A story about an uprising you haven't heard of (PDK)!

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A story about an uprising you haven't heard of (PDK)!

Postby IPC » Sat Aug 27, 2005 4:10 pm

A story about an uprising you haven't heard of (PDK)!

Subject: Media blackout: Are Kurdish lives somehow less valuable than Palestinian and Iraqi ones?
Date: 8/25/2005 2:25:27 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
From: pdkicanada@pdki.org
To: IranPoliticsClub@aol.com

People's Democratic Party of Kurdistan Iran

August 25, 2005
MICHAEL PETROU

www.macleans.ca

Here's a story about an uprising in the Middle East you probably haven't heard of. For more than a month, riots and violent protests have swept through the Kurdish areas of northern Iran, resulting in a government crackdown that has killed up to 20 people and injured hundreds more. The unrest began on July 9, when Kurdish activist Shwane Ghaderi was killed by Iranian security forces in Mahabad. He was allegedly shot, dragged through the streets and tortured to death. Demonstrations against Iran's theocratic dictatorship erupted immediately and spread across the region.

At least 10 Kurdish demonstrators were reportedly killed when the government deployed helicopter gunships against protesters who had attacked a military outpost with rocks and sticks and ransacked government offices in the city of Saqqez. Residents of most Kurdish cities in the region called a general strike in a show of solidarity. Shops closed and streets were empty. All this information comes from Iranian exiles and members of dissident groups, who are in contact with Iranian Kurds on the ground and who have passed on their reports, digital photos and lists of the dead. Iran's state news agency acknowledges the turmoil, but says that the unrest is the result of "anarchists" and "hooligans."

I am almost certain that everything I have related here is true. It comes from a variety of reliable sources and from people who have family in the area. But I can't compare these reports to those from traditional Western media outlets for the strange reason that, as near as I can tell, no Western reporter has visited the area.

I partially understand why this is the case.

Iran, like most dictatorships, assigns a government "minder" to shadow foreign correspondents in the country and to control whom the journalist talks to. Most correspondents don't like to mention this in their dispatches. It ruins their allure as rugged and independent truth-seekers.

Journalists who rub a dictatorial government the wrong way may find their visas revoked and their employer's bureau shut down. In the end, it's easiest just to do what you're told. And if you're told not to cover the deadly violence in Kurdistan, well, maybe there's a press conference about Iran's nuclear energy program you can report on instead.

I think this explains in part the media blackout about what's happening in Iranian Kurdistan, but it doesn't explain everything.

The bigger problem is an uglier one. Some causes, and some people, are fashionable to Western journalists and to the public at large, and some are not. Imagine for a moment that 20 unarmed Palestinians had been killed by Israeli soldiers in the last month, with hundreds more injured and scores arrested. Is it even conceivable that this would not be front-page news? Already, photographers working in the Middle East have to work hard to avoid getting other photographers in their photos of stone-throwing Palestinian children. The only photos of the unrest in Iran come from local residents.

And what of the so-called "peace" protesters? Unarmed civilians are being shot down by government troops in helicopters. Where are Bianca Jagger and the rest of the celebrity activists? Where are the marching throngs with their "Free Iran!" and "Free Kurdistan!" banners? Are Kurdish lives somehow less valuable than Palestinian and Iraqi ones? Almost all Kurds are also Muslims. Where is the outrage? Or are the deaths of innocent Muslims only enraging when they are killed by Americans or Israelis?

Recently, an Iranian friend in London emailed me. "If only this Kurdish intifada had half the media coverage as the Palestinian one," he wrote. He's right. What's happening in Iranian Kurdistan is important. Iran's religious dictatorship is resented by many, perhaps most, Iranians. But it is particularly abhorrent to the country's Kurds.

I visited Iranian Kurdistan for a few days last spring, staying with a family in a small village outside Mahabad. I had spent the previous two weeks in Iran's major cities. Pro-government vigilantes had covered walls with spray-painted death threats against women who didn't wear the hijab. Religious police decreed that even small plastic mannequins on display in pharmacy shop windows and revealing the body's internal organs must have their genitals covered. Undercover government agents watched me and took my photograph when I met with student dissidents. And I never knew when my phone might be tapped.

After all this, Kurdistan felt like a breath of fresh air. Kurdish friends invited me to a wedding, where men and beautiful, uncovered women danced hand-in-hand in a riot of music and colour. "We Kurds dance together," one man told me. "It causes some problems with the Islamic people, but I don't care."

That village is now under the heel of thousands of government troops who have been sent into the region to quell unrest, and the man from the wedding has no choice but to care what the Islamic people think. But it is still possible that the long-simmering anger that is erupting in Iranian Kurdistan will boil over elsewhere in the country as well. If this happens, the consequences will be monumental. Pity no one wants to talk about it now.

