By Daren Butler

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A three-year-old child killed by a stray bullet raised to seven on Friday the death toll from days of clashes between riot police and Kurdish protesters in Turkey's troubled southeast, Turkish media said.

In a separate incident highlighting the tensions ravaging the impoverished, mainly Kurdish region, security forces said they had killed seven guerrillas of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), two of them women, in rural Sirnak province.

The European Union, which Turkey aims to join, expressed concern about the violence and urged Ankara to do more to combat poverty in the southeast and to boost Kurds' cultural rights.

In Diyarbakir, the main city of the southeast which this week has seen its worst civil unrest in decades, lines of riot police in full body armor and helmets held automatic rifles as small groups of protesters chanted slogans.

Earlier, dozens of youths burned tires and threw stones at security forces for a fourth consecutive day, though violence was subdued compared to the running battles of previous days.

"It has calmed down for now but the situation could explode again at any moment," said Mehmet, 26. Like most local people, he preferred not to give a surname.

Shopkeeper Ahmet, 35, said: "The state has provoked this... People have grabbed their weapons again because nothing has been done to bring peace to the region."

Turkey's southeast suffers high unemployment and many Kurds want political autonomy and more cultural freedoms. They feel the Turkish state is hostile to them and express sympathy for the PKK, branded by Ankara, the EU and Washington as a terrorist group.

The clashes first erupted on Tuesday after funeral ceremonies for 14 PKK members killed by troops last weekend.

Separately, an explosion killed one person and injured five others near a bus station in an historic area of Istanbul on Friday. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Turkish NTV television said Fatih Tekin, 3, died while playing on Friday in the town of Batman to the east of Diyarbakir. It said he was killed after police fired into the air to disperse protesters, but gave no details.

Officials confirmed a child had died of gunshot wounds, but police had no immediate comment on the circumstances cited by

NTV.

Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir said two other people had died in clashes in his city, but he gave no details.

Most shops and offices reopened for the first time in days.

CHILDREN AMONG DEAD

A man and a child were shot dead on Wednesday and a second man was crushed under a police armored car in Diyarbakir. A second child, aged 8, died overnight in a Diyarbakir hospital and was buried swiftly to avoid triggering further riots.

Shopkeepers in Diyarbakir, a city of nearly a million people, said they had been closed previously because of threats.

They did not say who made the threats but Turkish officials say the PKK is behind the riots and wants to foster a climate of fear and chaos.

"For three days, we could not open. Those who did closed again after receiving threats. But today we opened. Nobody has threatened us ... We hope there will be no more threats," said one tradesman, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The EU expressed concern about the situation.

"We are aware of the serious terrorist problem in the region but it is a much wider problem than just a security issue," EU Commission spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said.

"The region needs peace, economic development and real exercise of cultural rights for Kurds," Nagy added.

Ankara has lifted restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture in EU-linked reforms over the past few years, but critics say it needs to do much more.

Turkish government ministers praised the security forces' handling of the riots, saying they had acted with restraint. They accused the PKK and its supporters of deliberately using children in the protests in order to win sympathy.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said during a visit to Diyarbakir the violence -- which has also targeted banks and shopping centers -- would deter badly needed investment.

NTV television said police had arrested 79 people in the clashes so far after detaining more than 200.

Ankara sees the PKK as a terrorist group wholly responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. But many Kurds view the PKK sympathetically.

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Brussels)

kurdishinfo.com

ELIH(DIHA) -After random shots of police who had raided to houses, 3 old year Fatih Tekin named kid had losed his live in Batman.

3 year old Fatih Tekin named kid had lost his live after the fire of security forces who had raided in houses. 3 year old Fatih Tekin who was wounded by his cheek while he was in the roof of his house by random fire opened by security forces, could not be saved in the Batman State Hospital which he was rushed to. Upon incidence many soldier was dispatched to Batman's Yavuz Selim and Bayindirlik Parishes. Intervention of soldiers to houses continues.

