Sunday, July 26, 2009 AMSTERDAM: Demonstrators in cities around the globe joined protests Saturday denouncing human rights abuses in Iran and showing support for opponents of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad.Some of the biggest rallies took place in Amsterdam, London and Stockholm, with more than 4,000 alone taking to the streets of the Swedish capital.Among the 1,000 people in Amsterdam was Iran's Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi who led the crowd in chanting: "We want to live in peace. Long live peace"."We are here to show our solidarity with the people of Iran and to urge the Iranian government to respect human rights," said Tom van den Brand, a spokesman for Amnesty International in Amsterdam.In London, where more than a thousand gathered outside the Iranian embassy, organisers also spoke of supporting Iranians protesting Ahmandinejad's disputed re-election."This is symbolic, it's a global day of solidarity," said Potkin Azarmehr, one of the organisers. "We need to make sure the government pays a price for the way they're treating the people in Iran."Following charges of fraud in the June 12 presidential election, Tehran became the scene of mass street protests that shook the pillars of the Islamic republic.Iranian official reports say at least 20 people died and more than 1,000 were arrested in demonstrations. Dozens of reformist leaders, journalists and human rights activists have also been jailed in the wake of the election that the opposition says was rigged.In a park in Tokyo's busy Shibuya district, demonstrators carried a placard declaring: "Ahmadinejad is not Iran's president."Many of Saturday's demonstrations included ex-patriots and those of Iranian descent.In Paris, a rally of some 600 people, mostly Iranians, denounced the "electoral coup d'etat" in Iran. Many wore green, the colour of the opposition led by moderate candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi who was Ahmandinejad's closest rival.Others carried pictures of a young Iranian woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot dead during a demonstration and has become a symbol of the opposition's struggle."We want the United Nations to intervene, an inquiry into the systematic human rights violations in Iran," said the group United for Iran.
Sunday, July 26, 2009 AMSTERDAM: Demonstrators in cities around the globe joined protests Saturday denouncing human rights abuses in Iran and showing support for opponents of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad.Some of the biggest rallies took place in Amsterdam, London and Stockholm, with more than 4,000 alone taking to the streets of the Swedish capital.Among the 1,000 people in Amsterdam was Iran's Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi who led the crowd in chanting: "We want to live in peace. Long live peace"."We are here to show our solidarity with the people of Iran and to urge the Iranian government to respect human rights," said Tom van den Brand, a spokesman for Amnesty International in Amsterdam.In London, where more than a thousand gathered outside the Iranian embassy, organisers also spoke of supporting Iranians protesting Ahmandinejad's disputed re-election."This is symbolic, it's a global day of solidarity," said Potkin Azarmehr, one of the organisers. "We need to make sure the government pays a price for the way they're treating the people in Iran."Following charges of fraud in the June 12 presidential election, Tehran became the scene of mass street protests that shook the pillars of the Islamic republic.Iranian official reports say at least 20 people died and more than 1,000 were arrested in demonstrations. Dozens of reformist leaders, journalists and human rights activists have also been jailed in the wake of the election that the opposition says was rigged.In a park in Tokyo's busy Shibuya district, demonstrators carried a placard declaring: "Ahmadinejad is not Iran's president."Many of Saturday's demonstrations included ex-patriots and those of Iranian descent.In Paris, a rally of some 600 people, mostly Iranians, denounced the "electoral coup d'etat" in Iran. Many wore green, the colour of the opposition led by moderate candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi who was Ahmandinejad's closest rival.Others carried pictures of a young Iranian woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot dead during a demonstration and has become a symbol of the opposition's struggle."We want the United Nations to intervene, an inquiry into the systematic human rights violations in Iran," said the group United for Iran.
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