Iran: Government
Guilty Of New Wave Of Repression Says Kurd Leader
Brussels, 17 Sept. (AKI) - A leading Kurdish politician has accused the Iranian
government of conducting a new wave of repression against journalists and other
activists seeking greater human rights.
Hassan Sharafi, the deputy head of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDKI),
said the government reserved 'particular attention' for ethnic Kurds who had
always represented ' a thorn in the side' of the regime.
Iranian Kurdistan has been for months the scene of clashes between Iran's
Revolutionary Guards and guerrillas from the Iranian PJAK, which supports of the
nationalist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The Iranian government is accused of bombing villages and arresting journalists,
union officials and other activists. It recently condemned to death two
journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Hiwa Boutimar and prominent union leader,
Mahmoud Salehi.
"The new repressive wave of arrests against the Kurds that had imprisoned 15
journalists and several human rights activists and the death sentence of two,
Boutimar and Hassanpour, demonstrated the government's fear of a popular
resistance," Sharafi told Adnkronos International (AKI).
"Until a few years ago, there were only Kurds opposing the Islamic Republic and
claiming our rights, now other ethnic minorities are fighting for their rights
from the Azerbaijanis to the Beluchis, and the Arabs and the Turks.
"It is a war, not a military war but it has the objective of bringing down the
Islamic Republic."
The government continues to accuse opponents, from journalists to women who
demand equal rights, of being foreign spies, he said.
"For years the PDKI has been committed to the creation of a broad democratic
alliance but unfortunately many political forces are anchored in old conceptions
of the state and are not disposed to accept modern and efficient federalism," he
told AKI.
Sharafi downplayed the significance of the recent election of Iran's pragmatic
former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to head of the influential assembly of
experts. The body appoints and oversees Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei.
"This cannot herald any change of foreign of domestic policy in a country
governed by religious ideology," he stated.
"Moreover, in all his years in power, Rafsanjani as always backed highly
repressive domestic policies."
"And his foreign policy has always been geared towards increasing tensions with
the international community," Sharafi said.
During the eight years that Rafsanjani was president of Iran (1989-1997),
several attacks were made against opposition figures living abroad. Two PDKI
leaders and members of their staff were killed in attacks in Vienna and Berlin,
Sharafi noted.
He rejected claims by Tehran that Irans' etnic minorities are backed and
orchestrated by foreign powers, notably Britain and the United States.
He also denied that Iranian Kurds want to secede. "At this time I dont see the
possibility of redrawing the border of our region," he told AKI.
"The time-honoured equation of federalism and decentralisation of power with
secessionism is an old pretext," he said.
"Avoiding the breakup of a country is used as an excuse by those who want to
wield centralised power based on the repression and negation of the rights of
ethnic minorities," Sharafi stressed.
