Summary of Iran Stories in Today&apos;s BroadcastsBehnam NateghiSunday, June 20, 2004 <b>EU Condemns Iran on Human Rights</b> • “The European Union continues to be gravely concerned at the continued and numerous violations of human rights in Iran,” Ireland, the current holder of the EU presidency, said in a statement issued on Sunday. The four rounds of EU-Iran human rights roundtables, the last which was held in Tehran early last week, had “no concrete results,” the statement, released in Tehran by the Irish embassy, said. The EU delegation called for the “immediate and definitive” release of 40 political prisoners in meetings last week with judiciary officials. Rights violations cited by the statement include, “unequal rights for women; the use of torture in prisons and other places of detention, and a culture of impunity for perpetrators; the lack of an independent judiciary; the use of the death penalty, as well as reports of the continued use of amputations and other cruel punishments; a continuing campaign against journalists and others who seek to exercise their freedom of opinion and expression, a flawed electoral process which impedes the democratic choice of the Iranian people, and discrimination on religious grounds.” The statement noted, “The EU... underlined that the purpose of the dialogue was to bring about an improvement in the human rights situation in Iran. This is indispensable for the development of wider and eventually closer relations between the EU and Iran.” <b>Reactions to IAEA Resolution on Nuclear Program</b> • The Europe&apos;s big three reneged on their promises to Iran, conservative MP Ala&apos;eddin Borujerdi, head of the Majles national security and foreign relations committee, said in reaction to the passage last Friday of a tough IAEA resolution, which was originally drafted by Britain, France and Germany. He added that the Majles will not accept the IAEA&apos;s resolution, and will order the government not to close the Ahwaz and Arak facilities. Iran&apos;s top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani, secretary of the supreme national security council, said Iran will reconsider its voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment. • The different statements made by Rowhani and Borujerdi reflect the Iranian government&apos;s effort to fortify its bargaining position with the IAEA by pretending that the so-called independent legislature would not go along with the IAEA demands. He adds that Rowhani&apos;s threat to restart nuclear enrichment program is tentative, and his promise that the Majles will ratify the additional protocol to NPT is just a statement of routine. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian) • “We do not want to carry out enrichment for the time being and no decision has yet been taken to resume it, but we will reconsider the suspension of other activities,” secretary of the supreme national security council Hassan Rowhani said, according to official news agency IRNA, which dispatched a revised version of earlier reports in which Rowhani had threatened that Iran would reconsider the suspension of uranium enrichment. The official news agency said the new comments meant that “Iran will apparently resume the production of centrifuge components” rather than resume enrichment itself. • After completing the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, Iran will have the capability to produce at least two atomic bombs per year, writes German weekly <i>Rheinischer Merkur</i>. • Right now, there is no discussion about resuming (uranium) enrichment at all, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said on Sunday, adding that Iran may only suspend its pledge to stop building centrifuge parts, a pledge with which, according to Reuters&apos; Parisa Hafezi, Iran has not fully complied. Hassan Rowhani said on Saturday that Iran would continue to refrain from injecting uranium hexafluoride gas into centrifuges to produce enriched uranium. The suspension, promised last October to foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France, was extended in February to cover the manufacture and assembly of centrifuge parts. <b>Former Reformist MPs Fault Expediency Council for Returning Development Plan to Majles</b> • The Expediency Council&apos;s decision to send back the fourth five-year development plan to the Majles met with criticism from former reformist MPs who had re-approved the bill, following the Guardian Council&apos;s rejection. Returning a disputed a bill to the Majles sets a new precedent in the history of the Expediency Council, former Tehran MP Mohsen Armin said, calling the move “illegal.” The Expediency Council&apos;s refusal to review the bill was because the Majles had sent its revision directly to the Council, bypassing another review by the Guardians Council. The bill provides the groundwork for making the government dependent on and answerable to the people, and that maybe the reason behind the opposition to the bill, former deputy Majles speaker Mohammad-Reza Khatami said. In yesterday&apos;s session of the Expediency Council, the Khatami administration proposed settling all differences in negotiations between the government and the new Majles, attended by economy experts, but the Council rejected the government&apos;s position, and opted for returning the bill to the Majles. <b>Islamic Revolutionary Court Summons 9 Pan Iranist Party Members</b> • The Islamic Revolutionary Court summoned nine members of the nationalist opposition party the Pan Iranist, according to a party statement, adding that “unidentified persons” assaulted secretary-general Mohsen Pezeshkpour. Anti-regime propaganda and insulting the Islamic Republic officials in the articles of the party&apos;s internal organ “National Sovereignty (Hakemiyyat-e Melli)” were among the charges written in the summons, head of the party&apos;s Tehran branch <b>Qodratollah Jafari</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. “The party&apos;s struggle is not underground; it is in the open,” he adds, linking the new summons and raid at Pezeshkzad&apos;s home to the nearing of the anniversary of the July 9, 1998 student uprising. (Siavash Ardalan) <b>Jailed Kurdish Editor Threatens Hunger Strike</b> • Mohammad-Sadeq Keyudvand, editor of the banned weekly <i>Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdistan</i>, who is jailed in Sanandaj, threatened that if he is not released by tomorrow, he would go on a hunger strike. A Sanandaj judge had him arrested last week on charges of printing secessionist material, but he was told that he would be released on bail by Saturday. The bail has been paid, but Keyudvand was not released, and in addition, two of his colleagues, Fazel Shari&apos;ati and Jalal Qavami, have been arrested too, local independent journalist <b>Masoud Kurdpour</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian) <b>Education Ministry Begins Promoting Teachers&apos; Grades</b> • The long-awaited plan to upgrade teachers&apos; ranks will begin in education districts across the country, according to education minister Morteza Haji. The plan will upgrade qualified teachers only one level, to senior educator, in which they must all remain for five years before they would become eligible for promotion to higher grades, activist teacher <b>Ahmad Behrang</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. He faults the ministry&apos;s plan for not affecting non-faculty members of the schools&apos; staff. Teachers had complained in several demonstrations and sit-in protests that their employment grades were lower than those of other government employees with the same level of education and experience. <b>IMF Calls for Quicker Pace of Economic Reforms</b> • We expect growth to be about 6.5 percent, even