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International-UN-NGOs
Report slams Iran rights abuses
2004-06-07

Monday, 7 June, 2004, 10:44 GMT 11:44 UK

By Jim Muir

BBC correspondent in Tehran

The human rights situation in Iran is worse now than at any time since reformist Mohammad Khatami became president in 1997, a report says.
What a stunning development!
The international monitoring group Human Rights Watch accuses Iran’s judiciary of abandoning its duty to administer justice fairly. Instead, it is ordering the torture of detainees, the report says. It says many of the abuses take place in illegal detention centres run by "parallel security bodies".
Yet not a speck of outrage to be seen on the Arab street regarding brutal prison torture by heavy-handed interrogators.

EU criticised

The European Union’s dialogue with Iran on human rights issues has failed to produce any tangible results, Human Rights Watch says, urging the EU to exert more pressure on Tehran. The EU’s dialogue with Iran resumes in Tehran next week.
The EU "has failed to produce any tangible results?" I’m shocked, SHOCKED!, I tell you.
The report highlights the widespread use of indefinite periods of solitary confinement as a method used to break the will of detainees. A recent report by Amnesty International was less scathing about the EU-Iran dialogue, but it too spoke of ongoing flagrant violations of Iranian and international law in the human rights arena. It blamed the deadlock between Iranian reformists and hardliners for holding up progress. But since the victory of the conservatives in controversial general elections in February, there have been signs of progress, at least superficially.
Most definitely. As Iran’s main trading partner major progress has been made in turning a completely blind-f&%king-eye to Iran’s human rights abuses and continuing nuclear threat.
A law banning the use of torture has been approved and the judiciary chief has circulated instructions that proper tune-up procedures must be followed during arrests and detentions. How real these changes are may be tested in the next month or so. The fifth anniversary is coming up of major street disturbances triggered by an attack on a student dormitory in 1999. In recent years that anniversary has become an occasion for expressions of dissent which have been harshly suppressed.
Posted by:Zenster

#2  France is an enemy, no doubt about it.

Even if, by some stretch of the imagination, they are not now, should France sell advanced weapons systems to China, they will become so.

You'd think that France would have purchased a clue when China's proliferation of missile technology placed their country and all of Europe in Iran's nuclear crosshairs. It seems instead that their much beloved escargot will reach such a conclusion more quickly.
Posted by: Zenster   2004-06-07 3:29:04 PM  

#1  IIRC, Frawnce is involved in Iran or trying to be commercially involved, after getting their financial butts kicked in Iraq. After all, they let Khomeni hang around France until the Shah was overthrown. France is an enemy, no doubt about it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-06-07 2:41:47 PM  

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