Mr Khatami, a former president of the Islamic Republic
of Iran (1997-2005) has been invited to St Andrews University on
October 31 to receive an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws in
recognition of his ‘efforts to encourage interfaith dialogue’.
Giving a theocrat a degree in secular law and doing so
‘considering global tensions relating to… faiths’ that
incidentally he and his regime have been instrumental in creating
is like giving PW Botha or FW De Klerk honorary degrees in race
relations in recognition of their efforts to encourage inter-race
dialogue!
Nothing could be more offensive, not only to those of us who have
fled or lost loved ones to this vile regime but also to the
innumerable who have lost lives and limbs to Islamists everywhere.
But there is more. In its attempt to dispel any illusion that it
is organising student protests against this action as reported in
media outlets [it is the National Union of Students, we and others
who are doing so], the University of St Andrews Students’
Association’s statement blatantly and shamelessly defends Khatami
and his presidency (http://www.yourunion.net/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=2205).
It asserts that Mr Khatami was never the ‘highest ranking
political or judicial authority in the land, and held minimal
influence...’ Clearly, this is untrue. Saying so is a deliberate
attempt at whitewashing his role in the crimes of the Islamic
regime of Iran. Power sharing mechanisms in a government, however
dictatorial, do not mean that the executive role lacks power.
One case in point is the April 1997 German court’s verdict that
found the then president responsible for the September 1992
assassinations of opposition leaders in Berlin. The court found
that the killings had been ordered by a ‘Committee for Special
Operations’ whose members included the Leader (Khamenei), the
president, the Minister of Information and Security and other
security officials.
In the past week, too, Argentine prosecutors have issued warrants
for a former president for directing Hezbollah to carry out the
1994 bombing of the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that
killed 85 people and wounded hundreds.
And today, there are reports of two Iranian exiles, Safa Einollahi,
29, and Ali Ebrahimi, 34, who have lodged complaints under the
1988 Criminal Justice Act against Khatami for his accountability
in the atrocities and tortures they endured as political
prisoners.
Far from the rosy picture often portrayed in the Western media,
Khatami’s presidency has been anything but.
During his bloody rule, over 1,300 people were executed, including
sweet 16 year old Atefeh Rajabi for ‘acts incompatible with
chastity’; 27 people were stoned to death or sentenced to die by
stoning, 18 of them women; student and other demonstrations were
crushed and their leaders arrested or killed; Ahmad Batebi was
given a death sentence for holding up a bloody t-shirt; an
opposition activist in Kurdistan, Showaneh Qaderi, was shot and
his body dragged through the streets; Arezoo Siabi Shahrivar was
arrested along with up to 14 other women, at a ceremony
commemorating the 1988 “prison massacre” in Evin prison, Tehran,
in which thousands of political prisoners were executed. In
detention she was suspended from the ceiling, beaten with a wire
cable and sexually abused. Journalists and webloggers were
detained; papers were shut down; the Canadian journalist, Zahra
Kazemi was tortured and murdered in prison; the murders of two
political activists and three writers – a case known in Iran as
the “Serial Murders” took place; hundreds of labour activists were
arrested and tortured and on and on.
Only in a topsy turvy world can a president who oversaw such
murder and mayhem not be deemed accountable...
And it was not only his eight years as president that Khatami is
accountable for. In the 1980s in the Majlis, Khatami was known as
an active member of the Line of the Imam, the dominant grouping
within a party set up via Khomeini’s decree and most closely
identified with Khomeini’s policies, including his theory of
velayat-e faqih, or absolute clerical supremacy in government. Mr
Khatami was appointed the Minister of Culture and Islamic
Guidance, and was the chief censor in film, media, arts and
culture. As a member of the Supreme Council on Cultural
Revolution, Khatami played an important role in purging dissidents
from universities and educational centres. Moreover, he was the
director of cultural affairs in the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the
Armed Forces and the head of the War Propaganda Headquarters for
years. Today, too, he remains a member of several organs of the
Islamic regime.
Absurdly, though, whilst being declared powerless, Khatami is also
always lauded as a reformer; the St Andrews Students’ Association
statement asserts that he ‘strove for moderation and
liberalisation whilst in office’.
This is a contradiction in terms.
One cannot have minimal influence and be a reformer at the same
time. Moreover, reforms have a specific meaning in our world –
changes, particularly in law, which improve the lot of the
population at large. Again, this was never the case. In fact,
Khatami and his ‘reformist’ faction were merely attempts by the
regime to put forward a more palatable face in order to prolong
its life given the explosive situation in Iran.
***
In the face of escalating protests and opposition to Khatami’s
visit, the university persists in its decision to confer an
honorary degree upon him and in its rewriting of contemporary
history. A spokesperson for the university has said the decision
to invite Khatami was based on his “vision and willingness to
change”. At least Chancellor Menzies Campbell, the Liberal
Democratic leader, has pulled out from presenting the degree
before it turns into a scandal for him. But this is not enough.
Far from honouring him with a degree, Khatami should be arrested
for his crimes against the people of Iran.
On Tuesday, we will be there at St Andrews to remind the world
that we will not allow it to forget what has taken and is taking
place in Iran. We ask students and professors alike, along with
concerned and outraged people everywhere to join us in preventing
a centre of science from being transformed into a bastion of
reaction.
And on this note, it is apt to end with Khatami’s own words at
Harvard University this past September when questioned about the
execution of gays in Iran:
We’re at a university, the cradle of science, so we can speak of
it scientifically...In all schools of thought and in all religions
there is punishment and punishment is not a form of
violence...Punishment is seen as a response to violence or
deviance in society and if there is no punishment in a society a
society cannot run effectively…’
And that is Khatami’s unchanged vision pure and simple.
* Sign a Petition
Against Khatami’s visit to Chatham House and University of St.
Andrews, in UK
http://www.petitiononline.com/011106/petition.html
* Join the protests
Khatami is a criminal! He must be arrested and put on trial!
Scotland:
Tuesday 31 October
3:00- 6:00pm
In front of University of St Andrews
St Andrews
Fife KY16 9AJ
Scotland
Speaker:
Maryam Namazie, 2005 Secularist of the Year, Director of the
Worker-communist Party of Iran's International Relations Committee
