Rejecting Bush 'humanitarian' ploy, Iran says:
No photo-ops please, just lift sanctions
By Mazda Majidi
A UN report released on Jan. 5 estimates the
death toll from the earthquake that struck the Iranian city of
Bam at 30,000 to 32,000.
Reuters reported that "about 90 percent of the mostly
mud-brick buildings in the ancient Silk Road city collapsed"
when the quake hit on Dec. 26. However, not just the older mud
structures but even modern buildings collapsed in the quake,
prompting Iranian authorities to announce that they had
"uncovered violations of building regulations ... and that
those responsible would be prosecuted."
In a capitalist system, houses are often built by developers
whose sole purpose is to maximize their profits. In the
poverty-stricken Third World, the people who scramble to make
ends meet have no choice but to settle for substandard housing
just to have a roof over their heads.
Despite living in an era of virtually unlimited productive
capacity, resulting in periodic crises of overproduction in the
world capitalist system, the majority of the human population
is deprived of its most basic needs, including affordable and
safe shelter. It is not because of a shortage of raw materials
or skilled labor; rather, it is a shortage of "demand" in the
capitalist market. People living in mud houses have a need for
safe, higher-quality housing, but that does not constitute a
"market demand," since they lack buying power.
The plight of the victims prompted support from people
around the world. At least 24 teams of aid workers were sent to
Iran and more than 30 countries contributed to the aid effort,
according to the Associated Press.
This included eight planeloads of aid from the United
States, as well as some 80 relief and medical experts, as
Washington "eased" sanctions on Iran. Aware of its immense
unpopularity in the Middle East, the Bush administration is
using the Bam tragedy as a public relations opportunity.
The U.S. government proposed sending Sen. Elizabeth Dole,
former president of the Red Cross, to Iran on a "humanitarian
mission." She was to be accompanied by unspecified members of
the Bush administration and possibly even someone from the Bush
family, in what certainly would have been a photo-op for the
administration.
It is unclear what exact humanitarian function Dole would
have been able to perform. Iranian authorities, however,
politely declined to permit Dole's trip, stating that the "time
is not right."
Some U.S. officials have denied any political significance
in these developments. "We're talking about two different
issues," State Department deputy spokes man Adam Ereli told
reporters. "One is the humanitarian mission and one is better
relations with Iran. The two aren't linked."
On the other hand, Secretary of State Collin Powell
commented that "there are things happening, and therefore we
should keep open the possibility of dialogue at an appropriate
point in the future," signaling that the U.S. might intend to
use the situation as an opportunity to open negotiations. If
this is the case, it would mark a change, if only temporary,
from the stated U.S. position of pursuing a "regime change."
That became a serious threat when President Bush included Iran
in his "axis of evil" speech two years ago.
Iran's response to U.S. maneuver
There is no doubt that Washington would like nothing more
than to install a puppet government in Tehran. But the failure
of the Iraq colonization project may, for the time being, have
soured Wash ington's appetite for further occupations.
On the other hand, this may simply have been a maneuver to
put the Iranian government in a no-win situation. Had it
refused to accept the U.S. aid, given the enormity of the
catastrophe, Tehran's refusal would have come across as
insensitive to the needs of the earthquake victims. By
accepting the U.S. aid as it did, the Islamic Republic regime
became an unwitting participant in Bush's humanitarian
propaganda.
The ulterior motives behind the U.S. aid and the proposed
Dole trip have prompted officials in Tehran to take conflicting
positions. Some are proposing a positive response to the good
gesture by extending a fig leaf to the U.S. But President
Mohammad Khatami, while thanking the U.S., said that
"humanitarian issues should not be intertwined with deep and
chronic political problems."
Other comments have been more direct, referring to the
oppressive nature of the history of U.S. policy toward Iran,
such as the 1953 CIA-engineered coup that remov ed the
democratically elected prime minister, Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh,
from power and installed Shah Reza Pahlevi as a U.S.
puppet.
Referring to assets the U.S. government froze after the 1979
revolution that overthrew the Shah's regime, a state radio
commentary said: "Instead of sending meager aid to help quake
victims, Washington should unfreeze billions of dollars of
Iranian assets."
The head of the Council of Guardians, Ayatollah Ahmad
Janati, had this message for the American government: "If you
had any honor, humanity or mercy, you would do better to have
pity on the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples, for whom you have
caused an earthquake."
Disasters such as the Iranian earthquake underscore the need
for a worldwide planned economy that rationally allocates
resources based on human needs. Not only within national
borders but also between nations, capitalism, in its advanced
stage of imperialism, inevitably polarizes the world into two
camps of haves and have nots. This system requires that the
people in the colonies, semi-colonies and neo-colonies live in
poverty in order for their countries to serve as a source of
raw materials and cheap labor for the imperialists.
The 30,000 in Bam had to die because they lived in a country
that occupies the position of the oppressed in this unjust
system. Heavy tolls taken by natural disasters are inevitable
only so long as humanity lives under the yoke of capitalism. In
a rational system that plans economic and productive activities
in accordance to human needs, houses that can withstand natural
disasters could be built for all the peoples of the world,
minimizing the human cost of earthquakes and other
disasters.
Reprinted from the Jan. 15, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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