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66 asylum seekers sent back to Iran

TheStar.com - 66 asylum seekers sent back to Iran

Amnesty urges Ottawa to think twice

Says failed refugees face uncertain fate

BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA—Canada sent 66 failed refugee claimants back to Iran last year, where human rights activists say they face an uncertain fate in a regime well-known for its abuses and torture

In the wake of new evidence that Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was horribly tortured before she died while being detained by Iranian security officials, Amnesty International is asking Ottawa to think twice before it sends people back to Iran.

"We would urge that all Iranian refugee cases need to be looked at very carefully," Alex Neve, secretary-general for Amnesty International Canada, said yesterday.

Dr. Shahram Azam, a former Iranian military doctor, revealed on Thursday that Kazemi, 54, suffered a catalogue of injuries while in prison, including a skull fracture, broken fingers, missing fingernails, bruises, evidence of flogging, and signs of a "brutal" rape.

The Iranian-born Montreal woman was arrested after taking pictures outside a prison in Tehran in June 2003. She died about two weeks later.

"What happened to Zahra Kazemi underscores how serious the risk of human rights violations are," Neve said.

He stopped short of asking Ottawa to halt all deportations to Iran. But he said immigration and refugee board officials should take the strained relations between Tehran and Ottawa — and the fact refugee claimants may suffer if returned to Iran — into account when considering the cases.

Iran is now among the top 10 sources of new immigrants to Canada — 6,000 Iranian citizens were accepted as permanent residents last year.

But in fact 66 people who claimed refugee status were returned to Iran last year. The previous year, 57 people were returned to Iran.

The deportations won't stop despite Azam's revelations this week, said Alex Swann, spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, who oversees the Canada Border Services Agency.

"There has been no decision to lift all deportations to Iran," Swann said. "We would look at relevant information at that time, including information submitted by individuals. Decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis though."

Officials close to the Kazemi case say the fresh evidence of her torture has galvanized the federal government.

Sources say Prime Minister Paul Martin has asked the foreign affairs department to examine "all options" in the case. He used a stop in Kamloops, B.C., yesterday to once again speak out against Iran.

"There's no doubt whether you're talking about international courts or whether you're talking about the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, I would certainly think that the details of what happened to her, now, and the testimony that has been brought has got to make the world aware of just what Iran is all about and that they have got to be held to account."

Moving to blunt criticism that Canada had not moved quickly enough to respond to torture allegations the government first learned about in November, Martin said it was key to get Azam safely out of Iran and to this country so he could tell his story first hand.

"I think what was very important was to have the testimony of the doctor," Martin told reporters in Kamloops, where he participated in a ceremony opening Thompson Rivers University. "I think that was more striking and obviously brought the matter home in a way that a simple statement could not."

For the second day in a row, he struck a stronger tone than Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, who on Thursday said Azam's findings simply confirmed what Canada has long suspected — that Kazemi's death was no accident.

But Martin rejected suggestions that Pettigrew's statements indicated the government doesn't believe the gruesome details of the alleged torture change the case or increase the need for justice to be done.

"I don't think that's what Mr. Pettigrew meant," Martin said.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough East) said Ottawa's next step should be to muster international condemnation of Iran and its "atrocious" record on human rights.

"It's very clear" negotiations with Iran have not been productive, said McTeague, who is parliamentary secretary to Pettigrew and also has responsibility for Canadians abroad.

"We have tried everything, including withdrawing the ambassador and that didn't work," he said. "We now need to examine other options that are available to us in terms of international repudiation."

Canada sent ambassador Gordon Venner to reopen the embassy in Iran in November, four months after Ottawa pulled its envoy to protest a decision to bar Canadian observers from attending the trial of a man accused of killing Kazemi.

The man, a low-level secret police officer, was acquitted in the closed-door trial.

Details of Kazemi's horrendous death have prompted opposition MPs, human rights groups and academics to redouble their calls on Ottawa to take stronger action against Iran.

Canada should drop its "policy of appeasement" with Iran and take strong action, such as recalling the ambassador and sending Iran's top diplomat in Ottawa packing, said Aurel Braun, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Toronto.

"I don't think we can be very proud of our response to this terrible tragedy," Braun said. "We are behaving in many ways as an insignificant supplicant. It is not only undignified, it is also ineffective."

It's time for Canada to say "enough" and use its considerable heft on the world stage to push for answers, he said

"We're not getting the co-operation we expected. We're not getting the information that we had asked for. We're not seeing a moderating impact on the regime," Braun said.

"We tried our best in terms of constructive engagement, we have to be honest and admit it hasn't worked," Braun said in advocating a tougher approach.

But Gar Pardy, a retired diplomat responsible for consular issues at the foreign affairs department, said there's only so much Ottawa can do, given that Iran has dug in its heels.

"The Iranians have decided that they're not going to deliver any measure of justice," he said. "The options are not great."

And he cautioned that steps like pulling the ambassador from Tehran — while having value as a public relations gesture — could make life "miserable" for Iranian Canadians and their families back in Iran.

And he said economic sanctions aren't likely to have much of an impact, given that Canada does just $264 million in annual trade with Iran.

"Trade sanctions work if you can get a broad international consensus going," Pardy said.

Barring any changes within the Iranian regime, the kind of pressure that Canada can impose on Iran "I don't think would register on any scale."

"That's how bad this is," Pardy said. Still, he urged the federal government not to give up and ensure Kazemi's death is "front and centre" in every dealing with Iran.

With files from Daniel Girard

April 2, 2005 at 09:56 AM in Iran | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home