconsider that policy. Iran appears to be banking on a breakdown in the coalition now aligned against it, probably over the need for or nature of any punitive action considered by the Security Council. Western diplomats here said that their countries are acutely aware of the need to keep Russia, as well as China, on board and that any measures to isolate Iran would evolve gradually.

Russia has already supported a decision by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran to the Security Council. That decision came with an understanding that the council would not take any action until after an IAEA meeting on March 6 at which the head of the agency will issue a report on Iran.

The decision by the IAEA board prompted Iran to resume uranium enrichment for what it said were research purposes, abandoning a two-year-old internationally negotiated suspension.

China called on Iran on Tuesday to restore the moratorium on enrichment.

"China hopes Iran will restore suspension of all activities relating to uranium enrichment and create the conditions for appropriately resolving the Iran nuclear issue through peaceful negotiations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a news conference in Beijing.

Correspondent Edward Cody in Beijing contributed to this report.

BEIJING (Reuters) -Iran should suspend all uranium enrichment, China said on Tuesday, as Russian and Iranian nuclear negotiators were to hold a second day of talks to try to strike a deal to ease international concerns that Tehran wants a nuclear bomb.

"We support Iran and Russia holding nuclear negotiations and we hope the negotiations can achieve positive results," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference.

"Given current developments, China hopes Iran will restore suspension of all activities relating to uranium enrichment and create the conditions for appropriately resolving the Iran nuclear issue through peaceful negotiations."

Iran and Russia are discussing a Russian offer to enrich uranium for Iranian power plants on its own soil -- seen by some as the last chance to defuse the row over Iran's nuclear ambitions before Western governments seek sanctions.

Editorial

The Washington Post - Is it a sign of increased wisdom -- or is it a sign of increased desperation? If the Bush administration had announced its intention to spend $75 million on promoting democracy, student exchanges and independent media in Iran several years ago, as part of a wider policy of promoting democracy in the broader Middle East, the policy would have seemed unquestionably wise.

To many observers, it has always seemed odd that American efforts to support dissidents in Iran -- one of the few Middle Eastern countries with a broad, diverse and educated democratic opposition -- have been so slim. Usually, the excuse given was historical: American diplomats, queasy about the United States' mixed record of "meddling" in Iranian politics, didn't want to discredit the country's democrats by association, or give the regime another excuse to lock them up. Still, the arguments at least for better Farsi radio and television programming have always been incontrovertible: Iranians do listen to foreign media, but until now they've had mostly pop music stations and third-rate news programs to choose from.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's declaration of a major policy change in this area is welcome. If nothing else, getting better information into Iran could help Iranians understand the West's point of view in its escalating nuclear dispute with their country: At the moment, they hear only one side of the story. But the timing of her announcement, on the heels of the U.S. and European failure to rein in Iran's nuclear program, does make it seem as if the administration is supporting democrats because there isn't much else to be done. True, the administration is still working with its European allies, China and Russia to bring Iran before the United Nations Security Council as early as next month. But any action by the council will be slow and relatively weak, at least at first. The Iranians, meanwhile, aren't deterred: Last week they announced plans to return to full scale uranium enrichment.

Administration officials themselves describe the policy change on democracy aid as the product of a reassessment of the nature of the Iranian threat: This, they say, is the first step in meeting the long-term challenge posed by what they now believe to be a genuinely radical regime. The State Department also plans to build up its Iranian expertise, to teach more diplomats to speak Farsi, to consult with Europeans who have had more business and diplomatic contacts with Iran, and generally to make up for the experience lost in the 26 years that the United States has had no diplomatic representation in Tehran.

The main task now is to make sure that the new democracy policy isn't perceived within the State Department or the Pentagon as "second best" and that the money, which could go quite a long way in Iran, gets spent wisely. That means funding not just the traditional, U.S.-based radio and television stations, which have so far had mixed success, but independent, Iranian exile stations -- or at least those that can be induced to offer a reliable source of news. That also means spreading money around, in very small amounts, so that it remains invisible both to the regime and to ordinary Iranians. Above all it means not identifying "friends" too quickly or with too little skepticism. The United States has a very mixed record in its choices about which dissidents to support, having done so successfully in 1980s Poland, and unsuccessfully in prewar Iraq. If the Iranian opposition is to succeed, it must do so on its own terms.

Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 20 – Iran said on Monday that Britain was behind a blast that had gone off in the south-western city of Ahwaz on Sunday night which was similar to several recent explosions in the volatile city.

State-run news agencies reported that there were no casualties when the sound bomb went off in Kian Pars district of Ahwaz.

Seyyed Nezzam Mollahoveizeh, the Majlis deputy for Dasht-Abad, told the news agency Fars that the Intelligence Ministry had been able to arrest a number of individuals behind Sunday’s bombing and accused them of having ties to London.

“The mother of all corruption Britain has become an opponent of Iran. Our opponents are supported and empowered in London”, he said.

He called on the Foreign Ministry to expel the British ambassador to Iran.

Mohsen Farrokh-Nejjad, head of politico-security in the province, announced that the explosives used in Sunday’s blast were similar to those used in a spate of bombings in the city earlier this year and in 2005.

Farrokh-Nejjad said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had cancelled his trip for next week to Khuzestan Province, the third time he had done so since his ascendance to the Presidency. 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.

Separately, the Interior Ministry’s number-two Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr announced that the identities of those responsible for the recent blasts in Ahwaz would be released in the coming days.

In January, Iran accused British troops in Iraq of being behind a twin bombing in Ahwaz which left at least nine people dead and dozens injured.

A string of top Iranian officials including hard-line President Ahmadinejad have accused Britain of being behind the bombings.

London has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks.

The World Today
Eleanor Hall

There are signs that the move by Israel and the United States to put pressure on the Hamas-led Palestinian Government may be backfiring, with the new Palestinian leaders now turning to Iran for financial assistance.

Israel confirmed overnight that it would halt its tax payments to the Palestinian Authority, which are worth around $70 million a month. And the United States has demanded that a similar amount of US aid be returned.

In response, Hamas has begun moves to get essential finances from Arabic and Muslim regimes, including Iran, which is, of course, embroiled in a tense stand-off with the West over its nuclear program.

Barney Porter looks at the latest developments in the ongoing impasse created by Hamas' surprise win in the recent Palestinian elections.

BARNEY PORTER: Israel's Cabinet decided to halt the monthly tax revenues permanently, after the weekend swearing-in of the new Palestinian Parliament led by Hamas.

The funds make up roughly one-third of the Palestinian budget, and without them, more than 100,000 government workers won't be paid.

Israel's biggest ally, the United States, has also asked the Palestinian Authority to return around $70 million of aid it's provided, to ensure the money doesn't reach Hamas, which is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction.

However, the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, says the moves will only cause further economic hardship for the Palestinian people.

MAHMOUD ABBAS (translated): Unfortunately, the pressures have begun and the support and the aid started to decrease since one month. Therefore, we are currently in a real financial crisis, but we hope to get out of this crisis gradually, and then we will see what will follow.

BARNEY PORTER: Soon after taking control of the Palestinian Parliament, Hamas said it would try to make up any shortfall of funds by seeking money from the Arabic and Muslim world.

And in a significant development overnight, senior Hamas leaders, led by the exiled Khaled Mashaal, arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran, beginning a three-day visit to try to drum up money for the cash-starved Palestinian Authority.

Mr Mashaal says it will be the first of several visits to foreign powers.

KHALED MASHAAL (translated): We are seeking support of Arab and Islamic states, as well as other countries, for our movement, by making such trips.

BARNEY PORTER: Washington and the European Union have said they don't want to push the Palestinian Authority to collapse, or to seek funds from nations such as Iran.

But David Manning, the British Ambassador to the US, says the West maintains Hamas must recognise the right of Israel to exist, renounce violence, and accept the already-struck agreements with Israel, including the Oslo Accords.

And he says his colleagues from the EU are also aware of the wider ramifications of cutting off funds.

DAVID MANNING: We are very conscious of the humanitarian issue here. So there is a real humanitarian issue, and I noticed that the Israeli Cabinet have picked up on that over the weekend. But the position is clear - if we don't… if the new government doesn't meet these criteria, we will be reviewing our support.

BARNEY PORTER: Earlier, Israel's acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, told his Cabinet Israel had no intention of harming the humanitarian interests of the Palestinian population.

However, he again made it clear how he felt about any Hamas-led government.

EHUD OLMERT (translated): It's clear that with Hamas in charge the Palestinian Authority is effectively becoming a terrorist authority.

BARNEY PORTER: The Palestinian legislator, Hanan Ashrawi, says the Israeli and US moves are already being digested by the Palestinian people as a slap in the face.

HANAN ASHRAWI: This is seen clearly by the Palestinians as collective punishment. This is seen as punishing the Palestinians for exercising their democratic option and voting for Hamas.

BARNEY PORTER: Meanwhile, in fresh violence, Israeli forces have shot dead two Palestinians in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank during a stone-throwing confrontation; an air strike in Gaza has killed two Palestinian militants who the army said had been planting a bomb, and the head of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank region of Nablus has just reportedly been killed by the Israeli army.

ELEANOR HALL: Barney Porter with that report.

Eleanor Hall hosts The World Today's lunch hour of current affairs, with background and debate from Australia and the world. Monday to Friday, 12:10pm, ABC Local Radio and Radio National.

www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1573892.htm

Agence France-Presse
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaves Monday on a Middle East tour to push efforts to spread democracy and counter what the United States sees as aggressive Iranian policy. Rice first heads to Cairo where on Tuesday she will meet with Egyptian leaders as well as political opponents of President Hosni Mubarak.

The US administration has made Egypt one of its test cases for the promotion of democracy in the Middle East.

Rice said earlier this week that she was "disappointed" that Mubarak has postponed municipal elections, scheduled to be held in April, for two years.

"The message that I will take to Egypt is that Egypt needs to stay on the democratic course," she told Arab journalists in an interview. "It needs to keep pushing ahead on the democratic course."

The time is "not right" for a free trade accord between the United States and Egypt, she warned.

But Egypt remains one of Washington's key Middle East allies, and the secretary of state also needs Egyptian help to put pressure on the new Hamas government expected to be formed in the Palestinian territories.

As Egypt is one of the rare Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, Rice will seek Cairo's commitment to not finance the Palestinian Authority as long as Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist.

"The secretary will have the same conversation with the states in the region as she has had with numerous other countries around the world," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

She will be putting across the message of the diplomatic Quartet for the Middle East -- the United States, Russia, European Union and the United Nations, added McCormack.

"It calls upon Hamas to make certain choices: recognize Israel's right to exist, turning away from terror, and also abiding by previous commitments of the Palestinian Authority -- most notably to the road map and a commitment to a two-state solution arrived at via the negotiating table."

From Egypt, Rice will go to another ally seen as problematic by US policymakers, Saudi Arabia. The secretary of state will then travel to Abu Dhabi for talks with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Along the way, Rice will again make appeals against giving money to Hamas, and also for regional leaders to be tougher with Iran.

This week she called Iran "a strategic challenge to the United States, to the world, and a destabilizing influence in the Middle East." Rice said all worried states must "challenge Iran's aggressive policies".

Rice will tell the Arab Gulf states "they have an interest in speaking out and confronting Iranian behavior -- because they do have a stake in how Iran is behaving in the region," McCormack said.

Tensions over Iran's nuclear programme -- which the United States and some of its allies fear is hiding a drive to acquire weapons -- is now a major concern for the GCC states -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

The Bushehr nuclear power station that Russia is building in Iran is close to Iran's border with the Gulf states. There is also worry about Shiite Muslim Iran's influence in Iraq and Lebanon.

Rice expressed concern this week about a network formed by Iran, Syria and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon. She called Iran the "central banker for terrorism".

Without openly calling for regime change in Iran or Syria, Rice has asked for 75 million dollars to bolster efforts to beam pro-democracy broadcasts into Iran and five million dollars to help "reformists" in Syria.

By Colin Freeman and Philip Sherwell in Washington

The Sunday Telegraph - Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies.

In yet another sign of Teheran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, influential Muslim clerics have for the first time questioned the theocracy's traditional stance that Sharia law forbade the use of nuclear weapons.

One senior mullah has now said it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, thought to be a reference to America and Israel.

The pronouncement is particularly worrying because it has come from Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of the ultra-conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is widely regarded as the cleric closest to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Nicknamed "Professor Crocodile" because of his harsh conservatism, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's group opposes virtually any kind of rapprochement with the West and is believed to have influenced President Ahmadinejad's refusal to negotiate over Iran's nuclear programme.

The comments, which are the first public statement by the Yazdi clerical cabal on the nuclear issue, will be seen as an attempt by the country's religious hardliners to begin preparing a theological justification for the ownership - and if necessary the use - of atomic bombs.

They appeared on Rooz, an internet newspaper run by members of Iran's fractured reformist movement, which picked them up from remarks by Mohsen Gharavian reported on the media agency IranNews.

Rooz reported that Mohsen Gharavian, a lecturer based in a religious school in the holy city of Qom, had declared "for the first time that the use of nuclear weapons may not constitute a problem, according to Sharia."

He also said: "When the entire world is armed with nuclear weapons, it is permissible to use these weapons as a counter-measure. According to Sharia too, only the goal is important."

Mohsen Gharavian did not specify what kinds of "goals" would justify a nuclear strike, but it is thought that any military intervention by the United States would be considered sufficient grounds. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi has previously justified use of suicide bombers against "enemies of Islam" and believes that America is bent on destroying the Islamic republic and its values. The latest insight into the theocracy's thinking comes as the US signals a change in strategy on Iran, after the decision earlier this month to report it to the United Nations Security Council for its resumption of banned nuclear research.
While Washington has made it clear that military strikes on Iran's nuclear sites would be a "last resort", White House officials are also targeting change from within by funding Iranian opposition groups.

The secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said the Bush administration would seek an extra $75 million (£43 million) from Congress to help to support Iran's fractured pro-democracy movement and fund Farsi-language satellite broadcasts.

The announcement is the clearest public indication that Washington has adopted a two-track approach to Iran, combining the diplomatic search for a united international condemnation of its illicit nuclear programme with efforts to undermine the regime's status.

The new tactic amounts to the pursuit of regime change by peaceful means, although that phrase is still not stated as official US policy. Washington hopes that a dedicated satellite channel beamed into Iran will encourage domestic dissent, such as the current strike by bus drivers - the most significant display of organised opposition since the 1999 and 2003 student protests.

Ms Rice unveiled the change of tactics a week after a visit to Washington by a senior British delegation that pressed for a co-ordinated Western policy on using satellite television and the internet to bolster internal opposition. The State Department had previously been wary of the two-track strategy.

As the Sunday Telegraph reported last week, Pentagon strategists have been updating plans for a another policy of "last resort" - blitzing Iranian nuclear sites in an effort to stop the regime gaining the atomic bomb.

The bus strike, which has led to the jailing of more than 1,000 drivers, was originally sparked by an industrial dispute over unpaid wages benefits. But the robustness of the state response has indicated the nervousness of the Ahmadinejad regime over any internal dissent.

Reports from Iran say that Massoud Osanlou, the leader of the bus drivers' union, was arrested at his home by members of the Basij, the pro-regime militia, and had part of his tongue cut out as a warning to be quiet.

But the dispute already risks disillusioning Mr Ahmadinejad's core of working class support - among them municipal workers - who voted him into power on his promises to improve the lot of Iran's poor.

The Associated Press
By NASSER KARIMI
An Iranian group that claims its members are dedicated to becoming suicide bombers warned the United States and Britain on Saturday that they will strike coalition military bases in Iraq if Tehran's nuclear facilities are attacked.

Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesman for Esteshadion, or Martyrdom Seekers, boasted of having hundreds of potential bombers in his talk at a seminar on suicide-bombings tactics at Tehran's Khajeh Nasir University.

"With more than 1,000 trained martyrdom-seekers, we are ready to attack the American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran's nuclear facilities," Samadi said.

"If they strike, we have a lot of volunteers. Their (U.S. and British) sensitive places are quiet close to Iranian borders," Samadi said.

Samadi reviewed the history of suicide bombing as a weapon, praising it as the most effective Palestinian tactic in their confrontation with Israel.

The organizers showed video clips of suicide attacks against Israelis, including one in the Morag settlement near Rafah in Gaza strip in February 2005. One settler, three Israeli soldiers and the two attackers were killed in the attack.

Hasan Abbasi, a university instructor and former member of the elite Revolutionary Guards, told the audience of about 200 that Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons as claimed by the United States and some of its allies.

"Our martyrdom-seekers are our nuclear weapons," said Abbasi, the event's main speaker.

After his speech, about 50 students filled out membership applications.
"This is a unique opportunity for me to die for God, next to my brothers in Palestine. That was why I signed up," said Reza Haghshenas, a 22-year-old electrical engineering student.

A 23-year-old woman student, Maryam Amereh, said: "We are trying to defend Islam. It's a way to draw the attention of others to our activities."

But Rahim Hasanlu, a 22-year-old industrial management student, declared himself not interested in joining.

"I just attended to learn what they're saying, thats all."

Esteshadion was formed in late 2004, calling for members on a sporadic basis at Friday prayer ceremonies, state-sponsored rallies and at the group's occasional meetings.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 – Iran criticised its principal opposition movement on Saturday for charging that it was behind the recent violence over cartoons depicting negatively the Islamic prophet Muhammad published in European dailies.

A coalition of Iranian dissidents, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), had accused Tehran of dispatching several clerics to European and Muslim countries as part of an effort to create an international uproar over the publication of the cartoons. The council, whose members include the People’s Mojahedin (or Mojahedin-e Khalq), said attacks on European embassies in Tehran were part of a deliberate effort by Iran’s ruling Shiite clerics to garner Muslim support in their face-off with the West over Iran’s controversial nuclear program.

Government-run Persian-language websites and news agencies lashed out at the People’s Mojahedin, accusing it of ignoring protests by Muslims around the world.

The semi-official Mehr news agency reported, “This claim comes at a time that even before the reaction of the Iranian people vis-à-vis these insults, dozens of Islamic countries of the world and Muslims from many European countries have reacted to the Western papers’ derogatory actions and insults to Islamic sanctities”.

The embassies of Austria, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, and Norway in Tehran have all come under attack by Islamists affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards.

The Sunday Telegraph
By Colin Freeman and Philip Sherwell in Washington

Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies.

In yet another sign of Teheran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, influential Muslim clerics have for the first time questioned the theocracy's traditional stance that Sharia law forbade the use of nuclear weapons.

One senior mullah has now said it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, thought to be a reference to America and Israel.

The pronouncement is particularly worrying because it has come from Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of the ultra-conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is widely regarded as the cleric closest to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Nicknamed "Professor Crocodile" because of his harsh conservatism, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's group opposes virtually any kind of rapprochement with the West and is believed to have influenced President Ahmadinejad's refusal to negotiate over Iran's nuclear programme.

The comments, which are the first public statement by the Yazdi clerical cabal on the nuclear issue, will be seen as an attempt by the country's religious hardliners to begin preparing a theological justification for the ownership - and if necessary the use - of atomic bombs.

They appeared on Rooz, an internet newspaper run by members of Iran's fractured reformist movement, which picked them up from remarks by Mohsen Gharavian reported on the media agency IraNews.

Rooz reported that Mohsen Gharavian, a lecturer based in a religious school in the holy city of Qom, had declared "for the first time that the use of nuclear weapons may not constitute a problem, according to Sharia."

He also said: "When the entire world is armed with nuclear weapons, it is permissible to use these weapons as a counter-measure. According to Sharia too, only the goal is important."

Mohsen Gharavian did not specify what kinds of "goals" would justify a nuclear strike, but it is thought that any military intervention by the United States would be considered sufficient grounds. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi has previously justified use of suicide bombers against "enemies of Islam" and believes that America is bent on destroying the Islamic republic and its values. The latest insight into the theocracy's thinking comes as the US signals a change in strategy on Iran, after the decision earlier this month to report it to the United Nations Security Council for its resumption of banned nuclear research.

While Washington has made it clear that military strikes on Iran's nuclear sites would be a "last resort", White House officials are also targeting change from within by funding Iranian opposition groups.

The secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said the Bush administration would seek an extra $75 million (£43 million) from Congress to help to support Iran's fractured pro-democracy movement and fund Farsi-language satellite broadcasts.

The announcement is the clearest public indication that Washington has adopted a two-track approach to Iran, combining the diplomatic search for a united international condemnation of its illicit nuclear programme with efforts to undermine the regime's status.

The new tactic amounts to the pursuit of regime change by peaceful means, although that phrase is still not stated as official US policy. Washington hopes that a dedicated satellite channel beamed into Iran will encourage domestic dissent, such as the current strike by bus drivers - the most significant display of organised opposition since the 1999 and 2003 student protests.

Ms Rice unveiled the change of tactics a week after a visit to Washington by a senior British delegation that pressed for a co-ordinated Western policy on using satellite television and the internet to bolster internal opposition. The State Department had previously been wary of the two-track strategy.

As the Sunday Telegraph reported last week, Pentagon strategists have been updating plans for a another policy of "last resort" - blitzing Iranian nuclear sites in an effort to stop the regime gaining the atomic bomb.

The bus strike, which has led to the jailing of more than 1,000 drivers, was originally sparked by an industrial dispute over unpaid wages benefits. But the robustness of the state response has indicated the nervousness of the Ahmadinejad regime over any internal dissent.

Reports from Iran say that Massoud Osanlou, the leader of the bus drivers' union, was arrested at his home by members of the Basij, the pro-regime militia, and had part of his tongue cut out as a warning to be quiet.

But the dispute already risks disillusioning Mr Ahmadinejad's core of working class support - among them municipal workers - who voted him into power on his promises to improve the lot of Iran's poor.

pdki.org
Orumiyeh – Kurdistan (Iran) At least eight people were killed, 25 injured and 400 arrested in the course of clashes between Kurdish demonstrators and government forces in Iran’s Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces according to news received to Kurdistanmedia.org.
Iranian Kurds staged several rallies in various towns and cities in the north-western regions of Iran on Thursday and Friday, the report said.
There were street clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the towns of Maku, Bazargan, and Sardasht, the report added. Since the beginning of Ahmedijenad’s government the security forces in Kurdistan have used harware against Kurdish peaceful demonstrations.

Iran Focus A judge at Tehran’s Appellate Court announced on Saturday that the Islamic Republic would continue to issue death verdicts for juvenile delinquents “without considering other available options”.

“Execution sentences will be issued to minors without considering other options”, Ahmad Mozaffari told the state-run news agency ILNA.

Mozaffari made the comments after Iranian courts issued execution sentences to a 15 year old and 16 year old, the report said.

The judge said one minor was sentenced to execution recently, despite the fact that examination by a government-appointed physician had shown that he was suffering from a psychiatric disorder.

State-run press have identified the 15-year-old on death row only by his first name Mohammad.

Iran Focus– At least five people were killed and dozens injured or arrested in the course of clashes between Kurdish demonstrators and government forces in Iran’s Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan provinces, according to a statement emailed to Iran Focus by Kurdish activists.

Iranian Kurds staged several rallies in various towns and cities in the north-western regions of Iran on Thursday and Friday, the report said.

There were street clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the towns of Maku, Bazargan, and Sardasht, the report added.

iranpressnews-Advaar News, the news source from the office of Fostering Unity (Tahkim Vahdat) reported that a professor of Communications Sciences of Tehran's Allaameh Tabatabaie University is the first to be terminated in the new nationwide plan to purge all professors and academics, specifically teaching Liberal Arts and Social Sciences in universities across Iran. It is also rumored that several other of the professors in other fields of study such as Political Science and Law, will also be terminated soon. It is important to mention that a while ago Dr. Mohammad Gorgani who was a faculty member of the School of Law at this very university was sentenced to 10 months in prison and before serving his prison term was flogged.

Iranian regime intensifies wave of executions following Security Council referral of Tehran's nuclear dossier

The Iranian state-controlled media reported that at least 13 persons had been hanged or sentenced to death in the past five days.

Two prisoners, Ayat Kh. and Mehdi A., were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in the southern Iranian Province of Fars on February 15.

On February 12, the state-run daily Qods reported the execution of three prisoners in the northeastern city of Sabzevar.

The mullahs’ regime also hanged two other prisoners on February 15 in the southwestern town of Dezful.

Tehran’s criminal court chief confirmed Wednesday the death sentences for two 18 year olds, and Fars Province's Justice Department chief said the Supreme Court had upheld death sentences for two other prisoners.

Branch 71 of Tehran's criminal court sentenced a man, named Mohammad, to death. Tehran Province's criminal court sentenced a boy, only 15, to death on February 15.

The Iranian Resistance again calls on the international community to condemn Tehran’s barbaric executions and to take practical steps, including the referral to the United Nations Security Council of the Iranian regime's human rights file, in order to halt the continuation and escalation of these atrocities. Silence and inaction vis-à-vis the mullahs' inhuman crimes have emboldened them in the suppression, massacre and torture of the Iranian people.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister called on Britain on Friday to pull its troops out of the southern Iraqi city of Basra, saying their presence was destabilizing the city.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran demands the immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra," Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters through an interpreter during a visit to Lebanon.

"We believe that the presence of the British military forces in Basra has led to the destabilization of the security situation in the city," he said, adding that the British presence had also negatively affected the security situation in southern Iran itself.

Mottaki was apparently referring to a spate of recent bomb attacks in southern Iran. Tehran has accused the British military in Iraq of cooperating with the bombers who killed eight people in attacks in January.

The minister also denounced what he said were human rights violations by the British forces in Basra.

Iran last month accused the British military in Iraq of cooperating with bombers who attacked targets in the Iranian oil city of Ahvaz, killing eight people.

BERLIN, Germany (AP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel was to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair here Friday for talks that were expected to focus on Iran and the situation in the Middle East.

It will be the second meeting of the two leaders since Merkel came to power in November, in a sign that Germany is seeking to improve relations with the British which were strained under her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, over his opposition to the Iraq war.

Britain, Germany and France led months of talks with Tehran in an effort to guarantee Iran's nuclear program remained peaceful.

The negotiations collapsed last month when Iran said it was resuming its uranium enrichment program, and the Europeans joined the United States in a successful effort to get the issue referred to the U.N. Security Council.

After Berlin, Blair will travel Friday to Budapest, Hungary, where he planned to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany.

Student blogger Mojtaba Saminejad has spent more than one year in prison in Tehran, said Reporters Without Borders, calling for his immediate release and that of one other blogger currently behind bars in Iran.

This 25-year-old student was arrested on 12 February 2005 and sentenced to two years in prison by a revolutionary court for “insulting the Supreme Guide”. One month later he was given a further ten months for incitement to “immorality”

“The Iranian authorities sentence and imprison people like criminals when they are merely expressing their opinion on the Internet”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “This draconian policy is unacceptable and we call for the immediate release of the two bloggers who are currently imprisoned in Iran, Mojtaba Saminejad and Arash Sigarchi" .

Saminejad was arrested for the first time, in November 2004, for using his blog to condemn the arrest of three colleagues. Released in January 2005, he was returned to prison on 12 February 2005 after putting his blog back online. Sigarchi has been in prison since 26 January 2006 after being sentenced to three years in prison on the same charge as Mojtaba - "insulting the Supreme Guide".

