I am a criminal, please forgive me!

Marze Por Gohar:

The following is a translation conducted by MPG member Ebi Zaman of an article by Nima Rashedan. 1. Six years ago, I, Nima Rashedan, praised in one of the reformist publications Ayatollah Khomeini's style of ruling. Now, I announce clearly and loudly that I consider myself a "criminal". I apologize to you, millions of Iranians who each in some way are victims of Khomeini and his followers' atrocities. I apologize and hope you forgive me so at least I can sleep at nights. Alas, I AM a criminal because I did defend, even if only once, one of the greatest criminals of our time, Ruhollah Khomeini. And secondly, like many of the Islamic Republic's journalists and politicians, I sought to justify and or vindicate "Khomeini's crimes against humanity". I am a criminal because once and only once I defended Khomeini. Defending Khomeini means supporting his policies and I, like Mir Hossein Moussavi and Akbar Mohtashami have endorsed the Fatwa on Salman Rushdie's life. That means I AM a criminal. It means I have defended the events of the somber 60's: rape, torture and executions. I defended Khomeini, meaning I supported sending millions of untrained young men to the slaughter houses of west and south (Iran) only to continue the senseless war. I defended Khomeini, meaning I conceded to the fatwa to murder the radio announcer who compared Fatemeh to Ushin. I am a criminal, forgive me. I was only thirteen when Khomeini died and did not grasp the gravity of the situation. My defending Khomeini that one and only time is due to my believing the tales of first decade of the Islamic Revolution spun by "Mostafa Tajerzadeh, Saeed Hajjarian, Hadi Khaniki, Abbas Abdi, Ali-Reza Alavitabar, etc." I defended crime because I trusted what I read in the columns written by those who hailed Khomeini the "spear header of republicanism/freedom/democracy". There were no free access to news and information in those days. I caught another glimpse into the revolution later on - one from Ayatollah Montazeri's chronicles. Ayatollah HosseinAli Montazeri, Khomeini's closest disciple and living friend sights him as a criminal, not once but more than fifty times. HosseinAli Montazeri addressing Khomeini: "do you know that there are crimes being committed in the annals of Islamic Republic prisons, likes of which were never seen in the despised Shah's regime? Do you know that a significant number of prisoners have died under torture by their interrogators? Do you know that in some of Mashhad's prisons approximately 25 girls were penetrated with such objects that caused them to undergo hysterectomy? Do you know in some of Islamic Republic's prisons young women are brutally raped?" And Khomeini knew all of these. Karrubi, speaker of the parliament knows. Seyyed Mohammad Moussavi Khoiniha, the attorney general of the time knows, Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mussavi knows, Ali Rabii, Information Ministry's(3) top official knows, Saeed Hajjarian knows, Mohsen Armin Knows, Abdollah Noori, anyone and everyone knows. Instead of protest, they kiss the hand of the Imam, "the spear header of the republic" and conspire and virtually expel Montazeri and exile him into house arrest. Don't believe it? Read Rouhani, Karrubi and Imam Jamarani's letter, the key to the project to eliminate Montazeri; the project which ended with a bullet in Saeed Hajjarian's head. It is as if they do not believe what the wind sows, the storm shall reap. Saeed Hajjarian synthesized Khomeini-ville's broken down people in the Republic of Terror's dreadful Information Ministry. Seyyed Mohammda Khatami forcefully brought a young Taleb named Mehdi Nasiri from Qom to Kayhan Newspaper to pound Azari-Qomi, daily. Khomeini died! The Newly-Appointed-ville's downtrodden picked up a weapon and pointed it to his own creative brain. If you don't believe it, then take a gander at the "Asr-eh Ma" archives as it chronicled the revolution, the jurisprudence, "one of us/family" and "not one of us/not family". Ask Haffarian, the theoretician of terror: "did not Seyyed Mohammad Khatami discover you and bring you to Kayhan?" 