Baha'i Resolution of 1999

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that my esteemed colleagues and I bring to the Senate's attention for the eighth time in 18 years the plight of Iran's Baha'is by submitting today the Baha'i Resolution of 1999.

Since the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami, the world has watched Iran with great anticipation of change. Indeed, under Khatami, Iran has witnessed some small, incremental steps toward democratization, transparency, and an attempt to assert the rule of law. As recent demonstrations at Tehran University have shown, the Iranian people are eager for reform, the kinds of changes that would allow Iran to become a member in good standing of the international community.

The Iranian people have suffered much in the last 20 years. A regime desperate to maintain control at all costs has executed hundreds of thousands of Iranians of all religious and political backgrounds. Iran's economy is in shambles, many of its best and brightest have fled, and the government's pursuit of policies supporting terrorism and the development of weapons of mass destruction have made Iran a pariah state in the international community. It is good to remember, as we focus on the plight of specific groups in Iran, that all of Iran's citizens, Shi'a, Sunni, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i, have been victimized by the Iranian regime.

However, today we focus on the group that, man for man and woman for woman, has fared the worst under Iran's revolutionary government-the Baha'is.

Since the Islamic Revolution and consequent seizure of power by the Ayatollah Khomeni, the Baha'is have endured tremendous hardships that continue to this day. Large numbers have been killed and many other have disappeared and are presumed dead. Unlike other religious minorities in Iran such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, the Baha'is are not recognized in the Iranian Constitution and subsequently do not enjoy the rights, minimal though they may be, normally granted Iranian citizens.

The refusal of Iran to protect the rights of the Baha'i community is ironic.

The Baha'is do not advocate insurrection, violence, or political partisanship. Their faith requires them peacefully to observe the laws of the country. For the Iranian government to regard the Baha'is as a threat, when all they desire is to be able to live in accordance with their religious beliefs is truly outrageous.

Now, imagine if you will what it would be like to live in a world where you and your children are not recognized as citizens simply because of your religion. Imagine your government seizing your only outlet for a higher education.

Imagine fearing arrest simply for adhering to a set of beliefs and a way of life that you and your family hold dear.

Unfortunately, this nightmarish scenario is all too real for 300,000 members of the Baha'i religion in Iran who need not expend any effort imagining such a situation, because they have the misfortune of living it.

Even after their signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the recent election of President Khatami, the Iranian government still shows no sign of easing its subjugation of Iran's largest religious minority. Tehran continues to oppress, persecute, and undermine the Baha'i's way of life. Under such pressure, we fear that an already tragic past can only lead to a bleaker future.

Since 1979 the Baha'i community has been denied the right to assemble officially, conduct religious ceremonies-including the proper burial of their dead-and attend Iranian schools of higher education. Baha'is are denied the same job and pension opportunities as their non-Baha'i neighbors and by law. They cannot even collect on insurance policies.

The denial of access to schools of higher education has been a particular hardship to the Baha'is, who hold as one of the central tenets of their faith the supreme importance of education. In order to educate their youth, the Baha'is have created a network of university level courses, accredited by the University of Indiana and taught in the homes of Baha'i professors. Over 900 Baha'is have enrolled in the Open University and many more have benefited from their programs. In the Fall of 1998, for no other reason than to harass the Baha'i community, Iranian police raided over 500 homes associated with the Open University. Police arrested hundreds of professors and seized massive amounts of classroom and laboratory equipment, computers, and textbooks. To this day, three professors remain in jail. One has been sentenced to a ten year imprisonment and two have received seven year terms all for the 'sin' of involving themselves in teaching Baha'i studies which, according to the Iranian authorities constituted "crimes against national security."

(In recent years, the Iranian government has gradually stepped up its harassment of the Baha'is, as exemplified in the 1998 raids on the Open University. With the raids came the realization that Tehran was not afraid to publicly display its maltreatment of the Baha'is. It was in this same year that Iran executed Mr. Ruhollah Rowhani.)

Mr. Rowhani was accused by the Iranian government of forcibly converting a Muslim woman to the Baha'i faith.

Before Mr. Rowhani's hanging in July 1998, the woman totally refuted the charges, stating that she had been raised as a Baha'i, making it impossible and unnecessary for Mr. Rowhani to impress his religion upon her. Mr. Rowhani spent the nine months prior to his execution in solitary confinement, and most telling, no sentence was ever passed. It is in recognition and in memory of the recent one-year anniversary of Mr. Rowhani's execution that we submit this resolution.

The Baha'i Resolution expresses our strong disapproval of the Iranian government's treatment of the Baha'is and reminds Iran that the development of a relationship between our two countries depends greatly on Tehran's record of human rights. Equally important, it is a statement of America's values. It sends a message to perpetrators of persecution everywhere that our eyes will not be averted. And it reassures Iran's Baha'is, indeed all of those persecuted in Iran, that America is with them and will continue to shine sunlight on the abuses of Iran's government while we plead, and pray for change there.