Iranian dissidents protesting rights abuses in their country are calling for the U-N Human Rights Commission to adopt a resolution condemning violations of human rights in Iran. Lisa Schlein attended a demonstration outside U-N headquarters in Geneva that marked the end of a week-long international campaign by the Iranian opposition groups.

… One of the demonstrators, Parviz Khazai, is a former Iranian ambassador to Sweden and Norway. He defected and is now a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. One of the reasons for the demonstration, Mr. Khazai says, is to call attention to a recent crackdown in Iran and what it says about the government's attitude toward those who dissent.

PARVIZ KHAZAI: … Once more these atrocities prove that this regime does not really have any room for any reform within the system and it has to be toppled down.

Mr. Khazai says the Iranian opposition is urging the UN human-rights commission to pass a resolution condemning the suppression and arrests in Iran. Furthermore, he says, the international community must be made aware that Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, is not a reformer.

PARVIZ KHAZAI: … This mullah [Khatami] came in order to make some cosmetic changes within the regime and in order to make it more attractive for the international market and international trade, whereas inside the country, the atrocities and crimes have increased.

The Iranian dissidents say they want the international community to sever political and economic ties with the Iranian regime. Many of the protesters are waving Iranian flags and singing their country's national anthem. They say they are determined to fight until democracy is restored in their country.
 

Iranians in Several Capitals Call For Censuring Human Rights Abuses, Boycott Of Election, Iran Zamin News Agency, April 17

In continuation of a week of protest against suppression and execution in Iran, on the invitation of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, today large gatherings were held in Geneva, Brussels, Copenhagen and Oslo.

The protesters called for the decisive condemnation of human rights abuses in Iran and underscored the need to recognize the legitimate rights of the Iranian people to overthrow the medieval dictatorship in Iran and establish democracy and sovereignty of the people.
 

Mullahs' Regime Hangs Five More people, Agence France Presse, April 17

TEHRAN - Five drug traffickers sentenced to death by an Iranian revolutionary court have been hanged, the state news agency reported Tuesday.

The five, whose nationalities were not revealed, were sent to the gallows Monday in Birjand.

Their death sentences had been upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court.
 

Prostitution, Among other Social Vices, On the Rise in Iran Under Mullahs, Agence France Presse, April 17

TEHRAN - It may have disappeared from view when it was banned in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, although merely going underground, but now prostitution in making a comeback in Iran, where the phenomenon is constantly gaining ground to the point of worrying the Iranian regime.

Banned in all forms, female and male, prostitution has over the past four years become a worsening social condition, developing in time with the economic crisis and unemployment.

"What do you expect? We have got to eat and earn money," says Shahla, a woman of 21 who has taken up prostitution in the well-heeled northern part of Tehran.
 

Students Slam Khatami for His Inaction, Reuters, April 17

TEHRAN - Hundreds of Iranian students protested on Tuesday against the recent arrests of more than 60 dissident intellectuals.

About 800 students demonstrated as speakers criticized supreme leader Ali Khamenei for failing to rein in his judiciary allies and slammed president Mohammad Khatami for not doing enough to ensure civil freedoms.

"Why is it (Khatami) has remained silent in the wake of so much injustice?" said a speaker at the Amir Kabir University in Tehran rally.

"Khatami shouldn't just verbally express concern over the arrests like ordinary citizens," said another student speaker. "As the man responsible for implementing the constitution, he should take action."

In a separate incident, a student leader Heshmatollah Tabarzadi was arrested by agents of the Revolutionary Court on Monday. 

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