Posted on 04/12/2004 2:51:24 PM PDT by nuconvert
RadioFarda Democracy and Human Rights Roundtable: Accountability
Today's roundtable is devoted to accountability. In his New Year message, the Supreme Leader said the authorities are accountable to the people and to the nation's elite.
•Frankfurt-based leftist activist Mehdi Khanbaba-Tehrani says: The Islamic Republic's organs, such as the judiciary and the supreme administrative court, cannot be trusted with the campaign against corruption. Furthermore, the Supreme Leader, who talks of accountability, does not consider himself accountable to any earthly being. Corruption cannot be prosecuted in societies where no democracy exists.
•New Haven based human rights activist Ramin Ahmadi says: Unlike the US, where a democratically elected president is accountable to the Congress, in Iran the real power is in the hands of the Supreme Leader's appointees. Once in a while, the elected government is called upon to defend the policies which it has had no role in devising. Accountability will only become a possibility in Iran when the country enters a period of transition.
•Berlin-based activist Reza Charandabi says: In democracies, accountability is imbedded in the system. But in a country where nobody is allowed to ask any questions, accountability remains as an empty slogan. (Maryam Ahmadi)
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