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| September 6, 2007 Cotler calls for sanctions against Iran By Janice Arnold, Staff Reporter, Canadian Jewish News Montreal - Liberal human rights critic Irwin Cotler said it makes no sense that Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar, exonerated by a federal inquiry of terrorist links, remains on a U.S. security watch list, while Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad is free to enter the country. Speaking to reporters, Cotler said Amadinejad should not be permitted into the United States this month when he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 24. At the least, Amadinejad should have his movements restricted to within the perimeter of the UN headquarters, Cotler said. He thinks other countries should also bar the Iranian leader and other officials from being admitted. Cotler called for tougher economic and financial sanctions against Iran for “incitement to genocide, nuclear proliferation, and state support for international terrorism .” He believes Iran may only be a year away from nuclear weapon capability. The Amadinejad regime poses not only a threat to Israel and the Jewish people, he said, but to the stability of the Middle East and security worldwide . According to the Mount Royal MP, the Iranian president is guilty of “horrific criminal incitement to genocide” [sic] and should be held to account by the UN and its member states, which have a number of legal remedies at their disposal, he said . He said countries that are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention, not only have the right but the responsibility to enforce it, especially its prevention clauses. The treaty was ratified by Canada in 1952 and the United States in 1988, as well as Iran itself in 1956. Cotler thinks it is “astonishing” that no UN body has yet to address the issue of the Iranian regime's genocidal intentions, referring to Ahmadinejad's declared wish to annihilate Israel. Cotler wants the UN Security Council and countries to file a complaint against Ahmadenijad, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and other Iranian leaders with the International Court of Justice. Cotler also urged economic sanctions against Iran, including freezing the overseas assets of all its major banks, trade restrictions, especially those that affect its oil and gas sectors, and an embargo on weapons sales to or by Iran. Cotler urged divestment from companies, institutions and other entities doing business in Iran. “In a word, Iran needs to be shut out from the international financial system until compliance is achieved,” he said. He also called for congressional and parliamentary initiatives against Iran, such as his motion this year to refer to the UN Iranian officials' “direct and public incitement to genocide,” which was passed by the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Human Rights. “These legislative initiatives have not only an important symbolic value; rather they signify a finding – a legal determination – that Iranian leadership is engaged in incitement to genocide,” he said. Cotler noted that many of Iran's citizens are opposed to their government and want to establish a democratic state at peace with their neighbours, and the international community should support efforts in this direction. In other matters, Cotler said he had submitted a brief to Israel's Supreme Court urging that refugees in that country from Sudan's wartorn Darfur region “enjoy due process to determine their eligibility and are not subject until then to arbitrary detention” as defined by Israeli and international law. “The Israeli government, regrettably, had no policy on the Darfur refugees which led to a situation where people were arbitrarily detained under conditions that were not appropriate. “Then it finally decided on a policy – if you can call it that – that allows 500 refugees to remain and the others deported.” Cotler is co-president of the Parliamentary Group to Save Darfur. Israel announced last month that it will turn away all illegal entrants from Sudan, many of whom are coming across the border with Egypt, while about 500 already in the country will be permitted to stay for “humanitarian reasons.” Cotler said he understands Israel's concern that some of these people may not be legitimate refugees and the deeper fear that the Jewish state “not end up as a sanctuary for Africans fleeing whatever killing field,” but the legal rights of those who are in the country have to be respected. The UN, he added, must see that the “burden of resettlement (of Darfurian refugees) is borne by different countries proportionally.” He also called on the Harper government “to ratchet up is diplomatic, political, financial and military contribution” to ending the conflict in Darfur, including participation in the joint UN-African Union military and police mission scheduled to be deployed in Sudan in December. Canada, he said, has the capacity to provide troops to Sudan, while still keeping its current commitment in Afghanistan, which ends in February 2009, and to increase what, he termed, Canada's “very limited presence in Darfur” now. ************************************** Originally published by The Canadian Jewish News at http://www.cjnews. com/TOPScnCJN/ index.php? option=com_ content&task=view&id=13085&Itemid=86 Fair Use Notice: The above newspaper article is copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |