On another autumn Saturday afternoon, Mothers of Park Lalehshowed up in their park and in a silent protest circled the Aabnama(fountain) square, amid the shocked and bewildered crowd present in the park. They had returned to their meeting place this time, not in their usual black outfits, rather dressed in an array of colors symbolizing a renewed hope and rekindled exuberance for continuing the fight for their demands. They know with conviction that they must tread the treacherous road to freedom as the dreams they so strongly believe in, lie ahead.
We, the Mothers of Park Laleh, are a [representative] group of mothers and families of those slain or wounded [by and] during the reign of the Islamic Republic regime. It is in seeking justice for them, that we relentlessly make the following demands:
1) Abolish death sentence or executions in any and all forms.
2) Immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners of conscience.
3) Fair and Just prosecution of all the culprits in the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic from its inception. We, the Mothers of Park Laleh consider the following to be punishable crimes: Individual or group executions inside prisons; Ethnic, tribal and religious terrors on streets; Raiding of citizens’ homes, dormitories or place of work; Kidnappings; Imprisoning and assaulting individuals in order to suppress human thinking power; Torturing; Forced confessions; Rape and ultimately Stoning - all of which we consider to be crimes.
And we fight to prevent the reoccurring of such crimes, and to preserve the people’s welfare. It is thus that we theMothers of Park Laleh have gathered here once again to demonstrate our dissent and to show that we are still here and steadfastly pursuing our demands until their complete fulfillment.
After many long months of waiting, the first report by the U.N. special Rapporteur, Mr. Ahmed Shaheed is released, detailing the clear violations of human rights in Iran. Although we are extremely pleased that the report protests the gross abuse of many freedom-seeking citizens’ rights; however it is regrettable that certain discriminations have once again played a role, allowing the report to be published despite all the holes and significant shortcomings.Events of the last two years for instance, that can certainly be counted as the most obvious human rights abuses, such as the mass killing of innocent people and the harassment of their families, were simply omitted from the report.
Mr. Shaheed himself had emphasized on the focus of his work, being that of preparing a fair and precise report of the human rights situation in Iran. Is there any justice in the fact that in the last two years alone, countless people have been killed, injured or rendered ill, several committed suicide, many ended up imprisoned, repeatedly and harshly interrogated and tortured in order to give false confessions, or some cases even raped – yet NO mention of them were made in the report? Is there any justice in the fact that the families of the slain are not even allowed to hold a funeral or memorial for their dead children – and yet making NO mention of this in the report?
Is there any justice in the security forces’ constant harassing, threatening and imprisoning and repeatedly interrogating the supporters of the mourning mothers whose only guilt is to support the humanity and human rights of grieving mothers? Even now, two of them named Leila Seifollahi and Zhila Karamzadeh-Makvandi are sentenced to 4 years in prison, alas they have NO place in Mr. Shaheed’s report!
Mr. Shaheed has also stated that he can only confirm the validity of all the cases of human rights abuses by directly speaking with the officials of Islamic Republic! We must ask him; just how many of the IRI officials have ever confessed to human rights abuses in Iran, in their talks with the U.N. reporters?! We suggest to Mr. Shaheed that the IRI officials can only be allowed to express an opinion about human rights violations, ONLY when ordinary people are given equal space to express ‘their’ take of it and be allowed to freely defend themselves.
Mothers of Park Laleh were holding higher expectations from the special UN envoy to perform his job better than ever, this time, considering the recent developments in Iran and the tidal waves of freedom and democracy sweeping the region.
The mothers were expecting at least a mention of the Murders in 2009 and the plight of the victims’ families for justice, in Mr. Shaheed’s initial report.
These mothers were expecting to see at least a mention of the rampant and relentless violation of human rights over the 33 years of Islamic Republic’s reign and the immeasurable pain and pressure applied to the families of the many who were killed.
We, the Mothers of Park Laleh expect to hear our justice-seeking voices echoed in the future series of reports by the special UN Rapporteur. We especially expect to see the reflection of the widespread cases of human rights abuses inflicted on the families of victims in the last 33 years which had briefly been reported -- and filed away -- by previous special reporters such as Mr. Galindwil.
Oct 24, 2011
Original in Farsi
http://www.mpliran.com/2011/10/blog-post_24.htm