Reporters Without Borders also expressed its sympathy to Arash Sigarchi and his family after the death of his brother in a car accident on 9 January. The young man was on his way to the prison in Rashat to take Arash his request for an appeal before the Supreme Court that his lawyers had prepared for him.

www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16455

MDE 13/013/2006
news.amnesty.org

A top international rights group blasted on Thursday the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for failing to address the “dire human rights situation” in that country.

Amnesty International issued a report accusing Tehran of locking up scores of its critics and opponents. It added that “torture was common” and that Tehran used the death penalty following “grossly unfair trials” against such individuals.

“The authorities maintain strict controls on freedom of expression and association, and religious and ethnic minorities are subject to persecution. Women are severely discriminated against in both law and practice and those lawyers, journalists and others who dare speak up in support of human rights - Iran’s community of courageous human rights defenders – do so at constant risk of harassment, imprisonment or other abuses by security authorities who are able to act with impunity”, the group said.

”Since President Ahmadinejad’s election, several people have been killed and scores injured by security forces possibly using excessive force, in the context of ongoing violent unrest in Khuzestan Province”. Hundreds of Arabs have been arrested in the volatile region since Ahmadinejad came to power, Amnesty said.

“Since President Ahmadinejad’s election, members of Iran’s religious minorities have also been killed, detained or harassed solely in connection with their faith. Even the recognized religious minorities of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians face discrimination in law and practice with respect to employment, marriage, and criminal sanctions”, it said.

“Torture has been used systematically in Iran for many years for the purpose of extracting information and confessions. Torture is facilitated by laws and procedures governing detention and interrogation which permit solitary confinement and ban access of detainees to lawyers until the process of investigation is completed, and by the existence of parallel and sometimes informal institutions which run their own detention centres to which the judiciary has no access”.

”In addition, Iranian legislation permits the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments which amount to torture, such as flogging and amputations”.

The group called on Iran to end torture and release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally.

Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1 0DW

Agence France Presse - French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy branded Iran's nuclear programme for the first time Thursday as a "clandestine, military" project.

"It's very simple: no civilian nuclear programme can explain Iran's nuclear programme," he told France 2 television in an interview, two days after Tehran confirmed it was resuming sensitive uranium enrichment work.

"Therefore it's a clandestine military nuclear programme."

The exact nature of Iran's nuclear ambitions -- Tehran insists that it just wants to make civilian nuclear power -- has sparked an international standoff which has led to the brink of UN Security Council intervention.

Earlier this month the United States and a European Union troika made up of Britain, France and Germany persuaded the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report Iran to the Security Council for action.

The world body is awaiting a March 6 report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei before deciding how to proceed.

"Firstly, the international community has sent a very strong message to the Iranians: show reason, suspend all nuclear activities and uranium enrichment," Douste-Blazy said, adding: "And they're not listening to us.

"That is the reason why, for the first time for days, the international community is united. It's not just the Europeans -- France, Germany and the British -- it's also Russia and China."

Iran Focus – An Iranian court sentenced seven individuals to death for allegedly playing a role in twin bombings in the south-western city of Ahwaz that occurred in January, the state-run daily Iran reported on Wednesday.

The report quoted Iran’s Minister of Justice Jamal Karimi-Rad as saying that a number of other individuals also received prison sentences.

Some 45 people had been arrested in connection with the bombings.

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 January 24.

A string of senior Iranian officials have accused Britain of being behind the bombings.

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.

TEHRAN, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Iranian police have arrested around 1,000 people in the central seminary city of Qom after violent clashes over the closure of a house of worship used by mystical Sufi Muslims, city officials said on Wednesday.

Officials and a Qom resident said the police had fired teargas to disperse a crowd of dervishes, or mystics, and those who had gathered to support them. They said the dervishes were armed with knives and stones.

Around 200 people were hurt in the clash, one official said.

The fighting erupted on Monday after the Sufis refused to evacuate a suburban house where they had been congregating for dervish rites, said an official at Qom municipality who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The violence ended and their place was knocked down on Tuesday," he said, adding the municipality had demolished the building because the Sufis had illegally turned their residential building into a centre of worship.

Sufi Muslim spirituality is tolerated under mainly Shi'ite Iran's strict Islamic laws, although some senior religious figures occasionally call for a clampdown on its rites.

The governor-general of Qom accused the dervishes of being part of a foreign plot, but he did not explain this.

"We did not aim to confront them at first, but when we felt that ... a plot was under way, we took steps," Abbas Mohtaj was quoted as saying by the Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper.

"The arrogant powers are exploiting every opportunity to create insecurity in our country and (the Sufis') links to foreign countries are evident," he added. Mohtaj said about 200 people had been hurt and around 1,000 arrested.

The Sufis' mystical path to God through dance and music does not go down well with some of the most senior religious figures in the country.

Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani in September called for a clampdown on dervish groups in the holy city of Qom, which he called a "danger to Islam".

Some said the tensions with dervishes in Qom were due to the increasing popularity of Sufism there.

"Dervishes were becoming popular in Qom and the officials wanted to crackdown on them," said an employee at one of Qom's reformist seminaries.

United Press International

TEHRAN, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Hojjat Zamani, a political prisoner and member of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran in Gohardasht prison in Karaj, west of Tehran was hanged Feb. 7.

Zamani was under torture and pressure since 2001, for five years. Ali Haji Kazem, the warden of Gohardasht prison, and two others known as Arjmandi and Seyyed, an executive deputy for implementation of the verdicts, were among those involved in the execution.

The 6th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court had already condemned Hojjat to four executions, in summer 2004. At the end of the same year, a two-man branch of the Supreme Court consisting of mullah Mohseni Ezheii, the incumbent Minister of Intelligence, and Nabi Raji used many false allegations and condemned Hojjat to two times executions and full payment of blood money.

Zamani, 31 at the time of hanging, underwent the most severe physical and psychological torture. The clerical regime's henchmen sought to break his morale and compel him to express remorse and surrender. To this end, they sent him to the cell block where ordinary and very dangerous prisoners were held. Zamani protested against this condition and went on hunger strike several times in 2004 and 2005. His conditions were a cause of concern in recent years, protested to by international human rights organizations and reflected in the media.

The anti-human clerical regime in Iran hanged Mojahedin member, Hojjat Zamani, a political prisoner since 2001 in Gohardasht prison near Tehran, on Tuesday, February 7.

Zamani had endured prison and torture for four and a half years. Ali Haji Kazem, warden of Gohardasht prison, and two other henchmen, Arjomandi and Syed, carried out the ruthless hanging.

Zamani was handed four death sentences by the branch six of the Revolutionary Court in summer of 2004. By the end of 2004, the Supreme Court, presided over by Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i [now Minister of Intelligence] and Nabi Raji, handed Mr. Zamani two death sentences and payment of blood money on bogus charges. When informed of the sentences, Zamani rejected the charges and wrote below the verdict: “I do not protest the sentence that has been issued.”

Zamani, 31 at the time of his execution, tolerated intense physical and psychological torture in prison. The regime’s henchmen tried to break his resolve and coerce him into surrender. They transferred him to a ward housing dangerous criminals for a long time to put him under pressure. Zamani, however, remained steadfast and resisted the pressures. He went on hunger strike several times in 2004 and 2005 to protest against the horrendous prison conditions.

Hojjat was the third child from the Zamani family murdered by the Iranian regime. Hojjat’s older brother, Khaz'al Zamani, a Mojahedin member, was killed in Ilam’s mountainous terrain in 1999 and his other brother, also a Mojahedin member, was killed in March 2001 by the regime’s agents in the Haft-Cheshmeh region of Ilam. Abdullah Naderi, Hojjat's maternal uncle, was also killed under torture by the regime’s henchmen in 1989.

The Zamani family is a well-known in the Haft-Cheshmeh region of Ilam (western Iran) and has been the target of persecution. Mr. Zamani was a teacher in the villages in Ilam until 1996 when the regime attempted to arrest him because of his support for the Mojahedin.

Faced with domestic and international crises, the clerical regime has in recent weeks stepped up pressures and torture against steadfast political prisoners, including Mojahedin detainees. The regime’s henchmen had threatened that if the regime’s nuclear file were referred to the Security Council, they would kill all Mojahedin political prisoners similar to the massacre of political prisoners in summer of 1988.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), extends it deepest condolences to the grieved Zamani family and the people of Haft-Cheshmeh. The NCRI also calls on the United Nations Security Council, the Secretary General, the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and all international human rights organizations to condemn this hideous crime. The NCRI appeals for urgent action to save the lives of other political prisoners, in particular those on death row and others who have disappeared.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 15, 2006

Iran Focus
A 15-year-old schoolboy has been sentenced to death accused of murder, government-run websites announced on Wednesday.

The teenage boy, only identified by his first name Mohammad, was originally sentenced by the Supreme Court to serve five years behind bars and pay blood-money for allegedly stabbing to death a friend after a scuffle.

An appellate court, however, raised his sentence to death by hanging.

The Washington Post
By Nora Boustany

While the international community is locking horns with Iran over its plan to push ahead with uranium enrichment -- a potential first step toward making nuclear weapons -- a separate global confrontation is gathering steam over labor practices under the Iranian theocracy.

Labor unions in 18 capitals, including Washington, are taking part today in demonstrations outside Iranian embassies and interest sections to protest the coercive treatment of bus drivers in Tehran and its suburbs, who have been beaten, jailed and dismissed for attempting to negotiate better wages.

A number of international and Washington- based organizations are responding to a call by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, based in Brussels, for an international day of action on Iran. The AFL-CIO, its Solidarity Center here and the federation's Metropolitan Washington Council have called for a demonstration at noon in front of the Iranian Interest Section at 2209 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

Abroad, protests are scheduled by transportation unions in France, Britain, Spain, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Bermuda.

The catalyst for the global protests was the arrest on Dec. 22 of Mansoor Osanloo , president of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Co., along with the members of its executive board.

Under pressure from international labor and human rights groups, the board members were released, but Osanloo remains in jail and is reportedly in poor health. On Jan. 28, the 17,000-member Syndicate called a strike to protest his detention and demand that the government recognize the rights to form a union and engage in collective bargaining -- rights protected under the conventions of the International Labor Organization.

On the eve of the strike, police raided the homes of union activists and arrested workers, in some cases with their wives and children, including a 2-year-old girl who was bruised and hurled into a patrol van, according to a report posted on the Web site of the Solidarity Center.

The next day, the government and the public transportation company dispatched security and armed forces, who used tear gas and wielded batons while threatening to shoot at rioters. Others who arrived at the picket line were rounded up at gunpoint.

Hundreds of people were arrested in their homes, said Heba F. El-Shazli , regional program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Solidarity Center. Some prisoners have since been freed but have been denied the right to go back to work.

Hundreds remain at Tehran's Evin prison without formal charges.

It was not possible to contact the Iranian Interests Section for comment. The Tehran government has accused some labor unions of acting against national security, holding illegal gatherings and being linked to banned communist and Kurdish groups.

In a Feb 1. letter, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney wrote to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to protest the arrests. Sweeney wrote that the AFL-CIO "strongly condemns the arrest of workers exercising their legitimate, internationally recognized trade union rights and demands the immediate and unconditional release of all detained trade unionists."

According to Gholamreza Mirzaei , a spokesman for the Tehran bus workers union who was quoted on another Web site, 200 workers were freed by Feb. 7 but none have been able to go back to their jobs, and hundreds still languish in prisons.

NCRI – Death sentences for two teenagers were approved by the State Supreme Court on Monday according to state-run news agency IRNA.

The head of Tehran's punitive court, Naser Saraj, was quoted telling reporters that the two were both 18 years of age and their death sentences were approved for alleged sexual assault. They were identified only as "E. N." and "E. K."

The same news agency also reported on Tuesday that two men are going to be hanged in Shiraz, provincial capital of Fars, central Iran, on Wednesday. Death sentences for "Ayat Kh." and "Mehdi A." were endorsed by the State Supreme Court, said the Revolutionary Prosecutor of Fars province.

In the meantime it was reported by IRNA on Tuesday that seven people were sentenced in connection with January bombings in Ahwaz, provincial capital of Khuzistan, southwestern Iran.

The seven were charged by the clerical regime for "murder, war against God and being corrupt on earth," which are normally punishable by death in Iran.

The regime's officials had put the blame for the bombings on Britain which has been denied by London.

Khuzistan province, in particular Ahwaz, were the scenes of widespread riots last summer which left hundreds killed or wounded and many more arrested by suppressive forces. A number of those arrested have already been hanged in public in the past few months in a bid to impose a reign of terror to avoid further unrest.

Death decree on Salman Rushdie, author of the Satanic Verses, by Khomeini will remain in force forever according to an announcement by the clerical regime's so called "Martyrs Foundation" today.
The announcement was made on the anniversary of the 1989 fatwa (death decree) issued by the founder of the religious dictatorship in Iran.
"Imam Khomeini's fatwa on the apostate Salman Rushdie will remain in force for eternity," said the Martyrs Foundation, which has offered 2.8 millon dollar bounty for Rushdie's head.

Iran Focus– Radical Islamists attacked the German embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, protesting the printing of insulting cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in European dailies.

Dozens of members of the Bassij, an off-shoot of the Revolutionary Guards, hurled stones at the embassy building shattering several windows.

They chanted, “Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, and “Fascist Germany is the slave of the Zionists”, demanding the closure of the embassy.

Several U.S. and Israeli flags were set on fire outside the embassy compound.

On Friday, the German daily Der Tagesspiegel published a cartoon of Iranian football players with explosives tied to around their chests, drawing further outrage from Tehran. Germany hosts the 2006 World Cup.

Iran Focus – Hard-line radicals linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards rallied outside the British embassy in Tehran and called for the death of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The protestors, who threw stones and fire bombs at the embassy, were demonstrating against London’s stance against Tehran’s nuclear file and the publication of insulting cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in European dailies.

“Death to Tony Blair”, they chanted, as they set British flags on fire.

They also burnt American, French, German, and Israeli flags as they chanted slogans such as “Death to Britain”, “Death to France”, “Death to Germany”, and “Death to Israel”.

Several embassy windows were shattered during the attack.

The several-hundred hard-liners called for the expulsion of British ambassador Sir Richard Dalton and the closure of the British embassy, which has come under several similar attacks over the past week.

Prior to the attack on the British embassy, a smaller crowd attacked the German embassy in Tehran.

Western officials have said that Iran’s rulers have deliberately been encouraging violent protests over the cartoons.

In Tehran, the embassies of Britain, France, Germany, Norway, Austria, and Denmark have all come under attack during similar protests.

On Monday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said that countries such as Iran and Syria which did not protect foreign embassies should pay the cost of damages.
___________________________

Picture(FARS and ISNA news agency)

Reuters
Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN -- Tehran on Tuesday confirmed it had restarted work on uranium enrichment, a process the West fears could be used to build nuclear weapons, but said it would take some time to crank up to industrial-scale production.

Iran says it needs to make enriched uranium in an underground nuclear facility near the central town of Natanz in order to run power stations.

"The order to resume uranium enrichment has been issued and, in accordance with that, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation has restarted the process," deputy nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi told reporters.

Iran's parliament passed a law in November that Iran should resume making atomic fuel if its case was referred to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear programme. Tehran was reported to the world body earlier this month.

However, Vaeedi said Iran would not be able to reach industrial-scale production of atomic fuel quickly.

"We need some time to reach that level with all centrifuges because of the 2 1/2 year suspension. However, the preliminary phases have been launched," he said. Centrifuges enrich uranium by spinning it at supersonic speed.

Diplomats said in September that Iran could have serious difficulties in enriching uranium on an industrial scale, pumping uranium hexafluoride gas of a quality so poor into the centrifuges that it could damage them.

They also doubted Iran's technical ability to get centrifuges to work in cascades.

Vaeedi said delayed talks with Moscow, seeking a compromise to the nuclear dispute, would take place in Russia on February 20.

Russia has suggested it can break the diplomatic impasse by enriching uranium on Tehran's behalf.

Diplomats hope this proposal would guarantee that atomic fuel was not diverted into arms. But Iran has given no indication that it would surrender its right to enrich the uranium it mines in its central deserts.

"We still want to reach a formula to prove that we will not divert uranium enriched on Iranian soil," Vaeedi said. "We are prepared to hold talks with anyone who has something to say."

kurdishinfo.com

Roj TV makes sure that Kurds are not obliged to watch the scarcity of images directly controlled by the Turkish state. Because of Roj TVs modern satellite technology, Roj TV escapes the hands of Turkish dominance and censure.

Despite some EU-reforms in Turkey, there isnt something you can call real Kurdish television. The 30 minutes of state-run broadcasts and 45 minutes of private-run broadcasts are frankly not enough. This is an example that Turkish homogenisation and assimilation policy is still out there.

Roj TV, like KurdistanTV, Zaghros TV and Kurdsat makes sure that Kurds in Turkey and Kurdistan regain their pride, by becoming more aware of their Kurdish identity by delivering an alternative to Turkish television.

Kurds will become educated on their own identity, by educational information on Kurdish history, Kurdish literature, landmark geographical sites in Kurdistan, Kurdish culture, etc.

With the on-going debate about freedom of _expression because of the cartoon-row, Roj TV is also in danger. Premier Erdogan concluded that, freedom of speech has its limits. I cannot agree with this, because if I would, it would give pretence for anti-democratic measures like closing Roj TV, stopping criticism on religion, family and governments under the name of respect. This would mean the end of freedom of speech and the start of a new dictatorship.

In the discussion about Roj TV, PKK is not the point. If you think the Turkish state is sacred and holy, then I can assure that this isnt true. Just look to the number of Turkish nationalists still roaming in the Turkish government (MHP). Frankly Roj TV is offering a platform for more Kurdish parties from all parts of Kurdistan. It isnt only focusing on Northern edges of Kurdistan, there is attention for situation of Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian `occupied´ Kurdistan as a lot of Kurds would say.

An example is that Roj TV last year invited politicians from the opposition parties Komala and KDP-I, after demonstrations in Eastern-Kurdistan (Iranian). They also once asked parties from Western Kurdistan (Syrian) to comment on the events there. Roj TV therefore creates more unity among the Kurds, which was also seen in the support of Kurdistan TV for the survival of Roj TV.( rival TV-station of KDP)

Another good point of Roj-TV that it is multilingual like the most of the Kurdish TV-stations. Roj TV can be seen as an example for the mostly Turkish programmes on Turkish television. Roj TV even broadcasts in Turkish, although its meant to also reach Kurds who have forgotten their mother language.

Roj TV actually promotes democracy by giving an alternative view and showing Kurdish television 24 hours a day. Turkey still not managed to close Roj TV in the EU and therefore became a needle in the eye of Turkish republic. Even Turkish journalists-writers didnt deny that Roj TV is popular and watched by non-PKK-Kurds, as well pro-PKK Kurds.

Therefore Roj TV is a source of pressure, next to the developments in South-Kurdistan and the EU democratization process. Turkey may realise that the only way to decrease the influence and support for Roj TV is by allowing more and longer Kurdish television broadcasting. This only can be seen as something positive. I think that even people within Roj TV would welcome more Kurdish television, as a the Roj-TV producer Hessen Qazi told me: Every Kurdish television station must be welcomed, because it will result in more pluralism .

Then at last Roj TV could compete with those other Kurdish channels, instead of being subject of Turkish intervention and pressure. This is the only way it should be and thats why the closure of Roj TV must be stopped. The destruction of Roj TV would mean the end of freedom of speech and would partly stop the further development of the Kurdish issue and the democratization of Turkey.

* Journalist in the Netherlands.

PWD

Patriotic Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PWD) Coordination member and assistant coordinator Kani Yilmaz was slain on February 11, 2006 at approximately 10:00 am as a result of a car bomb in the city of Suleymaniye in South-Kurdistan (North Iraq). PWD Member Sabri (Serdar Kaya) was also murdered with him in his car.

The team who performed the murder was hired by PKK. Veli Çat, code name Numan, from Hilvan Urfa was separated from PKK Special Team and was sent undercover. He had been staying at the Seyit Sadik Camp near Suleymaniye for approximately a year. Just before the murders Serdar-a code name- who is tied to HPG Military Intelligence Team Member ran by Murat Karayilan had provided him with the explosives. These group of individuals telephone conversations before the murders are recorded and available.

On February 11th, Numan traveled from Seyid Sadiq Camp to Suleymaniye with Kani Yilmaz in his car. While in the car with Kani Yilmaz and Sabri Tori, Numan carefully placed the case containing the explosives and he was dropped of at the entrance of Suleymaniye, Rizgari District, at the industrial intersection of Highway 60. Once the car was about 700 meters away, he detonated the explosives with a remote control and immediately after the explosion Numan and PKK Military Intelligence member Serdar has disappeared.

The police and expert teams intensively investigated the explosion and informed our party officially that the explosion was done by a remote control.

Kani Yilmaz worked for years within the PKK for the civil rights of Kurdish People and he served many years in prison in Turkey because of his struggle. After being released from prison Kani Yilmaz acted as PKK’s foreman in Europe. He was very well known in Europe by many Press members and Politicians.

After Abdullah Ocalan’s capture and imprisonment in Turkey Kani Yilmaz and a group of his comrades have criticized PKK’s goals and separated from PKK and assembled a new party, PWD which stands for patriotic Democratic Party of Kurdistan

PWD was aimed and slandered by PKK and its members from the first day of its assembly. PKK set ground for murders of PWD members especially through ROJ TV, the TV station known as serving PKK.

Serdar Kaya who was murdered along with Kani Yilmaz had served in the PKK for 15 years from the mountains of Kurdistan against the Turkish Military. He had also left PKK and joined forces with PWD.

Kani and Serdar won’t be PKK’s Stalinist Strategy’s first or the last victims.

Previously PKK also murdered Sipan, Kemale Sor and Hikmet Fidan for leaving PKK

PKK continues its speeches on human rights and democracy in the world, their campaigns on “No Death Penalty” continues because of their leader Ocalan’s situation, yet their hypocrisy also continues and they murder the Kurdish people who do not think alike.

Abdullah Ocalan is responsible for the murder on Kani Yilmaz and all those other murdered by PKK

Others who are responsible for these murders are as follows:

PKK Presidency Council Members Cemil Bayik and Murat Karayilan

PKK's Legal Party in Iraq PCKD.

Roj TV based in Brussels

PKK’s European Representative/Authority Zubeyr Aydar.

PKK’s legal Party in Turkey DTP

We’re asking that you say “NO” to the murders of kurds bye the PKK. The PKK is today a instrument in the hands of the Turkish state. Please raise your voice say no to the murders bye the PKK

Office of the PWD in Europe
14 February 2006

www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=11362

Agence France Presse - Iran has started putting uranium feedstock gas into centrifuges, the first step in manufacturing what can be either nuclear reactor fuel or material for an atom bomb, diplomats told AFP Monday.

"Iran has put gas into centrifuges at its pilot enrichment plant in Natanz," a diplomat in Vienna said.

The diplomat said that Iran had not yet fired up the whole 164-centrifuge cascade but had "over the past two or three days" started work with some centrifuges.

Enrichment is seen as a red line by the United States and the European Union since it is the key process to making nuclear weapons.

Putting uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas into centrifuges, which distill out enriched uranium, would be a major escalation by Iran in its face-off with the West over a nuclear program which the United States charges hides secret atomic weapons development.

Iran said Monday that it would resume uranium enrichment even before the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency meets next month in Vienna to decide whether to recommend action by the UN Security Council, which has the authority to take punitive measures against Iran.

A second diplomat said that Iran was still doing "preliminary work" with centrifuges, almost certainly working on single machines rather than a whole cascade.

The diplomats' comments show however that Iran is following through with its threat to move ahead on enrichment.

Iran Focus– The supreme commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) vowed on Monday that the Islamic Republic would never give in to pressures on its nuclear program even if it meant facing sanctions.

“We will not back down from our stances even a slightest bit, therefore we must decisively stand up for our inalienable rights and must defend wisely our independent and mighty national identity”, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi told the state-run news agency ISNA, as he referred to the expected trip by Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to Iran on February 23.

Safavi said that the United States had resorted to making accusations against Tehran’s nuclear program to divert international attention from its defeats in the region.

He said that the Islamic Republic had managed to withstand sanctions since the 1979 revolution. “Today the circumstances are better than the early days of the revolution, and such untimely resolutions will definitely not affect the [Islamic Republic]”.

He described any military attack on Iran as “idiotic”. “We will stand against them with all our strength, power, and wisdom”.

“If yesterday America and Europe brought the nuclear issue forward and today they insult [Islamic] sanctities, they should know that, unlike before, all Muslims of the world will announce their disgust and will decisively not allow them to bring forwards issues such as human rights tomorrow so that using that excuse they can threaten Iran and Muslims”.

Iran Focus – Iranian authorities are believed to have executed a long-time political prisoner, Iran Focus has learnt.

Hojjat Zamani, 30 years old, had been imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison since the year 2000 for being a member of the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI).

A source who wished to remain anonymous informed Iran Focus that Zamani had been executed over the past few days after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against him.

Zamani reportedly endured severe torture in Evin Prison, later escaping and fleeing to Turkey. He was arrested however and turned over to agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Zamani was sent back to Iran where Amnesty International reported he was once again subjected to torture.

Reports had surfaced that in 2005, Zamani was held in the “dangerous prisoners” section of Rajai-Shahr Prison in Karaj (west of Tehran). In the winter of 2004, he and a group of other political prisoners went on a hunger strike that lasted several weeks.

He was reportedly threatened with imminent execution, as part of the pressure exerted to force him to end his hunger strike.

Zamani along with two other Mojahedin political prisoners, Jaafar Aghdami and Valiollah Feiz-Mahdavi, wrote a letter to the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on January 24, 2005, calling on him to set up a special fact-finding mission to “investigate the plight of families of political prisoners, particularly those whose loved ones were tortured or executed in mullahs’ prisons in the 1980s”.

A prison official only identified as Sheikhan reportedly threatened Zamani by saying that he would face imminent execution unless he recanted his letter and collaborated with the regime, after the smuggled letter was distributed to human rights activists outside Iran.

On Saturday, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition coalition which includes the Mojahedin, issued a statement saying that Zamani had disappeared.

Zamani’s two brothers, Fallah and Khazal, were executed by the Iranian regime in earlier dates.

Reuters
Alireza Ronaghi

TEHRAN -- Iran said on Monday talks with Russia this week to discuss proposals to process nuclear fuel for Iranian reactors on Russian soil had been postponed. The proposal was put forward by Moscow to ease international concerns that Iran could enrich bomb-grade uranium.

"Talks with Russia have not been canceled, but the date should be discussed," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a weekly news conference.

Russia and Iran were scheduled to hold talks on Thursday to see if any headway could be made on the Russian proposal.

Elham said the proposal was only acceptable if it was in addition to enrichment facilities in Iran. "The government insists on enriching uranium on Iran's soil and the proposal should be adjusted based on the new circumstances," Elham said.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said Moscow remained prepared to hold talks with Iran over the proposal on February 16.

"Our proposal to meet on February 16 still stands," Kislyak told Interfax news agency.

Western countries have successfully pushed for Iran to be reported to the United Nations Security Council for failing to convince the world its atomic program was entirely peaceful.

Iran says it only wants to enrich low-grade uranium for use in nuclear power rectors and that, as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has a right to do so.

Elham repeated Iran's demand that Western countries recognize Iran's right to nuclear technology as a signatory to the NPT. "We are committed to international treaties to preserve our right," Elham said.

