BELGIUM: Iranian nobel peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi asks the EU to send a special envoy to Iran to investigate allegations of human rights abuses

Record ID: 212820

  • Title: BELGIUM: Iranian nobel peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi asks the EU to send a special envoy to Iran to investigate allegations of human rights abuses
  • Date: 25th June 2009
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JUNE 24, 2009) (REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AT PLACE DE LUXEMBOURG IRANIAN FLAG ON STATUE IN FRONT OF EUROPEAN UNION FLAG IRANIAN NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE SHIRIN EBADI GETTING ONTO PODIUM DEMONSTRATORS CHEERING (SOUNDBITE) (Farsi - translation provided by Ebadi's own translator) SHIRIN EBADI, IRANIAN NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, SAYING: "Brother Basiji, why are you a killing brother?'' PROTESTERS CHANTING 'IRAN' PROTESTER CRYING EBADI WALKING TOWARDS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT FOR MEETING WITH HEAD OF PARLIAMENT HANS GEERT POETTERING PROTESTERS STANDING TO MUSIC, RAISING ARM PROTESTERS HOLDING POSTER WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF PEOPLE WOUNDED OR KILLED IN IRAN PROTESTS PROTESTER HOLDING BANNER READING 'WHERE IS MY VOTE?'
  • Embargoed: 10th July 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Reuters ID: LVA3P8EFCYDWZ2CVCD1OQ5DRRK71
  • Story Text: Nobel peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi stirred up an emotional crowd of Iranians in front Brussels' European parliament on Wednesday (June 24) appealing to Iran's militiamen to stop killing their own.
    Ebadi addressed the 200 or so demonstrators just before meeting with members of parliament where she called for the EU to send a special representative to Tehran.
    "Brother Basiji, why are you a killing brother?'' she told crowds which cheered and cried to the sound of her words.
    Witnesses have said members of the religious Basiji militia dragged demonstrators out of houses in which they had fled from clashes with police.
    Iranian state television says their presence "raised people's feeling of security"
    Ebadi then said she was speaking with the voice of Neda Agha Soltan, the Iranian woman killed in clashes in Tehran whose death was caught on camera providing graphic footage of her death which has been seen around the world on the Internet.
    Inside parliament Ebadi asked the European parliament to send a special envoy to Iran to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.
    ''I asked the U.N. Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon to send a special envoy to Iran and today I have put the same request to the European Parliament,'' Ebadi told reporters at a news conference after her meeting with the head of the European Parliament Hans Geert Poettering.
    Poettering said he was ready to head a delegation to Iran ''as soon as possible'', though this would be subject to diplomatic procedures and the Iranian authorities accepting such request.
    Iran's foreign ministry has accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of interfering in Iran's affairs "under the influence of some powers", an apparent dig at Britain and the United States.
    Sweden, the European Union's next president, said the bloc's 27 member states should consider drafting a plan to take in and provide aid to demonstrators at their embassies in Iran. Italy said it was prepared to open its embassy to wounded protesters.
    Ebadi said she would welcome such a move.
    ''If the government continues to arrest people who have been injured from their hospital bed, then yes, the foreign embassies should open the door to the injured so they don't arrest them,'' Ebadi said.
    Iranian authorities have accused Western powers of supporting the protests -- the most widespread since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- and have not ruled out expulsions of some European ambassadors.
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