German activists are raising an outcry over what they characterize as a growing "offensive of promoting German-Iran relations" on the part of German politicians and businesspeople that they believe is undercutting hard-won gains in the cooperative EU and U.S. effort to isolate Iran's government via sanctions.
Members of Stop the Bomb, a coalition of German intellectuals dedicated to preventing Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, protested a November 22 meeting of the Iran Business Forum, a business networking group that hosted numerous Iranian officials at a Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. Iranian Ambassador to Germany Ali Reza Sheikh Attar, a close confidant of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, reportedly gave the event's opening speech, according to the event program.
"It is very important to demonstrate that these kinds of events cannot take place without protests, and to blame the hosts and organizers of these events for what they are doing: giving the Iranian regime a platform in Germany," said Ulrike Becker, a founding member of Stop the Bomb. "Germany has... so far made good business in Iran, but this policy [has] strengthened the Iranian regime and made their nuclear program possible."
Especially galling to protesters of the Hamburg gathering was The Iran Business Forum's invitation of Alireza Beyghi, governor of Eastern Azerbaijan. Beyghi, who according to the event program was a featured speaker, oversees the province where Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, is threatened with death for alleged adultery, and where her son, who spoke out on her behalf, has reportedly been tortured by Iran's government. (Ashtiani's plight has been widely publicized in an international media campaign that shined a spotlight on Tehran's human rights abuses. While the date set for her execution has passed, she remains alive. Activists believe the publicity campaign thus far may have saved Ashtiani's life).
Ashtiani's son's lawyer, and two German journalists who traveled to Iran to report on the story for the German tabloid Bild am Sonntag, are presently also imprisoned by the Iranian regime.
For Germany to host the perpetrators of these abuses, including the detention of two German citizens, is unacceptable, say activists.
"It is particularly shocking that German businessmen are schmoozing with the one who is responsible for the death threats to Sakineh Ashtiani and for the imprisonment of her son, his lawyer, and the two journalists," said Becker.
Joining Stop the Bomb in protest was United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), a nonprofit that advocates preventing Iran from attaining nuclear capability. UANI's director, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (under George Bush Sr.) Mark D. Wallace, sent a blistering letter to the head of the Marriott hotel chain, J.W. Marriott Jr., threatening to organize a worldwide boycott of Marriott hotels due to Courtyard Marriott Hamburg's hosting of the meeting.
The letter argues that hosting Iran's leaders undermines international cooperation designed to isolate the regime via sanctions, and international efforts to counter human rights abuse.
"Ambassador Attar represents a criminal regime that flouts international law in developing an illegal nuclear weapon, brutally represses its own people and is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," reads an excerpt from the letter, circulated by members of Stop the Bomb.
UANI's Board of Advisors includes Irwin Cotler, Canadian member of Parliament and former attorney general and minister of justice of Canada; former CIA head James Woolsey, and Fouad Ajami, middle east commentator, professor, and former director of middle east studies at Johns Hopkins University.
German activists are not alone in objecting to Germany's hosting of Iranian leaders at a business forum.
Andrew Apostolou, a Senior Program Manager at Freedom House, a Washington D.C.-based organization that advocates for democracy, political freedom, and human rights, commented, "Conferences promoting business with Iran serve to whitewash the Iranian regime's human rights abuses. Germany should be following the U.S. lead and imposing human rights sanctions, not providing a platform to regime speakers."
In addition to the meeting, Becker and other German activists oppose recent visits by German politicians to Iran, which Becker says have taken place under a cloud of secrecy. Last month, for instance, five lawmakers traveled to Iran reportedly to promote "cultural exchange" and negotiate the release of the two journalists. After the German politicians returned, Iran charged the reporters with espionage. In recent days, however, Tehran has reversed that charge and signaled that in its view the journalists are not spies. Instead, a regime representative said the journalists broke Iranian law, claiming that they came to Iran on tourist visas and worked as journalists.
Stop the Bomb activists disagree with what they characterize as German politicians' secret travels to Iran and tendency, while there, to downplay Iran's human rights abuses (there has been, they assert, a virtual blackout in German media of German lawmakers' recent travels to Iran). Stop the Bomb would like to see an international campaign to free the German journalists akin to the one to free Sakineh Ashtiani, which they believe may be working to save her life.
The identities of the German journalists have not been released by any major media source.
