Iran's Students Find Inspiration in Ganji's Protest

Eli Lake, The NY Sun:

A spokesman for Iran's union of student organizations, Tahkim Vahdat, says a hunger strike by jailed dissident journalist, Akbar Ganji, has inspired the country's democracy movement.

Separately, the regime, which is preparing for its new hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to take office on August 6, said yesterday that Iran plans to restart some nuclear activities as soon as next month, according to the Associated Press. Iran also has developed solid-fuel technology that will improve the accuracy of its missiles, the AP reported.

Mr. Ganji today enters Day 47 of the hunger strike he launched on June 11 when he was rearrested for urging Iranians to boycott last month's presidential election, as did Tahkim Vahdat. Mr. Ganji has demanded his unconditional release from prison, where since January 2001 he has served a sentence for attending a reformist conference in Berlin and publishing articles pinning a string of murders on regime leaders.

His cause has attracted worldwide attention, including support from President Bush, E.U. leaders, politician and former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, and a former Czech dissident and president, Vaclav Havel.

On July 18, Mr. Ganji was rushed from Evin Prison to Milad Hospital, where his wife has said his treatment has been worse than it was at Evin. While reports from Iran suggested doctors hooked up Mr. Ganji to feeding tubes when he arrived, his supporters have since said that the political prisoner has refused them.

In an interview yesterday, a spokesman for Tahkim Vahdat, Akbar Atri, told The New York Sun that starting in September, university chapters of his organization will hold a series of seminars on the prospects of a referendum on Iran's constitution, which enshrines the near-absolute power of the unelected supreme leader.

The prediction from the student group's spokesman is significant in light of Mr. Ahmadinejad's election last month.

The incoming president is widely considered a representative of Iran's fundamentalist militia known as the Basij, thugs often deployed to violently disperse student demonstrations.

"We still held a demonstration in front of Tehran University for Ganji even without proper papers and the police attacked us," Mr. Atri said, noting that the universities were on a summer schedule. "As soon as the universities open you will see more and more intense activities in support of democracy and Akbar Ganji."

While Mr. Ganji starves himself, the mullahs in Iran have scrambled in the public-relations blitz over his detention. The prosecutor who ordered Mr. Ganji's arrest, Saed Mortazavi, has told reporters that the dissident is not on a hunger strike. A leading conservative daily newspaper has suggested that Mr. Ganji is a pawn of the Bush administration, who would like for him to die.

All the while the Islamic Republic has grown bolder in negotiations over its nuclear program, which it kept hidden until 2003 from the international community. Yesterday, the country's outgoing president, Mohammed Khatemi, said that his country would resume some of the enrichment activities he pledged to stop, according to wire reports. The Iranians yesterday also announced that they had developed a solid fuel missile that could be capable of reaching Egypt or Greece, according to the AP.

Mr. Atri yesterday said he urged Europe and America to address the plight of Mr. Ganji and other political prisoners during negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. "It used to be said that raising human rights concerns from the West only discredited the reformers," he said. "But this is no longer true. We need as much pressure on the government now as possible. We accept support from everyone."

Mr. Atri left Iran in November and came to America in March. He said yesterday that one of the reasons he came here was to help educate the American people on the Iranian opposition.

"Europe is interested in the preservation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. America is interested in the preservation of the Iranian people. So I came here," he said.

Like Mr. Ganji, Mr. Atri was one of the architects of the movement for a referendum on the Islamic Republic's constitution. In the interview yesterday he said that the call for a referendum would continue in the fall. READ MORE

Mr. Atri yesterday said that Tahkim Vahdat has 700 offices throughout the country, supporting 10 elected leaders for each chapter. He said that the size of chapters vary usually between 500 and 1,000 members, each retains the capability to launch nationwide demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience.