همايون مجد (واشنگتن)، مصاحبه با الهه هيكس (نيويورك)
Summary of Today's BroadcastRFE/RL Persian ServiceFriday, August 16, 2002 - Human rights watch envoy visits Iran - Tehran policy toward possible US attack on Iraq - Kazakhstan to export oil through Iran - Bahrain king to visit Tehran - Dissident clergy issue decrees on the Internet - Runaway teenagers - Iran's Asian panthers in danger of extinction Human Rights Watch Envoy Meets Judiciary Officials * Elaheh Hicks, New York-based Human Rights Watch's Iran specialist, tells RFE/RL that in her 3-week trip to Tehran, she met with Mohammad-Javad Larijani, who heads the new international and human rights section of the judiciary as deputy judiciary chief. She says Larijani addressed the problem of long-term pre-trial detention of those arrested on political charges. She says this is the first time that the judiciary, where a majority of human rights offenses take place, has created a unit within itself for considering the issue of human rights. She adds that there might be a possibility for closer cooperation from Tehran officials with the HRW in which reports of human rights violations could be discussed. In her upcoming report, Hicks will cover new cases of human rights violations recorded in meetings with journalists, political convicts and their lawyers, including the prolonged jailing of dissident writers Akbar Ganji and Emadedin Baqi and former interior minister Abdollah Nuri. She will also include reports on the closed-door trials of dissidents, as well as the case of the jailed journalist Siamak Pourzand. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) Conservative Daily Accuses Mohajerani of Blasphemy * Former culture minister Ataollah Mohajerani, a close aid to both former president Hashemi-Rafsanjani and President Khatami and a possible candidate in the 2005 presidential election, said in an interview with daily Etemad that the Iran-Iraq war was not an ideological conflict between Islam and the Infidel, but was a fratricide during which Iran failed to take advantage of opportunities for peace, such as the secret trip to Iran of Bud McFarlane, President Reagan's former national security advisor. The conservative newspaper Keyhan, a long-time critic of Mohajerani, said his remarks about the Iran-Iraq war are blasphemous and deserve punishment by excommunication. Tehran's Policy Dilemma about US Action against Saddam * Although it plans to remain neutral, Tehran seeks to benefit from a possible US military action against Saddam Hossein, writes London's the Economist. (Fariba Mavedat, London) Kazakhstan to Export Oil through Iran * Kazakhstan and Iran reached an agreement to cooperate on building a $1.5 billion pipeline through Iran for exporting Kazakhstan's oil, according to Moscow's Kommersant newspaper. (Mani Kasravi, Moscow) Bahrain King to Visit Iran * Bahrain king Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa arrives in Tehran tomorrow for a one-day visit. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) The Impact of Internet on Shiite Clergy * Shiite clergy increasingly use the Internet to communicate with their followers and issue religious decrees. The Internet has provided a tribune for dissident clergy to challenge the legitimacy of the ruling clerics from a religious point of view and has enabled Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazari, the highest ranking dissident cleric who has been under house arrest since 1997 in Qom, to communicate with the outside world. (Mehdi Khalaji) Runaway Teenagers * More than 60,000 runaway children and young adults were arrested in Tehran streets in the four months between November 22, 2001 and March 22, 2002, according to Tehran police. Tehran-based sociologist Shahla Ezazi tells RFE/RL that runaway teenagers leave families with restrictive traditional rules. She says social workers should intervene before teenagers decide to runaway. (Shireen Famili) Iran's Asian Panther Near Distinction * The last of Iran's surviving Asian panthers are threatened with extinction, as their natural habitat is being destroyed by logging and excessive hunting. Tehran-based ecologist Behruz Behzad says Iran's Asian panthers are the last remaining in the world of a species that was thought to have disappeared until recently, when several of them were spotted a thousand miles away from their usual habitat. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Daily Science Report Crack in the relativity theory * Australian scientists, Tamara Davis and Charles Lineweaver, from the University of New South Wales, suggest that the speed of light may have slowed over billions of years. The suggestion is based on data collected by astronomer John Webb, who showed that light from a distant quasar, a star-like object, had changed on its multi-billion-year journey to the earth. This revolutionary idea could challenge Einstein's theory of relativity. Daily Internet Report * Tehran University expands its Internet courses, and www.magiran.com offers a database of 623 Iranian magazines, complete with table of contents, addresses and website addresses. (Behnam Nateghi) Daily medical advice (Dr. Mansur Moslehi, Los Angeles) Daily Book Review: Tradition and Modernism in Persian Music * RFE/RL's Tehran-based book critic Kamran Fani reviews "Tradition and Modernism in Persian Music," edited by Majid Mir-Montahai and published in Persian last week in Tehran. Review of 1953 Coup * In the third installment of RFE/RL's series on the 1953 US-backed pro-Shah coup that removed populist Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, Oxford University professor Homayoun Katouzian discusses the rivalries and disputes among the domestic political groups of the time. Today in history (Gholamhossein Mirzasaleh, Tehran) Civil Society and Human Rights * Washington-based lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar discusses the rights of the "other" under the Islamic Republic. Techno Music Festival on the Border * More than 5 thousand young people flocked to the border of Italy and France to attend a techno music festival. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) Greenhouse Effect and Floods in Central Europe * London-based ecologist Namdar Baqai tells RFE/RL that global warming due to the greenhouse effect is the cause of the current floods in Central Europe. (Shahran Tabari, London) Song and Lyrics * RFE/RL's music critic focuses on 1970's pop singer/composer Abbas Shamaizadeh. Joy (Shadi) * Los Angeles-based DJ Afshin Gorgin spins the latest Persian pop tunes. Weekly Los Angeles Report * Azam Ali, singer of the Los Angeles duo Vas, says growing up in India and the west broadened her musical vocabulary. With percussionist Greg Ellis, she creates a music best described as "alternative world." (Fahimeh Barati, Los Angeles) WORLD * Rain and flooding in Central Europe affect 4 million. (Shahram Mir * EU offer Czech Republic flood relief. (Nazi Azima) * Defense minister Mohammad Fahim competes with Afghanistan interim President Hamid Karzai. (Fariba Mavedat, London) * Families of the September 11 terrorist attacks sue Arab organizations for $1 trillion. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) * Iraq's revolutionary leadership council nominates Saddam Hussein for another term as president. (Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * In an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, Tehran-based Iraqi Shiite opposition leader Ayatollah Muhammad-Baqer Hakim says while he does not support a possible US attack, Iraqi Shiites are ready to cooperate with the US. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) * Masoud Barezani, head of Iraq's Kurdish Democrat Party, shuns Washington gathering of the Iraqi opposition group, writes the New York Times. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) * Kurdish asylum seekers descend on Cherbourg after the closing of the Sangaat detention center in north of France. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) * Elvis Presley's 25th anniversary. (Ardavan Niknam)
الهه شريف پور هيكس، مسئول بخش ايران در سازمان ديده بان حقوق بشر Human Rights Watch در بازگشت از سفر سه هفته اي خود به ايران، در مصاحبه با راديوآزادي مي گويد در ايران با روزنامه نگاران، فعالان حقوق بشر، وكلاي مدافع محكومان سياسي و مطبوعاتي و همچنين با سخنگوي دولت خاتمي، مسئول حقوق بشر وزارت امور خارجه و مقامات قوه قضائيه، از جمله معاون جديد امور بين المللي و حقوق بشر، محمدجوادلاريجاني ديدار كرد. لاريجاني در اين ديدار از جمله به بازداشت طولاني اشخاص در بازداشتگاه ها قبل از هرگونه محاكمه اشاره كرد. وي مي گويد اين براي اولين بار بود كه در ديدار با مقامات قوه قضائيه وقوه مجريه، نتيجه گيري كرد كه در آينده همكاري هاي نزديكي بين سازمان ديده بان حقوق بشر و حكومت ايران مي تواند به وجود بيايد. وي مي گويد انتصاب لاريجاني به سمت معاون بين المللي و حقوق بشر قوه قضائيه، نخستين اقدام براي ايجاد نهادي در داخل قوه قضائيه براي مطرح كردن موارد زياد نقض حقوق بشر در قوه قضائيه است. وي مي گويد حاصل بررسي 20 روزه وي از موارد نقض حقوق بشر در ايران درگزارشي از سوي سازمان ديده بان حقوق بشر منتشر مي شود.