Earlier this month Elke Hoff, a member of the German Bundestag, traveled to Iran. Becker and other activists say her visit has been used by the Iranian regime as a public relations tool to camouflage Iran's problematic human rights record, and create what activists consider to be a false moral equivalency between the regime's extreme and systematic human rights abuse and other countries' imperfections. However, Becker added, "It is possible [Elke Hoff] made her trip... in connection with the imprisonment of the two journalists."
Elke Hoff's office did not respond to requests for comment via phone and e-mail.
Today Iran's foreign ministry hinted the journalists could be released by Christmas.
While Stop the Bomb activists say they understand the need for sensitivity concerning extremely recent visits on the part of German politicians, they remain concerned that the trend of German politicians' visiting Iran and allegedly downplaying Tehran's human rights abuses while there, as well as German businesspeople's participation in cooperative events with Iran's regime, not be used by Tehran to undermine the isolating effect of sanctions.
"Right now the Iranian regime has taken the offensive and tries to blackmail the German government with the imprisoned journalists," said Stop the Bomb spokesman Jonathan Weckerle. "This is also a result of the ongoing events promoting trade with Iran and of the uncritical journeys to Iran by German members of Parliament, by which the German side undermines the sanctions and signals weakness and indetermination."
Advocates like Mina Ahadi of the International Committee Against Stoning, who has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of this woman's release, were so eager to believe she had been let go that they viewed the emergence of the tape as evidence of her release. This premature reaction speaks to the sincerity of the human rights community in its enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, the tape was only propaganda. Accounts of the regime's handling of its captives, such as independent journalist Roxana Saberi's "Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran" have documented the regime's coercive tactics. One is to parade detainees on tape, indicting themselves or others as "spies" or as whatever the regime has accused them of being. Ashtiani has been paraded on Iranian TV twice this year, and this "documentary" would appear to be the latest regime ploy.
Two German journalists also remain in captivity in Iran.
Ashtiani's son, a 22-year-old bus driver who has spoken up for his mother's innocence in a country where doing so can carry the risk or incarceration or worse, remains jailed as well, and has by some accounts been tortured.
Another lie.
In my piece, I mentioned that German activists have been considering spearheading an international campaign to free the journalists akin to the one to free Ashtiani.
If the parties in Ashtiani's case, as well as the journalists, are indeed released, it will be intriguing to try and unpack which approach worked: confrontational public shaming of the regime or behind-the scenes diplomacy. My hunch is it will have been the combination.
It is good to know others share my enthusiasm for weighing in on the great and rapidly unfolding issues of our day, lest I be doomed to irrelevance:) Thanks for the comments!
"Israel fell into a trap here. Its enemies, masquerading as "peace activists" (and in so doing, desecrating the term) contrived a no-win scenario for the Israelis: either allow a ship carrying weapons to breach a blockade necessary to Israel's security, or stand up to this manipulative and threatening farce, risking a confrontation."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-robinson/war-and-peace-gaza-style_b_599219.html
"Mission Statement
CASMII is an independent campaign organisation with the purpose of opposing sanctions, foreign state interference and military intervention in Iran.
Statement of Purpose
The on-going demonization of Iran as part of the "axis of evil" first initiated by George W. Bush’s 2002 State of the Union Speech, together with the more recent, growing threats of sanctions and military action by the US and Israel against Iran, all continue to seriously escalate international tension.
They are likely to lead to a catastrophe even more horrifying than the present disaster in Iraq, threatening international peace and security. The future of Iran, and its political system and leadership, must be determined solely by the collective will of the Iranian people themselves and not through foreign state interference or intervention.
Increasing international tensions and conflict are destructive to the causes of peace, justice and democracy. We appeal to people of all faiths as well as to people with a secular outlook and those of all political and ideological persuasions, to join us in building an effective international campaign for peace and dialogue, and against sanctions, foreign state interference, destabilization and military intervention in Iran."
http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/10828
Iran is completely compliant with the NPT and continues to be the most monitored program. Everyone can check iaea.org for the latest reports themselves. Iran has a legal right to civilian enrichment, it is the third pillar of the NPT -- please remind these intellectuals who run the organizations above.
140+ million Iranians worldwide stand in unison on the nuclear issue. There is no daylight between us in this facet. Do not hijack our freedom movement for your extralegal sanctions. They are directly hurting our people and these so called "activists" are not humanitarians.