"But if our right was not recognized, there will be no reason to remain committed to international treaties."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Saturday that Tehran might review its membership of the NPT if it felt its enemies were using the accord to put unfair pressure on Iran.

But Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Sunday played down Ahmadinejad's threat on the withdrawal from the NPT, saying Iran had no intention of pulling out of the treaty.

Elham said Iran would resume its uranium enrichment activities at its Natanz plant by March 6, when the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei submits his report on Iran's atomic work to the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors.

"Iran is determined to go ahead with its peaceful atomic work ... We will not wait until then (March 6)," he said.

KurdishMedia.com

Press Release - Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan on IAEA decision of reporting Iran to the Security Council:
“Islamic Republic of Iran is solely responsible for any consequences that emanates from the referral of its nuclear case to the Security Council”

Following the decision of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on reporting Iran to the Security Council, Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in a statement released on 5th February 2006, declared that “Due to Iran’s perilous policies the Islamic republic of Iran is solely responsible for any consequences that emanates from the referral of its nuclear case to the Security Council.”

“Within the last few years the EU back by the United States have supported the IAEA to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Iran has declared repeatedly that the aim of its program is to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes; however, Iran’s secret research and development on nuclear program has raised the international community’s reservation on Iran’s true intentions.” PDKI stated.

Supporting terrorism and terrorist groups, human rights violations, suppression of citizens, interference in the regional countries’ affairs and obstructing the mideast peace process have drawn a precarious picture of Iran, PDKI statement quotes. Considering these, it is not a surprise that the international community objects Iran’s nuclear program; an Iran armed with nuclear weapon is an imminent threat to world peace and security says Politburo statement.

Referring to Iran’s newly installed president Mahmoud Ahamdinejad’s latest statements regarding the state of Israel, PDKI declares that the last few years of negotiations between Iran and three EU members United Kingdom, Germany and France supported by the United States has left the international community and the IAEA deeply suspicious of Iran’s sincerity.

The PDKI statement declares that the most appropriate way to relieve the Iranian people from this agony is to bring together all efforts to change the regime in Iran and to bring about a government where not only Iran regains its status within the international community, but also its people enjoy their rights and freedom, and above all the international community gets relieved from the dreadful threat of the Islamic regime in Iran.

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Public relations
AFK
B.P. 102- 75623 Paris, CEDEX 13 –France
Tel. 0033145856431
Fax. 0033145852093
www.pdk-iran.org
www.pdki.org
Email: pdkiran@club-internet.fr

Police are searching for the body of a Mitcham woman who they believe may have been the victim of an honour killing.

Banaz Mahmod Babakir Agha, 20, was last seen at 5.50pm on January 23, in Cricket Green, Mitcham, and detectives investigating her disappearance are now treating the case as a murder inquiry.

Banaz, who is Kurdish, has not withdrawn any money since her disappearance and did not take a change of clothing or passport with her.

Detective Superintendant Phil Adams, who is overseeing the inquiry, said: "Banaz has not been seen for more than two weeks now.

"I need to hear from anyone who has any information about what has happened to her or has seen her since January 23.

"All information will be treated in the strictest confidence."

Police have undertaken searches at addresses in London, Birmingham and Sheffield.

A 29-year-old man has been charged with murder and a total of eight other people have been arrested during the inquiry which began in January, and are bailed to return pending further inquiries in the future.

Banaz has long dark hair and pale skin and was possibly wearing a green parka coat or a black jacket with a yellow butterfly on the back of it.

A police spokeswoman said the Met would not reveal exactly where Banaz lived or how long she had been in the country.

Detective Superintendant Phil Adams said: "While we must retain an open mind, a line of inquiry is that Banaz's disappearance may be in connection with a failed arranged marriage and her death may be a so-called 'honour killing'."

An incident room has been set up at Lewisham, under Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode.

Anyone who has information is urged to call police on 020 8721 4905 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=11341

Iran Focus – Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi warned the West on Sunday not to “misuse” the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a “political tool”.

“The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is an international commitment and we are committed to it; but we can never accept this commitment when used politically or as a tool”, Asefi told reporters during his weekly press conference.

“What matters to us is to act based on our international responsibilities, safeguards and within the framework of the [International Atomic Energy Agency]; they must never lead this situation into a stage that matters are done through force and the NPT and the IAEA are used politically to put pressure on Iran”, he said.

“We were prepared and had predicted various situations; our policy towards this issue is in one direction and every one has the same opinion”, he added.

Asefi said that Tehran did not fear being referred to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions. “The other side will suffer more than us”.

He said that the Foreign Ministry along with the rest of the government was following the policies of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Observer
Nick Cohen

For three weeks, there have been demonstrations across the planet about a great injustice done to Muslims. After baton-wielding cops inflicted dozens of injuries, the fear of death is in the air. George W Bush's State Department has warned of 'systematic oppression', while secularists and fundamentalists have revealed their mutually incompatible values. Since you ask, I am not talking about the global menace of Scandinavian cartoonists that has so terrified our fearless free press, but mass arrests in Iran.

The media have barely mentioned the story, even though it cuts through the nonsense about a clash of civilisations between the 'West' and the 'Muslims'. The Muslims of Tehran are proving themselves to be anything but a monolithic bloc happy to follow the orders of the ayatollahs and their demented President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There are huge class divisions to begin with, and close to the bottom of the heap are the city's bus drivers. The authorities refused to allow them an independent trade union and ruled that an 'Islamic council' in the offices of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company would represent their interests. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pious have not proved the doughtiest fighters for better pay and conditions. The bus drivers claimed that managers were stealing money from their pay packets. They formed their own union and threatened to strike at the end of January.

Ahmadinejad won the rigged Iranian elections last year with a promise to stand up for the little man against the Islamic Republic's corrupt elite. Faced with a choice between sticking to his word and carrying on with despotism, he showed his true colours by allowing the most ferocious crackdown Tehran has seen since the religious authorities crushed dissident journalists and students in 1999.

The company's managers and Islamic council called in the paramilitary police who arrested the union's six officers and beat workers until they agreed to renounce the strike. Bravely, the majority refused. The state's thugs then targeted their wives and children.

Mahdiye Salimi, the 12-year-old daughter of one of the strike leaders, told a reporter that they had poured into her home in the early hours of the morning trying to find her father. When his wife said she didn't know where he was, the assault began. 'They kicked my mum's heart with their boots and my mum had an enormous ache in her heart. They even wanted to spray something in my [two-year old] sister's mouth.'

No one knows how many people the authorities arrested. The highest figure the British TUC has heard is 1,300. International trade union federations and the British embassy in Tehran estimate that somewhere between 400 and 600 people are still in prison.

Owen Tudor, the TUC's international officer, went to the Iranian embassy to protest and was knocked back by the hatred of unions he met. Probably without realising it, Iranian officials parroted the language of Margaret Thatcher and told him unions were 'the enemy within'. From their perspective, you can see why they would think so. Unions instil democratic habits and encourage solidarity with others regardless of colour and -more importantly in this case - creed. Neither of these admirable traits is likely to appeal to your average fanatic who believes he can read the mind of God.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the US State Department and British Foreign Office have all protested. Trade unions, Iranian exiles and gay groups have demonstrated. Yet the media have barely noticed. The failure is due in part to my trade's perennial inability to walk and chew gum at the same time: we consider stories one by one and today's story is Muslim anger with cartoonists.

I'm not saying it isn't newsworthy, but you shouldn't forget that it was manufactured by hard-line Danish imams who hawked the cartoons round the Muslim world for four months (and, somewhat blasphemously, added obscene drawings of their own). The religious right and Syrian Baathists welcomed them and proved yet again that they need to incite frenzies to legitimise arbitrary power.

Iran has seen all the stunts before because it has endured Islamism longer than any other country. Cheeringly, the old tricks no longer appear to be working. The Associated Press's reporter said that about 400 people demonstrated outside the Danish embassy in Tehran last week, most of them state employees obeying orders, according to the Iranian opposition.

Even if you take the lowest estimate, there are as many striking bus drivers in prison in Tehran as rioters prepared to play the worn-out game of throwing Molotov cocktails at Western embassies. No one ever made money by being optimistic about the Middle East, but after nearly 30 years of Islamist rule, Iranians seem sick of it.

It cannot be said often enough that this is not a clash of civilisations but a civil war within the Islamic world between theocratic reaction and the beleaguered forces of liberty and modernity. As I have tried to emphasise, the best service the rich world's liberal left can render is to get on the right side for once.

How to succeed the cut and paste way

Each year, ever more illiterate and innumerate undergraduates go to university and demand to be spoon-fed answers, revealed the Times Higher Education Supplement last week.

The 250 admissions tutors, who confessed to their despair at standards in secondary schools, weren't completely without hope. They thought their remedial courses might knock them into shape. I'm not so sure. According to the Plagiarism Advisory Service - and, yes, such an outlandishly named body exists - one quarter of students admit to cutting and pasting from the net. Universities have computer programmes to detect lifted work, but have to confront students who can't see what's wrong with plagiarism. Many got through school exams on the strength of course work parents and teachers 'helped' them complete. The concept of cheating is a novel one for them.

On top of that are the pressures on the university authorities to cheat themselves. Overseas students are a lucrative source of revenue and the manner in which universities guaranteed cash flow by giving dim foreigners degrees has been an open scandal for years. Lecturers are now facing similar pressure to reward British students unjustly because of New Labour's demand for 'inclusive' higher education.

I asked Susan Bassnett, pro-vice-chancellor of Warwick University, if it was possible to go from nursery to university in this country without learning anything. She replied: 'You can certainly get a 2:1 without demonstrating the capacity for independent thought and without acquiring basic skills.' Foreign students are now abandoning Britain for countries with serious universities with worthwhile degrees. Perhaps, Bassnett added, the loss of their money will force our authorities to face the disaster they've created.

Oh, Huhne, you hypocrite

It is always disconcerting when someone you know becomes famous - or even a candidate for the leadership of Liberal Democrats. And what is disconcerting those of us who remember Chris Huhne when he was economics correspondent of the Independent in the late Eighties is that he is running on an anti-car ticket.

Can this be the same Chris Huhne who led an unseemly scramble for company cars by Independent execs all those years ago? And picked a BMW which was such a flash motor that Ian Jack, the most fastidious literary journalist of the time, wrote 'This Car Is Very Vulgar' in the dust on the bonnet? If Huhne wins, Lib Dems shouldn't be too surprised if he orders a stretch limo and private jet.

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

By Golnaz Esfandiari

The Kurdistan Human Rights Organization is expressing concern over the self-immolation of Kurdish women in Iran's Western Azerbaijan Province. The organization has published the name of more than 150 Kurdish women who have committed suicide in the past nine months, the majority of them by setting themselves on fire. Observers and activists say self-immolation of women is also happening in some other Western provinces of Iran that have large Kurdish populations, such as Ilam, Kermanshah, and Kurdistan. Domestic violence, social injustice, and discrimination are cited as the main reasons for self-immolation among women.
PRAGUE, 8 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Nasrin Mohammadi is a member of a women's NGO in Marivan in Iran's western province of Kurdistan. She says the number of women who attempt to kill themselves through self-immolation is growing in her city.
One of the recent cases involves a woman who set herself on fire to protest her husband's decision to marry another woman.
"I know this woman who is illiterate; her husband became very rich in a very short time and he forced his wife to sign a letter of consent so he could marry another woman," she said. "She didn't know what she was signing. Since then she has attempted to commit suicide by self-immolation; 80 percent of her body is burned and considering her condition I think she will die [soon]."

Little Hope And A Grim Future

Mohammadi tells RFE/RL that due to conservative traditions and social restrictions, women in her region have little hope in life and often a grim future.

"Desperation is the main reason for the self-immolation [of women]," she continued. "Women face more pressure in a traditional society and in our region because of deprivations and the rule of [old] traditions this pressure has become much stronger. Women in our region are seen as 'second class' citizens. The economic situation of women is a main factor; they are totally dependent on men and also the laws of our country are such that the courts never protect women."

The Kurdistan Human Rights Organization has said that for many women in the region, burning oneself is an outcry against the "patriarchal system" that rules the society and also against the abuse of their basic rights.

Mohammad Sadegh Kabudvand says violence against women is one of the main reasons for suicide among Kurdish women.

Subjected To Violence

"It is certain that pressure and domestic violence and religious prejudice is causing this problem," he said. "In the Kurdish regions men have more [rights] at home and in the society and women are considered inferior."

Kabudvand told RFE/RL that all the documented cases of self-immolation of women in Iran's Western Azerbaijan Province involve young women -- between the ages of 14 to 30 years old -- with little education. He says his organization is planning to document cases of self-immolation in other provinces such as Ilam and Kermanshah where self-immolation is reportedly common.

Mohsen Janghorbani is a professor of epidemiology at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences who has done some research on attempted suicides in Ilam. He believes easy access to flammable materials such as petrol makes self-immolation the most common method of suicide in Ilam. Professor Janghorbani told RFE/RL that self-immolation is not just a way to end life, but also a way to send a message to their families and to the society.

"I think that women do not want to really commit suicide but they want, in fact, to make their cry for help to be heard and say that they are facing injustice," he said. "They use this means, [even though] it is the worst form of suicide. Most of them are young women who are suffering in forced marriages or have some other family-related problems."

Education Needed

He believes better protection of women's rights and economic development in the region could help tackle the problem. He adds that a woman's access to a better education would make them more aware of their rights and help them express their despair in other ways.

Nasrin Mohammadi from the Cultural Society of Marivan's Women agrees. "Laws should be changed in a way that they will protect women," she said. "[The mentality] of the families should change and also the culture of the society [should change]. It needs a long time. Currently we can't do much but we should at least boost the women's morale; we should give them some hope for the future so that they don't feel that they are totally alone and defenseless."