2. Defending Khomeini and the Islamic Republic's policy of elimination and head bashing is criminal. Legitimizing and rationalizing kidnapping, detainment, torture and mass execution of opponents - even if armed - is criminal. Crime does not fade in time, nor does it wither. Abbas Abdi by saying: "Amir Entezam deserved five years and was shunned by his friends also" is as much a criminal as are Rouhollah Hosseinan Vaghti Mokhtari called Pouyandeh and Forouhar "apostates" and "heretics". Issues need to be separated. Shutting down of Mohsen MirDamadi's news paper had nothing to do with his refusal to acknowledge his previous actions. Abbas Abdi calls the Embassy take over and start of the war were unrelated in several interviews. Perhaps strategic issues experts should answer that question? International distaste for ignorance and the violent invasion of another nation's "home" is accepted by everyone from professors to students within the political science communities and academic circles as the single most pervasive reason behind Iraq's attack on Iran. Moussavi-Khoiniha, Reza Khatami, Habib Bitaraf, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Abbas Abdi, Asgharzadeh, etc., must accept that without meaning to, a person can cause the death of millions of humans and provoke the destruction of a nation for which the opportunity for repair is lost forever. An apology from people is called for. Abdi and Mirdamadi, Reza Khatami and VafaTabesh must appologize to Abbas Amir Entezam, Ebrahim Yazdi, Alireza Nourizadeh, Masoud Behnoud, Mohandes Abdollah Vala, Shahin Fatemi, Farid Zanjani, Khosro Ghashghai, Dr. Sanjabi and his son/daughter, Hassan Shariatmadari, Rahmatollah Moghaddam Maraghei, Bahram Bahramian, Admiral Madani, etc. They must admit their roles in the fall of Bazargan's cabinet/administration. They must claim their share in the disastrous cultural revolution. The Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organization was the theoretical and tactical axis of the 60's Holly Crimes. Open the (MEK) Organization's archives and review their statements during the barbaric attack on science and academia and thus the beginning of cultural destruction. Tens of thousands of professors and students were "cleansed" out the university and executed or exiled abroad. More expulsions and lay-off notices were issued during the dark years of Mostafa Moin than any other era in current scientific history. You exiled or murdered the worthiest gurus and children of Iran, Mostafa Mo’in and his friends, in order to covert the universities into "Madrasa"; so that the PHD from the ministry of science is more suitable for "Dr.s" Hosseinollah Karam, Mohsen Rezai, Abbas Salimi Nomin, etc. Hold an international seminar and compare the sentences in every column of Terror [Alliance] Consolidation Office (Daftar-eh Tahkim-eh Vahdat(1)) and the MEK's publications in the 1360's and 1370's with Hitler's publications. You'll see that Fascism befits MEK more than Il Duce and Hitler. Not even the Militant Clergy Association or the Alliance have clashed and quarreled with analytical groups, the Freedom Movement, left leaning intellectuals and the Writers' Guild as much as the Islamic Revolution's "Mujahedin" in the first 15 years of IR rule. The Islamic Revolution's Mojahedin's publication used the terms "one of us/family" and "not one of us/not family" for the first time to divide the nation's political forces, years before Seyyed Ali Khamenei's private and public speeches at the Mohammad's 27th Infantry Division. It can be statistically proven that no organization, syndicate, group or political movement in IR has ever issued more statements than IR's Mojahedin against international organizations such as Amnesty International, UN Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Galindo Pohl, Capitorn, etc. It is as if the Imam’s Line’s hideous virus of world violence still remains and afflicts. This past week Seyyed Mostafa Taajerzaadeh complained to Amir Kabir students that: "why have you asked international organizations for help and not the Reform Movement of Iranian people?" Someone answered: "perhaps you are optimistic towards people's reform movement. We witnessed the councils' astonishing elections as well as people's prodigious supporting of your representatives' historic sanctuary seeking... You go right ahead and forgo writing to the international organizations while you enjoy such support from the people." 