Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Publish date: January 04 • Printable version    

Iranian intellectuals list Green Movement demands


Ganji, Bazargan, Mohajerani, Kadivar, Soroush

Five Iranian intellectuals in exile have issued a statement announcing “the preliminary demands” of the Green Movement.

Abdolkarim Soroush, Mohsen Kadivar, Ataollah Mohajerani, Abdolali Bazargan and Akbar Ganji called for the resignation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and renewed elections.

They have also called for the dissolution of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, the independence of universities and the removal of military and paramilitary forces from the university milieu.

Recognizing the legal right of political parties and student movements, immediate prosecution of torturers, murderers and perpetrators of “the past crimes” and the release of all political and ideological prisoners are some more of the said demands.

They have also added that the judiciary needs to be independent and the head of this government branch needs to be elected by popular vote rather than appointment of the Supreme Leader as it is done now.

Political and financial independence of all seminaries, refraining from turning the clergy into public service and the complete withdrawal of the armed forces from politics, economics and culture are also listed in the statement.

They also demand that all senior public officials be elected and accountable with a limited time at office.

The latest announcement of MirHosein Mousavi, the chief disputing candidate of the June presidential elections that started the latest crisis in Iran which has resulted in over six months of protests and violent government crackdown on protesters, also contained a series of solutions to take the country out of the current crisis such as accountability of the government, freedom of assembly and the press, release of political prisoners and transparency of the election process.

The five Iranian intellectuals maintain that Mr. Mousavi has stated the “minimum conditions” and while they support his conditions, they propose to expand it with their own demands.

The statement adds: “The Green Movement of Iran stands for Iran’s territorial integrity and rejects any military invasion of the country. It is also against any foreign interference in determining the nation’s fate and is concerned about economic sanctions that can prove injurious to the people of Iran.”

They maintain that “religious despotism has lost its legitimacy through violence and massacre of people on Ashura Day.”

The statement concludes with the warning that the suppression of the demands of the Greem Movement would only “deepen the crisis” and all its responsibility will lie with “Velayat-e Faghih leadership.”

Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, is referred to as Vali-e Faghih.

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seperation of church and state,You forgot about

-- vettcrazz ، Jan 4, 2010

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