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Then the stoning begins. The stones are specifically chosen so they are large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the condemned immediately. They are guaranteed a slow, torturous death. Sometimes their children are forced to watch. Their offense is usually adultery.
This is capital punishment Iranian style, even under the so-called moderate new president, Mohammed Khatami.
Two members of Congress this week helped expose the continued savage
practice under the new government when they
showed a video of a recent public stoning. The video was smuggled out
of the country by supporters of the Iranian resistance...
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican, called stoning "inhumane, cruel and degrading."
"It is important to note that at least seven persons have been stoned to death in public during the tenure of the Iranian regime's new president. Four of these victims have been women," she said.
Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, New York Democrat, called Iran the "world's worst violator of human rights."
"This savagery sanctioned by the Khatami government proves that the
moderation of the Iranian regime is but a mirage," he said....
Meeting Beteen Khatami And UN Human Rights Chief Cancelled,
Agence France Presse, March 1
TEHRAN - A meeting between Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and UN
human rights commissioner Mary Robinson was cancelled at the last minute
on Sunday, a presidential spokesman said.
The conservative newspaper Farda said the meeting was cancelled by the
Iranian foreign ministry in protest at comments about human rights in Iran
by Robinson's spokesman John Mills. Mills was quoted by the press
here as saying Robinson would discuss alleged violations of human rights
in the Islamic republic during her stay.
Torture Reported by Khatami's Faction,
Reuter, February 27
Iran's top judge on Friday denounced city officials close to President
Mohammad Khatami for alleging that they were tortured during detention
on corruption charges.
Head of judiciary Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi said the Tehran district
mayors, who backed Khatami's election campaign last year, could face prosecution
for saying after their trials that they had been tortured and kept in long
solitary confinement.
The Iranian currency, the rial, has already fallen by around five to seven percent against major currencies on the black market in reaction to the plunge in oil prices.
The dollar which traded around 4,700 rials until two months ago has now approached 5,000 rials and "the drop in oil prices could further push down the rial in the coming days," the English-language newspaper Iran News said Thursday.
The government had initially calculated to earn 17.5 dollars from the sale of each barrel of crude in its draft budget for next year, but the parliament reduced the figure to 16 dollars.
Many experts still dispute the target price as "unrealistic." "Our officials are unable to properly assess the economic realities of the international oil market," the Iran News complained.
The Iranian economy is already going through a recession, prompted by a series of protectionist measures taken by the central bank to check soaring inflation. Inflation, according to official figures, has dropped to 20 percent, but at the cost of a halt to many development projects and a sharp drop in investment.
To compensate for falling oil revenues, the government has also taken measures to encourage non-oil exports, which are also stagnant leading to a crisis in the industrial and agricultural sectors.
The current recession has further cut the public's purchasing power in a country where average salaries are below 100 dollars a month.
Kar-Kargar, a newspaper representing state labor unions, said the average family in big cities faced a budget deficit of 23 percent.
The economy is the greatest challenge facing the new government of President
Mohammad Khatami, who was elected in a
landslide in May promising economic prosperity.
But few expect a miracle from a government which runs around 85 percent of the economy, plagued with inefficiency and corruption.
The private sector has shown little interest in investing given strict labor laws, red tape and government regulations which keep changing.
"Our officials continue to gloss over economic realities, lack proper
planning and they wait for a miracle to happen," said the Iran News.