Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Iran Is An Apartheid Regime
During the ongoing joke of a conference titled the "World Conference on Racism", the Norwegian foreign minister refused to leave the room during a speech by Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The latter is spearheading a group of rouge nations that have managed to hijack the conference in order to turn it into an anti-Israeli campaign.
While countries such as Canada & the United States are refusing even to participate in the conference, most other democratic countries have sent low level delegates. Norway, a tiny country of just over 4 million souls, has instead decided to join the dictators and thugs at the conference in order to engage in "dialogue". Neville Chamberlain would have been pleased.
The Norwegian foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, is actually a rarity in the current Norwegian government in that he is not a fool. Most likely his hands have been tied by the far-left Socialist Left Party, which is part of the coalition government currently ruling Norway.
In either event, it is ironic that Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is even allowed to address a conference on racism. Iran's treatment of women is similar in many ways to the treatment of blacks under South-Africa's apartheid regime, and human rights abuses are a daily occurrence. Amnesty International reports on a wide range of human rights abuses:
"large-scale arrests, incommunicado detention and torture--have taken place in the context of recent unrest among the country's Arab and Kurdish and Azeri ethnic minorities. Demonstrations held to protest violations have been met with indiscriminate use of violence; several of the victims have been children. Religious minority communities--including Bahais and Muslims practicing Sufism, have also been faced increased persecution in recent months. In recent months, the Iranian authorities have been carrying out a widespread crackdown on civil society, targeting academics, women's rights activists, students, journalists and labor organizers. Hundreds of trade union activists--in particular activists from the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company were arrested as part of measures to prevent planned strikes. Lawyers, web loggers and others who have spoken out against human rights violations have themselves been targeted for abuse".
Jonas Gahr Støre is wasting his time by discussing human rights issues with thugs like Mr. Ahmadinejad. Perhaps his time could be spent more constructively in a different location, say Sri Lanka?
Dagbladet is covering the UN story in several articles (1, 2, 3, 4) and so is VG (1, 2).
While countries such as Canada & the United States are refusing even to participate in the conference, most other democratic countries have sent low level delegates. Norway, a tiny country of just over 4 million souls, has instead decided to join the dictators and thugs at the conference in order to engage in "dialogue". Neville Chamberlain would have been pleased.
The Norwegian foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, is actually a rarity in the current Norwegian government in that he is not a fool. Most likely his hands have been tied by the far-left Socialist Left Party, which is part of the coalition government currently ruling Norway.
In either event, it is ironic that Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is even allowed to address a conference on racism. Iran's treatment of women is similar in many ways to the treatment of blacks under South-Africa's apartheid regime, and human rights abuses are a daily occurrence. Amnesty International reports on a wide range of human rights abuses:
"large-scale arrests, incommunicado detention and torture--have taken place in the context of recent unrest among the country's Arab and Kurdish and Azeri ethnic minorities. Demonstrations held to protest violations have been met with indiscriminate use of violence; several of the victims have been children. Religious minority communities--including Bahais and Muslims practicing Sufism, have also been faced increased persecution in recent months. In recent months, the Iranian authorities have been carrying out a widespread crackdown on civil society, targeting academics, women's rights activists, students, journalists and labor organizers. Hundreds of trade union activists--in particular activists from the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company were arrested as part of measures to prevent planned strikes. Lawyers, web loggers and others who have spoken out against human rights violations have themselves been targeted for abuse".
Jonas Gahr Støre is wasting his time by discussing human rights issues with thugs like Mr. Ahmadinejad. Perhaps his time could be spent more constructively in a different location, say Sri Lanka?
Dagbladet is covering the UN story in several articles (1, 2, 3, 4) and so is VG (1, 2).
Labels: iran, Jonas Gahr Støre, norway, politics, racism, united nations
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