Iran's Crackdown On Democracy

Fire of Liberty

While the news keeps on focusing about the happenings at the UN Security Council on how to stop Iran's quest for nukes few people are noticing that the mullahs have been cracking down on pro-democracy groups and individuals within Tehran. According to this article by Eli Lake in the New York Sun, the mullahs have been gathering up activists throughout Iran who they suspect to have connections with the West or are being taught on how to take on totalitarian regimes. One individual who the mullahs have targeted was Ali Afsahi, a former film critic and journalist, who was arrested in Dubai on February 13, 2006 by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security after he had attended a workshop on Human Rights and another seminar with the International Center for Nonviolent Center(Which had folks who helped overthrow Milosevic in 2000 providing advice on Nonviolent activism in a dictatorial regime).

When a regime starts arresting and beating activists who attend seminars on non-violence or democracy you know that the folks must be gaining some headway with the folks in the street especially after the US has pledged some $75 million to help the true democratic movement within Iran. Other observers have noted that this most recent arrest of an Iranian citizen on the soil of another sovereign nation like the UAE is to present a large blinking neon sign to the pro-democracy movement within Iran that this is what will happen to them if you try to attend any more conferences like these again. Now the regime might think that this tactic will have some staying power in scaring off human rights activists from learning more about promoting democracy but I'm betting on history(The Soviets did the same thing during the Cold War and we saw what happened.) and the people of Iran's desire for freedom will be much stronger in the long run. After reading the following from the article, I'm even more convinced that the folks fighting for freedom will prevail. Take a look:

The president of the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict, Peter Ackerman, said the regime in Tehran was persecuting a man for receiving readily available information. "We are in the business of exchanging information about the nature of nonviolent conflict," he said. "We give no specific advice on what they should do or plan in their specific conflict, and we provide no resources except educational resources to opposition groups. We facilitate workshops based on requests from people suffering under oppression."

Mr. Ackerman helped produce "Bringing Down a Dictator," a documentary that featured the inside story of the Serb opposition, Otpor, and its strategy for organizing protests against Milosevic's efforts to steal the September 2000 presidential election, which led to his removal from power.

Mr. Ackerman, like Otpor, are adherents of the theory of Gene Sharp, the author of a series of books on nonviolent conflict who is generally credited with being the first person to study rigorously the techniques of mass civil disobedience and place them in the context of traditional military strategy. In 2004, Cuban dissidents were arrested in Havana for possessing video tapes of the documentary.

One of the Otpor trainers at last April's workshop in Dubai, Ivan Marovic, described his work as follows: "The content of the workshop consisted of explaining the principles of mobilizing the population in the situation where fear is high and there are tensions in the society, meaning they are facing a political crisis.

"We discussed how to overcome that crisis without destruction of property and loss of human life. These are nonviolent strategies of civic mobilization. This is a standard workshop based on the examples from Otpor, our fight against Slobodan Milosevic."

Mr. Marovic sees some similarities between the plight of Mr. Asfahi and many of his comrades from the Milosevic era. "This whole thing is nothing new. In Serbia we were accused of being terrorists and mercenaries of the west. This just shows the nervousness of the regime in Iran."

Yes, I'd say the mullahs are running for the hills with regards to the pressure that the West is applying on them with regards to the nukes that they're going after the people one thing the can go after which is the Iranian people and groups who are mearley seeking freedom from their masters. In fact, I think the US could find a way to place sanctions on Iran not only for its quest for nukes but also for its gross violations of human rights. It might be too much on the Chinese(Doesn't have a great record with regards to human rights) and the UN to push this but it would be worth a try and might be the best thing to do. Anyway, here's hoping the Iranian democracy activists and the UN Security Council best of luck in taking on the mullahs.