[Mb-civic] FW: 2 articles : Europe's Double Standard - Iran/Zimbabwe

[Golsorkhi]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Samii Shahla <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 13:40:19 -0500
Subject: 2 articles : Europe's Double Standard - Iran/Zimbabwe

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

  Mugabe Prepares for Threat of Uprising by Arming Youth Militia with
Iranian Arms


  March 30, 2005
Belfast Telegraph
Basildon Peta in Johannesburg


  The Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is not taking lightly a
respected cleric's call for a Ukrainian-style uprising to overthrow his
regime. Sources close to Mr Mugabe said yesterday that the President
had taken a last-minute decision to secretly arm thousands of party
youth militias.

He has already readied troops in case the opposition heeds the call
from Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, for a peaceful uprising to
oust him from power if he steals tomorrow's ballot, as widely expected.

Archbishop Ncube is the Roman Catholics' second most senior cleric in
Zimbabwe. His unprecedented call for a peaceful uprising to stop Mr
Mugabe, whom he has branded a brutal crook who relies on ballot theft
to cling to power, has seemingly energised a previously cowed populace.

The sources said that Mr Mugabe had ordered the army to provide the
youth militias with weapons and maintain them in army barracks should
their services be required.

The youth militias were indoctrinated at ruling party training camps
across the country under a national youth service training programme.

Although they had been used previously to commit violent acts on Mr
Mugabe's enemies, he had not integrated them with the army or provided
them with heavy weaponry.

Mr Mugabe has also recalled retired soldiers and taken delivery of a
consignment of arms from China and Iran to ensure the army is
well-equipped.

It is believed that about 40,000 militias had been trained in the youth
camps. Up to 15,000 would have been roped into army barracks by now and
supplied with heavy weaponry. Even if nothing happens after the
election, they will be integrated into the army and police to ensure
their loyalty, military sources said.

The Zimbabwe army and the defence ministry refused to comment.

  link to original article

------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------

Iran va Jahan


Wednesday, March 30, 2005

  Europe's Double Standard: Elections in Zimbabwe and Iran


  March 30, 2005
Iran va Jahan
Shaheen Fatemi


  Recently Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice placed the governments of
Zimbabwe and Iran among the six most repressive regimes in the world.
However, she neglected to mention one major difference between the two.
Zimbabwe, unlike Iran, is poor, has no oil. Therefore the Europeans
dare to stand up to it. As people of Zimbabwe get ready to vote this
difference in European attitudes becomes obvious.

Yesterday, the EU presidency had harsh words for Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe describing the upcoming general election there as a
mockery, in a speech to the European Parliament. Speaking on behalf of
the EU presidency, Luxembourg's junior foreign minister Nicolas Schmit
said the conditions surrounding the March 31 general election in
Zimbabwe were deeply worrying as Mugabe "would tolerate no observation
of this sham election."

  "We're worried and shocked, not only by this pseudo election campaign
but by what's been going on there for years," Schmit said, promising
the election would be debated at the next council of foreign ministers.
Schmit said the election proceedings so far failed to conform to
accepted norms and said the EU would take swift action. Luxembourg
currently holds the revolving European Union presidency.

In connection with tomorrow's elections in Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch
has issued a briefing paper which sets out specific cases of
intimidation and violations of the right to association, expression and
assembly in that country. Exactly the same three main objections which
we raised last week in relation to Iran's forthcoming presidential
elections.

  Human Rights Watch's 35-page paper, ³Not a Level Playing Field:
Zimbabwe¹s 2005 Parliamentary Elections,² documents cases of political
intimidation of opposition parties, their supporters and ordinary
citizens by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front
(ZANU PF) and its political allies. The paper also highlights the
government's use of repressive laws to restrict the activities of
political parties and civil society activists. The paper is based on
research conducted by Human Rights Watch in several regions of Zimbabwe
in December 2004 and February 2005.

  ³The people of Zimbabwe should go to the polls in an atmosphere free
from intimidation,² said Kasambala. ³The government has denied the
opposition, civil society activists and ordinary citizens the right to
freely express their opinions.²

  During the past twenty five years the same Human Rights Watch has
systematically denounced every IRI election as unfair and undemocratic.
However, never have the Europeans expressed any concerns.

In hundreds of reports Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the
United Nations Human Rights Commission and many other international
NGO's have condemned the Iranian regime's outright violations of basic
human rights. During the past presidential elections in Iran, HRW
summarized the plight of the Iranian people:

³ The independent press was a particularly important target as it had
emerged as the major mobilizing force for the reform movement
ŠŠ.Writers and thinkers initiated debates about a broad range of
subjects previously considered taboo in the Islamic Republic, including
the role of the Supreme Leader and the place of the clergy in
government and politics. Independent newspapers and journals carried
exposés of corruption and the involvement of senior religious and
government officials in illegal political violence as well as
discussion about the role of women in society. The Majles also sought
to amend the law to allow greater press freedom, only for this to be
blocked by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i, and the Council
of Guardians, on the grounds that such a change would be "un-Islamic."²

Time has come for the Iranian people to stand up for their legitimate
rights and warn the European governments of the consequences of their
double standards and their total disregard for decency and human
rights.

URL:  
http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2005&m=03&d=30&a=3

------ End of Forwarded Message