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This systematic pattern of gross violations of the rights of a defenseless religious minority violates every internationally recognized principle of human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which Iran is a signatory, guarantees individual rights to life (§ 3); marriage and family protection (§ 16); freedom from arbitrary interference with privacy, family or home (§ 12); right to security in widowhood and old age (§ 25); equal protection of the law, remedies for infringements and access to public services (§§ 7, 8, 21); free expression (§ 19); free association (§ 20); freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention (§ 9); fair and public criminal hearings (§ 10); freedom from torture (§ 5); freedom to manifest one's religion in teaching, practice, worship and observance (§ 18); freedom from compulsion to join another religion (§ 20); the right to work (§ 23); to own property individually and in association with others (§ 17); and to have that property protected from arbitrary deprivation (§ 17); not to be arbitrarily deprived of nationality (§ 15); and to be provided education which promotes understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial and religious groups (§ 26).

The Baha'is are being ruthlessly deprived of all of these fundamental human rights. And they have no recourse for redress of grievances. They are arbitrarily harassed, arrested, detained, tortured, forced to recant, executed, deprived of citizenship at home and rendered stateless abroad. Their widows and elderly are left homeless and penniless; their leaders are

exterminated, often secretly; their homes, crops, jobs, incomes, pensions, property, assets, centers, cemeteries, and shrines are confiscated, looted, desecrated and destroyed; their worship is made a criminal act and their literature is suppressed. Their children are deprived of education and kidnapped; their families derogated and destroyed--all constituting the pattern of a systematic, willful and officially sanctioned pogrom. The community is being subjected to murders and to conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction. It is by very definition genocide punishable under the United Nations Genocide Convention.* The civilized

world cannot permit it to continue unpunished by word or deed.

Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide provides that

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Article IV provides that persons committing genocide shall be punished, "whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

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Iran's action has been labelled international crimes by the United States Department of State, has been recognized as "well planned genocide" by Amnesty International, and has been roundly condemned by the international press, by the Swiss Federation of Protestant Churches, by the parliaments of Australia, Canada, and West Germany, by the European Parliament, by members of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, by many members of this Congress, and by the United Nations Human Rights Commission and by its Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Indeed, three Muslim countries joined in the unopposed resolution of the United Nations Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities calling on Iran "to gran(t) full protection of fundamental rights and freedoms to the Baha'i religious community in Iran, and by protecting the life and liberty of (its) members.

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Thus far, Iran has not relented. Yet we continue to believe that the Government of Iran, as a member of the community of nations, must in time respond to the collective voice of institutions committed to justice. The Baha'is in Iran cannot defend themselves, nor can they speak on their own behalf. It is our collective task in the West to call the attention of the world to the horrors being perpetrated in Iran. Many times in this century the world averted its eyes when fanatics, demagogues and dictators of various stripes massacred national, racial and religious minorities or

filled concentration camps with "class enemies," depriving of their most fundamental rights all those who dared to differ from their brutal

orthodoxies even in thought. Decency, respect for human rights, and love of one's neighbor, be he ever so distant geographically, are as indivisible Humanity cannot afford to remain silent and by its silence condone

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these horrors.

The Baha'is of the United States feel genuine sympathy for the long suffering Iranian people. We pray for their peaceful and happy future. Yet we cannot remain indifferent to the sufferings of our Iranian brethren at the hands of bigots who have no compunctions about shedding innocent blood. We call upon our fellow citizens and our elected representatives to proclaim that America will not acquiesce in oppression and that its perpetrators will have to answer for their deeds in the court of world opinion.

Note: The following exhibits were displayed during the hearing: a map of Iran showing location of events cited; list of Baha'is executed in Iran; "The Baha'i Faith and Its World Community"; Resolutions: Alaska & Illinois; statements in the Congressional Record; resolutions by International bodies; records of Parlimentary debates and resolutions: Canada, Australia, West Germany, United Kingdom--House of Lords; Human Rights Commission of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Switzerland; report of Amnesty International; official documentation testifying to discrimination against the Baha'i community since the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran; the Iranian Constitution; and photographs of executed Baha'is. This information can be obtained from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, 536 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, Illinois 60091.

Mr. BONKER. Thank you, Judge Nelson, for an excellent and moving statement.

I would now like to call upon Prof. Kazemzadeh.

Is that close?

Mr. KAZEMZADEH. Yes, sir.

Mr. BONKER. He is vice chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is, and the chairman of the Middle-Eastern Studies at Yale University.

I have heard you speak before and have come to respect your knowledge and commitment to the Baha'is. I also have access to an article which you authored, which appeared in the New York Review of Books. It is an excellent piece and gives us a good historical perspective on the Baha'is. So, if you have no objection, I would like to have the article included in the official record.1 Mr. BONKER. You may begin.

STATEMENT OF FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH, VICE CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA'IS OF THE UNITED STATES

Mr. KAZEMZADEH. I prepared a rather long statement, but I will summarize it, even though, for me, summarizing things is much more difficult than for my colleagues, because as a college professor, like Pavlov's dogs, I am conditioned to speak 50 minutes on my topic.

Mr. BONKER. We can sympathize, Professor. We have the same problems here in the House.

Mr. KAZEMZADEH. Judge Nelson has very eloquently presented the case of the Baha'is.

I would like to take this occasion to look back into history in order to explain the intensity of hatred that the Baha'is meet from the Shiite clergy. Perhaps it is not known to too many that the Shiite sect of Islam became the state of religion in Iran relatively late in history. It was only in the 16th century, under the aegis of a native Iranian dynasty, that Shiism was made a state religion, and the rival sect of Islam, the Sunni sect, was virtually deprived of its rights.

In the 18th century, Iran went through a period of anarchy, but both the rule of the Safavids and the 18th century anarchy worked to the benefit of the Islamic clergy, because it was the one institution to which the people could relate. In the 19th century, under the rule of a new dynasty, the Qajars, who came from Iranian tribesmen, and who had no legitimate right to the throne, the clergy once again became the first estate of the realm, the one institution that had the confidence and the respect of the Muslims.

They became so powerful that they could raise crowds in the streets of the cities, and they provoked a war with Russia with disastrous results for Iran and loss of territory.

In 1828, they murdered the entire staff of the Russian Embassy in Tehran, something which reminds one of the case of the American hostages, only much worse, because in that case the Minister and the whole staff died.

1 See app. 5.

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