Monday, May 19, 2014

NEWS))))))



On Thursday, May 15, Mrs Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, was heard by the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Canadian Parliament. The hearing was presided over by Scott Reid, head of Subcommittee on International Human Rights from the Conservative Party, and was attended by MPs from the other three main parties. The hearing coincided with ‘Iran Accountability Week’.
In the session, Mrs Rajavi commended the firm positions of Canadian government and parliament against the Iranian regime and also their attention to the Iranian regime’s four threats, namely: nuclear, terrorism, provocations, and particularly the regime’s systematic violation of human rights, and also to the humanitarian crisis of Iranian asylum-seekers at Camp Liberty in Iraq. She said: “Despite the regime’s claim for moderation, the highest number of executions was carried out in the past year compared to the recent quarter-century. Political prisoners in Evin prison were brutally attacked last month, and the mullahs intensified their attacks on Ashraf and Liberty. Under such conditions, Canada’s support for human rights, freedom and resistance in Iran is more effective than ever.”
Rajavi asked the Canadian MPs to urge their government to raise the dossier of the violation of the rights of Iranian regime’s dissidents residing at Camp Liberty in Iraq at the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly.
Mrs Rajavi described the situation at Camp Liberty as the other side of the coin of repression, suppression and political crisis in Iran, and said: “The Iranian regime, engulfed in political, economic and international crises, considers the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, which is the main force for change in Iran, as a serious threat to its rule. It therefore spares no opportunity to attack this organization, and hence the Liberty residents are the main target of the regime’s savageries.”
 
Mrs Rajavi also called on the Canadian government to actively engage in the resettlement issue by admitting more refugees in
Camp Liberty in Iraq, providing for their needs and covering the expenses of Liberty residents’ resettlement, and assisting countries in admitting more refugees.
On Iran Accountability Week Mr. John Barid, Minister of foreign affairs in his speech in Washington said: Canada’s foreign policy no longer tracks a middle road. He added: "The days are gone when Canada's foreign policy was defined simply by taking the middle path, by testing the temperature of those around the table, and landing somewhere not too hot, not too cold". "Relativism isn't leadership — it's the easy way out."
Mr. James Bezan Conservative MP said in his statement on May 13 that: As Canada’s
Parliament continues to draw attention to Iran’s human rights’ record during Iran Accountability Week, thousands of Iranians languish in the Islamic Republic’s prison system.
In the notorious Evin prison, more than 3000 prisoners sit on death row. Their mistreatment and the inhumane conditions have been documented time and time again. Conditions recently became worse for many of the political prisoners following a raid of the prison.
I call upon the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to facilitate an independent international probe into the recent barbaric raid of Evin Prison on April 17th, 2014,”. “All prisoners need to be returned from solitary confinement and need to immediately receive medical treatment by physicians in hospitals which are acceptable to the prisoners and their families.” Bezan added:
 “I denounce Iran’s barbaric judicial system, their continued disregard for due process, and human rights violations against its people,” stated MP Bezan. “There is no greater threat to international peace and security than the Iranian regime.  We must not forget the daily atrocities going on inside Iran, and continue to draw attention to them on the world stage. The Iranian people deserve the dignity, respect and freedom that they have been denied for far too long.”
Political prisoners in ward 350 of Evin issue statement
Political prisoners detained in ward 350 of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison issued a statement exposing Rouhani regime’s attempts to cover up their crimes in this ward.
Nobakht, spokesman of Rouhani’s cabinet, said a month after the deadly April 17th raid into ward 350 in Evin Prison that the mullahs’ ministries of Justice and Intelligence are assigned to prepare a report in this regard and present it to the government.
Currently, considering the positions of Rouhani’s Justice Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, a member of the ‘Death Commission’ in charge of the 1988 summer massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners in Iran – said on Sunday, April 20th the clashes were between the prisoners themselves and only two people were injured in this incident… It is quite obvious now that the result of this report will be nothing but cloaking and covering up the crimes and acquitting the repressive criminals of the religious fascist mullahs, just as they covered up the cases of murders and the regime’s previous crimes years before.
This is while the injured political prisoners from the very beginning of the establishment of this commission demanded a fact-finding mission with the presence of UN and ICRC "International Red Cross" representatives, and/or other international organizations, and they requested their rights be respected and the criminals who beat them be punished. Furthermore, the resistance and perseverance of the political prisoners during their hunger strike in solitary confinement forced the regime’s authorities to back down and be humiliated, and this resistance taught the world how to stand against this inhumane mullahs’ regime.
 

Social-labour protests in six Iranian cities reported

-A group of people rallied outside the regime’s home department protesting the illegal selling of their property in Karaj.
 -A number of Tehran storeowners selling herbal medicines went on strike on Monday, May 12th, protesting the increasing prices of herbal medicine. These stores in Tehran’s Imam Hossein Square and also the Pol Choobi Avenue were all closed for business.
-Taxi drivers in Znajan rallied on Monday, May 12th, by staging a gathering with their vehicles outside the taxi drivers department and protesting high fuel prices.
-The people of the cities of Bijar and Divandare in Kurdistan Province protested shortages of drinking water and the possibility of rationing water in this province. This rally was held on Wednesday, May 14th, outside the cities’ water and sewage department.
-Workers of the Zagros Steel Company in Gharveh in Kurdistan Province rallied at 8 am on the morning of Wednesday, May 14th, protesting the closure of the factory. This gathering was held outside the regime’s labor department in this city. The closing of the Zagros Steel Company takes place while these workers have not received their wages for four months.
-Workers of stonecutting factories in Borujerd went on strike on May 10th and 11th protesting the regime’s anti-labour laws that has deprived this factory of its production capabilities.