3. I am standing here in a gas chamber in Dachau's Infirmary. There's a door on my right leading to a room that used to be filled with bodies, piled approximately two meters high. The door on my left opens to a cell with a shower so the prisoners would wash up and be clean before being gassed. The next room on the right past the corpse vault is a crematorium. There are several gallows built on ceiling's crisscross beams where living human beings and those who were not supposed to be gassed were hanged and fed into the gas chambers as their friends and family watched, waiting their own turn. Nothing is to be forgotten, and that is not a cliche. The German people must be ashamed of their vote for Hitler and their quiet consent to the slaughter of Jews, political opponents, homosexuals, Poles and Cechs. This disgrace is eternal. What happened in the Islamic Republic in 1360's, at least by what's documented on the statistics of the suppression of their political opposition, is similar to the Nazi atrocities. Close to 130,000 political prisoners in both countries were handed over to firing squads or were kidnapped and executed. 350 opposition activists have been murdered abroad. Tens of hundreds of honorable Iranians like Farrokhroo Paarsaa have been murdered by criminals such as Saadegh Khalkhaali’s firing squads for the crime of educating females in a struggle cultivate and advance their country. Khalkhaali and Moussavi Tabrizi are public prosecutors appointed by Khomeini and their military backing is provided by Mohammad Salaamati, Mohsen Aarmin and Abbaas Doozdoozani's "Sepaah(2)" and the Seraaj Kommitteh. Their employees are paid by Mir Hossein Moussavi's government while thousands of homosexuals, hundreds of Baha’is and tens of Sunni clerics have been hanged, stoned and literally burned. Tens of thousands of human beings have been flogged in public at an era when beating of animals has been banned. Women are forced to wear government approved apparel. These are crimes. Information Ministry's employees during 1360's and 1370's, Kommitte's and Islamic Revolution Sepaah Paasdaaraan’s Information and Information Security Services, Islamic Prosecutor's office, religious law and military courts, the Qods brigade, etc. are all guilty of crimes against humanity whether they like it or not. The security apparatus of Islamic Republic is so infused and interbred in such an incestuous manner that no one can commit a crime without the aiding and abetting of others. Mehdi Haashemi's hanging and Ghaasemlou and Sharafkandi's murders are the greatest examples of that. Every branch of government from left, right and center have played documented roles in designing, planning and execution of these projects. 4. I am not a judge and I don't mean to nor am I qualified to prosecute anyone. But I do have the right to first call myself a criminal for having written one paragraph in defense of Ayatollah Khomeini and beg for forgiveness from millions of victims of Khomeini and Khomeinism. And secondly, to freely express my opinion that anyone who has worked in the higher echelons of the Islamic Republic's military and security infrastructure, specifically in the 1360's is with all due respect, a criminal. It is of no consequence whatsoever whether he has served or betrayed freedom of speech and the press. These crimes must be investigated, even if all the victims' bones are buried. Crimes against opposition groups and critics can not be justified by citing excuses such as: "they committed violence as well", or "everyone was at fault", or "it was the entire nation's decision", or "the country was collapsing", or "we were unable to control the crowds", etc. Justifying crimes against opposition groups and critics is servile to the deplorable methods of Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosavic, Stalin, Molla Mohammad Omar, and several other demented criminals and is absurd at least in today's Iran and more importantly unfeasible in today's world. Crimes of 1360' and 1370's will not be forgotten. Executions by hanging of thousands of prisoners - some of whom had even served their sentence in full – authorized by a deranged, doltish and criminal Ayatollah will not be forgotten. Those who are banking on passage of time eroding the clues and evidence of their crimes are hoping in vain. Have no doubt - I have none - that there WILL be a court, a prosecution and a verdict: acquittal or conviction. This concerns the victims, their survivors and justice and nobody else. Nima Rashedan August 15, 2004, Dachau Infirmary, Germany (1) The complete name is: Daftar-eh Tahkim-eh Vahdat Bein-eh Hoze-eh Elmi-yeh va Daaneshgaah meaning: Islamic Seminary Coalition Consolidation Liaison Office to the Universities. (2) Sepaah-eh Paasdaaraan was founded by Mohsen Saazegaaraa. (3) Akbar Ganji served in Information Service of Sepaah-e Paasdaaraan as well as the Information Ministry or VEVAK (Vezaarat-eh Eetela’aat Va Amniyat-eh Keshvar).