ITF Rep Challenges Iran Ambassador To TV Debate

After visit to Iran ITF rep challenges ambassador to TV debate

Speaking after his recent return from a mission to Iran, Hanafi Rustandi, ITF representative and President of the Indonesian seafarers' union the KPI (Kesatuan Pelaut Indonesia), today challenged the country's ambassador in Indonesia to debate its victimisation of trade unionists.

On Indonesian National Television in Jakarta at 17:00 today he threw down the gauntlet by offering to go face to face with Iran's ambassador on live television.

Rustandi issued the challenge after the Iranian Embassy wrote to the Indonesian media criticising his visit to the country, where he had hoped the authorities would make good on a promise to let him see imprisoned trade unionist Mansour Osanloo.

While there he was told he could not see Osanloo because he was receiving urgent treatment for a serious eye injury inflicted by the authorities two years before. Yesterday it was revealed that this was a lie and Osanloo is in danger of being blinded because the necessary medical attention is being withheld.

Although denied the right to see the persecuted trade unionist, Rustandi was able to meet with his family and that of his imprisoned colleague Ebrahim Medadi, along with members of both men's trade union, the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed).

Rustandi explained: "My visit to Iran arose from a promise the ambassador made in August and the desire to reach out from one Muslim country to another to assist those fellow workers there who are being ill-treated. I believe that if the ambassador had his way I might have been able to breach the walls of secrecy that surround the Evin prison, but that this was prevented by people in the government who have so much to hide about the way Mansour Osanloo has been treated. I look forward to publicly discussing with the ambassador what has been going on and where he believes we go from here to right this sad situation."

ENDS

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