Thousands protest Ahmadinejad's presence at UN

SMCCDI:

Sep 15, 2005, 10:14

Thousands of Iranians and Iranian-Americans gathered, yesterday, in order to protest against the Islamic republic regime and the presence of its symbol at the United Nations in New York. Activists from most opposition groups and members of the "Iran UN Protest 2005" (IUNP2005) Coalition called on World's leaders to back the Iranian Nation in its legitimate aspiration for ending the tyrannical and terrorist rule of the Islamic republic regime and to elect a secular political frame in a "direct" UN and US monitored referendum.

The gathering took place from 09:00 AM till 05:00 PM at the New York's "Dag Hammarskjold Plaza" which is located by the UN at the junction of 1st Ave and 47th East.

Activists of the IUNP2005 Coalition and the SMCCDI’s Coordinator, Aryo B. Pirouznia, spoke to the crowd, members of several delegations and reporters from 09:30 AM till 11:00 AM time. The rest of the program was focused on displaying the Islamic regime's crimes and to show its evil nature.

The regime's secularist opponents denounced, in a common voice, the presence of Mahmood Ahmadinejad as the self proclaimed 'symbol of Iranian Nation' and the persistent human rights' abuses by his illegitimate and unpopular regime which is usurping the Iranian People's Chair at the UN. The Islamic regime’s newly appoint President was also part of the Islamist group which stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats as hostage for 444 days.

Loud speakers and powerful sound systems echoed the cry for freedom of thousands of Iranians in the area by making impossible for various delegations, present in UN, to declare “not knowing what is going on in Iran”.

Tens of banned ”Lion & Sun” flags were decorating the area. Distributed flyers and placards were showing the horrible scenes of the Islamic republic’s ‘justice’, such as, practice of Stoning, Amputation and barbarian public execution of youth and women by using lift trucks.

The IUNP2005 Coalition is formed by the National-Secular Party, Iran Society, Marzeporgohar Party, Alliance of Iranians (TX), National Iranian Congress, Social-Democrats, Iranian Council, Free-Thinkers, Pan-Iranist, Iran of Tomorrow and the SMCCDI which was the main organizer of the gathering at the UN.

More protest actions have been planned for the next days.

Several other Iranian groups, such as, the "National Council of Resistance" (NCR), which is the political umbrella of the Marxist-Islamist Mojahedin of People (MKO or MEK) group, and some Monarchist groups protested also the same day.

The NCR leadership showed a powerful but controversial management by bringing from most N. American and European cities about five thousands supporters which was including several hundreds of paid professional foreign participants. It intended to use the occasion in order to promote its controversial leaders and to request from the US State Dept. to remove their terrorist label. In that line, various invented names, such as, "New York Committee Against Ahmadinejad" or the self called "Iranian Americans of Texas" or "Iranian Americans of California" were used to attract more Americans and to help the organization to reach its goals.

Such policy resulted in reaction of some Monarchist groups, which lined up pictures of Prince Reza Pahlavi in order to avoid any possibility for the NCR to claim them as their members. Many Iranians had hoped, till the last minute, that the NCR group would have learned from its past mistakes and would have avoided using such symbolic day for its well known goal of imposing itself as the only viable alternative for the future of Iran.

But despite such minor problems, thousands of Iranians were able to show that they do share the same aspiration of seeing an end to the illegitimate rule of the Islamic regime.