Posted on 12/15/2005 4:52:22 AM PST by nuconvert
Iran: Top Ministers Implicated in Serious Abuses
(New York, December 15, 2005) – Iran’s new Minister of Interior is implicated in grave human rights violations over the past two decades, possibly including crimes against humanity in connection with the massacre of thousands of political prisoners, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.
Human Rights Watch also said that the new Minister of Information should be investigated for his possible involvement in a dissident’s killing.
The briefing paper, Ministers of Murder: Iran’s New Security Cabinet, details credible allegations that Minister of Interior Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi and Minister of Information Gholamhussein Mohseni Ezhei were involved in extremely serious and systematic human rights violations over the past two decades.
“It’s completely unacceptable that men with such records would be serving in Iran’s government,” said Joe Stork deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “They should be removed from their posts and investigated for these terrible crimes.”
Iran’s cabinet is now dominated by former security and intelligence officials, Human Rights Watch said, raising fears that President Ahmadinejad’s government will readily resort to violence to suppress dissidents and punish critics.
During Pour-Mohammadi’s tenure as top deputy of the Ministry of Information from 1987 to 1999, agents of the ministry systematically engaged in extrajudicial killings of opposition figures, political activists, and intellectuals.
In 1988, the Iranian government executed thousands of political prisoners held inside Iranian jails. The deliberate and systematic manner in which these extrajudicial executions took place may constitute a crime against humanity under international law, Human Rights Watch said. Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi was a member of the three-person committee that ordered prisoners held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison to their summary executions.
From 1990 to 1999, Pour-Mohammadi was director of foreign intelligence operations in the Ministry of Information. During this period, dozens of opposition figures were assassinated abroad. In some of these cases the hand of the Iranian government has been well established, while in others there are credible allegations of government involvement. Pour-Mohammadi is at the center of strong allegations of direct involvement in orchestrating these assassinations.
In 1998, agents of the Ministry of Information killed five prominent activist intellectuals in Tehran. An Iranian source with first-hand knowledge of the investigation told Human Rights Watch that Pour-Mohammadi was implicated by investigators in those killings and even that an arrest warrant was about to be issued for him. “But instead it was arranged that he leave his post in the Ministry of Information,” this source said.
Gholamhussein Mohseni Ezhei, the new Minister of Information, served as prosecutor general of the Special Court for the Clergy and in this position spearheaded the prosecution of prominent reformist clerics. He has also been a key figure in suppressing press freedoms, resulting in the closure of more than 100 newspapers since 2000. Several journalists and activists have alleged that Mohseni Ezhei ordered the kidnap and killing of Pirouz Davani, a dissident and political activist, in 1998.
Human Rights Watch called on President Ahmadinejad to relieve Pour-Mohammadi and Mohseni Ezhei of their duties immediately and to establish an independent mechanism to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into their alleged crimes.
If President Ahmadinejad fails to remove Pour-Mohammadi and Mohseni Ezhei from his cabinet, the Parliament should call for a vote of no-confidence and initiate its own independent investigation, Human Rights Watch said.
“It’s downright dangerous to have men like this in charge of key ministries,” said Stork. “The international community must make clear that it holds the government of President Ahmadinejad responsible for the safety of Iranian political activists and dissidents.”
Interesting that Human Rights should suggest we remove the man. That would be, how shall we say, interfering with the internal workings of a sovereign state. Don't these people learn from Pres. Bush's mistakes? Clearly, all he's accomplished by so massively interfering in Iraq is the removal of a brutal, gangster regime, the production of a new popular constitution and the first free and open vote in the region, outside of Israel.
Human Rights Watch just never learns, you know?
When you elect a terrorist to run a country you have to expect him to place his terrorist friends in high positions.
Oh, yeah, this is going to make Ahmadinjenad just resign on principle. What risible crap. These human rights campaigners have all the impact of Richard Gere screaming about Tibet after a night with the gerbil.
Dalai Lama, anyone?
Be Seeing You,
Chris
They are perfectly normal, legitamate, rightfully elected govrnment. Just like Saddam was according to these very same moonbats.
What business is it of Human Rights Watch how they run their country? After all, their culture allows that sort of thing. Who are the Human Rights Watch to deny them the practice of their culture? /s
"Oh, yeah, this is going to make Ahmadinjenad just resign on principle. "
Obviously it won't make him resign. But the worldwide publicity of what's going on in Iran is very important if we want to affect regime change there.
Why do WE have to affect change there? Isn't that the UN's job? How about France and Germany go affect change for a once. We are kinda busy at the moment.
Besides,It would be interesting to watch, to take note of how the media will shower them with praise, how they will do no wrong, drop every bomb with precision, have no collateral damage whatsoever, have a planned exit, a shedule to follow so we can all check off things as they are completed on time.
"Why do WE have to affect change there? Isn't that the UN's job? How about France and Germany go affect change for a once."
Well, that would be nice for a change. However, President Bush told Brit Hume in his interview yesterday, that our objective in Iran is to end tyranny. So, though we're doing some things already, as we get a bit less "busy", we'll be turning our attention more to Iran.
They need to criticize real oppressors from time to time in order to rebuild their credibility. Once they have enough credibility in the bank, they'll turn their attention back on us.
We have no choice. It sure as heck won't get done by anyone else. The corrupt and useless UN and the Euro's who rally with them have proved over and over again their inability to acomplish anything, as piles of dead bodies from Ethiopia, Niger, Sudan, Indoneasia etc. are a testament to.
Iran to Stork: "You and what army?"
"They" don't want regime change in Iran.
As they have publically stated (CHirac and Schroeder) that they value "stability" more than anything else.
Let's look at some of the most "stable" countries in the last 20-30 years...Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria...
Our country is very UNstable...as virtually the entirity of the government can be thrown out of office every 2 to 4 years.
I think that's why President Bush right now is trying to go all out to set the record straight on Iraq. He is going to need all the support he can get to go into Iran.
I've always had a suspicion that it may have been the real reason we went into Iraq in the first place, to have a good staging area to go after Iraq's two neighbors, Iran and Syria. Of course removing Saddam was a good reason in and of itself, but I'm sure this also weighed in the decision to go in.
I doubt we're going into Iran.
Maybe if Iraq had of been "easy," yes.
Yup
Exactly. The sooner we stop them the better.
France and Germany? Thats a good one. I wonder how much illicit trade is going on between these three?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.