North kurdistan

Read on: www.kurdishinfo.com

At least 70 people were reported killed when a powerful earthquake struck Lorestan Province, western Iran, on Friday, wiping out villages and sending panicked residents fleeing from their homes. Over 1,200 people were also reported to have been wounded.
According to official reports the quake was rated at 6.0 on the Richter scale which struck at 04:47 am (01:17 GMT).
Mohammad Reza Mohseni Sani, mullahs' governor of Lorestan Province, told the state television that some 330 villages suffered damages between 40 to 100 percent.
Poorly built houses using mud is the main reason for high number of casualties in Iran when quake strikes and in view of frequent tremors in the country the regime has no plan to improve the state of housing in accordance with standards for quake zones.
People in the area are expressing their dissatisfaction with the rescue operations and the hospitals are filled with wounded with no adequate medicine to help them. The number of casualties are expected to rise.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey,(Reuters) - Six people have been killed so far in days of clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in Diyarbakir, the main town of Turkey's troubled southeast, its mayor said on Friday.
An eight-year-old child died overnight in hospital. A man and a child were shot dead on Wednesday and a second man was crushed under a police armoured car. It was not immediately clear when or how the other two people died.
"Six people have died, 200 people are wounded," Mayor Osman Baydemir told a news conference amid the worst social unrest in the impoverished region in decades.
Daily running battles between thousands of stone-throwing youths and riot police armed with teargas and guns have turned Diyarbakir, a city of nearly one million people on the river Tigris, into a battle zone.
The clashes first erupted on Tuesday after funeral ceremonies for 14 members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed by troops last weekend.
Many shops, banks and other buildings have been badly damaged. Cars and trucks have been torched.
Turkish television said many shops and offices had reopened on Friday, but witnesses reported renewed clashes between protesters and police in at least one district of the city.
CNN Turk television said on its Web site that small protests had also erupted overnight in a district of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city. Istanbul is far from the southeast but is home to a large Kurdish population.
Political analysts say they reflect local anger over high unemployment, poverty and Ankara's refusal to grant more autonomy to the mainly Kurdish region.
The state Anatolian news agency said police had arrested 48 people so far after detaining more than 200.
Police spokesman Ismail Caliskan told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara that the PKK was behind the violence.
"But our security forces have prevented the incidents from becoming bigger by behaving sensibly. Nothing can be gained by violence. The rioters' actions will also prevent democratisation in the region," Caliskan said.
Ankara regards the PKK as a terrorist group responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. But many Kurds view the PKK sympathetically.
Mayor Baydemir, viewed with suspicion in Ankara as a Kurdish separatist, said the government should try to understand the causes of the Kurdish protesters' anger.
"(Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan) should come and share the pain of our families... Our city has never witnessed such prolonged social anger," Baydemir said.
State prosecutors have begun an investigation of comments by Baydemir they believe may have helped incite the rioters.
Erdogan has appealed for calm and denied opposition claims that the government has lost control of the situation.
"Our people should feel at peace, they will be safe. Security forces will do what is necessary," he said on Thursday evening after returning to Ankara from a foreign trip.

KurdishMedia.com

London (KurdishMedia.com) 30 March 2006: The Iranian leadership is under pressure from the international community and a possible change or reform in the political leadership and system is likely in the future. Kurds can be extremely influential in the changes in Iran.

Read on: http://kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=11818

kurdishinfo.com

AMED (29.03.2006)- In Amed, in which demonstrations are continuening, on Sakarya Street in Baglar district, a child, named as Abdullah Duran, who was 12 years old, was killed.

According to the knowledges; 12 years old boy, named as Abdullah Duran, was killed by a bullet on Sakarya Street.

The funeral of Duran is still being waited in the morgue of State Hospital. Uncle of Duran, Mehmet Salih Gezer defined that, his nephew was shot by the bullet, which was used to the demonstrators, said that the funeral don't given to them.

The attemps of Duran family are continuening for taking the funeral.

For this last death, the killing of persons by bullet in Amed, increased to two.

It was learned that, 22 years old young boy, named as Tarik Atakaya, who was killed in Baglar district in Amed, was an apprentice in a furniture shop and had got no relations with the incidents.

It was learned that the funeral of Atakaya, who was killed by Private Teams, with bullets, is still being waited in the morgue of State Hospital.

By SELCAN HACAOGLU
Associated Press Writer
news.yahoo.com
ANKARA, Turkey - Riot police fired water cannons and used pepper spray to disperse stone-throwing Kurdish rioters Wednesday in a second day of violence that an official said left at least three people dead and 250 injured in southeastern Turkey.

Gov. Efkan Ala said 2,500 to 3,000 rioters, including many children, participated in the two days of clashes in Diyarbakir after funerals for Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops last week.

