“I support the people of Iran indeed in their struggle for justice and democracy. I remember how much it was vital for us in South Africa, during the dark days of the apartheid, that our brothers and sisters defend us throughout the world. It is therefore important for me to speak of massacre of Iranian dissidents that took place in the camps of Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq and to underline how the world kept silence in this regard. I call on the United Nations to provide protection to these Iranian refugees and to condemn the Iraqi government for this crime against humanity.”
The text is the the English Translation of text of interview published by French media.
The demise of Nelson Mandela has created a big vacuum…
Naomi Tutu: Yes, but President Mandela left us a big heritage. He showed us how to live in dignity. We know he compelled his jailers to respect him and offered them the same thing in return. And also, especially, his life assures us that the justice and the humanity will always finally defeat the injustice and the oppression.
Q:How to perpetuate the action of Mandela, and that of your father’s as Nobel Laureate for peace in 1984?
Naomi Tutu: I would like to believe that my work as the militant of human rights and justice proves to be the continuation of the action of these two children of Africa in the world. I learned these values from them and their generation who created these values in our struggle for me. As Martin Luther King Junior said: ” The injustice anywhere is a threat for justice everywhere.”
Q:To fight against injustices seems to be without end…
Naomi Tutu: I see increasing number of people throughout the world, however, recognize that liberty and justice are indivisible. The isolation of individuals from each other often becomes evident, but I increasingly feel the recognition of our humanity is bound intimately to that of each of us on this planet.
Q: Your engagement for the human rights is linked to the exiled Iranian Resistance in France this weekend in Paris …
Naomi Tutu: I support the people of Iran indeed in their struggle for justice and democracy. I remember how much it was vital for us in South Africa, during the dark days of the apartheid, that our brothers and sisters defend us throughout the world. It is therefore important for me to speak of massacre of Iranian dissidents that took place in the camps of Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq and to underline how the world kept silence in this regard. I call on the United Nations to provide protection to these Iranian refugees and to condemn the Iraqi government for this crime against humanity.
Interview by S. MICHAUX
Photp: Naomi Tutu speaking in an international conference in Paris on December 7, 2013.
