By Ivan
Sheehan
On
Tuesday the International community will recognize International Human Rights
Day and reaffirm the fundamental truths enshrined in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
Five
days later, world leaders will gather to mourn the loss and celebrate the life
of former South African president Nelson Mandela at his ancestral home in the
Eastern Cape.
With
the unforgiving spotlight on human rights issues and the moral courage of those
who speak truth to power, it promises to be a difficult week for despots the
world over.
No
more so is this the case than in Tehran where the clerical elite promotes the
modern equivalent of South Africa’s Apartheid era violence and exclusionist
policies.
Since
the interim nuclear accord reached in Geneva last month, the regime’s merry
apologists and paid hands in Washington have been busily spinning tales of
moderation and reform that belies the available evidence.
Consider
the following: The Iranian people are consistently ranked among the least free
in the world in indexes of civil and political liberties. Composite scoring of
corruption data places the country’s public sector in the bottom tier in terms
of transparency. And indexes of economic freedom note that Iran is among the
least economically free countries in the world.
A
leading human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, provides troubling data
to document the regime’s discrimination against ethnic minorities, human rights
abuses, arbitrary and extrajudicial detentions, torture, and executions.
A
thirty-four year history of violence also places the regime’s leaders –
including President Hassan Rouhani – among a select group of modern tyrants and
state sponsors of terrorism.
Is
it any wonder then that U.S. appeasement on the nuclear issue is being viewed
through the prism of the agreement at Munich?
Congress
should use this week’s focusing events to push the White House to reaffirm the
U.S. commitment to freedom and the protection of human rights by highlighting
the apartheid like conditions in Iran and by pushing the administration to
explain why the U.S. should compromise such principles to strike a deal with
Tehran on the “right” to uranium enrichment.
Members
of the House Foreign Relations Committee will get a crack at Secretary of State
John Kerry on Tuesday when he testifies on the administration’s interim plan to
provide Iran with relief from sanctions in return for pledges to scale back on
it’s nuclear activities.
Policymakers
concerned that U.S. officials have fallen victim to the illusion of reform and
strengthened the hand of the ayatollahs through a naïve Faustian bargain can do
what the regime’s propagandists fear most and increase their scrutiny of Iran’s
domestic policies and, in particular, their treatment of the primary Iranian
opposition – the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The
NCRI is a coalition of democratic opposition groups, including the People’s
Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), who have been instrumental in providing
intelligence related to Iran’s nuclear activities. Their revelations are
largely responsible for triggering the last round of International Atomic
Energy Agency inspections and building global momentum for sanctions.
But
today some 3,000 Iranian dissidents with allegiance to the NCRI are under
detention at a refugee camp near Baghdad ironically called Camp Liberty.
Iraqi
security forces, acting as Tehran’s proxies, have been involved in systematic
efforts to break the back of the regime’s most worrisome opposition.
A
September 1 massacre resulted in 52 execution style murders and the taking of
seven hostages, including six women. None have been returned nor have their
whereabouts even been confirmed. Amnesty International reports that the
individuals are being held hostage in Iraq and remain under threat of
extradition to Iran.
The
White House – despite congressional pressure – chose to ignore the matter
during a recent visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, even though the
aggression was a clear violation of the agreement signed by the Iraqi
government and ratified by the U.S. and the United Nations on Aug. 17, 2012.
That the dissidents had signed agreements providing for their protection under
the 4th Geneva Convention also seemed not to matter.
Since
the attack, hundreds of Iranian dissidents have been on hunger strike for more
than three months in an effort to keep the world from forgetting their plight.
Although this tactic is largely unfamiliar to Americans, Mandela, Gandhi and
King used hunger strikes to great effect to build awareness of injustice and promote
social change.
By
honoring those in the Iranian resistance – whose principled opposition,
peaceful protest, and commitment to democratic ideals stands in stark contrast
to the regime’s autocratic rule – U.S. officials will position themselves on the
right side of history.
Speaking
from the White House briefing room shortly after Mandela’s passing, President
Obama remembered his fellow Nobel Peace Prize recipient as a “a man who took
history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.”
Mandela’s
principles – like those of the Iranian opposition – were forged in the crucible
of injustice, exclusion, imprisonment, and exile. Like the Iranian opposition,
he challenged the terror tag used to delegitimize his country’s quest for freedom.
And like the Iranian opposition he rejected overtures that failed to address
non-negotiable issues of injustice, asymmetry, and human rights.
U.S.
policymakers can honor Mandela’s life by acknowledging that his disciples live
on in the Iranian opposition.
This article was first published
townhall
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