The guerrillas were among 14 killed by soldiers in the province of Mus in a two-day fight that ended Saturday. They belonged to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Ala said three Kurds were killed and 250 people were injured, including 130 security forces, and several government offices, private businesses and banks were damaged in the melees — among the worst in decades.

The Turkish army moved combat vehicles to the outskirts of the city, the largest in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, after clashes broke out Tuesday when thousands of protesters rampaged, hurling firebombs at armored police vehicles and smashing windows at a police station.

About 200 rioters took to the streets again on Wednesday, blocking streets with burning tires and hurling stones at riot police. They also smashed the windows of the local businesses and set a truck on fire before they were dispersed by security forces firing into the air and using a water cannon and tear gas.

Paramilitary troops stationed outside the governor's office also quickly repelled a group of stone-throwing protesters.

"Three protesters have unfortunately died," the Diyarbakir governor said. "One of them died in a traffic accident while trying to escape."

Ala did not say how the two other rioters had died, pending autopsy reports, but he added that security forces had detained 200 people.

Turkey's regional governors are state-appointed and are in charge of local security.

Authorities were still assessing damage in the city as municipality workers cleaned the wreckage of burned cars and broken glass littering the streets from the previous night.

"The aim of the perpetrators and rioters of this incidents is to destroy the unity of our country and the environment of safety," Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said.

"Our security forces will find and hand over the perpetrators, collaborators, provocateurs and their affiliates to justice and they will be given the punishment they deserved," he added.

Authorities boosted security in Diyarbakir. A long convoy of armored personnel carriers rumbled toward a major military base on the outskirts of the city as authorities called in police reinforcements from nearby cities.

Further west in Adana, some 3,000 Kurdish protesters attending the funeral of another slain guerrilla also clashed with police on Tuesday, prompting the officers to detain several people.

Tensions have been running high in the southeast, where autonomy-seeking Kurdish guerrillas have escalated attacks recently.

The fight for autonomy has killed more than 37,000 people. The Kurdistan Workers Party is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Turkey is under pressure from the European Union, which it wants to join, to grant more rights to its sizable Kurdish population that it does recognize as an official minority. But Ankara has ruled out any dialogue with the Kurdish guerrillas whom it regards as terrorists.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan urged Denmark to shut down a Danish-based Kurdish satellite television station, Roj TV, which reportedly encouraged Kurdish rioters during Tuesday's clashes in Diyarbakir.

Turkey accuses Roj TV of being a mouthpiece for the PKK. Danish authorities say they are still investigating, while Roj TV insists it has no links to the rebels.

At least 35 people, including 11 police officers, were injured when Kurdish demonstrators clashed with police in the city of Diyarbakir. The clashes started at funeral ceremonies for 14 Kurdistan Workers Party members, killed in an army operation last weekend. Mourners went on a rampage, damaging 70 offices and businesses and burning down a bank. Police and protesters also clashed during a funeral ceremony in the city of Adana.

breakingnews.iol.ie

The UN Security Council has given Iran 30 days to clear up suspicions that it wants to become a nuclear power and key members are already discussing further action if Tehran refuses to suspend uranium enrichment and allow more extensive inspections.

After three weeks of intense negotiations, the 15-member council finally agreed on a statement yesterday designed to put Iran on notice that even its closest allies – Russia and China – want answers about its nuclear programme, and quickly.

While the council hopes Iran will comply with demands from the board of the UN nuclear watchdog, foreign ministers from the five permanent council nations - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – and Germany are meeting in Berlin today to discuss next steps if Tehran refuses.

France’s UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said what the council would do in a month “will depend on Iran, and also the strategy we will discuss – and we will be ready”.

US Ambassador John Bolton said President George Bush’s administration would like Iran to follow Libya and give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“The ball is back in Iran’s court and we’ll be here in 30 days to see what they say,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bolton said, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be exploring with her colleagues at today’s meeting in Berlin how to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons.

“The president has been unequivocal that it’s unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons, and there are a whole range of steps we can take,” Bolton said, without elaborating. “I’m sure that’s what they’ll be discussing, in part, in Berlin.”

Iran’s UN Ambassador Javad Zarif said his government would respond to the Security Council statement, but he warned that “Iran is a country that is allergic to pressure and to threats and intimidation”.

“Iran is committed to non-proliferation and Iran does not want to produce nuclear weapons,” he said, but “Iran insists on its right to have access to nuclear technology for explicitly peaceful purposes. We will not abandon that claim to our legitimate right.”

