Opposition Exiles Train in 'Non-Violent Conflict' Tactics

Guy Dinmore, The Financial Times:

Exiled Iranian opposition activists say they are studying and training in the techniques of "non-violent conflict", learning from the same US groups that contributed to the success of movements for change in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine. READ MORE

While few Iranians in the US harbour expectations that the Iranian government is about to crumble, the exiled community sees the presidential election tomorrow as an important test of the fragmented opposition's ability to garner support in its campaign for the elections to be boycotted.

Training workshops in the US have been organised by the Washington-based International Center on Non-Violent Conflict run by Peter Ackerman, a former financier who made a fortune in the junk bond and takeover mania of the 1980s, and Jack DuVall, former air force officer and television producer.

A key figure in the training is Bob Helvey, a former US colonel. He works with Gene Sharp, the intellectual guru of the non-violent conflict approach whose books and work at the Alfred Einstein Institute in Boston have inspired various opposition movements, particularly Serbia's Otpor.

Activists have sent to Iran Farsi translations of Bringing Down a Dictator, a documentary produced by Mr Ackerman on Otpor's success in toppling Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. The proponents of non-violent, internally driven regime change such as Mr Ackerman are gaining ground in the State Department.

Addressing a forum organised by the State Department a year ago, Mr Ackerman said non-violent resistance movements usually could not be instigated externally but they "can be nurtured by external assistance".

"While Iran, for example, is ripe for the expression of civilian-based resistance, a full range of tactics have yet to be applied throughout the country. Now, when this occurs . . . events will take a surprising turn," he said.

Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of the last Shah of Iran, said: "We have tried to educate and train people in techniques of civil disobedience, activists at home and abroad."

Mr Pahlavi, regarded by some analysts as having more of a following in the US than his homeland, is opposed to US military intervention in Iran. He condemned the recent spate of bombings in Iran that killed several people. No group has claimed responsibility.

"We are pushing for a massive boycott of the elections," he said. "We are coming to a showdown and we hope that this Friday Iranians will stay at home."

Mr Helvey said he was optimistic about the prospects for success in Iran, given its overwhelmingly youthful population and active women's groups.

Other Iranians in the US are concerned at the secretive nature of the "training workshops" and question the democratic credentials of those involved. Some monarchists have not given up on the possibility of an armed overthrow of the Iranian government, however unrealistic that might seem without US help.

Mr Ackerman and Michael Ledeen, a vocal proponent of regime change who is a policy adviser in the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute, recently urged "the west" to equip Iranian activists with satellite phones, text messaging, laptops and servers, just as Soviet dissidents had been supplied with fax machines during the cold war.

Support should be given openly or covertly depending on the opposition's wishes, they said in a joint commentary.