"Green Cyber Demonstration": World Solidarity with the Iranian Protestors

INTERNATIONAL CYBER-DEMONSTRATION IN SUPPORT OF THE IRANIAN PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT



One aim: unite the world’s citizens of all origins, nationalities and horizons who believe in democracy and Human Rights, and who wish to express their support for the pro-democracy movement in Iran.



This initiative is completely independent, non-political and non-religious.



How to participate

- Join our group on facebook, flickr, add us on twitter & myspace

- make our logo your profile image on these social websites

- write a message of support as your headline & on our page(s)

- inform & send links to your friends & contacts

- write about this event in your blogs & websites, feature our image & add a link to us

- contribute to our webpage with comments, slogans, photos/videos/songs etc.


Facebook group: WWIran Facebook group
On twitter: WWIran Twitter
Myspace page: WWIran Myspace
Downloadable images on flickr: WWIran Flickr profile
Flickr group: WWIran Flickr group
YouTube Channel: WWIran YouTube

How you can make a difference

The pro-democracy protestors in Iran are isolated and vulnerable. A strong turn-out here is a means for us to support them in their battle & remind governments & official international bodies around the world to act in the best interest of these freedom-fighters.Iran has ratified both the Declaration of Human Rights (signed 1948) and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (signed 1968). Let us show the world that human dignity and Human Rights are values that transcend frontiers, and that our leaders should use as much energy in defending Human Rights as they do the nuclear issue.



“A dictatorship is more dangerous than a nuclear weapon.”



Context

As a result of the fraudulent Iranian presidential elections of the 12th of June 2009, millions of people took to the streets of Iran to protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; demanding a new and democratic election. These brave protestors, comprising all generations, demonstrated pacifically but faced harsh repression from government forces resulting in beatings, deaths, arrests, torture, forced confessions and mock show-trials. Despite this repression, the protest movement has continued to grow and is known as the ‘Green Movement’ (read below: ‘Why Green?’). In spite of this repression, the pro-democracy protestors in Iran have continued their mobilisation; taking to the streets, infiltrating official marches and finding new means to express themselves such as via the internet - despite the huge risks, including for their lives (two young men arrested before the elections, Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were executed on the 28th January 2010, with more feared).



Why Green?

Green is the symbolic colour under which the pro-democracy protestors march in Iran - it is traditionally the colour of hope. Although the colour of the presidential candidate Mussavi in June’s fraudulent elections, the protestors have since made this colour their own and are commonly called the ‘Green Movement’, which has grown to become a spontaneous independent citizen’s movement demanding democracy for Iran. Green is now the colour of all those who march for democracy in Iran.

Friday 5 March 2010

Iran & Latin America


Brazil, Iran and the Road to the Security Council

Clovis Rossi, Project Syndicate, 4 March 2010




SAO PAULO – The attempt by Brazil’s government to participate in the international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program could well be called “A Manual for Candidates to a Permanent Membership of the United Nations Security Council.”
Brazil’s diplomatic efforts with Iran – a country suspected of developing nuclear energy for military purposes – began at a meeting last year between President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during the G8+5 summit in L’Aquila, Italy.
According to Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press spokesman, and Brazilian authorities, Obama said he had no objections whatsoever to Lula talking to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But Obama suggested using the weight of commercial relations between the two countries to tell the Iranian leader that he should follow Brazil’s example (in Brazil, the ban on nuclear energy for military purposes is enshrined in the Constitution).
Lula and Ahmadinejad met in June 2009, when Obama was still holding out a hand to the ayatollahs. Lula acted according to Obama’s suggestion when he received Ahmadinejad in Brasilia. He acknowledged – as everyone does – “Iran’s right to pursue a nuclear program with peaceful intentions,” but immediately asked for “respect for the international agreements” and underlined the fact that “this is the road Brazil is following.”
Furthermore, he urged Ahmadinejad “to continue to engage countries interested in finding a fair and balanced solution to Iran’s nuclear question.”
“Engagement” is the key word in this affair. It was used to describe Obama’s new American diplomacy, particularly with regard to Iran, at least until the disputed elections in Iran last summer and the worsening domestic crisis that has ensued.
In Lula’s meeting with Ahmadinejad, the delicate subject of Ahmadinejad’s repeated denials of the Holocaust came up. Lula told his Iranian counterpart that to deny the Holocaust was bad, even for Iran itself. Ahmadinejad replied that he did not deny it, but only criticized what he considered Israel’s “political use” of it. Even so, Lula insisted that he should change his attitude.
“Who else is in a position to say such things to Iran’s president?” asked a top Brazilian diplomat by way of justifying a dialogue that has been sharply criticized by Brazil’s Jewish community, which is emphatically opposed to Lula’s proposed trip to Teheran, scheduled for May.
Relations between Iran and the countries that are negotiating the nuclear question have deteriorated since Ahmadinejad’s visit to Brazil last year, which came soon after his disputed re-election. One result is the open difference of opinion on Iran between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Lula, or between Lula and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
During his meeting in Berlin with Merkel last December, Lula insisted on the Brazilian government’s traditional position: sanctions, such as those that the United States strongly advocates, lead to nothing; the best way forward is dialogue. The Brazilian president asked for “more patience” in the talks with Iran.
The German chancellor replied that she was “losing” her patience” with Iranian leaders after “four years of negotiations in which no progress was made.” But Brazil insisted on the path of dialogue and began talking with other stakeholders in the Iranian question, such as Turkey, whose foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, recently staked out a similar position. “We want the Middle East to be prosperous and stable, governed by political dialogue and diplomacy,” Davutoglu said after a visit to Teheran. “Iran’s contribution will be very important in bringing this about.”
But Brazil’s government has also begun to criticize, albeit weakly, Iran’s performance on human rights. At first, Lula minimized the seriousness of the incidents that occurred after Ahmadinejad’s re-election and went so far as to compare them to a dispute between football fanatics. This led to a clash with Sarkozy when Lula visited Paris soon after Iran’s post-election crisis began. While Lula didn’t repeat his comparison with a football game, neither did he criticize the repression, unlike Sarkozy, who did so strongly.
Brazil’s current criticisms of Iran, along with a request for dialogue with the opposition, weak as they may be, represent a change of position, which reflects the absolute priority of Brazilian diplomacy: permanent membership of the Security Council. Brazilian officials know that they can achieve this goal only by acting independently – but without diverging too far from the positions of the current permanent members. They also know that, except for China, all of them are critics of Iran, and are determined to find a solution to the nuclear question, whether through dialogue or some other means, if “patience is lost,” as Merkel suggested.


Clinton's Latin America trip: all about Iran?

Josh Rogin  The Cable/Foreign Policy  



Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has added an unplanned stop to her Latin America itinerary: Buenos Aires. The U.S. delegation will stay overnight in Argentina Monday instead of Chile, where the government is still preoccupied with the aftermath of Saturday's devastating earthquake.
"Instead of overnighting in Santiago on Monday night we will travel from Montevideo [Uruguay] Monday afternoon to Buenos Aires in order to meet with Argentine President [Cristina Fernández] de Kirchner, instead of in Uruguay as originally planned," a State Department official on the trip said.
Clinton was in Uruguay this weekend to attend the inauguration of Jose Mujica, a former guerrilla leader turned presidentThe Kirchner meeting was originally supposed to happen in Montevideo, but was changed after the Chilean earthquake caused Clinton's team to re-examine her travel plans.
Although Latin American countries are no doubt hoping to discuss a range of bilateral issues, Clinton is more likely to focus on the renewed international efforts to pressure Iran regarding its nuclear program. "Iran is at the top of my agenda," Clinton told a Senate committee last week when talking about her trip.
She might find the going tough, particularly in Brazil, which currently holds a seat on the Security Council. Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim recently poured cold war on the U.S.-led sanctions push, saying, "We don't believe that sanctions will prove effective." Under Secretary Bill Burns, the State Department's lead on the issue, visited the Brazilian capital ahead of the Clinton trip, but it's not clear what he was able to achieve.
Clinton will be in Brasilia Wednesday to meet directly with President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva and Amorim. Assistant Secretary Arturo Valenzuela previewed Friday what Clinton's message will be when it comes to Iran.
"While we're cognizant of the fact that the Brazilian government has reached out to Iran and has been approaching the Iranians, it's very much on our agenda to try to insist with the Brazilians that in their engagement with Iran, we would like them to encourage the Iranians, of course, to meet their international obligations," he said, adding that the State Department views Brazil's opposition to new sanctions as a "mistake."
Credits: The Cable/Foreign Policy: Clinton's Latin America trip: All about Iran?

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