France, Britain and Germany have been leading negotiations with Iran, but talks collapsed in August after Tehran rejected a package of economic and political incentives offered in return for a permanent end to uranium enrichment, which it had voluntarily suspended in 2004 under a deal with the Europeans.

Its subsequent moves to develop full-blown enrichment capabilities led the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board to send the Iran file to the Security Council.

The presidential statement approved by the council was described by all council members as a first step to pressure Iran to resolve “outstanding questions” – first and foremost by suspending uranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, and reprocessing. It also calls for Iran to ratify the IAEA’s additional protocol, which allows unannounced inspections.

The Europeans initially proposed a much stronger statement but accepted a milder one to get the support of Russia and China, who oppose sanctions and want the IAEA to remain in the lead on Iran. At their insistence, the Europeans dropped a statement that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction “constitutes a threat to international peace and security” – language that already appears in virtually all UN sanctions resolutions.

Bolton was asked what more the council could do if IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei reports that Iran hasn’t complied, given the difficulty in reaching agreement on the presidential statement.

“I’m confident that secretary Rice will be very persuasive and I’m hoping they’ll make a lot of progress,” he said. “She’s determined to do it.”

France’s de La Sabliere, asked whether the presidential statement was a first building block toward sanctions or military action, replied: “We are not talking about military action.”

“We the Europeans want a gradual, incremental and reversible approach,” he said. “This is the first step of the gradual approach. Again, it is reversible. If Iran does not comply, there will be a second step.”

But whether Russia and China would agree to tough action remains to be seen.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Andrey Denisov said Moscow has very strong suspicions about Iran’s nuclear programme – but no evidence – and wants Iran to comply with the IAEA demands.

“What we have done today, that is initial step – initial but very important, very strong and very clear,” he said.

Denisov said the council must move slowly.

“It is like a ladder. If you want to climb up, you must step on the first step, and then the second, and try not to leap,” he said. “That is the case.”

Denisov said one of the most important outcomes of the long and difficult negotiations on the statement was the council’s unity – and “I am convinced that the Security Council … will be able to do it next time as well.”

The Associated Press
Lara Suktian

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- On his last visit to Iran, Canadian-based blogger Hossein Derakhshan was detained and interrogated, then forced to sign a letter of apology for his blog writings before being allowed to leave the country.

Compared to others, Derakhshan is lucky.

Dozens of Iranian bloggers have faced harassment by the government, been arrested for voicing opposing views, and fled the country in fear of prosecution over the past two years. (Blog: http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/03/censorship_thre.html| Related item: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-06-12-iran-election-internet_x.htm

In the conservative Islamic Republic, where the government has vast control over newspapers and the airwaves, weblogs are one of the last bastions of free expression, where people can speak openly about everything from sex to the nuclear controversy.

But increasingly, they are coming under threat of censorship.

The Iranian blogging community, known as Weblogistan, is relatively new. It sprang to life in 2001 after hard-liners — fighting back against a reformist president — shut down more than 100 newspapers and magazines and detained writers. At the time, Derakhshan posted instructions on the Internet in Farsi on how to set up a weblog.

Since then, the community has grown dramatically. Although exact figures are not known, experts estimate there are between 70,000 and 100,000 active weblogs in Iran. The vast majority are in Farsi but a few are in English.

Overall, the percentage of Iranians now blogging is "gigantic," said Curt Hopkins, director of an online group called the Committee to Protect Bloggers, who lives in Seattle.

"They are a talking people, very intellectual, social, and have a lot to say. And they are up against a small group (in the government) that are trying to shut everyone up," said Hopkins.

To bolster its campaign, the Iranian government has one of the most extensive and sophisticated operations to censor and filter Internet content of any country in the world — second only to China, Hopkins said.

It also is one of a growing number of Mideast countries that rely on U.S. commercial software to do the filtering, according to a 2004 study by a group called the OpenNet Initiative. The software that Iran uses blocks both internationally hosted sites in English and local sites in Farsi, the study found.

The filtering process is backed by laws that force individuals who subscribe to Internet service providers to sign a promise not to access non-Islamic sites. The same laws also force the providers to install filtering mechanisms.

The filtering "is systematically getting worse," said Derakhshan, who was detained and questioned during a visit to Iran last spring, just before the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But is the government threatened because the tens of thousands of Iranian blogs are all throwing insults at it, or calling for revolution? Not quite.

