Here's an op-ed from Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Winner,
on the prospect of the US attacking Iran. Then, the one-year anniversary of
the US success in Haiti, by Ira Kurzban, counsel for Jean-Bertran Aristide
But first, many of you may remember LA�s Peace Press, which printed for �the
movement� from 1967-1987. Founded by anti-war activists from SDS, the Vietnam
Day Committee and the Resistance in order to print materials against the Viet
Nam War, the Press evolved into a business that produced high-quality
commercial work while continuing to print for virtually every progressive cause
taken up in LA. More than 300 organizations --including the United Farm
Workers, Pentagon Papers Defense Committee, Black Panther Party, Free Angela
Davis Committee, Alliance for Survival, American Indian Movement, Earth Day,
the Free Venice Collective, and various groups advocating solidarity with
Central America-- had their posters printed at the Press.
An exhibition of more than 100 posters and other material printed by and
about the Peace Press will be on display from March 12-May 5 at the Art Gallery
at Los Angeles Valley College, on Campus Drive in Van Nuys, California.
Everyone is invited to an OPENING RECEPTION on Saturday, March 12, 1-5 PM. At
3pm there will be a Panel Discussion on Using Graphics to Agitate, Educate, &
Organize. Participants include: Kathe Kollwitz, Guerrilla Girl; Favianna
Rodriguez, activist artist; Bob Zaugh, co-founder Peace Press; and moderator
Carol Wells, Center for the Study of Political Graphics. For more information,
visit www.politicalgraphics.org .
If any of you had printing done at Peace Press and have not received a reunion
invitation from Irene Wolt or Bob Zaugh, please contact Bob immediately at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] And please pass this one on. Many will appreciate it.
Ed
Published on Saturday, February 19, 2005 by the lndependent (UK)
Attacking Iran Would Bring Disaster, Not Freedom
by Shirin Ebadi
It is hard not to see America's focus on human rights in Iran as a cloak
for its larger strategic interests.
Condoleezza Rice has given assurances that a military attack by the
United States on Iran "is simply not on the agenda at this point".
But notwithstanding Rice's disavowal, recent statements by the Bush
administration, starting with President Bush's State of the Union address and
Vice President Dick Cheney's comments about a possible Israeli military attack
on Iran, are reminiscent of the rhetoric in the months leading up to the
invasion of Iraq in 2003.
And Rice herself made clear that "the Iranian regime's human rights
behavior and its behavior toward its own population is something to be loathed."
American policy toward the Middle East, and Iran in particular, is often
couched in the language of promoting human rights. No one would deny the
importance of that goal. But for human rights defenders in Iran, the
possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter
disaster for their cause.
The situation for human rights in Iran is far from ideal. Security forces
harass, imprison and even torture human rights defenders and civil society
activists. The authorities attack journalists and writers for expressing their
opinions and regularly shut down newspapers. Political prisoners languish in
jails. Superfluous judicial summonses are routinely used to intimidate critics,
and arbitrary detentions are common.
But Iranian society has refused to be coerced into silence. The human
rights discourse is alive and well at the grassroots level; civil society
activists consider it to be the most potent framework for achieving sustainable
democratic reforms and political pluralism. Indeed, readers might be surprised
to know how vigorous Iran's human rights organizations are. Last autumn, when
security forces unlawfully detained more than 20 young journalists and bloggers
because of what they had written, independent Iranian organizations like the
Center for Defense of Human Rights, the Association of Journalists for Freedom
of Press, and the Students Association for Human Rights campaigned for their
release.
This outcry, in tandem with support from the international community and
organizations such as Human Rights Watch, led to the release of detainees. In
fact, so great was the criticism that some of Iran's most senior government
officials came out in favor of releasing the detainees.
Independent organizations are essential for fostering the culture of
human rights in Iran. But the threat of foreign military intervention will
provide a powerful excuse for authoritarian elements to uproot these groups and
put an end to their growth.
Human rights violators will use this opportunity to silence their critics
by labeling them as the enemy's fifth column. In 1980, after Saddam Hussein
invaded Iran and inflamed nationalist passions, Iranian authorities used such
arguments to suppress dissidents.
American hypocrisy doesn't help, either. Given the long-standing
willingness of the American government to overlook abuses of human rights,
particularly women's rights, by close allies in the Middle East such as Saudi
Arabia, it is hard not to see the Bush administration's focus on human rights
violations in Iran as a cloak for its larger strategic interests.
Respect for human rights in any country must spring forth through the
will of the people and as part of a genuine democratic process. Such respect
can never be imposed by foreign military might and coercion - an approach that
abounds in contradictions.
Not only would a foreign invasion of Iran vitiate popular support for
human rights activism, but by destroying civilian lives, institutions and
infrastructure, war would also usher in chaos and instability. Respect for
human rights is likely to be among the first casualties.
Instead, the most effective way to promote human rights in Iran is to
provide moral support and international recognition to independent human rights
defenders, and to insist that Iran adhere to the international human rights
laws and conventions that it has signed.
Getting the Iranian government to abide by these international standards
is the human rights movement's highest goal; foreign military intervention in
Iran is the surest way to harm us and keep that goal out of reach.
Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is the founder of
the Center for Defense of Human Rights in Tehran.
***
Haiti: A Bleak and Dismal Country One Year Later
By Ira Kurzban
The Miami Herald
Tuesday 01 March 2005
One year after the coup d'etat against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, the nation's first democratically elected president, the situation is
dismal.
The Caribbean Community of nations (CARICOM) just last week expressed deep
concern over ''the deteriorating human-rights situation in Haiti,'' including
''serious abuses at the hands of the police'' and ``the indefinite detention of
Lavalas (Aristide's party) leaders and activists.''
Former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Minister of the Interior
Jocelerme Privert, held for almost one year without any charges, are now on a
hunger strike.
Even journalists broadcasting for U.S. news services are no longer safe
from the U.S.-installed government of Gerard Latortue. Abdias Jean, a
correspondent for a Miami radio station, was summarily executed last month by
Haitian police because he had witnessed the execution of a 17-year-old girl.
The situation has become so grave for journalists in Haiti that the
Inter-American Press Association convened an Emergency Forum on Press Freedom
in Haiti two weeks ago.
At the same time, Haitians supportive of Aristide are being slaughtered in
the neighborhoods. The Latortue government and Minister of Justice Bernard
Gousse celebrated the anniversary of the coup by condoning the execution of
more than 25 Aristide supporters in various poor areas of Port-au-Prince this
weekend. The police, who are now largely made up of former military and death
squad members, conduct ''operations'' in Aristide strongholds that constitute
little more than summary executions.
Just yesterday, Haitian police fired on peaceful protesters marking the
one-year anniversary of Aristide's ouster. Early reports said at least two
protesters were killed and about a dozen wounded.
Meanwhile, U.N. troops provide the firepower to support the political
cleansing operation. The former members of the Haitian army still remain in
control of the vast majority of the country and their actions, including the
rape of 11- and 14-year-old girls last week, go unreported by the mainstream
press and unchallenged by the U.N. troops allegedly providing security.
Aristide's forced departure and kidnapping by the Bush administration is
one of the saddest moments in our unfortunate history with Haiti. That Aristide
was kidnapped cannot be seriously challenged, despite reports to the contrary.
The person who translated his letter of resignation for the U.S. government has
stated that the version that the Bush administration presented to the United
Nations and Organization of American States as proof of Aristide's voluntary
departure was flawed and inaccurate.
The Haitian president never resigned, according to the accurately
translated letter. Rather, U.S. troops allegedly sent to guard the U.S. Embassy
in the days leading up to the coup were actually special forces used to remove
Aristide and his wife, a U.S. citizen. He was taken out of his own country on a
CIA-sponsored aircraft with a phony tail registration, and he and his wife were
kept incommunicado for 20 hours. Even the declaration presented to the
government of Antigua when the aircraft stopped to refuel was a phony
declaration that declared there were no passengers on board.
A recent report in The Herald suggesting that Neptune's actions support the
view that Aristide left voluntarily is deeply flawed. Aristide's alleged
conversation asking Neptune to leave with him never took place. In fact,
Neptune, like many people during the days after the coup believes that he was
duped and has asked for an investigation into Aristide's ``departure.''
The sad fact is that Haiti is another example of the Bush administration's
complete incompetence and unwillingness to support democratic principles. While
President Bush seeks democracy in Iraq, he was apparently willing to end it in
Haiti because he wanted to complete the first coup that his father and Dick
Cheney, as the secretary of defense at the time, began against Aristide in
1991.
Ira Kurzban is counsel for Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the former attorney
for the government of Haiti.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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