Iran Document: Resignation Letter of Diplomat in Japan "Join the People"

Last week Abolfazl Eslami became the second Iranian diplomat to resign over the Government's conduct in the post-election crisis. He then wrote his fellow officials at the Iranian Embassy in Tokyo, asking them to join the opposition movement. Translation from Persian2English:

With respect,

Today, we have all heard about the Supreme Council of National Security`s statement on the Kahrizak scandal. The statement addresses crimes that Ayatollah Montazeri spent an entire lifetime to expose. We in the foreign affairs ministry failed to listen and the Almighty humiliated these criminals by forcing them to publish their own statement of humiliation. Ayatollah Montazeri had to go through a lifetime of detention and accusations to allow blind people like us see what has been exposed by this statement. But instead, we heard criminals accuse Ayatollah Montazeri, and we laughed about it.

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Dear Colleagues,

After the release of the statement on the Kahrizak scandal, we must concede that we have served a lifetime defending a regime that has killed and tortured innocent people. We knew about these atrocities more than anybody else. We have not forgotten that in Khatami’s term, Mr. Ali Akbar Yasaghi, the head of the Prisons Organization, admitted that 100 detention centers were not under our supervision. Mr. Shahroodi ordered the illegal prisons to come under the supervision of the Prisons Organizations. Has the order of Mr. Shahroodi been executed?We have all read the secret report of Hojat ol Eslam Abasali Alizadeh, the head of the Justice Ministry in Khatami’s time. He wrote on the illegal prisons, the killing of innocent girls and boys in prisons, the ‘circle murders’ in Kerman and Karaj, and the ‘chain murders’ in Tehran. Additionally, we all witnessed his dismissal by the Supreme Leader the day following [the release of the report].

Dear Colleagues,

Oppressed people like Ayatollah Montazeri had to go through a lifetime of suppression. We observed these crimes and excused them. We lived in residences payed by the dollars of the same people who were killed. Yet, we hugged and kissed our children in our wealthy households. We boasted to foreigners about a Saadi poem inscribed in the United Nations building: “One Limb impacted is sufficient.” We boasted that Imam Ali cried when a Jewish women was humiliated. We boasted that it is our religious duty to disclaim tyranny and to take the side of the oppressed. Now that the Supreme Council for National Security has confirmed the killings of youth under torture, have we forgotten all of that?

How many verses of the Prophet and Imams did we memorize about justice and oppression?

“If one sharpens the pen of an oppressor, he shares the oppression.”
“If one gives a bit of silk for an oppressor to use in his ink, he shares the oppression.”

We prayed, we fasted, and we went to Hajj, only to be paid for it by the government. If we had not prayed, we would not get our jobs. We would not be secretaries and ambassadors.

Is fighting the tyrant only part of our religion when it comes to Mecca demonstrations? Why did we forget it when our own people were killed?

Dear Colleagues,

We were naive to think that God almighty would not distinguish between us and Ayatollah Montazeri. Montazeri was truly a “Montazer” (waiting) for a lifetime. He waited for the Supreme Council of Security to declare the humiliation of the Yazid regime. He waited for truth to be obvious to everybody. Now we have no reason to remain in Yazid’s regime.

We, ambassadors, consulates, and staff of foreign affairs were among the founding columns of a regime that detained Montazeri and killed his supporters under torture. If we are guilty today, we cannot ask him to forgive us. He is in the heavens with his beloved and we are still on the payroll of a bloodthirsty regime.

I am begging you to come to your senses. There is still a way out. God is our greatest saviour.

Abolfazl Eslami