Experts believe the availability of family mental-health centers and psychological programs may reduce the rate of self- immolation in the region.

The Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan has called on media and NGOs to help raise people's awareness about women's issues in an effort to help change social and cultural patterns relating to men's behavior. The organization has also called on the Iranian government to join international agreements and conventions that guarantee equal rights for women such as the UN Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Violence Against Women.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarchive/country/iran.html

Iran Focus-Hard-line radical Islamists attacked the British embassy in Tehran on Wednesday, smashing several of its windows, a day after British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Iran not to make the “mistake” of thinking that the international community would allow it to develop nuclear weapons.

The demonstrators who were affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards threw stones and sticks at the embassy while chanting, “Death to Britain”.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors adopted on Saturday a resolution sponsored by London, along with Paris and Berlin, reporting Iran to the United Nations Security Council for breaches of its international obligations regarding its suspected nuclear weapons program.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused U.S. adversaries Iran and Syria on Wednesday of inciting Muslim anger against the West over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have sparked deadly protests.
President George W. Bush said governments should stop the violence that has erupted over the cartoons, including attacks on Western embassies in parts of the Muslim world. At least 10 people have been killed in protests in Afghanistan alone.

"Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes and the world ought to call them on it," Rice said at a joint news conference with Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

She said nothing justified the violence that had resulted from the cartoons and appealed to governments to urge calm.

"There are governments that have used this opportunity to incite violence," she added, referring to Syria and Iran.

Rice took a more pointed jab at Iran and said it had "not even hidden its hand in this."

The United States is on a collision course with Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons program and was instrumental in getting the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency last Saturday to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

Rice said Iran had "no alternative course" than to accept the demands of the international community over its nuclear programs. Iran denies it is building a nuclear weapon and says its program is for civilian energy use only.

Violence flared around the Muslim world after caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were first published in a Danish daily, and then reprinted across Europe. Many Muslims consider any portrayal of their Prophet as blasphemous.

Speaking to reporters later, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said protests over the cartoons in Iran and Syria were apparently sanctioned by their governments.

HOLOCAUST CONTEST

But the United States did not believe protests in other parts of the Muslim world were due to Iran and Syria inciting violence, McCormack added.

An Iranian newspaper, in retaliation for the European cartoons, has launched a competition calling for cartoons about the Holocaust, a move the State Department called "outrageous" and that McCormack said was influenced by Iranian authorities.

Last year Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and described the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War Two, as a myth.

Syria is under intense world scrutiny for its alleged role in last year's killing of Lebanese ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri and European officials have said stoking Muslim fury could be a way to warn the West of the risks of destabilizing the Syrian government.

The White House has blamed Syria for not protecting the Danish and Norwegian embassies that were torched by protesters angered by the cartoons.

Bush discussed the Muslim reaction to cartoons with Jordan's King Abdullah on Wednesday and said it was "a topic that requires a lot of discussion and a lot of sensitive thought."

"We believe in a free press, and also recognize that with freedom comes responsibilities. With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others," Bush said.

But, he added: "We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press."

Abdullah condemned the cartoons, but said protests should be peaceful.

"With all respect to press freedoms, obviously anything that vilifies the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, or attacks Muslim sensibilities I believe needs to be condemned," Abdullah said.

WorldNetDaily.com
By Jerome R. Corsi
During December 2005 and January 2006, as the Iranian regime became increasingly defiant of international nuclear diplomacy, the litany of human-rights abuses continued as well. Here is a list of those sentenced to death or executed in Iran during the past two months.
Jan. 31: Iranian authorities hanged in public an individual accused of being a "trouble-maker" in the central city of Kerman. The unnamed individual who was hanged in a one of the city's public squares was charged with being involved in armed clashes with the security forces, creating "insecurity and trouble," and kidnapping.
Jan. 8: Three men were hanged in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. The three prisoners, identified only by their first names Amir-Reza, Gholam-Ali and Majid, were accused of murder.
Dec. 29: Iranian authorities hanged two young men in public in the cities of Ilam, western Iran, and Taibad, eastern Iran. Yar-Mohammad Samadi, 20, was hanged in a public square on Wednesday after being convicted of committing murder in 2003. A second man, Eskandar Morajei, 30, was hanged in public at dawn on Thursday in the city of Ilam. He was also accused of murder.
Dec. 28: Two men, identified only by their first names as Naeem-Abdollah and Jaleel, were hanged in public in the volatile city of Ahwaz, southwest Iran. They were accused of being "mohareb," or waging war on God. In the past, Iran's judiciary has executed political opponents of the Islamic Republic on the charge of being a mohareb.
Dec. 27: Iran's State Supreme Court upheld stoning and amputation sentences for four men and jail terms for several dozen other members of a gang in the north of the country. The men, who had been arrested in January in the town of Nowshahr in the northern province of Mazandaran, were all part of a gang called the "Wild West." Three of the men – Eskandar M. (also known as Abbasi), Jamshid E. and his unnamed brother – were each given "death by hanging" sentences and third a "death by stoning" sentence. Another man, identified only as Afshin R., was sentenced to have his fingers amputated and receive prison time.
Dec. 21: Iranian authorities publicly hanged three men all in their 20s in the town of Sabzevar, northeast Iran. Two of the men, whose identities were not made clear, were aged 25 while the third man was 21 years old. They were hanged in public Tuesday morning, accused of various crimes including injuring an agent of the State Security Forces, Iran's para-military police.
For more click
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48707

kurdmedia (UK) - A married woman missing for two weeks may be the victim of an 'honour killing', fear detectives.
Police investigating the disappearance of 20-year-old Banaz Mahmod Babakir Agha said today they were treating the case as a murder enquiry.
Ms Agha, of Kurdish origin, walked out of her arranged marriage of three years last June when she returned to live with her family in Mitcham, south London. She has not been seen since January 23.
Mohamad Marid Hama, 29, of Uffington Road, South Norwood, south east London, appeared before Greenwich Magistrates Court on Saturday morning charged with her murder despite police still failing to recover the body.
Police said today that Hama was not Banaz's estranged husband, but he has been remanded in custody.
Banaz was last seen alive on Cricket Green in Mitcham. She has not withdrawn any money from her bank account and was not carrying any spare clothes or her passport.
Detectives have searched addresses in London, Birmingham and Sheffield plus wasteland areas around her home in Mitcham.
Det Supt Phil Adams, who is leading the inquiry, said: "Whilst we must retain an open mind, a line of inquiry is that Banaz's disappearance may be in connection with a failed arranged marriage, and her death may be a so-called honour killing.
"Banaz and her husband split-up in June 2005 after they had been married for three years. I can confirm however that the man charged with her murder was not her estranged husband. We do have reasons why we believe this was an 'honour killing' but we are not prepared to discuss those further at this point.
"Banaz has not been seen for more than two weeks now. I need to hear from anyone who has any information about what has happened to her, or has seen Banaz since January 23.
"A body has yet to be recovered. Searches have taken place at addresses in London, Birmingham and Sheffield.
"Whilst we must retain an open mind, a line of inquiry is that Banaz's disappearance may be in connection with her failed arranged marriage, and her death may be a so-called 'honour killing'."
Banaz is described as having long dark hair and pale skin, and was possibly wearing a green parka coat or a black jacket with a yellow butterfly on the back.
A total of eight other people have been arrested during the inquiry in January and February and are bailed to return pending further inquiries.
Anyone who has any information is urged to called police on 020 8721 4905 or, to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

kurdishinfo.com
March for Freedom and Justice for Abdullah Ocalan and Peace in Kurdistan
Date: Wednesday 15th February Time: 12 noon
Start: Office of Andy Love MP, 205 Fore Street, Broad House, Edmonton, London N18 2TZ
Terminates: Office of Joan Ryan MP, 180 High Street, Enfield, EN3 4EU
Buses: 149, 259, 279, 359, 144
Nearest Trains: National Rail One Services to Silver Street or Seven Sisters underground then any of the buses above
Since his capture in 1999, Abdullah Ocalan has been kept in solitary confinement on the Turkish prison island of Imrali. His health is precarious, and concern for his life is growing. The Anti-Torture Committee of the Council of Europe has called for the ending of Abdullah Ocalan’s solitary confinement. Turkey, however, refuses to comply with these demands.
The conflict in the Kurdish region of south-east Turkey is escalating with casualties on both sides reported daily. This is a perilous situation which cannot be ignored any longer. Turkish membership of the European Union is inconceivable without a dialogue between the Kurds, their chosen leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish government. Only a political negotiated solution of the Kurdish question will end the military conflict.
For more information contact
KURDISH FEDERATION UK
fedbir@yahoo.co.uk

IranPressNews-Based on published reports, Hasan Mohammadi, an activist member of the Bus drivers union was arrested at midnight on Monday, February 6th. The Islamic regimes security forces stormed Mohammadis' mothers house via the roof and breaking the door down arrested Mohammadi. The house was then surrounded by dozens of security forces for hours. Since December 22nd when the Tehran bus driver’s union members were arrested, Mohammadi had spent all his time contacting international media to report on the plight of his fellow union members.
The latest reports show that the Assembly of Provisions of the Province, which is in charge of investigating the working conditions of more than 200 protesting activist workers, has not as of yet taken any action to evaluate the bus drivers’ concerns. As a result the hundreds of bus drivers who are on strike and are now even being incarcerated in Evin Prison for protesting, have gone on hunger strike. Many of the incarcerated workers are being held in ward 240 of said prison and are under interrogation and severe torture while others have been transferred to ward 209 of the criminal Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

mirror.co.uk
By Bob Roberts Deputy Political Editor

TONY Blair yesterday refused to rule out a British military invasion of Iran.

He told MPs the rogue Middle Eastern state was helping to spread the "virus" of Muslim fanaticism across the world.

It was a problem which needed "sorting", the Prime Minister said.
And asked if the British military option was on the table, he admitted: "You can never say never in any of these situations."

The warning is a significant increase in the language the PM has used against the Tehran-based regime which is also accused of developing nuclear weapons. American military experts have already said war-planes are on standby to attack.

Mr Blair said he would prefer to resolve disputes with Iran through "peaceful and diplomatic means".

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But he attacked the regime which has threatened to wipe Israel off the map.

He said: "The concern about Iran is growing very, very substantially - and the more the President of Iran carries on using this type of language and saying what he says about the state of Israel, the more people get worried."

The PM warned the Tehran government would be making a "very serious mistake" if it defied international calls to stop making nuclear weapons, adding: "When they try to export terrorism, it's a problem. When they are trying to meddle in Iraq, it's a problem."

TONY BLAIR YESTERDAY

Blair went on: "There is a virus of extremism which comes out of the cocktail of religious fanaticism and political repression in the Middle East which is now being exported to the rest of the world.

"We will only secure our future if we are dealing with every single aspect of that problem. Our future security depends on sorting out the stability of that region."

The warning comes as an Iranian newspaper announced a contest for cartoons satirising the Holocaust in response to the caricatures of the prophet Mohammed which appeared in Denmark.

Iran said it was cutting trade ties with the Danes - but the EU warned that attempts to boycott Danish goods or stop trading with European countries would lead to further deterioration in relations.

During his session in front of senior MPs on the Commons Liaison Committee, Mr Blair also pledged a police crackdown on Islamic fanatics who brandished hate-filled placards in the UK last week.

DEFENCE Secretary John Reid last night said there could be "significantly fewer British forces" in Iraq within a year - but only if threats from insurgents are reduced and the country has effective local government systems.

tmcnet.com

IRAN received a double warning from Britain yesterday as Tony Blair insisted the international community would not allow it to develop nuclear weapons and Jack Straw warned it was heading for diplomatic isolation if it continued down a hardline path.

Mr Blair said that Tehran's intransigence had hardened the mood in Europe and America.

"Iran would make a very, very serious mistake if it thinks the international community is going to allow it to develop nuclear weapons capability, " said Mr Blair.

Later in the Commons, the foreign secretary urged the Iranian government to think carefully about the direction it was taking. "If they go on this path, they are going towards international isolation."

Proper response to Tehran's challenge is urgent adoption of sanctions, support for democratic change by the Iranian people and Resistance

NCRI - Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian regime's representative to the IAEA in Vienna, confirmed today that the regime "will soon install 50,000 centrifuges in the Natanz facility for enrichment of [UF6] gas." Tehran also informed the IAEA in a formal letter that it would halt cooperation with the agency and demanded the removal of surveillance cameras at nuclear sites in Iran.

The remarks are a blunt admission to the veracity of revelations by the Iranian Resistance from a year ago, exposing a ploy by Tehran of simultaneously negotiating with the Europeans and continuing to develop and complete its nuclear projects, including the large-scale construction of centrifuges.

The formal announcement of resumption of enrichment activities by the clerical regime is in clear defiance of its obligations to the international community. The move underlines the necessity of urgent Security Council action to impose comprehensive oil, arms, technological, and diplomatic sanctions against the regime.

The Security Council should also review the regime's record in sponsoring terrorism and systematically violating the human rights of the Iranian people. The clerical regime's declaration of war on the world community is concurrent with its intensified suppression of the Iranian people. The leaders of the medieval theocracy must be brought before an international tribunal for their crimes against the Iranian people.

The ultimate solution to deal with Tehran's increasing threats is democratic change in Iran as was articulated by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance. This change cannot be achieved by appeasing the mullahs or by external war. The Iranian people and their organized Resistance, which has fought for liberty and democracy in Iran for over a quarter century, hold the key to change. To achieve democratic change, the main obstacle to it, namely the terror label against the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the main component of the Resistance, must be revoked and the National Council of Resistance of Iran must be recognized as the Iranian people's legitimate resistance movement.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

February 7, 2006

Iran Focus– Iran’s former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani accused the West on Tuesday of carrying out the work of Satan after cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad negatively were published in European dailies.