The debates on Iranian weblogs are rarely political. The most common issues are cultural, social and sexual. Blogs also are a good place to chat in a society where young men and women cannot openly date. There are blogs that discuss women's issues, and ones that deal with art and photography.

But in Iran, activists say all debates are equally perceived as a threat by the authorities. Bloggers living in Iran understand that better than anyone else.

"I am very careful. Every blogger in Iran who writes in his/her name must be careful. I know the red lines and I never go beyond them," said Parastoo Dokouhaki, 25, who runs one of Iran's most popular blogs. "And these days, the red lines are getting tighter."

Dokouhaki doesn't directly write about politics. She sticks mostly to social issues, but in Iran, that is also a taboo subject.

"I write about the social consequences of government decisions and they don't like it, because they can't control it," said Dokouhaki.

Outright political bloggers have an even tougher time.

Hanif Mazroui was arrested in 1994 and charged with acting against the Islamic system through his writings. He was jailed for 66 days and then acquitted.

"It's normal for authorities to summon and threaten bloggers," said Mazroui. The government continued to harass him and three months ago, he was summoned once again by the authorities and told never to write about the nuclear issue. Soon after his release, he shut down his weblog.

"They kept pressuring me," he said.

Arash Sigarchi, an Iranian journalist and blogger, was arrested and charged with insulting the country's leader, collaborating with the enemy, writing propaganda against the Islamic state and encouraging people to jeopardize national security.

He had been in jail for 60 days when he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He appealed, and was released on bail. Although his sentence has been reduced to three years, he still faces charges of insulting the leader and writing propaganda.

Another, Mojtaba Saminejad, has been in prison since February 2005. He was first arrested in November 2004 for speaking out against the arrest of three colleagues. According to the Committee to Protect Bloggers, Saminejad's website was hacked into by people linked to the Iranian Hezbollah movement.

After his release, he launched his blog at a new address, which led to his second arrest in February 2005. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and then given an extra 10 months for inciting "immorality."

Despite the crackdown, most Iranian bloggers say the government is not interested in eliminating blogging. Instead, they believe authorities want to use blogging to further their own goals.

Farid Pouya, a Belgian-based Iranian blogger, notes the government has just launched a competition for the best four blogs. The subjects: the Islamic revolution and the Quran.

"The government has observed carefully and learned that blogs are important ... and they want to capitalize on that," she said. "They want to lead the movement, they want to control it."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2006-03-28-iranian-bloggers_x.htm

March 28, 2006
Amnesty International
Urgent Action

The stay of execution granted to Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh on 12 October 2004 has been rescinded by the Supreme Court. Her execution is reportedly scheduled to take place on or before 1 April 2006.

Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband. She alleged that her husband was a drug addict who had tried to rape her daughter from a previous marriage, who was 15 years old at the time. Apparently he had previously told her that he had lost the girl in a gambling match. Amnesty International does not know when she was arrested, but she may have been tried in 2002.

The Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, had stayed Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh's execution after reading a letter written to him by her daughter, entitled "Don’t render my hopes hopeless", in which she appealed for clemency for her mother. Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh was then held in Evin prison in the capital, Tehran, whilst her case was sent to the second Division of the Supreme Court for review. According to a report in the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri on 15 March 2006, the Court has confirmed the death sentence against Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh and has reportedly approved the execution. Her lawyer was reported to be intending to ask the Head of the Judiciary to use his powers to issue another stay of execution.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party. Article 6 of the ICCPR states: In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes.

In 2005, Amnesty International recorded at least 94 executions in Iran, although the true figure may be considerably higher.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, French or your own language:

- stating that Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but strongly opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violation of the right to life;

- expressing concern that the stay of execution granted to Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh has been rescinded after almost 18 months;

- urging that the death sentence imposed on Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh be commuted immediately;

- urging the authorities to ensure that the victim’s family is made aware of its right, under Islamic law, to pardon the condemned;

- reminding the Iranian authorities of their commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

APPEALS TO:

Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei,
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 251 7 774 2228 (mark "FAO the Office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei") (please keep trying)
Email: info@leader.ir
istiftaa@wilayah.org
Salutation: Your Excellency

Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: irjpr@iranjudiciary.org (mark "Please forward to His Excellency Ayatollah Shahroudi") This email address can be unreliable. If it does not work, please send your appeal via the judiciary website: www.iranjudiciary.org/feedback_en.html
Salutation: Your Excellency

COPIES TO:
President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 6 649 5880
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
(Or via website) http://www.president.ir/email

and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 1 April 2006.

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130312006

AFP- Two Swedish nationals have been jailed in Iran, the Swedish foreign ministry said Wednesday amid newspaper reports that the pair were arrested for illegally photographing naval facilities.

The Swedish embassy in Iran was "working intensively" to secure their release, ministry spokeswoman Petra Hansson told AFP.

She would neither disclose when the two Swedes were detained nor what they were doing in the country.

But Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported that the men, aged between 30 and 40 and from western Sweden, are construction workers who have been held for a month.

Iranian authorities have accused them of illegally photographing naval installations on the island of Qeshm off southern Iran.

Sweden's charge d'affaires in Tehran, Soeren Lundvall, told Aftonbladet that he had spoken to the men, who are being held in a prison in Bandar-e Abbas, and that they were being treated well.

"They didn't realize the severity of the photo ban," Lundvall said, adding that such offences carry tough sentences in Iran.

He said the Iranian authorities' investigation would continue throughout the year, possibly longer, and that the men would remain in jail for the duration.

Iran Focus

London, Mar. 29 – An Iranian opposition activist is in danger of imminent execution, Iran Focus has learnt.

Valiollah Feyz-Mahdavi, a 28-year-old member of Iran’s main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), has been officially informed that his execution sentence will be carried out on May 6, according to his relatives in Iran.

Feyz-Mahdavi was notified of his impending execution on March 24.

He was arrested in 2001 for membership in the PMOI and has endured torture in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, west of Tehran.

His execution would be the second such known political execution in the past two months. Another PMOI member, Hojjat Zamani, who had been a political prisoner in Iran since 2001, was hanged in Gohardasht Prison on February 7. Zamani, 31 at the time he was hanged, had undergone severe physical and psychological torture to break his morale and compel him to express remorse and surrender.

Feyz-Mahdavi and Zamani along with another Mojahedin political prisoner, Jaafar Aghdami, 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 political prisoners.

In February, the human rights group Amnesty International announced that it had “grave concern” about the “alarming rate” of executions in Iran, in particular highlighting the cases of a number of political prisoners, several of whom are on death row.

“Hojjat Zamani’s execution has fuelled fears that other political prisoners may be at risk of imminent execution”, Amnesty said.

The rights group said that there had been reports circulating since the start of February that “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 programme”.

“These are said to have included other members of the PMOI”, it said, adding, “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 were Saeed Masouri, 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; Gholamhossein Kalbi and Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi, both PMOI members; and Alireza Karami Khairabadi, Amnesty said.

Iran Focus– Three agents of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed in a gun-battle in the north-west town of Salmas, the state-run news agency ISNA reported on Wednesday.

The IRGC agents were from the towns of Khoy, Maku, and Marand, the report said.

Salmas, close to the Turkish border, is situated in the province of West Azerbaijan.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 28 – Iran’s Defence Minister said that Tehran was planning to make use of new “smart weapons” to upgrade the armed forces within the next 12 months, the government-run news agency Fars reported on Monday.

Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar told military commanders in the southern province of Kohkiloueh-va-Bouyerahmad that the Islamic Republic’s armed forces would give a “decisive” and “destructive” blow to any possible aggression by “enemy” forces.

“As we have declared many times before, the response by the armed forces to any aggression to the country will be decisive and destructive so that the enemy regrets his actions”, the general said.

General Mohammad-Najjar was accompanying hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a cabinet trip to the province.

“With the very good progress that we have had in creating electronic technology, we have laid the groundwork to obtain technology to turn our ammunition into smart weapons to pinpoint and attack enemy targets with precision”, the Iranian Defence Minister said.

BEIJING, March 28, 2006 (AFP) - China said Tuesday an upcoming six-nation meeting in Berlin on the Iranian nuclear issue was "an important part" of efforts to solve the stand-off.

"The six-nation meeting is an important part of the efforts of the international community to properly resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiation," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular briefing.

"China will be open to any suggestion that is helpful to the proper solution of the Iranian issue through negotiation."

The Berlin meeting on Thursday will bring together Germany and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, including China.

Qin reiterated China's position that there was still room for solving the issue within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"We should properly resolve this issue through negotiation. Now there is still room to resolve this issue within the IAEA framework. The international community should not quit their efforts," he said.

There is growing impatience in Washington with the lack of a firm response by the international community to Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for strictly peaceful purposes.

