Iran's Gulag on Trial

UPDATE:

Trial had been postponed until October 18th, but now it is indefinite according to the Baha'i News Service:

"Although the trial of seven Baha'i leaders imprisoned in Iran for more than 17 months was scheduled for today, when attorneys and families arrived at the court offices in Tehran they were told it would not take place. No new trial date was given.

"The time has come for these seven innocent people to be immediately released on bail," said Diane Ala'i, the Baha'i International Community's representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

"The seven, whose only 'crime' is their religious belief, are once again in legal limbo, held with no idea of the legal process ahead of them. The whole charade cries out for an end to their unlawful detention," she said.

The seven are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm.

Official Iranian news accounts have said the seven are to be accused of "espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic." They have also been charged with "spreading corruption on earth."

Last week, it appeared likely that the trial would indeed be postponed again, since attorneys for the seven had not yet received the proper writ of notification.

"The fact that their attorneys did not receive proper notification and that there is no new date for the trial is just one among many gross violations of Iran's own legal procedures, not to mention the violations of due process recognized by international law, that have marked this case from the beginning," said Ms. Ala'i."

The Baha'i International Community categorically rejects all charges against the seven, stating that they are held solely because of religious persecution.

The Bahá'í Faith is the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran, with over 300,000 adherents.


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PREVIOUSLY:

The plight of 7 Baha'i prisoners in Iran rises to the surface this week.

A public "trial" on espionage charges begins tomorrow (Tuesday).

As CNN reports:

The case of the seven Baha'is has drawn global attention. Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist freed from Evin prison earlier this year, spoke on their behalf, as have Human Rights Watch and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent bipartisan federal commission.

The defendants face the death penalty if convicted of the charges against them.

Six of the defendants were arrested in May 2008 at their Tehran homes, and one was arrested in the eastern city of Mashad in March 2008, said Diane Ala'i, the Baha'i International Community's representative to the United Nations. The defendants were held under solitary confinement for the first five months of their incarceration, she said.

The investigation into the charges against the prisoners concluded months ago and the trial was initially scheduled to start in July, but Iran has continued to hold them in Evin prison without access to their lawyers and with minimal contact with their families, Ala'i said.


On youtube, "We Are Not Spies":

Part 1



Part 2





Iran Press Watch reports in translation from an August 28, 2009 report from the Committee of Human Rights Reporters:

The trial of three Baha’i citizens by the names of Vesal Yusufi, Payam Yusufi and Anvar Moslemi was convened on August 17.

The condition of Mrs. Vesal Yusufi has been reported as most worrisome. She is unable to stand and suffers greatly from pains in her stomach and back. Because of her grave condition, after the repeated insistence of her family during the past several days, the authorities have consented for a physician to see her.

According to various reports, her 18 year old son, Payam Yusufi, has been physically tortured in order to exact from him various confessions and to compel him to sign documents. So far, the files of these prisoners have not been shared with their lawyers and they remain in prison without charges formally brought against them.

North Korea's Gulags Remain

Bob Edwards, formerly of NPR, now of Sirius Radio brings attention to a Washington Post report by Blaine Harden on the gulags in North Korea. The fairly lengthy report ran more than a month ago.

Ever interesting Bob reflects that, "When I first read it, I felt certain that the story would get picked up internationally and make headlines, especially coming soon after the Euna Lee and Laura Ling saga. Alas, the story ran and there’s been little follow-up.  There are believed to be 200,000 prisoners being held at the forced labor camps. Most die of malnutrition by the time they are fifty-years old. There is no public outcry partly because there are no pictures and no outsiders have ever visited. Harden explains that the issue is on the “diplomatic back burner."

My own sober reflection on the state of that is a bit more introspective. Why does such a story (and others like it) continue to get so little outcry, indignation or even serious attention?

Perhaps, just possibly, simply because people don't really care enough.

For some of us, we're "too busy." For others, we can't relate to such cruelty, such absolute inhumanity so far away. And for a certain, apparently ever festering, (and growing?) group among us, human beings are just so much chafe and inconvenience.

What are a few hundred or thousand bodies here and there (preferably there) anyway?

Meanwhile, some are simply born in the gulags, (under that country's bizarre, totalitarian "three-generation policy") such as Shin In-kun (South Korean name: Shin Dong-hyuk).

And actually, amazingly, escape.





"Google Earth makes us all witnesses."

Some have been and continue to try to do something about the problem:

LiNK

Others

Through the Red Gate

Though I once met Victor Herman (back in 1980) and have indeed read some Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, my actual, personal knowledge of such horrors remains extremely limited.

