Free Political Prisoners in Iran

As the world watches in awe, grief and anger, our homeland Iran--birthplace to the earliest known human rights charter, is going through one of the darkest periods of its history. Two weeks ago, three decades of oppression and violation of basic human rights in Iran manifested itself in peaceful protest against outright fraud aimed at stealing the election.

The world has been watching in shock and dismay the brutal beating and shooting of people all over the country, particularly in the capital Tehran. Iranians are either beaten to death on the streets or are abducted from hospitals when injured and taken directly to torture chambers and often brutally murdered for having taken positions against the predicament they were being forced to accept.

We can easily understand that there should be healthy relations among all nations and governments, representing those nations. We are equally aware of the fact that governments should not be allowed to violate the universally accepted contracts between governments on one side and nations on the other. Recent events in Iran, however, demonstrate that what was going to be, and had to be, democratic elections, suddenly turned into first a circus in which there was no hope for lucidity on the part of the government; and secondly, when the competing party raised objections against violations committed by the government, the spiritual leader and the current president joined forces together against the competing party and its followers, the consequence of which was that the government took up arms against its own people whose safety it was committed to safeguard in the interest of the entire nation.

What the state could not understand was that attacking people on the streets, and opening fire aimed on them could not be concealed from the eyes of the super-modern technology that could report everything with instruments smaller than a lighter or a matchbox to anyone’s pocket computer or on global media. The bloody goof, this recent specimen of oriental despotism, combined with outright mockery of a lukewarm pretension of Western democracy, created the worst crisis that the Islamic Republic of Iran experienced since the Iran-Iraqi war in the eighties of the last century.

We know very well that if the world closes its eyes to this recent atrocity, the people of Iran will be doomed to suffer many more years of the same, and we believe that under no circumstances we should let this opportunity slip by through our fingers, resulting from any lethargy on our part.

We are quite confident that under the circumstances, you would know better than anyone else what positions on behalf of Canadians of all races, religions, colours and convictions would be most suitable to take. Whatever position is adopted by the government, we know that it will be on the basis of a constitution that guarantees everyone the right to get involved in all the affairs of the society in which he/she lives. This is guaranteed by our constitution, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other covenants of the United Nations.

We appeal to you in the name of these time-honoured principles of human dignity to take whatever action is necessary to bring pressure on the Iranian government to stop the bloodshed, to release all political prisoners, particularly all those arrested during the recent events, to stop harassing those who voted against the wish and will of the present president, supported by the supreme clerical leader of Iran, and last but not least to demand on behalf of the freedom-loving people of Canada to renew the elections under the supervision of the United Nations.

We also request that your honour kindly send our appeal to you to all the other democratic leaders of the world, so that genuine democratic pressure will be promoted to a universal level in a peaceful manner, because we want nothing but human dignity, equal and democratic rights and privileges for all Iranians, as well as other nations of the world.

With the best of wishes,