Summary of Today's BroadcastRFE/RL Persian ServiceFriday, August 16, 2002 - Human rights watch envoy visits Iran - Tehran policy toward possible US attack on Iraq - Kazakhstan to export oil through Iran - Bahrain king to visit Tehran - Dissident clergy issue decrees on the Internet - Runaway teenagers - Iran's Asian panthers in danger of extinction Human Rights Watch Envoy Meets Judiciary Officials * Elaheh Hicks, New York-based Human Rights Watch's Iran specialist, tells RFE/RL that in her 3-week trip to Tehran, she met with Mohammad-Javad Larijani, who heads the new international and human rights section of the judiciary as deputy judiciary chief. She says Larijani addressed the problem of long-term pre-trial detention of those arrested on political charges. She says this is the first time that the judiciary, where a majority of human rights offenses take place, has created a unit within itself for considering the issue of human rights. She adds that there might be a possibility for closer cooperation from Tehran officials with the HRW in which reports of human rights violations could be discussed. In her upcoming report, Hicks will cover new cases of human rights violations recorded in meetings with journalists, political convicts and their lawyers, including the prolonged jailing of dissident writers Akbar Ganji and Emadedin Baqi and former interior minister Abdollah Nuri. She will also include reports on the closed-door trials of dissidents, as well as the case of the jailed journalist Siamak Pourzand. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) Conservative Daily Accuses Mohajerani of Blasphemy * Former culture minister Ataollah Mohajerani, a close aid to both former president Hashemi-Rafsanjani and President Khatami and a possible candidate in the 2005 presidential election, said in an interview with daily Etemad that the Iran-Iraq war was not an ideological conflict between Islam and the Infidel, but was a fratricide during which Iran failed to take advantage of opportunities for peace, such as the secret trip to Iran of Bud McFarlane, President Reagan's former national security advisor. The conservative newspaper Keyhan, a long-time critic of Mohajerani, said his remarks about the Iran-Iraq war are blasphemous and deserve punishment by excommunication. Tehran's Policy Dilemma about US Action against Saddam * Although it plans to remain neutral, Tehran seeks to benefit from a possible US military action against Saddam Hossein, writes London's the Economist. (Fariba Mavedat, London) Kazakhstan to Export Oil through Iran * Kazakhstan and Iran reached an agreement to cooperate on building a $1.5 billion pipeline through Iran for exporting Kazakhstan's oil, according to Moscow's Kommersant newspaper. (Mani Kasravi, Moscow) Bahrain King to Visit Iran * Bahrain king Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa arrives in Tehran tomorrow for a one-day visit. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) The Impact of Internet on Shiite Clergy * Shiite clergy increasingly use the Internet to communicate with their followers and issue religious decrees. The Internet has provided a tribune for dissident clergy to challenge the legitimacy of the ruling clerics from a religious point of view and has enabled Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazari, the highest ranking dissident cleric who has been under house arrest since 1997 in Qom, to communicate with the outside world. (Mehdi Khalaji) Runaway Teenagers * More than 60,000 runaway children and young adults were arrested in Tehran streets in the four months between November 22, 2001 and March 22, 2002, according to Tehran police. Tehran-based sociologist Shahla Ezazi tells RFE/RL that runaway teenagers leave families with restrictive traditional rules. She says social workers should intervene before teenagers decide to runaway. (Shireen Famili) Iran's Asian Panther Near Distinction * The last of Iran's surviving Asian panthers are threatened with extinction, as their natural habitat is being destroyed by logging and excessive hunting. Tehran-based ecologist Behruz Behzad says Iran's Asian panthers are the last remaining in the world of a species that was thought to have disappeared until recently, when several of them were spotted a thousand miles away from their usual habitat. