Zahra Kazemi. Call for Canada to take initiative after Iranian authorities bury Kazemi

Reporters Without Borders called on the Canadian authorities to set up an international commission to investigate the death in custody in Iran of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who had both Canadian and Iranian citizenship, after the Iranian authorities created a new obstacle to any enquiry by hastily burying her today in Chiraz, her birthplace in the south of the country. Kazemi's burial will make it "much more difficult to establish the truth" and was clearly intended to obstruct the investigation, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said. "A new autopsy would have been needed and no doubt strong pressure was put on Kazemi's mother to retract the letter the signed on 19 July in the Canadian embassy in Tehran requesting that her daughter be buried in Canada," he added. The burial took place just a few hours after the Iranian news agency Isna reported that Kazemi's mother had written to the Iranian authorities asking for her daughter to be buried in Iran. Astonishingly, the mother's letter was conveyed by a member of the governmental commission of enquiry set up by President Mohammad Khatami. The commission had until than opposed Kazemi's burial until the enquiry was completed. Reporters Without Borders urged the Canadian government to take the initiative of setting up an international commission of enquiry and to pressure the Iranian government into accepting the commission. "It is clear now that only an international enquiry will be able to identify who was involved," Ménard said. "The Iranian regime clearly has no desire to shed light on this case and prosecute those responsible for this murder." The person currently in charge of the enquiry is the Tehran public prosecutor and revolutionary, Said Mortazavi, who is himself under suspicion. According to the commission set up by the president, Mortazavi personally attended the interrogation of Kazemi in the first few hours after her arrest in Tehran on 23 June. Mortazavi is known for cracking down on reformist newspapers for the past three years and having dozens of journalists detained. A total of 21 journalists are currently in prison in Iran, 13 of whom were arrested in the past 40 days. This makes the Islamic republic the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East. Thirteen of the detained journalists are being held by Mortazavi's staff and Revolutionary Guards in the same centre where Kazemi was interrogated. These detainees are denied all rights (such as visits from their lawyer and family) and are kept in deplorable conditions. Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about their fate, especially as their relatives have referred to physical and psychological torture in a letter to President Khatami.