Posted on 04/01/2005 2:03:14 PM PST by F14 Pilot
Zahra Kazemi did not die in "an accident" at Tehran's notorious Evin prison, whatever Iran's discredited courts may claim. She was savagely beaten, tortured and raped, according to a physician who treated her as she lay dying from a brain injury.
Kazemi, an Iranian-born Canadian photojournalist, was arrested June 23, 2003, outside Evin prison while taking pictures at a pro-democracy rally. Three days later she was carried unconscious on a stretcher into Baghiatollah military hospital, reports Maj. Shahram Azam, a physician in the Iranian security forces who treated her. She never recovered.
What Dr. Azam saw at the hospital that night shocked him and will outrage Canadians, including the 250,000 of Iranian origin in this country.
Kazemi's skull was badly bruised and her nose was crushed. Her eardrum was ruptured. Fingers were broken. Fingernails and toenails were ripped out. Her ribs were bruised, possibly broken. She had been flogged. A nurse reported Kazemi had been violently raped. "I could see this was torture," Azam said yesterday in Ottawa, after arriving this week with his family seeking asylum. And he said the torture went on for some time.
Azam's horrific account of Kazemi's last hours makes a mockery of the Iranian court's claim that her death resulted from "a drop in blood pressure resulting from a hunger strike" and a fall to the ground.
While Canadians have just learned of Azam's findings, Prime Minister Paul Martin's government has known for months. Why wasn't the information made public? And why did Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew suggest lamely yesterday that "Canadians want answers"?
What Canadians want is action.
That action should start today with Martin recalling our ambassador to Iran and demanding Tehran immediately reopen the probe into Kazemi's death, with full Canadian and international participation. He should push for a statement by the United Nations endorsing that approach.
Martin should also insist Iran surrender Kazemi's remains to her family for burial here. That would allow the family to seek an autopsy to verify Azam's account. If Tehran balks, Martin should expel Iran's ambassador, bar officials from visiting here, and downgrade ties with the regime.
He should then petition the International Criminal Court to hold Ayatollah Ali Khameini and Iran's rulers to account. Article 8 of the Rome Statute that created the court gives it jurisdiction over crimes "committed as part of a plan or policy" that violate the Geneva Conventions, including "wilful killing" and "torture or inhumane treatment." Kazemi was subjected to both under a policy to crush dissidence. We have a case.
Martin has already rightly labelled Iran an "emerging threat" because of its attempts to develop technology that can be used to make nuclear weapons, and because of its support for terror. He should push other countries to adopt the same view. Finally, Canada must sponsor more embarrassing U.N. resolutions censuring Iran for rights abuses.
Martin must be relentless in this. That's because until justice is delivered for Zahra Kazemi, the whole world must know that Iran is run by a brutal regime that lies and turns a blind eye to torture and murder.
Lets see how LIBERALS react to death of one of their own citizens...
I don't expect much from the Canadian gov't.
Wait a sec . . . someone is advocating that Canada act . . . unilaterally?
Best Regards
Sergio
I wonder how many freepers know that the swine who had the panties placed on his head in Abu Ghraib was a known torturer whose modus operandi was to pour gasoline down captives throat, shoot them in the belly, and watch them explode? Another, a member of the pile on, was a torturer who would tie-off a man's penis, force water down his throat until the bladder exploded and the man died of internal poisening.
A rather poor substitute for a real military.
Oooooo, all that canadian soft-power on display. I can see how the mullahs would be terrified that the Canadaian government just might open....an investigation!
You betcha.
Bump!
wow for a liberal newspaper the Toronto Star is dead on except Martin should have done all that when Iranian officials admitted to beating her to death in their custody in the first place, duh, and her son was begging for her remains then
but then that would require guts, action, things foreign to Liberals
LOL
At the risk of sounding like a Yankee fascist "cowboy", aint it great to live in a country where you don't have to "want action" against state terrorist thugs who kill your countrymen?
Well, I believe Canada does business with Iran, so I don't see them giving that up and pull their ambassador out of Iran. (at least not for any length of time)
I doubt seriously that they'll do what this writer suggests. Though they certainly should.
As for "Why wasn't the information made public?"....I believe it was to protect the Dr. and his family, so I don't fault Canada for that.
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