22.01.2008

Mohammed Khatami: Former Iranian President (1997-2005)

While Mohammad Khatami and his Foundation for Dialogue Among Civilizations are purportedly giving voice to a tolerant and inclusive Iran, it is worth to remembering his term as President of Iran.

Freedom of expression and political dissent:

• When he was president (1997 – 2005), the Iranian regime shut down more than one hundred newspapers and imprisoned dozens of opposition journalists. This led the international Reporters Without Borders to dub Iran "the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East,” in its 2004 annual report. [1]

• Reporters Without Borders, said in the same report on Iran from May 5, 2004 that scores of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, served prison sentences imposed after unfair trials. The accusation against them was to "endanger national security" with their articles. Many of the families of those arrested faced intimidation. [2]

• Under Khatami’s presidency, the political opposition was silenced throughout the country by the systematic use of indefinite solitary confinement of political prisoners, physical torture of student activists, and denial of basic due process rights to all those detained for the expression of dissenting views. [3]


Human Rights abuses:

Under Khatami, independent human rights defenders were harassed. At least two individuals died in custody and 159 people were executed, including one minor. At least two of the 36 people who were flogged reportedly died following the implementation of the punishment; no investigations were carried out into these deaths. The true number of those executed or subjected to corporal punishment was believed to be considerably higher. [4]

• Khatami presided over brutal repression, including the grisly murders of the Forouhars in 1978 and the mass murders and arrests of student demonstrators a year later. [5]

• Amnesty international states in their annual report from 2005 that the death penalty was handed down for charges such as "enmity against God" or "morality crimes" that did not reflect internationally recognizable criminal charges. [6]


Nuclear weapons

• Khatami insists on the “undeniable right to nuclear technology” for Iran. [7]

• In February 2004 he bought nuclear weapons technology from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the godfather of Pakistan's nuclear bomb.[8]

• When Khatami was president in Iran, the efforts to develop technologies which could be used to build a nuclear bomb were continued and developed in Nantaz, Arak, Busher and elsewhere. [9]

• Despite repeated verbally statements by Khatami to cease enrichment of uranium, Iran never stopped the process. IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei complained frequently about missing transparency and cooperation. [10]

Khatami’s actions as president were two-tracked. Although he spoke out for tolerance and reform, he never meant to overthrow the system and was a convinced follower of the velayat-e faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists). He acted within the framework of the Constitution and tried to “humanize” Islamic theocracy without changing it in its very core. He never challenged the absolute authority of the “Leader of the Revolution” and did not support initiatives of other “reformists”. Khatami always tried to find a “consensus” solution. He diluted the reform principles, weakened the reform movement as a whole and exacerbated a lot of his followers. [11]

Quotes from Khatami:

On Islam:

• "If we abide by real legal laws, we should mobilize the whole Islamic World for a sharp confrontation with the Zionist regime… if we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilize to kill." [12]

• "What could we do in order to enter the world scene? We need a force which the enemy does not possess, and this is the force which is superior to technology and to arms. What we need as a balancing force is the newly born, fully-alert, and ready to sacrifice Islamic force. If the Islamic Republic is supported by such a force…then its movement would be taken seriously." [13]

On Hezbollah:

• "Our strategy is to reinforce Hezbollah, which is an independent and Islamic movement." [14]

 • "We have a lot of close intellectual ties with the Hezbollah." [15]

• "Hezbollah is not just an armed resistance movement, it is a powerful political movement that is also armed." [16]

On Israel

• "The Zionist regime is an undesirable entity in the Middle East." [17]