See also:
KURDISH GRIEVANCES REMAIN A THORNY ISSUE RFERL
http://www.pdk-iran.org/english/article ... 0ISSUE.htm

Unrest in Iran's Kurdish Region Has Left 17 Dead; Hundreds Have Been Wounded NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/inter ... 0&emc=eta1

VISIT:

WWW.PDK-IRAN.ORG
OR
WWW.PDKI.ORG
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Postby IPC » Fri Sep 23, 2005 10:40 am

Subject: Please publish
Date: 9/10/2005 10:28:58 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
From: pdki@pdki.org
To: IranPoliticsClub@aol.com

Secretary-general, Mustafa Hijri's letter to the United Nations Secretary-general
Koy Sanjaq – Kurdistan September 8, 2005

His Excellency

Mr. Koffi Annan

Secretary General of United Nations

1775 K. Street NW, Suite 400

Washington, DC 20006

United States of America

Your Excellency, Mr. Koffi Annan, Secretary General of United Nations

Mr. Mahmood Ahmadi-Nejad, the newly nominated President of the Islamic Republic of Iran is set to participate and deliver a speech on behalf of the people of Iran in the United Nations annual General Assembly meeting on 15 September 2005.

All Iranian people, journalists and particularly foreign press monitors that had the opportunity to observe this fallow play that was called the eight presidential election of Iran on 24 June 2005 are well aware that:

The widespread ballot rigging for Ahmadi-Nejad led his to main rivals, Karroubi and Rafsanjani in the first and second round to criticize the heavily manipulative process.

The confirmed numbers of votes were much higher than the actual number of ballots cast.

According to the accounts of number of domestic press monitoring the elections, those appointed by the interior ministry to monitor the polling stations were beaten and harassed by the thugs of the bureau of supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

In Kurdistan region, the participation level for the most part was under 20 percent of the eligible voters. The majority of those votes cast were by regimes army, security forces and other repressive forces that have been brought to the Kurdish areas and are not Kurdish.
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Postby IPC » Mon Oct 24, 2005 10:50 am

Joint Statement on Kurdistan

Subject: KURDISTAN
Date:10/22/2005 8:14:16 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
From:pdki.org
To: IranPoliticsClub

Joint Statement

The atomic standoff of the Islamic Republic of Iran is against the interests of Iranian people. At last, following endless wrangling, on September 24, 2005, the board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved a European proposed resolution that paved the way for the Islamic Republic of Iran's referral to the UN Security Council. The resolution, among 35 members only faced Venezuela's objection, and was approved by 22 votes for and 12 votes abstained. None of the countries who hold the veto right within the Security Council objected the resolution; therefore, with the adoption of this resolution the policy of sanctions is on the brink of execution on the illogical rulers of the regime, if implemented, first and foremost, would endanger the national interest of the people of Iran.

Referring Iran's atomic dossier to the United Nations Security Council emanates from the fact that this agency is in charge of safeguarding world peace and security, and Iran, with its suspicious and concealed atomic activities endangers world security. To prevent Iran from acquiring the bomb, for the first time, the IAEA chief has been given paramount authority for inspecting regime's individuals, centres, documents and military compounds. Iran has also been urged to accept and implement the permanent suspension of all activities related to Uranium enrichment.

Iranian rulers' determination of Uranium enrichment for fuel cycle under the pretext of "defending national interest" is in sharp contrast with the interest of Iranian people. The national interest of Iranian people is, above all, threatened by the regime's international predicament and internal oppression of the people. This government is iilegal and illigitimate, and it has relied on vast economic monopoly to stay in power. The national interest of Iranian people has been threatened by the newly installed-president Ahmadinejad's statements, his foreign minister, Manucher Motaki, and his nuclear man, Larijani. They spoke so immaturely and irresponsibly that they even changed the position of the staunch opponents of the Iran nuclear referral case. When state-owned paper Keyhan states so brainlessly that "Sending Iran nuclear dossier to Security Council will not harm our country, rather, it will be a remarkable achievement" what need there is for "foreign conspiracy".

The responsibility of the current nuclear crisis rests on the Islamic republic of Iran. The primary victims of this confrontational policy are the people of Iran. This crisis was born with this government incompatible with the civilized world, and it will drag on till the day this government is in power. The temporary solution to end the crises is International and domestic pressure on Iran to terminate its nuclear program and immediate Uranium enrichment. The regime has proved in its decades of reign on power that aside from the language force it is not faithful to any other principle. A rapid International and national movement are urgent to force the Islamic republic of Iran to accept these recognized principles.

We are in favour of a world without weapons of mass destruction. The Middle East is one of those regions that the fundamental rulers have turned it into a warehouse for nuclear arms. Without the disarmament of these countries from these lethal weapons a global peace is far away.

The Union of People's Fedaian Of Iran
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
The organization of Iranian people Fadaian (Majority)
Revolutionary Tailors Organization of Iranian Kurdistan, Komala
http://www.pdk-iran.org/komite/html/the ... andoff.htm

PDKI Canada
visit us at
www.pdki.org

The Canadian chapter of Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
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