here's a recent article on the Bahais of iran and the situation there. I just wish the U.N. Human Rights Commission would do their job!
GENEVA, Switzerland, 14 April 2005 (BWNS) -- The Baha'i International
Community today expressed its dismay and disappointment at the failure of
the UN Commission on Human Rights to even consider a resolution on human
rights in Iran, given the worsening situation in that country and in
particular the persecution of the Baha'is.
"In view of the sharp increase of human rights violations against the
Baha'i community of Iran, it is nothing less than shocking that the
Commission on Human Rights has for the third year in a row failed to renew
international monitoring of the situation," said Bani Dugal, principal
representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations.
"Over the past year, two important Baha'i holy places have been destroyed,
Baha'i students have been denied access to higher education, and, most
recently, Baha'is in Yazd and Tehran have been swept up in a new wave of
assaults, harassment and detentions.
"All of this has come as part of a continuing pattern of religious
persecution instigated and condoned by the Iranian government, which has in
years past faced the clear condemnation of the international community for
its actions," said Ms. Dugal.
"We are very disappointed at the failure of the Commission on Human Rights
to live up to its mandate," said Ms. Dugal. "Unfortunately, countries which
in the past have initiated resolutions calling for the international
monitoring of Iran backed away from the table again this year," said Ms.
Dugal.
Ms. Dugal's comments came at the end of the Commission's period for
consideration of country-specific resolutions today, when all hope for such
a resolution on Iran had passed.
Three weeks ago, the Baha'i International Community strongly urged the
Commission to table and pass a resolution on the human rights situation in
Iran, saying that "the gross, flagrant, repeated violations of human rights
in Iran -- including the abuses that target Baha'is in that country --
warrant the re-establishment of a monitoring mechanism."
"For three years, this Commission has not been capable of presenting a
resolution on Iran, while the situation there has gradually but steadily
deteriorated," said Diane Ala'i, the community's representative to the
United Nations in Geneva, in a statement to the Commission on 23 March 2005.
"And now, over the past few months, we have had the impression of a
shifting back in time, some 20 years or more, as we have witnessed a
resumption of violent attacks on the Baha'i community in Iran," said Ms.
Ala'i.
"The most serious outbreak occurred in Yazd, where several Baha'is were
assaulted in their homes and beaten, a Baha'i's shop was set on fire and
burned, and others were harassed and threatened, following a series of
arrests and short-term detentions. The Baha'i cemetery in Yazd was wantonly
destroyed, with cars driven over the graves, tombstones smashed and the
remains of the interred left exposed."
Ms. Ala'i also said that in March, in Tehran, Iranian intelligence agents
entered the homes of several Baha'is and spent hours ransacking their houses
before carting away their possessions and taking them into custody.
"Five Baha'is have been imprisoned just this past month," said Ms. Ala'i.
"Two were finally released on bail, but family and community members have
not been able to locate those in detention. Two others, who had previously
been briefly detained for nothing more than distributing copies of a
courteous letter to President Khatami, have now received the maximum
sentence for this so-called offence.
"Six more Baha'i families recently had their homes and land confiscated,
depriving them of their only means of livelihood."
"Indeed, human rights violations in Iran have again become so grave that,
in our view, they warrant a clear signal from the international community
and a decision to reestablish international monitoring -- now," Ms. Ala'i
said in March.
Between 1978 and 1998, the Iranian government executed more than 200
Baha'is. Hundreds more Baha'is were imprisoned, and tens of thousands were
deprived of jobs, pensions, businesses, and educational opportunities.
In the face of intense international pressure, most significantly through
a series of United Nations human rights resolutions, the Iranian government
has essentially halted the executions and greatly reduced the number of
Baha'is held in prison.
Yet while it has halted the most egregious forms of direct violence
against individual members of the Baha'i community, the government has
nevertheless continued its campaign of persecution, principally through
social and economic restrictions that aim at slowly suffocating an entire
religious community.
