Jun 10, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On the two-year anniversary of the disputed June 9, 2009 elections in Iran, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the addition of three Iranian government entities and one Iranian government official to a sanctions list for serious human rights abuses in Iran.
The original executive order President Barack Obama signed on September 29, 2010 named eight Iranian officials. Yesterday's designation brings the total to eleven, eight of whom USCIRF identified as severe religious freedom abusers in May 2010.
"The Iranian government brutally quashed large demonstrations protesting the outcome of the June 2009 elections, and USCIRF welcomes the imposition of sanctions for human rights abuses on Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, head of Iran's national police force. USCIRF identified Moghadam in May 2010 as being responsible for egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief in Iran and recommended such an action,” said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair.
As commander of the national police force, or Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), Moghadam has ordered attacks and crackdowns on a wide range of Iranian citizens, including protestors, students, reformists, dissidents, and minorities. Many dissidents and prisoners of conscience are serving long-term sentences in Iranian prisons on unsubstantiated charges resulting from the large-scale crackdown by Iranian authorities since the June 2009 elections.
"USCIRF urges the United States and international community to intensify further its demand that the Iranian government immediately release all prisoners of conscience,” said Leo.
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Il) recently launched the Iranian Dissident Awareness Program (IDAP), a bipartisan, bicameral effort to raise awareness of and support for Iranian dissidents currently in prison in Iran, including religious minorities, women's rights activists, human rights defenders, among others. "This new program is an important resource to shine a light on Iran's appalling human rights and religious freedom record,” said Leo.
Details about IDAP can be found through its website:
http://www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=iranian_dissident_awareness_program
The President's September 2010 executive order complies with the mandate in PL. 111-195, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act that was signed into law on July 1, 2010. This law, which had broad and bipartisan support in Congress, highlights Iran's serious, systematic, and ongoing violations of human rights, including suppression of religious freedom. The law mandates that the President impose sanctions on individuals responsible for or complicit in human rights and religious freedom abuses. USCIRF worked with Congressional offices on the need to develop such sanctions.
Since 1999, USCIRF has recommended, and the State Department has designated, Iran as a "Country of Particular Concern,” or CPC, due to its systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.
USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Tom Carter, Communications Director at [email protected] or (202) 523-3257.
Jun 8, 2011
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May 26, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 26, 2011
Washington, DC - While welcoming the Uzbek government's release of Yusuf Jumaev on May 18, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today called on Uzbekistan's government to free thousands of religious and political prisoners. Jumaev, a dissident poet, was serving a five-year sentence in the notorious Jaslyk prison after protesting the 2005 killing of hundreds of Muslim demonstrators in the town of Andijon. In its May 2011 Annual Report, USCIRF raised his case, along with those of others unjustly imprisoned.
"We welcome the Uzbek government's release of Yusuf Jumaev; he will now be able to reunite with family in the United States,” said USCIRF Chair Leonard Leo. "Yet thousands more Uzbeks remain jailed due to their beliefs. The U.S. must continue to press President Karimov for their release and for religious freedom conditions in Uzbekistan to improve.”
Jumaev's poems protested the government-ordered shooting of civilians in a largely peaceful May 13, 2005 demonstration in Andijon. While in Jaslyk prison, Jumaev, like many of the estimated 5,000 political and religious prisoners, was reportedly subjected to beatings which broke his ribs and fingers, his wife told USCIRF in 2010. Torture remains endemic in Uzbek jails, and reportedly includes the threat or use of physical violence and rape and the use of gas masks. Since the May 2005 atrocity, the Uzbek government has rejected numerous calls for an independent international investigation, and the number of trials against independent Muslims and anyone with alleged links to the Andijon tragedy has surged.
Uzbekistan has a religion law which severely limits the rights of religious communities, especially the majority Muslim community. The government arrests Muslims and represses Muslim groups that fail to conform to government requirements or that allegedly endorse political extremism. It continues to apply vague anti-extremism laws arbitrarily against nonviolent religious adherents and others who pose no credible security threat.
USCIRF continues to recommend in 2011 that Uzbekistan be designated a "country of particular concern,” or CPC, marking it as one of the world's worst religious freedom violators. Since 2006, the State Department has so designated Uzbekistan, but after 2009 it placed a de facto indefinite waiver on any punitive actions. Uzbekistan plays an important role in the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) that supplies U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan.
"The United States should use the CPC designation of Uzbekistan to press for serious reforms,” said Mr. Leo. "The current waiver of any sanctions against Uzbek officials sends the wrong message of impunity for lethal actions in Andijon and mass violations of religious freedom. Until conditions improve, real sanctions should be imposed.”
USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.
To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Tom Carter, Communications Director at [email protected] or (202) 523-3257.