Iran savages Baha’is and denounces UN charter

          
          4 ,
          THE ELONDONJ SUNDAY flMES. 20 JANUARY1985
          WORLD
          IRAN, whose systematic use of torture and
          executions without fair trial is under
          investigation by the United Nations, has
          become the first country in the world to
          denounce the 1948 Universal Declaration
          of Human Rights. Its ambassador to the
          UN, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, has told the
          IJN in New York that since the
          declaration, for which Iran voted and
          which has the force of international
          customary law, derives from “the Judaeo-
          Christian tradition”, Iran ‘would not
          therefore hesitate to vio'ate its provisions”.
          Iran justifies its defiance of international
          law by claiming that it abides instead by
          “the divine law” of its 1979 Islamic
          constitution. It is refusing to cooperate
          s ith the UN's special investigator, who is
          due to make a preliminary report next
          month but has not been able to visit the
          cou n try.
          Torture to obtain information or
          confessions is prohibited under Iran's
          constitution, but Iran claims that “corporal
          punishn en and the death penalty” are not
          torture “ifcarried out on the basis ofislani,
          in accordance with a sentence by an
          Islamic court”. However, there is extensive
          documentary evidence that torture is being
          used to extract confessions, and without
          judicial sanction, and that it is becoming
          more brutal and more widespread. One
          group, the 300.000 Iranian members of the
          Ba.'ia'i faith, has been denied recognition
          under the constitution and is being
          persecuted as an entire community.
          The Baha'i religion, which originated in
          Iran in the 19th century, is considered
          hcrctical by Muslims because it holds that'
          alt re!icio is come from God and must be
          r:izcctcd as part ofa process of progressive
          rcvc!aticn, In revering Baha'ullah, their
          r ' 'ri prophet, they cha!lcnge the Islamic
          t' !ief th it Muhammad is the last of the
          w iets. P.aha'is have been consistently
          by Rosemary Righter
          Diplomatic Correspondent
          discriminated against in Iran, but Khomei-
          ni's regime is the first to have embarked on
          their wholesale destruction,
          The top Baha'i leadership, the nine-
          member elected national assembly, had to
          be reconstituted three times following
          kidnappings or arrests before being forced
          to disband last year. Of the 27 who have
          served since 1979, 25 are dead.
          Like the Jews in Hitler's Germany,
          Baha'is have been dismissed from their
          jobs, denied pensions and in some cases
          been forced to repay all salary received.
          They have had their property and business
          assets confiscated, and have been denied
          education and the right to worship. Since
          1983, they have been liable to the death
          penalty if they “give information to others”
          of the attacks against them, they have been
          prohibited to hold the assemblies that
          govern their affairs, and been executed for
          teaching their children the faith. Their
          cemeteries have been desecrated .Now the
          • campaign to break the Baha'i leadership,
          over 700 of whom are in prison and 193 of
          whom have been killed, is entering a new
          phase.
          All prisoners are to be forced to sign a
          statement conceding that the Baha'is are “a
          Zionist espionaee group” and that pos-
          session of any Baha'i literature or religious
          symbol warrants the death penalty for
          “warring against God”. The Iranian
          government, which has repeatedly asserted
          that no Baha'is have been persecuted for
          their faith, is resorting to this approach
          after six months of effort to obtain by
          torture “admissions” of Baha'i involve-
          ment with Israeli intelligence. Once it
          obtains such statements, foreign human-
          rights experts believe, it will feel free to
          begin a “final solution” diminating the
          Baha'is.
          Iran justifies its denial of recognition for
          the Baha'is by arguing that they are •‘a
          political sect”. In fact, Baha'is are expressly
          forbidden by their religion to take part in
          politics and enjoined to obey the ruling
          civil power.
          The allegation that Baba'is are “Zionist
          agents” derives from the historical accident
          that their ‘ounder, Baha'i'llah, was exiled
          to Acre in the 19th century, and the world
          headquarters of the 3m-strong worldwide
          religion is there on Mount Carniel, in what
          is now Israel.
          A temporary lull in the number of
          executions of Baha'is came in 1983,
          following an internationai outcry over the
          hanging of 10 women and teenage girls for
          teaching Baha'i children who had been
          expelled from school. But since last June,
          the scale and ferocity of tortures of Bahais
          has increased. Last month six senior
          leaders were executed, and the death of
          another 19 is thought to be irmsminent,
          Others have died under torture aimed at
          extracting videotaped confessions for use
          on Iranian television.
          Outside the jails Baha'is are subjected to
          exceptional measures. One man was taken
          last June from a Tehran hospital while he
          was recovering from surger on the va to
          prison, the guards tore open his sutures.
          Others have been surrounced by mobs and
          burned to death, or incinerated in their
          homes. Families of those executed have
          been driven from their homes.
          Some 40.000 Baha'is have managed to
          flee Iran. Those who remain live under a
          suspended seclence of death. Khomeini
          has not rescinded his edict that, “if
          somebody is a heretic and Will not recant,
          the shedding of his blood is not a crime”.
          BP000569
          fran savages Baha!is and
          denounces UN charter