Aiding Iran

Matthew J. Stinson has an interesting post on the subject:

Midrash Shmuel, a Jewish rabbinical maxim based on the events of I Samuel 15, teaches that compassion should only be extended to the worthy, for "He who is merciful when he should be cruel will in the end be cruel when he should be merciful." But the innocent victims of the earthquake in Bam -- unlike Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, or Iran's theocratic leaders -- are worthy of mercy. They're not our enemies, so why the cruelty -- and praise of the virtue of indifference is cruelty -- when the situation merits being merciful? Why the need to hold a multitude of people responsible for the crimes of a few?

I can't think of any circumstance where extending aid to victims of natural disasters would not be the right thing to do, so long as we have the financial wherewithal to do so without harm to our own citizens. Even with our high deficits, we can certainly afford to help out in this case.

That said, as to Mathew's argument, I'm not sure that the citizens are entirely innocent here. Surely, the people who allow these regimes to remain in office have some moral responsibility for the consequences that follow? Resisting tyranny is, to say the least, difficult. Still, it has been done time and again. If societies that organize to secure their own freedom are morally praiseworthy, surely those who do not can be faulted?

Cross-post from OTB

The Iranian Regime's Incomptence

Translation of this article.

Shargh Newspaper Sahar Namazi Khah

You need only spend 5 hours in Tehran's Mehrabad ariport to see the regime's paralysis in sending medical volunteers to the eathquake site. You need only circle the cities' main squares for 2 hours to see all the people wondering around clutching armloads of supplies they want to donate in search of collection points and transfer sites they can't find. And you need only visit blood donation sites to see how donations are halted as a result of minor glitches such as a shortage of blood bags. This is when you realise the truth, that the people are ready and willing to help, but the officials have disappeared.

People who hear calls for help, supplies and blood on radio and TV all day, rush out in the cold and snow to donate what they can, only to be turned away to go back home unable to help. They send them away hurt and disappointed, and only comfort them with suggestions of prayers instead of an opportunity for participation and assistance. During natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and fires one of the most important tasks is the proper managment of the response, organisation of aid, volunteer groups and transfer of supplies and assistance to the afflicted areas. Sending medical and volunteer aid groups to a disaster area such as an earthauke site is as important as pulling out dead bodies.

A day after an earthquake, go to the biggest airport in Iran at Mehrabad to see all the doctors, emergency and medical teams stuck waiting for hours as a result of the total incompetance of response management while hundreds desperately need their help. Reporters were paralysed as a result of paper chases with the dreaded Herasat officials and the airport Revolutionary Guard squads wasting time that could be spent reporting the breaking story. Young rescuers without any proper clothing were being sent to a freezing cold destination. Because of the regime's incompetance groups of young doctors from the Tehran Medical School, Shahid Pezeshki University, the Halal Ahmal Helpers, journalists and reporters spent endless hours sitting around holding their plane tickets waiting to leave while hundreds were dying for lack of rescuers and medical aid.

Everyone could see the weakness and incompetance of the reigime in responding, organising and managing this crisis, a regime whose most minimal responsibility is to deliver aid in the case of emergencies and disasters, and a regime that was not able to to do so in any way shape or form.

Archive of earthquake articles from BlogIran

Bam a "City of Death"

From the AAP via The Australian :

The [Australian] Federal Government's earthquake aid shipment was due to arrive in Iran tomorrow, but too late for a professor visiting Australia who lost more than 60 family members in the rubble.
[...]
Professor Hossein Mohebi, on study leave at the University of Ballarat in regional Victoria, said he would not be rushing back to his homeland because "everyone is dead".

"Between my wife Maryam and I, we have lost about 60 relatives," Professor Mohebi told AAP.

"My brother rang and told me that my aunts and uncles were dead along with my mother and many other relatives and friends.

"It is a city of death and there is no point going back now because everyone is dead and there is nothing we can do."

Quake Update: Iran Gov't Orders "Protesters" to be Shot

Thousands of the regime forces have been mobilized in the Kerman Province and especially in the cities of Bam and Jiroft in order to prepare the "conditions" for the "future" visit of the Islamic republic leaders.

Orders have been issued to arrest or shoot on any protester in the devastated areas under the label of "fighting looters".