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Daily Science Report Crack in the relativity theory * Australian scientists, Tamara Davis and Charles Lineweaver, from the University of New South Wales, suggest that the speed of light may have slowed over billions of years. The suggestion is based on data collected by astronomer John Webb, who showed that light from a distant quasar, a star-like object, had changed on its multi-billion-year journey to the earth. This revolutionary idea could challenge Einstein's theory of relativity. Daily Internet Report * Tehran University expands its Internet courses, and www.magiran.com offers a database of 623 Iranian magazines, complete with table of contents, addresses and website addresses. (Behnam Nateghi) Daily medical advice (Dr. Mansur Moslehi, Los Angeles) Daily Book Review: Tradition and Modernism in Persian Music * RFE/RL's Tehran-based book critic Kamran Fani reviews "Tradition and Modernism in Persian Music," edited by Majid Mir-Montahai and published in Persian last week in Tehran. Review of 1953 Coup * In the third installment of RFE/RL's series on the 1953 US-backed pro-Shah coup that removed populist Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, Oxford University professor Homayoun Katouzian discusses the rivalries and disputes among the domestic political groups of the time. Today in history (Gholamhossein Mirzasaleh, Tehran) Civil Society and Human Rights * Washington-based lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar discusses the rights of the "other" under the Islamic Republic. Techno Music Festival on the Border * More than 5 thousand young people flocked to the border of Italy and France to attend a techno music festival. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) Greenhouse Effect and Floods in Central Europe * London-based ecologist Namdar Baqai tells RFE/RL that global warming due to the greenhouse effect is the cause of the current floods in Central Europe. (Shahran Tabari, London) Song and Lyrics * RFE/RL's music critic focuses on 1970's pop singer/composer Abbas Shamaizadeh. Joy (Shadi) * Los Angeles-based DJ Afshin Gorgin spins the latest Persian pop tunes. Weekly Los Angeles Report * Azam Ali, singer of the Los Angeles duo Vas, says growing up in India and the west broadened her musical vocabulary. With percussionist Greg Ellis, she creates a music best described as "alternative world." (Fahimeh Barati, Los Angeles) WORLD * Rain and flooding in Central Europe affect 4 million. (Shahram Mir * EU offer Czech Republic flood relief. (Nazi Azima) * Defense minister Mohammad Fahim competes with Afghanistan interim President Hamid Karzai. (Fariba Mavedat, London) * Families of the September 11 terrorist attacks sue Arab organizations for $1 trillion. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) * Iraq's revolutionary leadership council nominates Saddam Hussein for another term as president. (Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * In an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, Tehran-based Iraqi Shiite opposition leader Ayatollah Muhammad-Baqer Hakim says while he does not support a possible US attack, Iraqi Shiites are ready to cooperate with the US. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) * Masoud Barezani, head of Iraq's Kurdish Democrat Party, shuns Washington gathering of the Iraqi opposition group, writes the New York Times. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) * Kurdish asylum seekers descend on Cherbourg after the closing of the Sangaat detention center in north of France. (Jean Khakzad, Paris) * Elvis Presley's 25th anniversary. (Ardavan Niknam)
الهه شريف پور هيكس، مسئول بخش ايران در سازمان ديده بان حقوق بشر Human Rights Watch در بازگشت از سفر سه هفته اي خود به ايران، در مصاحبه با راديوآزادي مي گويد در ايران با روزنامه نگاران، فعالان حقوق بشر، وكلاي مدافع محكومان سياسي و مطبوعاتي و همچنين با سخنگوي دولت خاتمي، مسئول حقوق بشر وزارت امور خارجه و مقامات قوه قضائيه، از جمله معاون جديد امور بين المللي و حقوق بشر، محمدجوادلاريجاني ديدار كرد. لاريجاني در اين ديدار از جمله به بازداشت طولاني اشخاص در بازداشتگاه ها قبل از هرگونه محاكمه اشاره كرد. وي مي گويد اين براي اولين بار بود كه در ديدار با مقامات قوه قضائيه وقوه مجريه، نتيجه گيري كرد كه در آينده همكاري هاي نزديكي بين سازمان ديده بان حقوق بشر و حكومت ايران مي تواند به وجود بيايد. وي مي گويد انتصاب لاريجاني به سمت معاون بين المللي و حقوق بشر قوه قضائيه، نخستين اقدام براي ايجاد نهادي در داخل قوه قضائيه براي مطرح كردن موارد زياد نقض حقوق بشر در قوه قضائيه است. وي مي گويد حاصل بررسي 20 روزه وي از موارد نقض حقوق بشر در ايران درگزارشي از سوي سازمان ديده بان حقوق بشر منتشر مي شود.
