Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The Art of Remembering: An Open Letter to Secretary Rice

Mohammad Kamaali | 11.05.2007 11:55 | Analysis | Anti-militarism

The problem is when you have too much power you begin to think with your muscles. You are like a wounded bull in the china-shop that is Middle East. Whatever you touch, wherever you intervene, something is broken, something is ruined. Perhaps at some point you have to STOP and think of a way out without inflicting much more damage to yourself and those around you.

Until you learn to respect other peoples' right of self-determination and until you abandon your language of intervention, force and threats against my country, no number of visits to art galleries will solve our problems.

Dear Secretary Rice

There was news yesterday that you are visiting an art gallery in Washington where Iranian artists are exhibiting their works. I'm sure the Iranian people would've welcomed this visit, had it not been in the context of the current hostilities of your government towards Iran.

Cultural exchange programmes are one of the best ways to build closer relationships between the ordinary people of our two countries. But you, you are no ordinary citizen. You represent a government which has a history in my country. Our problems with you did not start in an art gallery and will not end there.

The memory of your interventions in my country is still too fresh among Iranians, young and old. We remember how you overthrow the democratically elected government of Dr Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953. We remember how you supported the Shah unconditionally when he was brutally oppressing his people. We remember how you encouraged, funded and equipped Saddam's regime in the 80s to attack Iran. The children of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who died during eight years of that war know exactly what you've done. The victims of the chemical weapons supplied by you and your European 'allies' to Saddam still live amongst us; every once in a while some of them die, and for us old wounds open. We remember the day USS Vincennes shot Iran Air flight 655 in the Persian Gulf killing all its 290 passengers. To this day you have not even accepted responsibility for it nor have you apologised.

Dear Ms. Rice

Today your actions speak louder than your words. When ten Iranian diplomats were massacred by the Taliban in 1998, your government was in negotiations with the Taliban about the pipeline routes to carry oil and natural gas out of Turkmenistan; something you finally managed to secure after the military invasion of 2001. Iranians hear on daily basis news of your support for other terrorist groups such as MEK and Jundullah operating from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

You answered Iran's help in getting rid of the Taliban by branding it as part of ‘Axis of evil'. You ignored Iran's offer in 2003 for resolving all outstanding issues in return for security guarantees and the way you lied your own nation and the rest of the world into an illegal pre-emptive war against Iraq, means there is now too much distrust towards anything that you say for Iranians to even imagine you as a well-wisher.

Iranian business men and women do not see your push for further economic sanctions against their country as a sign of good will! You are trying to isolate Iran on the pretext of its insistence on exercising an inalienable right protected by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; to which it remains a signatory. You know too well how sanctions affect the poorest and the most vulnerable parts of our society; after-all half a million Iraqi children died as a result of the same arrangement against Iraq.

Human rights activists and NGOs inside Iran cannot but scream against your outright interventionist attitude towards our internal affairs. Your claims of financial and moral support for them only jeopardises their hard-earned reputation and ruins the significant achievements they have made so far. The way you and your colleagues now casually threaten Iran with further sanctions and the way you say 'all options' including military are on the table, not only shows your lack of respect for my country’s sovereignty but it also strengthens the hand of the hardliners inside Iran. You do not seem to be interested in the delicate dynamics of long-term reforms in Iran by Iranians themselves. This is only further evidence of your semi-official policy of regime change which is by the way ILLEGAL under the UN Charter.

Dear Secretary Rice

The problem is when you have too much power you begin to think with your muscles. You are like a wounded bull in the china-shop that is Middle East. Whatever you touch, wherever you intervene, something is broken, something is ruined. Perhaps at some point you have to STOP and think of a way out without inflicting much more damage to yourself and those around you.

Until you learn to respect other peoples' right of self-determination and until you abandon your language of intervention, force and threats against my country, no number of visits to art galleries will solve our problems.

---
Mohammad Kamaali is a founding member of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)  http://www.campaigniran.org

Mohammad Kamaali
- Homepage: http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/2119

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech