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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (58923)	3/10/2005 5:59:40 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Anti-Tehran protesters hold up Brussels plane 50 Iranians singing freedom songs, demand EU stop accommodation March 10, 2005 By Art Moore About 50 Iranian activists are holding a protest on an airplane at the Brussels airport, seeking to convince heads of the European Union to stop accommodating Tehran's cleric-led Islamic regime. The activists, who refuse to disembark a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, are in cell phone contact with an Iranian scholar and activist in London who runs a TV station out of his home, Frood Fouladvand. The protesters, according to Fouladvand, are chanting: "We are the messengers of peace. We are against global terrorism. We will remove the malignant terrorist regime of the Mullahs." The Boeing 737 arrived at Brussels' Zaventem airport at 3 p.m. local time with 103 passengers and crew. U.S. Iranian activist Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, who is in phone contact with Fouladvand, told WorldNetDaily the protesters want an internationally monitored referendum that would enable the Iranian people to choose their next form of government. Zand-Bonazzi said the protesters include constitutional monarchists, some of whom support the late shah. She insists they should not be delegitimized as a "bunch of crazies, which is how the Islamic regime will spin this." "These are heroic Iranians who have taken their guts in their hands," she said. "All of the activists, whether constitutional monarchists or seekers of a republic, will stand behind everything they are doing." Zand-Bonazzi believes the Iranians want a secular democratic state, not a "reformist" regime as advocated by President Mohammad Khatami, who, she said, simply is carrying out the wishes of the ayatollahs. "This is the first of a series of confrontations with the European Union," Zand-Bonazzi said. "They will always be peaceful and respectful, but the leaders of Europe have to back down now." The first order of business, she said, is for Europe to recognize the terrorist threat posed by the Iranian regime. "[The mullahs] may say they are after the U.S. and Israel, but they are after a secular and democratic lifestyle, which includes Europe," Zand-Bonazzi said. The protesters have been verbally abused by Belgian authorities and accused of hijacking, according to Zand-Bonazzi. She maintains, however, the activists are doing nothing but singing Iranian freedom anthems and asking to speak to the U.K., French and German representatives of the European Union. Members of the media are not allowed on the plane. worldnetdaily.com