Speaking to a gathering of senior clerics in Tehran, Rafsanjani, who currently chairs the State Expediency Council, said that Western interpretations of freedom of press were false.

“Insulting the prophet of peace and freedom under the pretext of freedom of thought and expression is a satanic conspiracy which without doubt will be disclosed as before with the presence of Muslims everywhere”, he said, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

The powerful cleric said that the West’s goal for publishing the cartoons was “clear” and encouraged Muslims everywhere to rise up against such “plots”.

Iran Focus– Iranian authorities hanged three men in the north-eastern town of Sabzevar, Khorassan Razavi province, a state-run daily reported on Monday.

The three, dubbed “trouble-makers”, were charged with threatening national security, the hard-line daily Khorassan wrote.

The charge “acting against national security” is a vague term which encompasses virtually all forms of social protests or actions against the ruling clerical authorities.

In January, Iran’s State Security Forces (SSF) arrested hundreds of individuals in the province of Khorassan Razavi as part of a crackdown of “trouble-makers”.

Agents of the SSF and VEVAK, Iran’s notorious secret police, arrested 770 individuals as part of the second phase of the “Plan to Combat Trouble-makers”, code-named “Zafar 2”, meaning victory.

Close to 300 of those arrested were to be formally tried in special Islamic courts set up to deal with the “trouble-makers”.

The “Plan to Combat Trouble-makers” was initially launched in Tehran in September and soon spread to cities and towns across the nation. Under the scheme, thousands were arrested within a period of several months on various charges such as “racketeering” and “loansharking”.

Iranian officials often refer to millions of unemployed young men, who are largely beset by frustration and despair, as “trouble-makers”.

URGENT ACTION

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/008/2006
UA 26/06 Fear of torture or ill-treatment/ incommunicado detention/
possible prisoners of conscience
IRAN Ebrahim Madadi (m), Deputy Head of the Union of Workers of the
United Bus Company of Tehran (Sherkat-e Vahed)
Naser Gholami (m), Secretary of Union of Workers of the United Bus Company of
Tehran
Mansour Heyat Gheibi (m)
Seyed Davoud Razavi (m)
Sa'id Torabian (m)
Ali Zade Hossein (m)
Abdolreza Tarazi (m)
Yaghub Salimi (m)
Hossein Shahsavari (m)
Ata Babakhani (m)
Yousef Moradi (m)
and at least 500 other workers of the United Bus Company of Tehran
The 11 men named above, and at least 500 other employees of the United Bus
Company of Tehran (Sherkat-e Vahed), have been arrested since 25 January. They
are believed to be detained incommunicado, mostly at Tehran’s Evin prison, and
are at risk of torture and ill-treatment. Amnesty International believes that
they are prisoners of conscience, detained solely for their peaceful trade
union activities.

The arrests began after the Union of Workers of the United Bus Company of
Tehran issued a call for a strike to be held on 28 January. The purpose of the
strike was to call for the release of Mansour Ossanlu, the head of the Union,
who has been detained since 22 December 2005 (see UA 08/06, MDE 13/002/2006, 09
January 2006), and to call for legal recognition of the union, and a pay
increase.

Leaflets publicizing the strike were reportedly distributed widely in Tehran on
24 January. Hosseini Tabar, a member of the Union's Executive Committee, was
reportedly detained briefly while distributing the leaflets. The following day,
Ebrahim Madadi, Mansour Heyat Ghaybi, Sayed Davoud Razavi, Sa’id Torabian, Ali
Zad Hossein and Gholamreza Mirza’I, all members of the Executive Committee,
were summoned to appear at the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Tehran on 26
January. After they refused to obey the Public Prosecutor's order to call off
the strike, they were arrested and taken to Evin Prison. In an interview with
the state news agency IRNA, the Mayor of Tehran reportedly said that the union
was illegal and indicated that the strike would not be allowed to take place.
Managers of the United Bus Company of Tehran threatened Union members that they
would lose their jobs if they participated in the strike.

On 27 January 2006, security forces began mass arrests of union members
planning to participate in the strike. The wives of Executive Committee members
Mansour Hayat Ghaybi, Sayed Davoud Razavi, and Yaghub Salimi, and five children
aged between 2 and 15 years old, were also arrested, though they have now been
released.

On 28 January, the day of the strike, hundreds more Union members were
reportedly arrested. Most of them were taken to Evin Prison. Many bus drivers
protesting on picket lines were reportedly threatened in order to force them to
drive their buses, and were beaten, kicked, and hit with batons by members of
the security forces and members of the Basij, a volunteer security force under
the command of the Revolutionary Guard, who had reportedly been brought in to
drive some of the buses. In some places, the authorities allegedly used tear
gas and fired shots into the air. Scores more were reportedly arrested on 29
and 30 January.

Currently, only 30 to 50 of those detained are reported to have been released,
apparently after they agreed under duress to sign guarantees that they would
not participate in strikes or other protest actions. At least 500 others are
believed to remain in detention, mostly in Evin prison, without access to
family and lawyers. Some are reported to have begun a hunger strike on 29
January to protest their detention. It is not known if they are receiving any
medical treatment. The Union has called for another strike on 2 February.

As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
the Iranian government is obliged to guarantee freedom of association,
"including the right to form and join trade unions." Article 26 of the Iranian
Constitution permits "the formation of parties, societies, political or
professional associations." The right to strike is recognized by Iran’s Labour
Law.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130082006

URGETN AVTION
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/006/2006
UA 24/06 Fear of torture and ill-treatment/ incommunicado
detention
IRAN Reza Haidari (m), aged 11
Kazem Sayahi (m), aged 14
Hashem Jassem Sawari (m), aged 18
Hadi Washahi (m), aged 17
Said Manabi (m), aged 20
Saleh ‘Abidawi (m), imam
Sheikh Saleh al-Haydari (m), imam of Da’ira
mosque
and scores of others
The seven people named above and scores of others, all members of Iran’s Arab
minority, were reportedly arrested in the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan province
on 11 and 12 January. They may be held incommunicado and are at risk of torture
or ill-treatment.

The arrests took place after clashes in Ahvaz between Iranian security forces
and members of the Arab Ahwazi community. The clashes followed an initially
peaceful demonstration which took place on the Muslim festival of ‘Id al-Adha
on 11 January, led by Sheikh Saleh al-Haydari, imam (prayer leader) of Da’ira
mosque in Ahvaz. Demonstrators were reportedly demanding an end to the
persecution of Arabs, poverty and unemployment among Arabs, and the release of
political prisoners arrested following unrest in Khuzestan province which began
in April 2005. The next day, scores more arrests followed in the city of
Hamidiya, after a demonstration against the arrests which had taken place on
‘Id al-Adha, the previous day. According to reports, at least three men were
killed during the clashes between 11 and 12 January by the security forces in
the Khuzestan region and around 40 others wounded.

According to press reports, Sheikh Saleh al-Haydari has been on hunger strike
since 25 January in protest at his detention. The authorities have reportedly
accused him of threatening national security. Another imam, Saleh ‘Abidawi, and
three boys under the age of 18 are also among those believed to be in
detention.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Iran’s Arab community live mainly in the Khuzestan region, which borders Iraq.
It is strategically important because it is the site of much of Iran’s oil
reserves, but the Arab population does not feel it has benefited as much from
the oil revenue as the Persian population. Historically the Arab community has
been marginalised and discriminated against. Tension has mounted among the Arab
population since April 2005, after it was alleged that the government planned
to disperse the country’s Arab population or to force them to relinquish their
Arab identity. Hundreds have been arrested and there have been reports of
torture. Some have been sentenced to death. Following bomb explosions in Ahvaz
in October, which killed six people, and explosions at oil installations in
September and October, the cycle of violence in Khuzestan province intensified,
leading to reports of scores of arrests and at least two deaths while
demonstrations were broken up. Further bombs exploded on 24 January, killing
six people.

Iran is a state party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),
which states: “No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or
arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in
conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and
for the shortest appropriate period of time.” The CRC also states that “every
child deprived of liberty shall be treated… in a manner which takes into
account the needs of persons of his or her age [and] shall have the right to
maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save
in exceptional circumstances.”

(AKI) - Judicial authorities in the central Iranian city of Isfahan have announced that women state employees who fail to wear the Islamic hijab or head scarf, face lashing as punishment. Isfahan's director general for Judicial Authority, Mohammad Ansari, apparently wants to apply to the letter an article in Iran's penal code stipulating 74 lashes for women who do not dress according to Islamic law including wearing the chador, the black veil that covers women from head to toe.
Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election as Iranian president in June last year, pressure has increased on people to respect Islamic laws and morals. Many clothing shops have been subject to severe controls by the police, while the security staff at public buildings prevent women, who are not deemed to be dressed properly, from entering.
During the eight-year rule of Ahmadinejad's predecessor Mohammad Khatami, Islamic dress codes were not strictly enforced.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rebuke of Tehran, President Bush said Saturday's long-sought vote to send Iran's nuclear case before the U.N. Security Council sends a clear message that the world will not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons.
"The path chosen by Iran's new leaders — threats, concealment, and breaking international agreements and IAEA seals — will not succeed and will not be tolerated by the international community," Bush said in a statement the White House issued Saturday at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he is spending the weekend.
"The regime's continued defiance only further isolates Iran from the rest of the world and undermines the Iranian people's aspirations for a better life."
The administration said the action gives Tehran one month to comply with the world's demands, but U.S. diplomats would not specify the penalties they hope might be imposed.

"I think we'll hold our fire," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a resolution that Iran's nuclear program may not be "exclusively for peaceful purposes." Iran promptly said it would resume uranium enrichment at its main plant instead of in Russia.

The United States is convinced that Iran is concealing its ambitions to build a bomb and has favored sending the matter to the Security Council option for almost three years.

Bush said the United States expects the Security Council "to add its weight" to the IAEA's calls on the Iranian regime to suspend all enrichment and reprocessing activity, cooperate fully with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog and return to negotiations with Great Britain, France and Germany.

He said the vote by the IAEA board did not mark the end of diplomacy, but the beginning of an intensified diplomatic effort to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

"Those steps are necessary for the regime to begin to restore any confidence that it is not seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program," he said.

Aside from his message to the Iranian government, Bush told the Iranian citizenry that the IAEA vote is not about trying to deny them from having a civil nuclear energy program, but was solely to prevent their leaders from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"Iran's true interests lie in working with the international community to enjoy the benefits of peaceful nuclear energy, not in isolating Iran by continuing to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons," he said.

Washington cut diplomatic ties with Iran after militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took Americans hostage. The Bush administration stood on the sidelines during intensive diplomatic efforts by European powers, Russia and others to avert what many nations saw as a showdown between old adversaries.

Continued provocation from Iran turned world opinion against it, U.S. officials said Saturday.

"The strong majority in favor of the resolution, representing all regions of the world, underscores the concern of the entire international community about Iran's nuclear program," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

"We hope the Iranian regime will heed this clear message," Rice said. "The world will not stand by if Iran continues on the path to a nuclear weapons capability."

The decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board sets the stage for future action by the council, which has the authority to impose economic and political penalties.

Any such moves are weeks, if not months away. Two permanent council members, Russia and China, agreed to referral only on condition the council take no action before March.

The delay gives time for Iran's allies or others to try to intercede. U.S. officials said they will not stand in the way of new diplomacy.

"The challenge will be for Iran to choose diplomacy over isolation," Burns said. "It's got 30 days to do that."

The United States, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month, will circulate a report on Iran but not call for any discussion or other action until after a March 6 meeting of the IAEA, Burns said.

At that point, if Iran has not complied with the agency's demands, the U.S. or others would begin what Burns predicted would be a vigorous debate in the council. Although tough penalties are one option, the United States has said it is not seeking them right away.

"We're going to ratchet up the pressure step by step," Burns said.

The council could issue a non-binding statement, set up its own list of conditions for Iran to meet, impose some punishment right away or do nothing.

There is a strong distaste among some members of the council for broad and punitive penalties similar to those that contributed to a humanitarian crisis in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was president. China's U.N. ambassador said Friday that his nation is opposed to U.N. penalties as a matter of principle.

VAN (DIHA) –The torture to some youngs who shouted slogans after the pres statement made by People’ Initiative by the police caused reactions. The civil society organizations in Van made crime announcement about the polices in the Office of the public prosecutor.

In spite of the statements of the government as ‘ Zero tolerans to the torture’ the violent attitude of the police to the citizens had taken reactions.

Kicking the some youngs, who shouted slogans after the pres statement to protest isolation imposed on Kurdish peoples leader Abdullah Ocalan, by lying them on the ice by the police in the Sanat street had caused reactions in civil society organizations and political parties in Van.

After the incident the defenders of human rights had made crime announcement with a CD which has a pictures of the torture.

CHD: The police deviates from the laws

The chairman of the Van branch of the Modern Jurists the lawyer Murat Timur said that the statement by government as ‘ Zero tolerance to the torture’ is an empty statement which is proved by last incidence in Van. Timur said that by looking to the last incidences it emerges that all laws are pronunciations. Especially when looking at the last incidences two days ago the pres statement in the scope of expression freedon was not let. Neither in the constitution nor in the penal code there is such thing about taking permission for the press statement. Making a pres statement without taking permission is a democratic right. On the one hand the violation of freedom of thought and the practises which are not compatible with the laws. After the police paralyses the person he caught he should tell his legal rights. However the police kicks the faces of the person instead of telling them their legal rights. It was obvious here that the security forces had exercised violence to the people. Our expectation is a start of legal and executive procedure about charged officials, he said.

