Nov. 20, 2003
Iran alone has 30,000 political prisoners
By AMIR TAHERI




Anyone looking for a Muslim Nelson Mandela is
bound to be disappointed. Muslim tyrannies do not
allow a serious opponent to live long enough, even
in prison, to acquire the iconic status that the
former ANC leader won in South Africa.

The apartheid regime, evil as it was, observed
some rules. Muslim tyrannies observe none, except
the dictates of their survival instincts. Had
Mandela been held in a Muslim tyranny, he would
have been dead and forgotten long before the world
knew his name.

The Muslim world accounts for some 80 percent of
political prisoners in the world. But none are
allowed exposure that might enable them to acquire
a Mandela-like star status.

Prisoners at the opposite end of the ideological
spectrum to the regime become non-persons - seldom
seen even by their families, and never spoken of.
The only prisoners allowed some exposure are those
who shared the regime´s roots before breaking with
it for personal and/or political reasons.

In Iran, for example, many opponents of
Khomeinism, from monarchists to Marxists, when
captured, were simply murdered between 1980-1997.

Today, there are an estimated 30,000 political
prisoners in Iran. Most are lower or mid-ranking
democrat, monarchist, Marxist or other leftist
elements that lack the name-recognition needed for
"Mandelaization." No one knows how many are still
alive.

Our search for potential Mandelas, therefore, has
to focus on the 2,000 or so prisoners who emerged
from within the regime.

This is a motley crowd and includes former
hostage-takers, former terrorists, repentant
Khomeinist clerics, and former high officials.

The longest-held prisoner in this category is
Abbas Amir-Entezam, aged 70, who was deputy prime
minister in the mullahs´ first cabinet in 1979. He
was jailed on a charge of espionage for the CIA in
1980 and has been behind bars ever since.

Also noteworthy is Hashem Aghajari, a former
Revolutionary Guard member, who started calling
for a separation of mosque and state last year,
now in prison under a suspended death sentence.

Mention must also be made of Grand Ayatollah
Hussein-Ali Montazeri, aged 81, who has been under
house arrest for some 15 years. In 1979, he was
the Islamic Revolution´s number-two, after
Khomeini, who named him his political heir.
Montazeri broke with Khomeini in 1986 and since
then, in his own words, "has tried to pay for some
of my sins in the revolution."

That´s about it. Sorry, guys, no Mandela in our
neck of the woods.

The writer, an Iranian author and journalist, is
editor of the Paris-based Politique
Internationale.