NEWS))))))
Iran: Riot in Gohardasht prison
The secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on October 26, 2009 that a group of prisoners took control of Ward 1 of Gohardasht prison in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on Sunday during a riot against appalling prison conditions and the harsh treatments by the authorities. The prisoners clashed with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) disarming two of the guards, Mohsen Khalesi and Marjani, before taking control of the Ward. Other prison guards and torturers fled the premises.Angry prisoners managed to get hold of the keys to solitary cells and releasing all the inmates. The riot continued until 21:00 local time.Subsequently, the prison’s special guards headed by Ali Haj Kazem, the head of Gohardasht prison surrounded the Ward, attacked defenseless prisoners using teargas and finally took back the control of the Ward. There is no news on the conditions of prisoners after their long battle with prison guards. The Ward 1 that houses solitary confinements is known as “dog house” because of harsh conditions and barbaric tortures deployed there. The prisoners are subjected to humiliation, insults and various physical tortures such as hunger and rape and are facing gradual death in the appalling living conditions. Every year a dozen of them commit suicide. The Iranian Resistance calls on all human rights organizations, particularly the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to condemn torture of prisoners and to assign a Special Rapporteur to investigate the deteriorating state of human rights in Iran.
Iranian Workers’ protests against non-payments
According to National Council of Resistance of Iran workers at Ahvaz Pipe Mills Co. held a gathering for the second day running on Wednesday October 21 outside the governorates office to protest against non-payment of their wages and bonuses for the past 10 months. Protestors were chanting, “Living in Iran is our indisputable rights,” “Government of coup d’état, resign, resign,” “Death or justice,” “With God’s help, victory is close, death to the deceitful government” and “We will not surrender to humiliation.” Members of public joined the workers in their protest. On the same day, workers at Mahyaman factory in Mourcheh Khourt Industrial Zone of Esfahan staged a protest against ten months delay in payment of their wages and bonuses. They had gathered outside Esfahan governorates office. Other labour protests in various cities are as follows:- Sacked workers in Govah Company, manufacturing heavy tools and machineries, protested against being unfairly laid off;- More than 200 workers in Khorramshahr bus line company protested against four months delay in payment of their wages and bonuses;- Workers at long distance communications devices’ factory in Shiraz held a protest against delay in payment of their wages for the past eight months and the wages due to them since 2007. Workers in Wagon Pars of Arak and Haft Tapeh sugar cane factory in Khuzestan province have also been protesting against delay of two months in payment of their wages. These are part of the activities of deprived workers in Iran in protest against their state of living and the hardship that their families are going through.The Iranian Resistance calls on all international trade union movements to condemn anti-labour measures in Iran under the clerical rule and support the workers just demands.
UN nuclear inspectors head to Iran to visit site
A team of U.N. inspectors went to Iran on Saturday to visit a recently revealed nuclear site, amid new efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency experts are slated to examine an unfinished uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom to verify it is for peaceful purposes. Disclosure of its existence last month by the National Council of Resistance of Iran raised international suspicion over the extent and aim of the country’s nuclear program.
