His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary General
The United Nations
New York, NY
Your Excellency,
Your decision to attend the Non
Aligned Movement (NAM), this week in Tehran, draws special attention to the
unique role of the Secretary General as the leader of the United Nations, an
institution that, in 1945, set as the preamble of its charter the following
mission statement:
“To save succeeding generations
from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime brought untold sorrow to
mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity
and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of
nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and
respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of
international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better
standards of life in larger freedom…”
In turn, the Non Aligned
Movement has established the driving principals of the UN charter as the
requisite basis of qualification for membership by candidate countries:
Known as the “Ten Bandung Principles" it is noteworthy that “Respect
for fundamental human rights” is the very first item of the charter of the NAM
conference -- Your Excellency is to attend in Tehran this week.
With great irony and quite
unfortunately, the clerical regime of Iran’s continued, systematic and gross
violation of human rights -- within and beyond its borders -- is a sad truth
and an established fact that has been brought to your attention by a myriad of
organizations, world citizens and leaders, including the UN’s own Human Rights
Council and Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran.
Your Excellency’s attendance of
the Tehran NAM conference is being watched very closely because of the unique
mandate and opportunity afforded to your office at such an important and high-visibility
conference, with the expectation that the dire condition of the thousands of
political prisoners languishing in your host's prison cells will not be
forgotten under any circumstance or diplomatic protocol.
Clearly, the Tehran conference
will seek to detract, through lavish conferences, receptions and dramatic
communiqués, the remotest attention from the thousands of men and woman, young
and old suffering from cruel, unusual, life threatening conditions and torture
at the hands of your very hosts. However, because of your personal
awareness of the facts, there is a high level of confidence that you will not
forget or leave un-addressed the plight of our political prisoners as they will
be left with very little hope if the regime is given a pass by the
international community, and not held accountable by a world body as important
as the United Nations.
At the moment when the regime’s
‘supreme leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, inaugurates the Tehran conference, he
will do so while holding the very pen and key that has ordered and locked
thousands of our nameless compatriots in prison cells and torture chambers
throughout Tehran, the city host to you and all heads of states attending the
NAM conference.
To the regime, it matters
little who from, or why, a voice may rise in complaint, protest or
grievance. Legitimate, well-founded or not, from friend or foe, the
regime’s response to an alternate opinion is usually swift, punishing, cruel,
crushing and often accompanied with great bravado: because they
simply don’t feel -- and are not held -- accountable!
To that end neither Ayatollah
Seyed Hossein Kazemeiny Boroujerdi nor Mr. Mir. Hossein Musavi,
respectively a prominent clergy and a candidate for the presidency of the
Islamic Republic, have been spared the regime’s wrath: both
individuals have suffered deterioration of their health while held as political
prisoners of the regime.
In Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s case,
even though a learned cleric, he has not been exempt from intense regular
physical torture; while, Mr. Mir Hossein Musavi’s three year detention has
included heavy psychological torture and targeted denial of timely medical
attention.
While the tide is fast changing
as demands for accountability fuels the winds of change that are filling the
sails of civil disobedience and peaceful defiance throughout Iran, high profile
international attention to our plight is essential and often energizing as the
Iranian people themselves will invariably chose right from wrong and bring
light to darkness.
Your Excellency, I favor your
high profile attendance of the NAM Tehran conference as I view it as a grand
opportunity to shed light on the systematic disregard and violation of human
rights by your hosts.
An immediate halt of such
violations, followed by the release of all political prisoners is the rightful
demand of the Iranian people who have every expectation that the Secretary
General of the United Nations will not disregard their plight or abandon them
at their time of greatest need.
With high esteem and personal
regards,
Reza Pahlavi
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