Concerns grow for Irans religious minorities

|PIC1|At least 19 people have been killed and many more arrested in the Iranian government’s crackdown on supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi following the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tehran told Britain on Monday that it was expelling two UK diplomats for “activities incompatible with their diplomatic status”. The move has prompted Britain to order the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the House of Commons he was “disappointed that Iran has placed us in this position” but said the UK Government would continue to seek good relations with the country and “to call for the regime to respect the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Iranian people”.

CSW’s Advocacy Director Alexa Papadouris said attempts by the Iranian Government and Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei to blame foreign elements for the mass demonstrations were a “worrying development”.

“The linking of national unrest with international interference has, in the past, been associated with increased targeting of non-Muslim religious minorities, deemed by the regime to be sympathisers with a Western agenda,” she said.

CSW said the situation for non-Muslim religious minorities, particularly for Baha’is and certain Christian denominations, had “worsened” under Ahmadinejad’s previous term of presidency. Ms Papadouris now fears that conditions will continue to deteriorate for religious minorities amid the current political chaos.

“As the world’s attention is drawn to the unfolding events in Iran, CSW appeals that the situation for religious minorities is not forgotten,” she said.

With the government continuing to bar international journalists from covering the protests, video clips and photographs have been sent out by Iranian citizens via the web depicting scenes of violence and crowds of chanting protesters.

US President Barack Obama has condemned the Iranian government’s “unjust actions” against protesters. He said the international community was “outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days” and described as “searing” the mobile phone footage of protesters trying in vain to save the life of 26-year-old Neda Soltan, shot dead by a sniper as she watched a protest.