Iranian Intellectuals List Demands Of The Green Movement

Source: Radio Zamaneh, Mousavi facebook

Five Iranian intellectuals in exile have issued a statement announcing "the preliminary demands" of the Green Movement.
Abdolkarim Soroosh, Mohsen Kadivar, Ataollah Mohajerani, Abdolali Bazargan and Akbar Ganji called for the resignation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and renewed elections.

(from left to right) Ganji, Bazargan, Mohajerani, Kadivar, Soroush

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 Mir Hossein 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.

green protesters in Tehran on December 27 (photo by www.kosoof.com)

Following is the full set of demands put forward by the five intellectuals:

1. Resignation of Ahmadinejad and holding a re-election under the supervision of independent organization, cancelation of the pre-approving screening by the guardian council, and formation of an independent commission consistent of the representatives of the protesters to the election results for legislating new criteria to enable fair and free elections.
2. Release of all political prisoners and the investigation of the cases of torture and assault of the protestors over the past few months in open trials with the presence of juries and the right to select and have lawyers as well as compensating the victims and their families.
3. Freedom of all media including press, audio and video media and cyber media; allowing the newspapers that were closed down by the government to re-open; permitting independent and non-governmental satellite television channels and the removal of extensive filtering of internet; clearing state-run televisions and radios from liars.
4. Recognizing the right of non-governmental organizations to operate; recognizing the right of people, unions, and women's right activist and other groups to hold peaceful demonstrations as allowed by article 27 of the constitution.
5. Independence of universities and leaving university affairs to the academics; removal of military and paramilitary forces from the universities and shutting down the illegal high commission for Cultural Revolution (government's agency responsible for identifying and removing government's opposition in universities).
6. Immediate trials of the torturers, the operatives and the masterminds of the past crimes especially over the past few months.
7. Giving independence to the judiciary by holding election for its head and clearing the judiciary of unfair puppet judges and stopping show trials.
8. The removal of armed and security forces from the culture, politics and economics scenes.
9. Giving political and financial independence to the seminary schools from the government; stopping the practice of buying the Friday prayer Imams for political goals.
10. All top ranked positions become elected ones with limited terms.

See the Persian version.