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Regional pressure mounts for release of Iranian leaders
17 August 2007
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looked set to face criticism of his government's human rights record this week when he attended the annual summit meeting of the intergovernmental Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) reports that its affiliated national trade union organisations in a number of SCO states (which comprise China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) have renewed pressure on Iran to release the two detained labour leaders, Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi.
The Federation of Trade Unions of Kyrgyzstan yesterday wrote to the president of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiev, asking him to "make President Ahmadinejad aware of the serious concern of Kyrgyzstan workers" about the two imprisoned Iranian trade unionists and to "insist that Iran follow the rules of international law, since these rules are the basis of any international co-operation".
According to the ITUC, Russia's 28 million-strong trade union confederation FNPR protested in similar terms last week to the Iranian authorities, while the country's two other ITUC affiliates, VKT and KTR, reiterated these demands on the occasion of the SCO summit.
Similar trade union action has taken place in India and Pakistan. Iran, which is seeking full membership of the SCO, takes part in the Bishkek Summit in an observer capacity, as do Mongolia, India and Pakistan.
The ITF and ITUC have welcomed the fact that Tehran bus workers’ leader Mansour Osanloo, who is detained in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, was reportedly allowed to make a phone call to his wife and to meet his lawyers this week.
Mahmoud Salehi, former president of the Bakery Workers'
Association in Saqez (Iran's Kurdistan Province) and co-founder of the Coordinating Committee to form Workers' Organisations, is being refused medical care in the prison of Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan Province.
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