DTP: Democratic demands had been answered with lynche

Democratic Society Party Van city chairman Hasan Ciftci who stated that the police even does not let people to come to the party said that:

‘None of the practise exercised by the police is within legal context. It is not let to express democratic rights which are a part of freedoms of man. Democratic demands had been answered with lynche in the middle of the street. This is not practised even in the third world countries. The laws enacted within the scope of the laws of accordance with the EU were violated when the people of the region is at issue. But inspite of the all oppressions we will Express our democratic reactions in legal grounds, we will apply to legal ways about authorities.’

SIDDIK GULER

NCRI - A day after Iranian regime declared that the Russian plan for enrichment was dead because Tehran was reported to the U.N. Security Council, it announced on today that it would hold talks with Moscow on its plan.

Mullahs' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters, "The situation has changed and we will attend talks with Russia on February 16."

Javad Vaeidi, deputy head of the National Security Council, said on Saturday there was "no adequate reason to pursue the Russian plan."

Earlier on Sunday, mullahs' president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brushed off the IAEA referral and said: "Issue as many resolutions like this as you want and make yourself happy. You can't prevent the progress of the Iranian nation."

Clerical regime's latest offer to reconsider Russian plan was seen as a clear turn around by the regime as it met with a degree of firmness by the international community on its threatening nuclear ambitions.

As it has been declared in the past 25 years by the Iranian Resistance, the fundamentalist regime in Iran only understands the language of force.

In a massage following the IAEA's decision to report mullahs' regime to the UN Security Council, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance called for immediate adoption of oil, weapons, technological, and diplomatic sanctions against the regime. "The only way to confront and thwart the mullahs' deceit and obfuscation is swift action and not to give them anymore time."

Ramping up the rhetoric against Tehran after the vote, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the vote sent a "clear message" to Iran.

itv.com
Iran will be reported to the UN Security Council after a majority vote by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

27 members of the 35-nation governing board voted in favour of the motion, while five abstained and three voted against, a diplomat said.

Peter Jenkins, British ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: "This sends a further strong message to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a message of concern ... and a continuing lack of confidence in Iran's nuclear intentions.

"The board has decided the bring (the issue) to the attention of the Security Council ... so that after the board's next session (on March 6), the Security Council can if necessary bring additional (pressure) to bear on Iran."

Cuba, Syria, Venezuela voted against the resolution. Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Liya and South African delegations abstained.

Within moments of the announcement, the Tehran government was quoted as saying it would immediately start large-scale enrichment of uranium.

But the resolution says Iran will have to reinstate a freeze of uranium-processing activities.

Britain has welcomed the vote, with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying that the 27-3 vote showed "the international community's determination to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East".

Mr Straw said the vote in Vienna gave Iran several weeks to defuse the crisis by suspending uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.

He warned: If they failed to do so, action by the Security Council - which could include sanctions against the Tehran regime - would be "almost inevitable."

Reports from Tehran suggested that the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was taking a defiant stance.

KurdishMedia.com

Ongoing Violence Against Kurdish Women in Turkey
What the EU-Turkey Accession Talks Offer Women

David Morgan reports on a public meeting hosted by Lynne Featherstone MP that took place in the House of Commons on 30 January.

The meeting was called to discuss the practical ways that support in the UK can be improved for Kurdish women who have been in the forefront of the political struggle of the Kurds over the past 20 years and who have endured immense suffering as a result of one of the dirtiest wars of recent history. Women continue to suffer as war victims themselves, loss of family members and as displaced peoples and refugees, but they were getting organised both inside Kurdistan and in the UK. The immediate occasion for the meeting was a visit to London by Kurdish human rights lawyer, Ms Sehnaz Turan, who is based in Istanbul and works on cases of rights violations of women and Kurds. She is also a director of the EUTCC (Europe-Turkey Civic Commission), a body formed to monitor progress made on human rights inside Turkey during the accession process. Ms Turan was spending the best part of two weeks meeting women’s groups, NGOs, lawyers, politicians and others of influence to raise the profile of the situation facing Kurdish women inside Turkey and Kurdistan.
The importance of recognising the “ongoing” violence against Kurdish women was stressed by Estella Schmid, who chaired the meeting and was responsible for organising the visit on behalf of the Peace in Kurdistan campaign.
Read more--> www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=11281

By Mark Heinrich and Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) - The board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog voted on Saturday to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council because of suspicions it is trying to make atomic weapons, a diplomat who was in the session said.

Iran has threatened to respond to the move -- initiated by the United States, EU powers, Russia and China -- by curbing U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities and scrapping talks on a Russian compromise proposal.

The diplomat said a European Union-sponsored resolution aimed at increasing pressure on Iran to improve its cooperation with an International Atomic Energy Agency probe of its nuclear programme was passed by the 35-nation IAEA board.

Twenty-seven members voted in favour of the motion, five abstained and three voted against, the diplomat said.

The vote had been delayed by a day of haggling between EU powers and 15 developing states from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). These tried to soften the resolution for fear it would antagonise Iran and curb their own nuclear energy options.

Diplomats said the EU rejected their attempts to delete a clause mandating that all IAEA investigative reports and resolutions, including one in 2005 declaring Iran non-compliant with nuclear non-proliferation rules, be passed to the Council.

"That was a 'no-no'. Paragraph 2 is the holy grail for us," one EU diplomat said.

Another Western diplomat said that to remove Paragraph 2 would have surrendered to Iranian intimidation. "The threat (to restrict inspections) is on everyone's minds but we consider it blackmail and if we give in to that, there's no end to it."

Diplomats from the EU trio of France, Germany and Britain said they were determined to induce the Islamic Republic to come clean on what they suspect is military involvement in nuclear work, and to stop enrichment of uranium.

U.S. and EU leaders, aware that Russia, China and developing states wanted to avoid a showdown with the world's fourth biggest oil exporter, insisted that reporting Iran would not finish off diplomacy or trigger early sanctions.

NAM states argued that Paragraph 2 could be construed as ending IAEA oversight of Iran and paving the way to sanctions before the IAEA concludes its investigations into Iran's atomic energy programme -- which it concealed for 18 years until 2003.

Iran says it wants only nuclear power, not bombs, and that it has a sovereign right to make uranium fuel on its own soil.

REPORT PENDING

An EU3 source said another controversy that held up action in Vienna was a dispute over a clause, backed by Egypt, saying that resolving the Iranian issue would contribute to the creation of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East.

The wording clearly alluded to Israel, the EU3 diplomat said, and proved unacceptable to Washington. Israel has never confirmed or denied it has a nuclear arsenal, but is believed to have about 200 atomic bombs.

IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei is due to deliver a sweeping report on Iran's nuclear programme at a regular meeting of the agency's board on March 6.

Russia and China endorsed the resolution last week after winning guarantees from Washington and the EU3 that there would be no push for Security Council action before March, removing the biggest barrier to the resolution.

"Once this is on the agenda of the Security Council, we foresee a graduated approach to bring additional pressure on the leadership in Tehran to achieve a negotiated settlement," U.S. Ambassador Gregory Schulte told reporters on Friday.

But Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator warned that involving the Security Council would also kill talks on Russia's offer to guarantee a supply of uranium for Iran's power stations, designed to ensure it cannot be diverted for weapons.

Iran says there us no legal basis to report to the Security Council since the IAEA has found no hard proof of a weapons programme. It says Washington's aim is to topple Iran's Islamic government, which has called for the destruction of Israel.

"The Iranian threat is serious and there's fear we are entering a risky period of polarisation and confrontation that will do no good for either side," said a senior diplomat not involved in the push to report Iran to the Council.

"If the IAEA loses snap inspection access, a vacuum will ensue where others step in and make accusations the IAEA cannot check out, and where could that lead? We are in need of ideas on how to solve this peacefully."

Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani called on Germany, France and Britain to restart talks on a diplomatic solution. But they say Iran must first reverse its move to resume atomic research and small-scale enrichment of uranium, announced on January 9.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Paul Hughes in Tehran)

Iran Focus – Iran’s former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency not to make the “mistake” of reporting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council.

“I tell the West, do not make this mistake”, Rafsanjani told worshippers in Tehran during his Friday prayers sermon, the Fars news agency, which is run by the Office of the Supreme Leader, reported.

“Since yesterday until now all eyes have been on Vienna. If what the EU suggested at the [session of the IAEA’s] board of governors is adopted, opening the way for our file to be seen to at the Security Council – even as a report – they will have made a big error”, he said.

In London, earlier this week, the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany announced that they had agreed upon reporting Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons file to the Security Council.

“If the five [permanent] members of the Security Council display such cruelty and injustice by going ahead with this unjust action which will be written down in history, they will have destroyed people’s trust”.

The powerful cleric advised the West “not to commit such a historical crime”, adding that the move will not be beneficial for them in the long run.

TEHRAN,(MNA) -- As organizers remove all the Fajr film festival’s posters and banners from the megalopolis of Tehran, movie theaters began screening two new Iranian films, “Requiem of Snow” and “The Left-Handed” on Thursday.
Directed by Jamil Rostami, “Requiem of Snow” is about Kurdish villagers who are praying for rain, a land parched in drought, the illusion of snow, and a girl called Rozhin who dreams of escaping her fate and seeks support from a stranger.

The film, which won the Best Director Award at the 8th Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People last December in Greece, is only being screened at the Farhang Cinema and once a day at the Sahra Cinema.

The film is a joint production of Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Ministry of Culture and stars Shadi Variani, Mahieddin Variani, Masud Yusefi, Abdollah Ahmadi, Jalil Mohammad Veisi, Delnia Farajpur, and Anvar Farajpur.

“The Left-Handed” is the third film of Arash Moayyerian after “Coma” and “Charlatan”. It tells the story of a young woman suffering from amnesia caused by an accident and the many problems that ensue due to her condition.

Hamid Gudarzi, Leila Otadi, Majid Salehi, Mehdi Aminikhah, and Asghar Semsarzadeh are the main cast members of the film, which replaced Saman Moqaddam’s comedy “Maxx” at cinemas.

“Maxx” has been the most successful film of the Iranian calendar year (ends March 19) so far, with box-office receipts of 4.75 billion rials (about $521,000).

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States does not believe Iran has a nuclear weapon but the danger Tehran will acquire one is an "immediate concern," U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte said on Thursday.

Negroponte also told a Senate committee looking into the range of threats to the United States that al Qaeda was still plotting and preparing for attacks on the United States.

"We judge that Tehran probably does not yet have a nuclear weapon and probably has not yet produced or acquired the necessary fissile material," Negroponte, director of national intelligence, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

But he added, "The danger that it will acquire a nuclear weapon, and the ability to integrate it with the ballistic missiles Iran already possesses is a reason for immediate concern."

The committee was looking at the proliferation threat posed by Iran on the same day the International Atomic Energy Agency considered whether to report the Islamic Republic to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program.

Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are purely to develop nuclear power.

Negroponte also said that while much of al Qaeda's leadership from the time of the September 11 attacks on the United States had been eliminated, its "core elements still plot and make preparations for terrorist strikes against the (U.S.) homeland and other targets from bases in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area."

"The group will attempt high-impact attacks for as long as its central command structure is functioning and affiliated groups are capable of furthering its interests, because even modest operational capabilities can yield a deadly and damaging attack," he said.

An attack using conventional explosives remains the "most probable scenario," but al Qaeda remains interested in acquiring chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials or weapons, he said.

Attacking U.S. territory, U.S. interests abroad and allies overseas remained al Qaeda's top priorities -- in that order, he said.

Nearly 40 terrorist organisations, insurgencies, cults and other groups have used, possessed or expressed an interest in chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear agents or weapons, Negroponte added.

Negroponte also said the slow pace of economic and political change in most Muslim nations continued to fuel global Islamist militant movements. He said the United States was not immune to homegrown militants, adding that prisons were fertile ground for recruitment.

QUESTIONS ON EAVESDROPPING PROGRAM

The Senate committee's annual hearing on worldwide threats gave lawmakers their first chance to grill intelligence leaders publicly about President George W. Bush's domestic eavesdropping program at the National Security Agency.

The program has raised an outcry from Democrats and some Republicans who question whether Bush overstepped his authority. The administration has said it was needed because existing provisions for eavesdropping were not flexible enough.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the committee, accused the White House of being too secretive about the program, involving eavesdropping without a warrant on e-mails and phone calls between people in the United States and suspected militants abroad.

He and committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas were briefed by the administration, but Rockefeller complained the White House was not providing the full committee with enough intelligence.

"A decision has been made by the White House to overly restrict congressional access to key information about the NSA program while, at the same time, it opens the floodgates of its public relations campaign in support of the program," he said.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Drees)

URGENT ACTION
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/002/2006
09 January 2006
UA 08/06 Arbitrary arrest/possible prisoner of conscience/medical
concern

IRAN Mansour Ossanlu (m), Head of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed)
Mansour Ossanlu, the Head of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed) has been detained since 22 December 2005 in Section 209 of Evin Prison in the capital, Tehran. He may be a prisoner of conscience, detained solely on account of his peaceful trade union activities. He is said to be suffering from a serious eye complaint, and could lose his sight if he does not receive immediate medical treatment.
Mansour Ossanlu was among 12 officials from the Union who were reportedly arrested by police at their homes on 22 December 2005, apparently in connection with their peaceful trade union activities. Four of the 12 were released shortly afterwards. On 25 December, members of the Union were arrested while staging a bus strike in Tehran, demanding the release of their colleagues. On 26 December, all those who had been detained were released, with the exception of Mansour Ossanlu and six other members of the Union's Executive Board. These six were released two days later, leaving only Mansour Ossanlu in detention. Mansour Ossanlu has not been granted access to a lawyer, and reports suggest that he may be facing charges including contact with Iranian opposition groups abroad and instigating armed revolt against the authorities.
On 31 December, reports indicated that seven Union members including Mansour Hayat Ghaybi (or Ghaybati); Ebrahim Madadi; Reza Tarazi, Gholamreza Mirza’i; Abbas Najand Kouhi and Ali Zad Hossein had been summoned to