Junk for Code

more law and order

The Howard Government's recent raids on Iranian homes of people involved with The People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) by the Howard Government strikes me as unjust.

The organization has a military arm in Iraq that is involved in an armed struggle with Iranian government. Australian foreign policy follows the US and so it holds that Iran is part of the "axis of evil" and has targeted Iran for being due for regime change. Acording to this logic the Iranian people whose houses were raided are the good guys trying to overthrow the bad guys for a more democratic Iran.

So why see them as terrorists? Why raid them? Why are they seen to supporting or financing terrorists? The representatives of the People's Mujahideen claim that the Iranian Government is repressive, tortures its own citizens and supports terrorism. Yet they are deemed a security threat by the national security state.

The Iranians were puzzled by the raids as can be seen from the interviews on this Insight program on SBS. Well this gives some indication of what is going on. Iran will crack down on Al Queda inside its borders if Australia cracks down on the People's Mujahideen:

"It is understood that in talks with the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, this week, Iran proposed a deal to take significant action on al-Qaeda if the US cracked down on the militant MEK. Formerly funded by Saddam Hussein, the MEK is based in northern Iraq but did not come under heavy attack during the US-led invasion... Iranian officials confirmed they were still holding a number of al-Qaeda operatives, and suggested exchanging those prisoners for senior MEK figures."

Downer has cut a deal. Innocent people in Australia suffer. No matter. They are expendable, even if Australia is a multicultural society. They are Arabs. We do not want those sort of people here anyway. So they can be used as cannon fodder in power politics.

Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at June 21, 2003 06:32 PM | TrackBack