Today is the first anniversary of last year’s presidential elections. In the aftermath of the spontaneous protests against elections fraud, dozens of Iranians lost their lives to the brutal crackdown of military forces on unarmed citizens, close to five thousand were arrested and imprisoned, several received death sentences and at least two people were executed.
Over the past year, Iran has increasingly turned into a military state. Widespread and systematic violations of human rights on Iran’s streets, on university campuses, at work places, at homes, inside prison cells, and even in cemeteries have become the order of the day. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the worst prisoner of journalists, students, and activists.
The Iranian nation have embarked upon a deliberate and wise civil disobedience campaign against their rulers whose endless cruelty has scarred the nation deeply, without any attempts to reconcile, to explain, or to hold any of the dozens of commanders, judges, ministers, and other authorities accountable for their crimes.
For several months there has been talk of an anniversary protest to mark one year of brutal suppression in Iran. That anniversary is here. Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Karroubi’s efforts to secure a permit for the June 12th protests were not successful. They have called off the protest walk which was proposed to take place between Imam Hossein and Azadi Squares. Despite public announcement of the cancellation, the chatter on blogs, Twitter, and internet is that there will be protests on June 12th.
In the absence of official media who should be reporting on the developments in Iran, we will have to rely on unofficial, underground, or citizen reports out of Iran about what is happening there. Please join me in reporting what we can find out to the community. Please help get the voices of Iranians out of Iran. Remember, we are the media.
