Washington,DC - Iranian opposition leaders speaking on International Human Rights Day called on the United States to publicly support the efforts of the Iranian people to establish freedom and democracy in their country.
In an unusual display of unity, the leaders of the Constitutionalists Movement of Iran, the Flag of Freedom Organization, the foreign spokesman of the Iran Nation's Party, the U.S. representative of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, and a representative of Iran's Sunni Muslim Balouchi minority, came together at a public function organized in Washington, DC on December 10 by the Foundation for Democracy of Iran and Americans for Tax Reform, a public interest group.z
A CMI spokesman Darioush Homayoun praised the efforts of FDI to bring together different Iranian opposition groups, and pledged that his party "will be in the forefront" in building a larger coalition of Iranian democrats. "We want to work closer with Iranian Kurds, Balouchis, and other ethnic minorities," he told the crowd of Congressional staffers, reporters, and foreign policy experts. "We have worked very hard to open our Party."
Dr. Manoucher Gandji, the Secretary General of the Flag of Freedom Organization, said that the establishment of a free and democratic Iran was in America's strategic interest. "In other countries that have lived under tyranny, the United States and the European countries have publicly supported the democratic opposition. We want them to do the same thing in Iran."
Dr. Gandji took issue with a common refrain heard in policy circles in Washington about the lack of any viable alternative to the Islamic regime in Iran. "If there is no opposition, why has the regime killed tens of thousands of people inside Iran? Why have they assassinated more than 120 Iranians living in exile? Why are their jails full of political prisoners?" He urged the Western media to pay more attention to events inside Iran, and to the mounting evidence of the regime's sponsorship of international terrorism.
Mr. Homayoun Moghaddam the foreign spokesman of the Iran Nation's Party, an outlawed opposition party in Tehran, believes that the regime "has been encouraged" by the failure of outside powers to supporst the democratic opposition in Iran, and he warned: "The present sufferings of the Iranian people could become the suffering of the American people in the future." Referring to the recent disturbances in Kermanshah, where dozens of Iranians were killed by Law Enforcement Forces during anti-regime demonstrations, he said that "past experience has shown that the Islamic Republic has always sought to put an end to dissent inside Iran by turning to foreign adventures and terrorism. It's a historic duty of Americans to help the Nation of Iran to put an end to dictatorship."
Peter Rodman, who directs Strategic Programs at the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom, called FDI "simply the most important organization in America representing issues Iran represents, and is the most valuable source of information on Iran." Mr. Rodman has served in the National Security Council in four Republican administrations, and was Director of the State Department's Office of Policy Planning. "I am very proud to be associated with FDI," he said. Mr. Rodman has served on FDI's Board of Directors since its inception in August 1995.
Among those attending the FDI meeting were Greg Rickman, who is director of legislative affairs for Senator Alfonse D'Amato; George Sibley, the Iran desk officer at the State Department; Grover Norquist, the President of Americans for Tax Reform; Dr. Stephen Bryen, a former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense; and James Lucier, who has served as Staff Director of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. Foreign diplomats, reporters from American and international publications, and prominent Iranian-Americans also attended.
FDI Executive Director, Kenneth R. Timmerman, said the group was "neither an Iranian opposition group nor an American lobbying group, but an Iranian-American organization that tries to bridge the gap between our two communities. We support the rights of all Iranians seeking to bring freedom and democracy to their country."
FDI gathers and disseminates information on human rights abuses in Iran, and electronically publishes a weekly news bulletin on Iranian affairs, which is available on the Internet. FDI materials have regularly been picked up by the Farsi-language news media, by Amnesty International and other human rights groups, and have been included in reports on human rights violations in Iran issued by the United Nations.
The Foundation has been funded with a start-up grant from the National Endowment for Democracy and by private individuals and corporations. Contributions to FDI are tax-exempt.
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is a private, non-profit corporation registered in the State of Maryland. Contact: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Executive Director. Tel: (301) 946-2918. Fax: (301) 942-5341. FDI materials, including the FDI Newswire, are available free-of-charge via the Internet at http://www.iran.org