The Security Council has been trying in vain for the past two weeks to reach agreement on a Franco-British statement, backed by Washington, that calls on Iran to honour its international nuclear commitments.

Russia and China have opposed language in the proposed statement that would even hint at punitive measures against their ally and key trading partner.

rsf.org

Austrian national of Kurdish origin, Kamal Sayid Qadir, who was arrested five months ago for posting “defamatory” articles about the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

At an earlier hearing he had been handed down a sentence, since cancelled, of 30 years imprisonment on exactly the same charge.

Reporters Without Borders said the conviction was contrary to international standards in freedom of expression cases. “Any prison sentence for an offence of opinion is unacceptable, even in cases of insult or defamation,” the press freedom organisation said.

“We are particularly wary of the operation of the Iraqi Kurdish justice system which started by condemning this jurist to 30 years in jail, then divided his sentence by 20, while the charges remained the same. We hope the appeal court will overturn this decision and set him free”.

His conviction was under Article 111 paragraph 433 of the 1969 criminal code, which laid down prison sentences of up to five years for defamation. The fact that the jurist belongs to a family of “24 martyrs” of Saddam Hussein’s regime was taken into account by the judge as extenuating circumstances.

His lawyer, Govend Baban, told Reporters Without Borders that the article in the criminal code could only be applied in the case of a complaint by an individual and not to a case brought by a public ministry, as was the case. He added that the court in Erbil was not competent to try the case, because the offending articles were published in Austria. His client has anyway appealed against the verdict, which he called “unfair” and “political”.

Kamal Sayid Qadir has been held since 26 October 2005 in Erbil prison in the autonomous region of Kurdistan in the north of Iraq. He was sentenced, on 19 December 2005, for "defamation of public institutions", a ruling that was subsequently quashed. In a statement posted on kurdishmedia.com, the jurist acknowledged making comments that were “inappropriate" towards some people referred to in his articles.
www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16862

182 executed, 63 newspapers shutdown and 7,000 arrested on political charges in one year

NCRI - According to a report by the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), during the Persian calendar year of 1384 (March 20, 2005 – March 20, 2006), Iranian cities were the scenes of over 4,100 protests, strikes, and clashes between the people and the suppressive forces. These protests involved different sectors of society from white collar workers to teachers and students to political prisoners.

At least 1,380 protests were staged by workers and 737 protests by students, academics, and university professors.

The continuation and spread of protests came while 182 prisoners were executed and 123 execution sentences were handed down. Last year, 63 newspapers were shutdown, eight amputations were carried out, and hundreds of thousands arrested, 7000 of whom were detained for political reasons.

In 1384, political prisoners and members of the Iranian Resistance staged hunger strikes for a total of nine weeks.

During this period, the regimes’ henchmen attacked the houses of Tehran's transit workers and arrested their wives and children in order to crush their strike. In Qom, the regime staged crackdown on Dervishes’ mosques and gathering centers, destroying their buildings and arresting a number of them.

The protests included hunger strikes by political prisoners, uprisings in Mahabad, Gheshm, Piranshahr, and demonstrations during the Festival of Fire celebration at the year's end, strikes, sit-ins, road closures by workers, commemoration of the International Women’s Day in Laleh Park in Tehran, protest by young women outside the gates of sports stadiums, and protests following football games.

In many uprisings, people took to the streets and engaged the State Security Forces (SSF) and the Paramilitary Bassij forces, Intelligence Ministry and Plainclothes agents. Many banks, government offices, security operation centers and Intelligence Ministry offices were attacked and destroyed by the people.

The dramatic rise and continuation of protests, uprising and demonstrations clearly reflect the anger and hatred of the Iranian people towards the ruling medieval theocracy. It also reflects the Iranian people's resolve to overthrow this inhuman regime in its entirety and bring about democratic change in Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

kurdishinfo.com

HABER MERKEZI (DIHA) -HPG General Quarters had declared names of 14 guerilla who had lost their lives in the clash taking place in the scope of operation arranged by Turkish Armed Forces(TSK). HPG which announced that guerillas were killed by chemical weapon said that the assault will not go unanswered.

According to news of Firat News Agency, HPG general Quarters had made an announcement about operation which 14 guerilla had lost their lives. According to announcement of HPG, in the operation which 10 thousand soldier and rural guard participated, was initiated in the region of Mus Guneyi which is between the Mus center, Kulp, Genc and Solhan. 10