I imagine and hope that I am with the majority on this.

The fact remains though, both existentially, starkly and realistically, that we live in a world yet filled with great horrors.

This evening I came across an essay by Ruth Derksen Siemens, a first-generation Russian Mennonite who grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia.

After reading of Jasch's Letter From Hell - Russian Gulag History . . .

Excerpt:

Jasch's Letter (approximately 1931/32)

[illegible] ....when she will experience it. And so we are robbed of all our children. One often gets close to despair. But God always leads out of the depths onto the heights. Many thousands have starved. Yesterday we received the 9 dollars from you. Oh, I just cannot restrain myself out of sheer thankfulness. Yes, dear siblings, if you were not here we would no longer be here either. "Remember us at all times" is our cry to God as well as to people. When will things change? Hearty thanks to all those who have given. May God reward them. How are things with your Peter. Fritz, be rescued while there is time. Greetings to all the children. Oh what advantages your children have over ours! God be with you. Your humble, Jacob.

. . . I was directed across a dark, vast and foreboding abyss.

Suddenly, I found myself facing a wall that seemed to have no end.

I decided there and then to go --

Through The Red Gate

In this live interview documentary, Peter Bargen recounts how as a seven-year-old he and his family narrowly escaped the Russian Gulag and almost certain death. The rest of his relatives were not so fortunate. In the former USSR during Joseph Stalin’s reign (1929–53), between 45 and 60-million people, among them thousands of Mennonites, perished through enforced exile, execution, famine and disease.

Now, in a story that crosses continents and binds together generations, the discovery of a cache of rare and long-forgotten letters reveals the terrifying details of the Bargen family’s fate.

Coming out of . . . the Japanese Gulag

Who is Toru Goto?

No, not the Olympic swimmer from Japan, who represented his native country at the 1952 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal as a member of the 4x200m freestyle relay team, alongside Yoshihiro Hamaguchi, Hiroshi Suzuki and Teijiro Tanikawa.

This one:

As his story has been presented by Unification Church officials; here is a man from Japan who just wanted to live in peace, while practicing his faith, attempting to raise a family and also studying to become an architect.

He was in his 30s, with a new wife, beloved by the young people of the congregation who called him teichou or "Captain" when he was taken the first time.

In America today, (NOT yesterday) such a scenario, even for those practicing a "new religion" would for all practical purposes and by logical reasoning still be SHOCKING.

In Japan, however, hardly a whimper or sound has been heard.

Why?

Is it because, zen-like and borrowing from the classic Hollywood  sci-fi horror flick "Alien," :

"In Space No One Can Hear You Scream" ?

The reality seems to be somewhere within the spaces rather than in space itself.

The second time Mr. Goto was taken by "deprogrammers" and members of his own family, according to Mr. Goto's own testimony was on September 11, 1995.

The date is interesting.

The year also, it must be recalled (as Mr. Goto does), was the year of the Aum Shinriko sarin gas attacks on Tokyo subways. According to news reports from that time: "On the morning of 20 March 1995, Aum members released sarin gas in a coordinated attack on five trains in the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 commuters, seriously injuring 54 and affecting 980 more. Some estimates claim as many as 5,000 people were injured."

Here is where the story gets very strange and virtually, unfathomable.

TWELVE YEARS AND 5 MONTHS passed by and finally, finally, Mr. Goto is quite suddenly thrown out the usually bolted door of the condominium where he had been held captive.

The family and the paid captors -- along with one or two "Christian counselors" finally just gave up.

The second person Mr. Goto meets in his almost terminally emaciated and torn state, staggering down the busy street, is . . . a member of the Unification Church.

Miraculous . . .

This story, apart even from the many chilling details (revealed so far) of twelve and a half years of captivity, is quite simply -- astounding.

And, it is NOT the only one.

Truly, a gulag has been growing in Japan.

Mr. Goto today with his new bride

The Unification Church, it seems, has been used, in part, as scapegoat for the fears and insecurities of a nation as it apparently, yet, struggles to make sense of the events of March 20, 1995.

Hence, one might even see the battle against "Moonies" in Japan in similar light to the battle against terrorists in America and the world since the shocking, horrible events of September 11, 2001.

America (and the world) would do well to pay heed to this instance of blatant cruelty, even anti-religious terror, recalling also, what happens when one does not (e.g., The Waco Massacre of April 19, 1993).


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Added September 5, 2009:

Put an End to Religious Kidnapping and Forced Conversion!

