In the Name of the Immaculate Creator In honor and praise of those who have given their lives in defense of the honor of Iran, and in striving for freedom for Iran

The honorable and respected President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Khatami,

I am writing you with a heart full of sorrow and grief, in the hope that it will lead to some positive results.

We are one year from the tragic day when our beloved students, our freedom loving youth of Iran, were rolled into dirt and blood. We are at the anniversary of the atrocities committed by the Changizians [translator’s note: allusion to Chengiz Khan, the Mongol] who attacked the student dormitories, and battered, plundered, destroyed, killed,... We are at the anniversary of the barbaric onslaught of criminals onto thousands of human beings who were then imprisoned for demanding retribution for injustices committed against them.

At this very moment that I write to you, many of my comrades who are incarcerated have begun a hunger strike under the leadership of Mr. Manouchehr Mohammadi, (the General Secretary of ANIS) to protest of the unjust verdicts as well as atrocities and crimes committed against them. They also said that because of their independence, you and Mr. (Mahmoud Hashemi) Shahroodi (Head of the Judiciary), just as before, will do nothing to aid them, and that your colleagues in the government, along with the oppressive right-wing, have again isolated yourselves from these events as my captive comrades are now in very dismal physical conditions; they have been thrown into solitary confinement, and are denied any access to their families.

Now that I have no choice but to rely on the West to convey the suppressed cry of our freedom loving youth, I have become their spokesman and will remit but one drop out of an ocean of injustice.

Mr. Khatami, honorable and respected President, you and your colleagues are well aware that the 2nd of Khordad movement was born out of a mentality which wanted to say a definite and unconditional NO to the despotic religious rule, and voted for you who had presented a relatively good platform, and selected reform and redress for achieving a democratic society. This movement accepted the selflessness and sacrifices required for this goal, and expected you to be loyal to the oath that you had taken, and to be brave in your confrontations with despotism. It expected you to support the activism of the students, which in the absence of the freedom of political parties, was declaring the will of the people.

However, every time that the reactionaries and perpetrators of disorder, with the names of Hezbollah, Bassidj, etc., violently attacked the gatherings and meetings of the students, because of your complete silence, they became even more uninhibited and reckless, and their attacks grew in severity. In the mean time, on every occasion that we asked you for your aid and assistance, we never received a reply.

Mr. Khatami, honorable and respected President, Mr. Manoochehr Mohammadi’s studies were suspended because of his outspokenness and blutness, and his leadership of the students’ freedom movement for the last three years.

Then when he legally traveled abroad– which I also had the honor of accompanying him– at the invitation of American and European Universities, and the Green Party and Heinrich Böll Foundation of Germany, he was expelled by the same people who claimed to share your ideology. And yet you did not give him the slightest opportunity to defend himself. Even when thousands of students of Tehran University signed a petition requesting to send a representative to enquire about this great injustice,

they received no reply. We are still bewildered as to how a President who considers himself an intellectual, could hold no value for the petition of thousands of students!

When we, at the request and petition of thousands of students, asked to meet with you to discuss the suppression of students, and the deplorable and insular conditions of the university, the director of your office, Mr. Abtahi, did not give us the permission to do so. When Mr. Manoochehr Mohammadi, asked him why is it that whenever the offices of “Daftar Tahkim Vahdat (Office of Consolidation Unity) and “Student-Bassidj” want to meet with the President, they are allowed to do so, do you know what he replied? He replied that it is because they share the same ideology as the President. One can only express regret and disappointment at hearing this!

Mr. Khatami, honorable and respected President, when I remember the violent atrocities of the marauders in the tragedy of 18 Tir, and your silence in response to their planning and execution, and in response to the tragic medieval torture of the young students, my heart truly shakes and trembles with pain!

Mr. Khatami, When everyday for hours they would hang us from ropes and tie weights to us; When they would beat us and curse us, and would strike us on the soles of our feet till we would pass out and not be able to move; When for weeks I did not sleep from the intensity of torture and interrogation, and the charlatans would compete with one another for our torture;

When for the first time after almost three months, I was allowed to see my parents, and that only in the revolutionary court, and I was seeing the sky and the sun after almost ninety days, and after having been tortured so much that my heart-broken mother could not recognize me (or I wish she had not recognized me); When they would pour salt onto our wounds, and the screams and hollers of the freedom fighters would twinge and sting the heart of any human being;

Yes, when the group of allied students who consider themselves your ideologues, in order to help the suppression of the student movement, went to the Haj [pilgrimage to Mecca], when the leader of the religious government was telling stories about his Islamic justice and was calling them the archetypes of history, when you were speaking about the making of a civil society, and your ideologues were singing ghazals [lyrical poems] about the existence of freedom, we were being tortured in the horrific prisons of Tohid [Unitarianism]. And what tortures indeed!

