"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
~ Joseph Stalin.
~ Joseph Stalin.
There is a statement from PJAK on the recent Iranian elections at KurdishMedia, but the English version is not available at PJAK's website. However, here's a piece:
A none-democratic [sic] and threatening response entailing the acts of violence would not produce a positive and auspicious result for the regime or for its leadership. The mass’s protests have been escalated in scope and degree and there is no doubt it will continue in the future. The public protests have been triggered in different cities of Kurdistan and in the following days we will witness the mass movement.
Once again we declare that the Kurdish nation would not accept none-democratic [sic] or degrading treatments. The Iranian regime must stop these approaches in both Kurdistan and Iran. As a democratic party, we declare that the Kurdish nation and all other Iranian nations have the rights to participate in these civil disobedience and peaceful protests. These rights have been laid out within the framework of the international laws and charter and not a single person or an oligarchic group can deny them.
Meanwhile, the KNCNA had called for a Kurdish boycott of the Iranian elections. Note the following:
Aside from the issue of selected nominees, no party in Iran, “reformists” or “non-reformists,” have ever addressed the dire life and death concerns of the Kurdish people in Iran. The provinces where Kurds reside in Iran have been under “emergency rule” for the past 30 years, which means a martial law and the presence of heavy military personnel. The fiscal allocations to these regions have always been severely under prioritized; in such a way that currently some of the most poverty stricken areas of Iran are places where Kurds reside. Unimaginable poverty, unemployment, homelessness, illiteracy, health-care issues, environmental concerns, including lack of clean and available water, under-developed infrastructure, security concerns, trafficking of drugs and many other concerns plague the region, and yet none of the selected candidates, “reformists” or “non-reformists,” have made attempts at addressing these issues.
Kurds make up the highest number of political prisoners of conscience, are arbitrarily detained, and are executed at an alarming rate in Iran, which again, neither one of the selected nominees think should be revised or reformed.
The issue of human rights, political prisoners of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of press, freedom of religious practice and assembly, the execution of minors, the crackdown of decent or organized civil rights movements and unionization, is beyond a Kurdish human rights crisis, it is an International crisis that crosses all borders and political partisanship.
This, of course, is why we have PJAK. But you don't hear about any of this in the bullshit American media, do you?
There would be no point in Iranian Kurds voting anyway, since the Teheran regime continues to repress Kurds, as documented by Human Rights Watch as late as January, 2009, a report that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Teheran regime has not improved its human rights record since 2005.
In July of 2005, in Mahabad, Iranian security forces murdered Sivan Qaderi in public--a fact which was also documented by HRW--and which set off protests in East Kurdistan that lasted through August of that year:
On July 9, security forces shot and killed Shivan Qaderi in Mahabad. Kurdish groups, quoting Qaderi's brother, said that Qaderi was approached by the security forces in public, shot three times, and then tied to a military vehicle and dragged around the city. According to these reports, Qaderi was a social and political activist, but government authorities have accused him of “moral and financial violations.”
In the wake of Qaderi's murder, protests erupted in several cities and towns in Kurdistan. Protestors demanded that the government apprehend Qaderi's killers and put them on trial. Some of the protests reportedly involved attacks on government buildings and offices. Human Rights Watch obtained a list of 17 protestors killed by the security forces, including three people shot dead in Oshnavieh on July 26, two people shot dead in Baneh on July 30, one person shot dead in Sardasht on August 2, and 11 people shot dead in Saqqez on August 3.
Photos of Qaderi's body can be viewed here. Having taken office in August 2005, this was Ahmadinejad's first response to the Kurdish people as president. Nothing has changed.
For an informal discussion of the Iranian elections as covered by the bullshit American media, check Sibel Edmonds' Tuesday post and for a comparison of the treatment of other elections by the bullshit American media, including events in Ağrı after Turkey's 29 March elections, see her Wednesday post.
