BY TIM STEWART
& ALISON DELLIT
In a disturbing escalation of government harassment of migrant communities, the homes of 10 Iranian-Australian families in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne were raided by federal police on June 3.
Claiming to be hunting members of Mujaheddin-e-Khalq (MEK), an organisation that has carried out terrorist attacks on Iranian government officials, plain-clothed police confiscated computers, diaries, books, papers, photos and cheque books.
The warrants authorising the raids were not just concerned with the MEK. Police were authorised to seize information relating to refugees' rights organisations, including the Refugee Action Collective (RAC) and Iranian refugee associations.
All the Iranians raided were opponents of the Iranian government. Most — but not all — were MEK supporters.
"They even took photographs of our bathroom and toilet", said Tayeb Sadeghian, one of the Iranians whose house was raided in Brisbane. Also raided was Lahleh Arean, who works with the Iranian community show on the 4EB radio station.
The raids came less than a week after the Iranian activists spoke outside offices of the immigration department during a national day of action against deportations of refugees.
The federal government recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran allowing it to forcibly deport Iranian asylum seekers. The threat of this memorandum is being used as leverage to force Iranians to "voluntarily" return to Iran. Canberra has also conducted recent trade negotiations with the Iranian government.
Sadeghian, who was the main speaker at the Brisbane rally, told Green Left Weekly: "We have nothing to hide ... we work with the Australian government and Australian members of parliament to defeat the fundamentalist regime in Iran. We want to work legally against the Iranian government, to put international pressure on the Iranian regime."
Refugees' rights activist and Greens spokesperson on refugees Pamela Curr happened to be present at one of the raided homes. "As more evidence from the raids is collated", she told Green Left Weekly, "it points to a nod-and-wink agreement that the Australian government would crack down on Iranian opposition groups here."
Four activists who attended the Brisbane rally the previous week, and distributed pamphlets about the Iranian resistance and the MEK, had their houses raided, prompting Sadeghian to ask: "How is it that only one month after [foreign minister] Alexander Downer visited Iran, and after Iranian officials visited Canberra, there is a sudden decision by the government to deport Iranian refugees?"
Sadeghian believes the Iranian regime was behind the raids, and a secret deal was negotiated with Canberra to control Iranian opposition groups in Australia. "No-one has been arrested, so what's going on?" he said. "We've been raising funds for the Iranian opposition movement for 10 years. What's changed?"
Curr pointed out that the targeting of RAC in the raids was part of a more general government campaign to smear refugees with the "terrorist" tag. "In subtle and unsubtle ways they try to create a link between them. There is no link — even Australian government departments concede that", Curr told GLW.
Sadeghian said that the raids were another reason why Australians should oppose the repeated attempts by the federal government to give the attorney general's department the sole power to declare which organisations or individuals would be listed as "terrorists".
Under laws passed last year, it is illegal to fund or be a member of an organisation classified as "terrorist" (at the moment, the MEK is not classified as such by the Australian government or by the UN).
In a press statement issued on June 8, the International Federation of Iranian Refugees likened the raids to the activities of the police in Iran. "This ripping up of civil liberties is fascist and must be thrown out", IFIR spokesperson Arsalan Nazeri said. "We call on the government of Australia [to] immediately stop its attacks and not to further suppress the individual and social freedoms of Iranians in Australia."
Brisbane Socialist Alliance member Dod Roshanbin condemned the raids and the "anti-terror" laws that allow them. "It is the right of people in this country to legally organise, debate and support political forces overseas if they choose", he told GLW. He pointed out that those raided are not suspected of any crime beyond their political beliefs.
"The public has a right to know what negotiations have taken place between the Iranian and Australian governments", Roshanbin added.