NEHRI Condemns Crackdown in Iran Uprising, Urges U.S. to Side With Organized Opposition

OVERLAND, Kan., Feb. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Near East Human Rights Initiative (NEHRI) promotes the protection of the fundamental human rights for everyone, especially for the people of the Middle East. NEHRI supports the accountable parties in relevant countries in upholding their responsibilities and in implementing the international treaties and conventions on human rights.

On February 11, marking the anniversary of the overthrow of the Shah's dictatorship in 1979, the Iranian people once again took to the streets in the latest of a string of unprecedented anti-regime protests that have rattled the clerical regime since June 2009. Clashes were reported in various cities despite some of the heaviest security measures adopted by the regime in recent years.

The protests took place in spite of months of preparations by the theocracy to avert the uprising. Amnesty International highlighted "waves of arrests, unfair trials and executions" before the protests (February 9, 2010), and there were also "mounting internet disruptions" and filtering by the regime's authorities (Reuters, February 9).

On the day of the protests, "an array of riot police, undercover security agents and hard-line militiamen -- some on motorcycles -- fanned out across Tehran in what appeared to be the largest and most strategic deployment since the post-election mayhem" (AP, February 11).

None of these measures proved sufficient, however, to dissuade the determined protestors who are calling for the downfall of the entire regime. Among the protestors' chants on February 11 were "death to Khamenei," referring to the regime's Supreme Leader, and "down with the principle of velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule)." In Tehran, a large poster of Khamenei and, Ayatollah Khomeini, were torn down by protestors. In the end, several demonstrators were reportedly injured and dozens were arrested. The regime's President, Ahmadinejad, used the occasion to boast about the regime becoming a "nuclear state."

Such breach of international obligations by the clerical regime on the nuclear front, and the determination of the protestors, who seek a democratic Iran respectful of human rights, significantly heightens the urgency of comprehensive sanctions against the regime and its suppressive machinery as well as reaching out to the organized opposition. To lend moral support to the democratic uprising in Iran, diplomatic and economic ties with the regime must be suspended until suppression and human rights abuses have completely halted.

SOURCE Near East Human Rights Initiative (NEHRI)