These are the same prisons that Ayatollah Khamenei describes in his book "Goftarha", on page 5, to which he was transferred from Mashhad, for all of forty-eight hours, as the most bitter and dreadful period of his life! And yet the atmosphere and conditions that existed there at that time were much better than they are now, and we spent one hundred and thirty days in the same place, in conditions much more horrific, and have endured the harshest torture. I can prove that all the right[-wing] and left[-wing]

Islamists, or insiders, were involved and intimate with these atrocities, and at the appropriate time, I will remove the veil from the faces of some of these so called reformists.

Mr. Khatami, honorable and respected President, they have labeled my captive comrades as agitators. They have labeled Mr. Manoochehr Mohammadi and myself as foreign agents, and they took us under the blade of the Guillotine. Under such conditions, newspapers that share your ideologyy, did not say a word in our support, and even dastardly and cowardly libeled us with baseless lies, even though our friends and comrades had been the strongest supporters for the freedom of the press.

Now, even though we do not believe in violence, and consider logic, thought, and reform, as the surest and most convincing methods for the achievement of democracy and the rule of the people, they call us obstacles for reform. In truth, are we, who despite all the sufferings and injustices that we have endured, summoned the people to the elections of the sixth Majles [Parliament], and have participated in union with our comrades in Evin [the dreadful prison], the obstacles for reform, or are the true obstacles for reform those who once called freedom the imported ideology of the west, and today they covertly monopolize the power?

Today’s young generation says “Azmoode ra Azmoodan Khatast” [It is folly to try to test someone who has already been tested and is experienced].

The true obstacles for reform are those who with insularity, by occupying the American Embassy, introduced us to the world as terrorists; Those who expelled the students and professors who were of a different opinion from the University, with a “Cultural revolution”, and for years made the University their place of inroad and foray;

Those who caused the massacre of hundreds of thousands of young Iranians, and ordered the execution of thousands of valiant and freedom loving youth.

And those who have plundered and pillaged the wealth of the country, not only can they not be the representatives of the people, but should also answer to the people in a federal court.

I do not say these words out of a desire for revenge, but only in order to express and reiterate the hidden truth. And know this, that prevention is better than treatment. And while I was under torture, I prayed to the divine creator, to put an end to violence in Iran, and for future generations to carry out this task.

Mr. Khatami, honorable and respected president, those who killed and produced the tragedy of 18 Tir, are free, and receive medals of Honor, and you know yourself who they are. But those who asked for justice have been convicted for no reason, without the presence of a lawyer or jury, and in a closed court, after enduring frequent torture, are now innocently imprisoned. Many of their families don’t even have the economic means for visiting their jailed children.

I do not know what my crime is, and the crime of millions of Iranian youth.

Our crime is that we want an independent, free, and proud Iran; Our crime is that we want the freedom of thought, of expression, of the press, of political parties, and removal of apartheids and dominations; Our crime is that we consider national interests and benefits more important than any other matter; Our crime is that we believe in a system based on democracy and the rule of the people, built on the foundations of the principle of separation of religion and government;

And our crime is that for the uncovering of the truth and of the tyranny, we are uncompromising, blunt, and honest, or as the director of your office put it, we do not “share the same ideology” with you.

Mr. Khatami, honorable and respected President, how can you utter the slogans of a civil society and democracy, and even want to study the conversation of civilizations, when you would not even meet with us, the representatives of the deliberations of a huge section of the society, only because we do not share the same ideology with you?

In conclusion, as a representative of a very large section of Iranian society, the youth, I have to point out to you, that if nothing is done to address the condition and the wishes of the captive and imprisoned students, who are under a hunger strike and very dismal physical states, and if anything happens to them, you will be personally held accountable, and will have to answer to the Iranian people. Har kas baad bekarad,

Toofan dero khahad kard [Any one who plants wind, will harvest a storm], and at least the 18 Tir proved this reality to you. I have to say that if, as in the past, you will not have the necessary and adequate courage to defend the oppressed people of Iran, the people will based on your actions, become discouraged and disappointed with your reforms, and then the only other path that history has shown possible, is that which honestly, no freedom loving Iranian would even want to imagine, and that is the same path that our people chose two decades ago!

Please, even for once, come forth and support the captive, and imprisoned students, and realize their innocence. If I ever believed that you are of the same mind as the petrified and insular elements, I would never have written you this letter. But now my conscience is clear, and I have passed on the responsibility to you. It is your turn to answer to the honorable and oppressed people of Iran.

Signed, GholamReza Mohajeri Nejad Tir 14, 1379 July 4th, 2000