though there might be a slight deceleration in agriculture and probably in construction,” International Monetary Fund&apos;s assistant director in the Middle East and Central Asia Department said after his annual meeting in Tehran with central bank officials. He welcomed a package of reforms proposed in Iran&apos;s fourth five-year development plan which runs from 2005-2010. “We rarely had major disagreements on the objectives or the policies, sometimes we may have differences on the pace,” he told a news conference. In a speech last week to Majles MPs, the Supreme Leader blasted IMF and World Bank&apos;s economic model, supported by the reformist faction, and criticized the Chinese and Indian development models, favored by the conservatives. He called for drafting an indigenous development plan. “Iran&apos;s development model must be based on cultural and historic conditions and on the beliefs of the people and, while using positive aspects of others&apos; experiences, should not copy models of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF),” the Supreme Leader said. <b> Executive (Indirectly) Apologizes to People for Elections Irregularities</b> • Deputy interior minister for political affairs Morteza Mobalegh, who heads the ministry&apos;s elections headquarters, said in an interview with the official news agency IRNA that he wanted to apologize to public for last February&apos;s Majles elections during which the Guardians Council banned 2,400 reformist applicants from running. Mobalegh said he turned in his resignation a month before the elections, when the Guardians Council refused to overturn the widespread disqualifications of candidates by its election supervisory boards. But the interior minister Abdolvahed Lari turned down Mobalegh&apos;s resignation, because the Supreme Leader had banned government employees from resigning over the elections. Mobalegh said he will stay in his position through Khatami&apos;s tenure, but will not oversee another election. <b>RadioFarda Democracy and Human Rights Roundtable: Guardians Council&apos;s Supervision</b> The conservative majority in the Majles has proposed a new bill to turn the Guardians Council&apos;s supervision of the elections into a continual supervision of the Majles. • The Guardians Council&apos;s role is now vetting election candidacy applicants, but in the proposed bill, the Guardians Council will be able to dismiss any MP whose positions it did not approve, Tehran-based lawyer <b>Nemat Ahmadi</b> says. The conservatives are creating a legal ploy to be able to close the Majles anytime they desire, he adds. • Constitutional reform activist and Tehran University law professor <b>Qasem Shoaleh Saadi</b> says: “They believe in Islamic government, not an Islamic Republic. • “As a historian, it is hard to believe that after 100 years of struggle for democracy and rule of law, we have actually regressed,” Tehran University professor <b>Sadeq Zibakalam</b> says. (Ali Sajjadi) . مينا بهارمست (راديو فردا): سفارت ايرلند به عنوان رئيس دوره اي اتحاديه اروپا امروز بيانيه اي را منتشر کرد که در آن اين اتحاديه نگراني عميق خود را از ادامه نقض حقوق بشر در ايران ابراز کرده است. در اين بيانيه تبعيض عليه زنان، شکنجه در زندانها و بازداشتگاهها، ادامه قصاص و قطع اعضاي بدن و مجازاتهاي بي رحمانه، بازداشت و اذيت و آزار روزنامه نگاران، برگزاري انتخابات به روالي که مردم را از حقوق دموکراتيک خود محروم مي کند و تبعيض عليه اقليتهاي مذهبي از جمله موارد نقض حقوق بشر در ايران ذکر شده است. همچنين گفته مي شود که هيات نمايندگي اتحاديه اروپا در مذاکرات دو روزه هفته گذشته خود در تهران، مواردي مربوط به 40 زنداني سياسي را مطرح کرد و خواهان آزادي فوري و قطعي آنها شد. در بيانيه اشاره اي به پاسخ ايران به خواستهاي اتحاديه اروپا نشده است. نتايج سفر هيات اتحاديه اروپا و نحوه مذاکرات آنها و ديدارهايشان مورد انتقاد مدافعان حقوق بشر بوده است. از دکتر عبدالکريم لاهيجي، نايب رئيس فدراسيون جوامع جهاني دفاع از حقوق بشر مي پرسم که به نظر مي رسد لحن بيانيه اتحاديه اروپا انتقادي تر از آن چيزي است که در گزارشهاي چند روز اخير درباره اين مذاکرات در هفته گذشته گفته شده است. دکتر عبدالکريم لاهيجي (نايب رئيس فدراسيون جوامع جهاني دفاع از حقوق بشر، پاريس): اين نخستين بار نيست که موضع اتحاديه اروپا پيش و پس از يکي از ميزگردهايي که با جمهوري اسلامي داشتند تغيير مي کند و متاسفانه بايد اقرار کنم که تقصير بيشتر متوجه مسئولان اتحاديه اروپا است. جالب است که ما يک هفته پيش از تشکيل اين ميزگرد گزارش مفصلي راجع به وضع حقوق بشر در ايران به اتحاديه اروپا داديم. الان وقتي که من به اين گزارشي که سفارت ايرلند به عنوان رئيس دوره اي اتحاديه اروپا انتشار داده نگاه مي کنم، مي بينيم سرفصلهاي آن گزارش ما در اين اطلاعيه آمده. چرا اتحاديه اروپا نخواست دو هفته پيش به اين مسائل بپردازد؟ چرا اتحاديه اروپا پافشاري نکرد که سازمانهاي ملي و بين المللي حقوق بشر، شيرين عبادي، رئيس کانون مدافعان حقوق بشر و برنده جايزه صلح نوبل در اين نشستها شرکت کنند؟ وقتي آنجا رفتند و ديدند که متاسفانه از سوي هيات نمايندگي جمهوري اسلامي نه فقط هيچ خبر خوشي به آنها داده نشد، حتي هيچ وعده خوشي هم به آنها داده نشد، اين است که اين بار هم براي چهارمين بار اقرار مي کنند که وضعيت حقوق بشر متاسفانه در جمهوري اسلامي رو به بدي است. م . ب : آقاي دکتر شما از نفس انجام اين گفتگوها که انتقادي نداريد؟ منظورم اين است که در پاسخ به همين سئوال که چرا چنين مذاکرات و گفتگوهايي صورت مي گيرد، يکي از مقامات اتحاديه اروپا چند روز پيش گفت که نفس اين گفتگوها مفيد و موثر است و بهتر از اين است که اصلا نخواهيم با مقامها تماس داشته باشيم. دکتر عبدالکريم لاهيجي: ما هرگز مخالف با گفتگو و مذاکره نيستيم چه در ارتباط با مساله حقوق بشر، چه در ارتباط با هر موضوع مورد اختلاف بين دو طرف، منتها از نخستين جلسه گفتگو موضوع هر يک از ميزگردها را جمهوري اسلامي انتخاب مي کرد و به اتحاديه اروپا ديکته مي کرد. فکر نکنيد در هر چهار ميزگرد يک موضوع بوده که مورد بحث بوده. مثلا در ميزگرد اول موضوع مورد بحث شکنجه، مجازاتهاي بدني و تبعيض بود. در ميزگرد دوم موضوع گفتگو محاکمه عادلانه و وضعيت قوه قضاييه بود. صحبت ما با اتحاديه اروپا اين بود که تا زماني که نتيجه ميزگرد نخست معلوم نشده و جمهوري اسلامي نشان نداده که مي خواهد مثلا وضع شکنجه و مجازاتهاي بدني را در ايران بهتر کند، معني ندارد که شما آن موضوع را رها کنيد و برويد سراغ موضوع دوم، ولي متاسفانه حرفمان به جايي نرسيده. الان هم ما اين را مي گوييم: يا بايد راجع به يک موضوع به صورت پي در پي گفتگو کنند و به يک نتايجي برسند، جمهوري اسلامي را متقاعد کنند که يک اصلاحاتي مثلا در وضع دادگستري ايران انجام شود، يا اين که يک تغيير موضع دادن يعني اينکه اين جلسه محدود مي شود به جلسه يک عده کارشناس که در حوزه تئوريک صحبت مي کنند و اصلا به وضعيت عملي موضوعي که راجع به آن صحبت مي شود هيچ توجهي ندارند. م . ب : از جمله کساني که در مذاکرات اخير شرکت کردند همانطور که شما خودتان هم مي دانيد، آقاي لاريجاني بودند که بعد از پايان مذاکرات آقاي لاريجاني عملا گفتند که انجام اين مذاکرات از اين نظر که تبادل نظر صورت مي گيرد مفيد است، منتها به اين معني نيست که ما سياستهاي خود را تغيير خواهيم داد. دکتر عبدالکريم لاهيجي: معمار اين مذاکرات محمد جواد لاريجاني است به عنوان معاون قوه قضاييه و چرا او است؟ به خاطر اين که نمي خواهد وزارت خارجه جمهوري اسلامي و دولت آقاي خاتمي طرف گفتگو با اتحاديه اروپا بشود. منظور لاريجاني هم اين بود وضعيت حقوق بشر را از دستور کار کميسيون حقوق بشر خارج کند و اتحاديه اروپا که طي دو دهه به تقديم قطعنامه به کميسيون حقوق بشر مبادرت مي کرد، اين کار را نکند و لاريجاني امروز در کارش موفق شده. دو سال است که لاريجاني در کارش موفق است. ايرلند، رئيس دوره اي اتحاديه اروپا امروز در بيانيه اي از ادامه نقض حقوق بشر در ايران نگراني ابراز كرد و تبعيض عليه زنان، شکنجه، مجازات هاي قصاص و قطع عضو، سانسور مطبوعات و بازداشت روزنامه نگاران، انتخابات غيردمكراتيك و تبعيض عليه اقليتهاي مذهبي را از جمله موارد نقض حقوق بشر در ايران بر شمرد. هيات نمايندگي اتحاديه اروپا در مذاکرات حقوق بشر هفته گذشته خود در تهران، آزادي فوري 40 زنداني سياسي را در خواست كرد. دکتر عبدالکريم لاهيجي، نايب رئيس فدراسيون جوامع جهاني دفاع از حقوق بشر در پاريس، در مصاحبه با راديوفردا مي گويد که لحن بيانيه اتحاديه اروپا انتقادي تر از آن چيزي است که در گزارشهاي چند روز اخير درباره اين مذاکرات گفته شده است.