video interview available soon

Contact: Arash Shakib - asimport@hotmail.com

14/3/05

Dear friends,

You are aware that in an act of protest against the threats of military intervention by US and its allies in Iran, five Iranian asylum seekers have set off on foot from Birmingham on 12th of March to join the national anti war demonstration in London on 19th of March. They are undertaking this action both to highlight and oppose the US threats against Iran and to appeal to progressive and freedom loving people in Britain to support their struggle against the barbaric Islamic regime in Iran.

We phoned your office on Friday 11th of March to ask for support for the protest walk and to ask about the possibility of a representative from the walk to say a few words from the platform at the end of the march. We were told to explain our position and upon my explanation we were told that Stop the War Coalition “cannot allow any statement against the Islamic regime in Iran from the platform”.

We see ourselves as part of a movement for democracy in Iran that is moving towards overthrowing the reactionary Islamic regime. We see any intervention or even threats of intervention by the US and its allies against Iran as detrimental for our movement. We will vehemently oppose and resist such intervention. The reality of our movement is such that we can not drop our opposition to the Iranian regime because of the threats by the USA or drop our opposition to US threats because of the barbarity of the Islamic regime.

We are aware that the campaign Action Iran that you are promoting on your website belives that ‘ordinary Iranians are making advances towards democracy’. We strongly disagree with this analysis which is promoted by the Islamic Regime and its agents internationally. We believe that while the movement for democracy is growing in Iran, democratic rights are suppressed in increasing measure in Iran and ordinary Iranians are not making progress towards democracy.

We believe that Stop the War Coalition should be a broad based campaign and should not exclude the views of opponents of the Islamic regime while promoting the views of the supporters of this barbaric regime.

From: Arash Shakib, Organiser of the Protest Walk, Political Association of Iranian Refugees (Birmingham)