Apparently, the regime has yet to visit the scene of the devastation in Bam because they fear the protests and rage that will greet them when they do. Many Bam residents are angered over the lack of aid received and the slow response of authorities.

The regime is so afraid of the backlash against them that they have started blocking rescue workers from entering the city.

Many Iranians have shouted slogans or expressed signs for stating their gratitudes to the US and Israeli governments despite getting beaten up by the regime's security apparatus present to monitor these gatherings.

Please keep that in mind when you wonder whether or not the U.S. should be sending aid in light of the regime's decision to not accept aid from Israel. The government does not always speak for the people.

Thank you to Blog Iran for the constant updates on the situation in Bam.

Iran Just Says "No" to Aid From Israel

"The Islamic Republic of Iran accepts all kinds of humanitarian aid from all countries and international organizations with the exception of the Zionist regime (Israel)," Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said Saturday, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

My quest to remain unbiased as well as fair and balanced keeps me from commenting on this. There's nothing, however, keeping you from commenting on this revolting display of blind hatred getting in the way of a government's need to help its people in a time of crisis.

Oops.

Iran Quake Update/Relief Effort Information

For any and all information on the devastating earthquake in the ancient city of Bam (the death toll has risen to 20,000), please visit Iranian Truth weblog. There are constant news updates, donation information and links to other Iranian bloggers who are covering the quake.

Also check out ActivistChat. There, you can see beautiful pictures of Bam before the quake, as well as heartbreaking photos of the victims and ruins. Also visit the main page for links to updated news and donation information.

For a close-up look at the devastation, view this Yahoo slideshow.

Links to relief efforts here and here.

Post-Quake Anger

The anger has increased especially as the hospitals of neighboring cities are refusing more patients and as the regime's President has issued formal orders banning any aid coming from outside of governmental networks by requesting the transfer of any popular aid to these entities known as to be corrupt.

See Daneshjoo.org for more details

At Least 10,000 Feared Dead in Iran Earthquake

An 6.7 earthquake struck the historic southeastern Iranian city of Bam, killing at leat 10,000 people and basically destroying the entire city.

The quake occurred at 5:27 a.am., when most people were sleeping and authorities fear that the death toll may climb much higher as they comb through the rubble of homes.

An aftershock of 5.4 came hours later, causing even more damage.

Bam's two hospitals were both destroyed in the quake, forcing rescuers to bring the injured to Kerman for medical attention.

[Various sources]

"Iran Signs Up to Tougher Supervision of Nuclear Sites"

Or so the headline reads. Here is the story:

Iran yesterday formally agreed to allow the United Nations' nuclear watchdog greater access to its nuclear facilities.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Ali Akbar Salehi, Tehran's IAEA representative, signed in Vienna an Additional Protocol to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would allow tougher IAEA supervision, including the right of inspectors to visit Iran's nuclear sites with just two hours' notice.

The agreement follows increased US pressure on Tehran since President George W. Bush last year included Iran alongside Iraq and North Korea in an "axis of evil".

Tehran has denied any interest in nuclear weapons, which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, has said are contrary to Islam.

Mr Salehi said yesterday that by signing the protocol Iran had taken "a great and important step towards revealing its attitude of transparency" and expressed the hope that it would "no more be subject to unfair and politically motivated accusations and allegations".

Iran told European Union foreign ministers in October that it would suspend uranium enrichment as a gesture of goodwill, and has insisted that traces of highly enriched uranium found by the IAEA last summer were due to contaminated imported equipment.

But in a report last month, the IAEA criticised Tehran for a lack of transparency.

(Also posted on my blog.)

Hopes fading for breakthrough in North Korean nuclear crisis

AP [ Full story »» ] reports:

European diplomats, who had three days of talks in Pyongyang, reported that the communist government was not easing up on its earlier preconditions for the talks. "They cannot possibly dismantle their program until they have all the assurances they need for their security. They see the nuclear weapons option as indispensable for their national security," said Percy Westerlund, director of external relations for the European Commission

The U.N.'s Quagmire in Kosovo

Why are we supposed to let the U.N. take more control in Iraq again? But, um, the U.N.'s track record isn't very good...

* * *

Crime, terror flourish in 'liberated' Kosovo - Ethnic cleansing, smuggling rampant under UN's aegis

Isabel Vincent
National Post

December 10, 2003

Four years after it was "liberated" by a NATO bombing campaign, Kosovo has deteriorated into a hotbed of organized crime, anti-Serb violence and al-Qaeda sympathizers, say security officials and Balkan experts.

Though nominally still under UN control, the southern province of Serbia is today dominated by a triumvirate of Albanian paramilitaries, mafiosi and terrorists. They control a host of smuggling operations and are implementing what many observers call their own brutal ethnic cleansing of minority groups, such as Serbs, Roma and Jews.

In recent weeks, UN officials ordered the construction of a fortified concrete barrier around the UN compound on the outskirts of the provincial capital Pristina. This is to protect against terrorist strikes by Muslim extremists who have set up bases of operation in what has become a largely outlaw province.

Minority Serbs, who were supposed to have been guaranteed protection by the international community after the 78-day NATO bombing campaign ended in the spring of 1999, have abandoned the province en masse. The last straw for many was the recent round of attacks by ethnic Albanian paramilitaries bent on gaining independence through violence.

Attacks on Serbs in Kosovo, a province of two million people, have risen sharply.

According to statistics collected by the UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague, 1,192 Serbs have been killed, 1,303 kidnapped and 1,305 wounded in Kosovo this year.

In June, 1999, just after the NATO bombing, 547 Serbs were killed and 932 were kidnapped.

Last summer, in one of the more grisly massacres, two Serb youths were killed and four others wounded by ethnic Albanian militants while swimming in the Bistrica River, near Pec.

The violence continues despite an 18,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force and an international police force of more than 4,000.

Serbs, who now make up 5% of the population of Kosovo, down from 10% before the NATO campaign, are the main targets of the paramilitary groups.

The bombing was partly launched by NATO countries to end the ethnic cleansing of Albanians by Serb security forces in the region. In its immediate aftermath, many Serbs left Kosovo to settle in other parts of Yugoslavia, now known as Serbia and Montenegro.

Last week, Harri Holkeri, the province's UN leader, suspended two generals and 10 other officers, all members of an ethnic Albanian offshoot of the Kosovo Liberation Army, an insurgent group that emerged in the late 1980s to fight Serb security forces.

Mr. Holkeri made his decision -- the strongest UN response to violence in the province so far -- after a UN inquiry into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC). Although the civilian defence organization is supposed to help local residents, over the past four years, its mostly ethnic Albanian military officials have been involved in violent confrontations with Serbs.

The inquiry found last April's bomb attack on a Kosovo railway was the work of the KPC.

"The whole process of rebuilding Kosovo-Metohija as a democratic, multi-ethnic society failed due to both the inability of the UN mission and [NATO] forces to protect Serbs and other non-Albanians from large-scale ethnic cleansing, this time primarily against Serbs," said Dusan Batakovic, a Serb diplomat and leading expert on Kosovo.

Dr. Batakovic and other Balkan experts, who attended a conference in Toronto last month to discuss Kosovo's future, say the situation is deteriorating rapidly.

"NATO forces made a real mess of Kosovo," said James Bissett, a former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia. "The bombing of Yugoslavia was a dreadful failure on humanitarian grounds. It failed to stop ethnic cleansing, which has continued after the so-called peace treaty."

In addition, "Balkan Taliban" -- Muslim ethnic Albanian paramilitary groups -- have vandalized Serb cemeteries and destroyed many of the region's Orthodox Christian monasteries and churches.

"This is a strategy of cutting Kosovo Serbs off from their historical and religious traditions," said Dr. Batakovic in his report to the North American Society of Serbian Studies conference.

Moreover, Kosovo has turned into one of Europe's biggest hubs for drug trafficking and terrorism.

Al-Qaeda has set up bases in the province, which has become an important centre for heroin, cigarette, gasoline and people smuggling.

The Albanian mafia and paramilitary groups, which security officials say are closely tied to al-Qaeda militants in the region, also oversee smuggling. More than 80% of Western Europe's heroin comes through Kosovo, where several drug laboratories have been set up, Interpol officials say.

* * *

In the meantime, the situation is expected to get worse, with renewed threats of violence against both the United Nations and Serbs in the province.

"It's a terrible situation," said Mr. Bissett. "If the United Nations and other organizations can't handle Kosovo, you wonder how they are going to do with something like Iraq."

* * *

Via Instapundit.

Eyes on Korea: 2003-12-09

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. Today's Regional Briefing focuses on Korea, courtesy of Robert Koehler of The Marmot's Hole.

Top Topics

• In case you haven't read through them yet, Andy of Flying Yangban has a brilliant four part series analyzing Korean reunification models and the reunification policies of the last two South Korean administrations - they really are must reads.

  Part 1: Intro and overview
  Part 2: German and Vietnamese models and Korea
  Part 3: China and Hong Kong, Yemeni models and Korea
  Part 4: Lessons to be learned, Bibliography
  

• American forces in South Korea will redeploy to positions south of the Han River, with the huge Yongsan Garrison in downtown Seoul being moved out of the capital to the Osan-P'yongtaek area. The Korean press reports that talks concerning troop reductions have been put off until the end of next year.

• Richard Halloran reported in the Washington Times that troops from Korea may be sent to Iraq and/or Afghanistan, a report vigorously denied by USFK headquarters in Korea. This is a highly confusing issue, and those who reside in South Korea are forced to endure an endless stream of contradictory reports on USFK redeployments/reductions. The Korean-language Internet news provider OhMyNews ran a very interesting piece (translated by me) on the removal of the American "tripwire" from the inter-Korean DMZ and the regional implications of the planned transformations of American forces in South Korea.

ALSO ON TAP TODAY: South Koreans killed in Iraq; China & Korea fight over ancient history; Josh Marshall on Korean diplomacy; Riots; Bruce Cumings attacks; Hunger strikes; North Korea & racial purity; anti-Americanism on South Korean campuses; the LG credit card crisis and much, MUCH MORE.

Read the Rest...

Student Protests in Iran

Here is the story:

Around 1,000 pro-reform students rallied in the Iranian capital Sunday calling for freedom of speech and the release of political prisoners, witnesses said.

The protesters in Tehran chanted "Free all political prisoners" and "Death to despotism" on the annual Student Day, which marks the death of three students during a protest against then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon's Iran visit in 1953. Students have been at the forefront of protests against the Islamic Republic's clerical establishment in recent years, often clashing with hard-line vigilantes loyal to conservative clerics opposed to any watering down of Iran's Islamic system. Dozens of students have been arrested during major street protests in recent years. Under tight police security, protesters inside the Tehran University campus Sunday carried pictures of their jailed classmates. Students played a crucial part in President Mohammad Khatami's landslide win over his conservative rivals in 1997 and his re-election in 2001 on a platform of liberal political and social reforms. But angry at Khatami's non-confrontational approach and advocacy of gradual change in Iran, the country's biggest student movement, the Office to Consolidate Unity, has withdrawn its influential political support for Khatami and his allies.

"Reformists used our votes as a political tool and in return we got broken promises. They forgot us," Matin Meshkini, a student leader, told Reuters.

(Also linked to on my blog.)

Riots in Iran

Via InstaPundit, here is the very brief and sketchy story.

Iran and the Nuclear Inspections

An interesting story can be found here:

As inspectors begin to delve into Iran's nuclear program, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency warned this week that safeguards meant to prevent nuclear proliferation are becoming increasingly battered. Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a phone interview with the Monitor that the discovery of nuclear programs in places like Iran and North Korea has put his organization under increasing stress. "We are acting as a fireman, and a fireman is not sufficient," he says.

Mr. ElBaradei wants more countries to sign onto nuclear-inspection protocols. In the long term, he says, all nuclear materials used in commercial programs should come under multinational control. He reminded nuclear-weapons states that the best path to nonproliferation is to address security concerns of countries that may want to go nuclear.

The statements come even as a dozen IAEA inspectors are in Iran to verify last month's pledge by Tehran to suspend its uranium- and plutonium-enrichment programs and allow extensive inspections.

According to IAEA officials, the agreement was reached just before the IAEA released a confidential report saying that Iran repeatedly breached its nuclear safeguard agreements under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The report found that Iran secretly produced highly enriched uranium and plutonium, the essential ingredients for making a nuclear weapon.

While the amounts were not large enough to produce a nuclear bomb, the program spurred speculation about Iran's nuclear intentions. "We cannot state with certainty that this is a peaceful program, but we do not have proof that it is a weapons program," ElBaradei says. "We need to do much more in-depth work before we come to a conclusion."

(Also linked and discussed on my blog.)