To whom it may concern,

I have come to the United States at this time to share my ordeal as a victim of religious kidnapping and forced confinement for 12 years and 5 months, and to request the cooperation of American people like you in order to eliminate the practice of religious kidnapping and forced conversion that are still continuing to take place in Japan.

I came in contact with the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity at the age of 23, and my soul was transformed from a nihilistic one to one filled with hope and joy. However, my joy was short-lived as I soon encountered severe trials.

What I encountered was religious kidnapping and forced confinement where others tried to force me to abandon my faith. This took place not just once but twice. Fortunately, I was able to escape from the first confinement after one month. I subsequently changed my name from fear of another kidnapping, kept my whereabouts secret, and lived like an underground Christian believer.

One day, eight years after my first confinement, I was again kidnapped and forcibly confined. I was 31 years old. The second confinement lasted 12 years and 5 months. When I regained my freedom I was already 44 years old. During the confinement, I was subjected to all kinds of verbal and mental abuse by many individuals. I came to feel, “If such mental tortures continue, I want to die.” I prayed to God in agony, day after day, “Please send me to the life after death by tomorrow morning.”

Whenever I share with my acquaintances in the United States about the fact that such religious persecutions are taking place frequently in modern-day Japan, they all have a hard time believing it. In addition, when they hear that more than 4,000 people have been subjected to religious kidnapping and confinement for forced religious conversion in the past 40 years, most people just shake their heads saying, “I can’t believe it.”

Japan is widely regarded as a mature and advanced democratic nation where religious freedom is well established. However, the reality that 4,000 criminal acts of abuses through religious kidnapping and forced conversion such as my own case are not prosecuted raises fundamental doubts about whether or not Japan is
really a nation ruled by law. This is unfortunate. Actually, I said to myself many times during my confinement, "Am I really in Japan?"

In the United States, there was time when religious kidnapping, confinement and deprogramming cases took place frequently and became a social issue during 1970s and 1980s. However, the perpetrators were arrested, brought to justice through court trials and punished. Those illegal activities were virtually terminated by the end of the 1990s.

In order to eliminate such tragedies from continuing to occur in Japan, I have been working with other victims, who have experienced similar ordeals, and I established the Association to Eliminate Religious Kidnapping and Forced Conversion in September 2008. I have been publicly involved in the efforts to deal with this issue. I sincerely ask for help from the United States government officials, the human rights community and other who value religious freedom by helping to eliminate such tragedies from occurring in Japanese society.

More specifically, I would like to ask for help in creating the environment where some Christian ministers, lawyers and deprogrammers currently involved in religious kidnapping and forced conversion will not be able to continue their activities. Also, in the unfortunate event where religious kidnapping and forced confinement do take place, I would like to ask you to encourage the police and other authorities in Japan to swiftly act to rescue the victims and prosecute the offenders.

August 17, 2009

Toru Goto

Diagram of Ogikubo Flowerhome 804

Letter courtesy of The International Coalition for Religious Freedom a non-profit, non-sectarian, educational organization dedicated to defending the religious freedom of all, regardless of creed, gender or ethnic origin. ICRF acknowledges with gratitude that, at the current time, it receives the bulk of its funding from institutions and individuals related to the Unification Church community. Contributions to ICRF are tax-exempt under section 501-c-3 of the Internal Revenue Code of the USA.

Gulag Orkestar

Something eerily haunting about this piece, "Gulag Orkestar" from the album of the same name by the young ensemble, Beirut out of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This video accompaniment from Youtube user erenboraercan is both evocative and(literally)transporting.

Listen carefully for the few lyrics.


Hint:
"They call it night . . . "

Freedom is Not Free and Neither is God

In contemplating freedom today, just now even, after a brief trek around some of my virtual haunts (various mail, news and news group sites, youtube links), my inner guru (voice of conscience) prods me with one of those gentle reminders one best not treat (or tread upon) lightly.

"Be not shocked by anything within the full spectrum of human behavior."

Saddened, appalled at times, yes.

Shocked?

No.

As we live in an age of travel opportunities unbound (well, almost) and where vast amounts of information abound, that is, quite simply, extremely difficult.

With all that in mind, something, if not shocking, perhaps a little bit surprising, can be found here.


June 2003
In the forests of southern Siberia, workers are still working as serfs in the Gulag, paying off North Korea's $3.8 billion Cold War debt. Kim Sung Chol came to work at a North Korean Logging Camp in Siberia on a three-year 'contract'. He never received a single ruble.

[Don't let the 2003 date fool you. The "debt" will likely never be paid as long as certain regimes remain.]

And more of what many already know:





"It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed."
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)