On December 3, a group of Australian Church leaders issued a statement, declaring their solidarity with the people of Iran and their struggle for basic human rights and freedoms.
In their statement, Priests and Bishops called the international community and their government to pressure on Iranian autocrats to stop execution and other types of suppression and torture.
The crosslink institute is an Australian-based religious-humanitarian body that seeks identity and belonging, relationship and accountability, resourcing and support, revelation and inspiration, and overcoming difficulties. The crosslink has borrowed its name from a chemical term to describe its function and goals.
“It is the bond that connects one polymer chain with another, or more plainly, it is what enables rubber to become strong, bonded and flexible enough for uses such as car tyres,” the crosslink wrote on its official website.
Australian Priests and Bishops wrote:
Australian Church Leaders’ Statement of Solidarity to the People of Iran on 1st anniversary of November 2019 Uprising
We Australian Church leaders call on the international community, our government and political parties, to reach out with solidarity to the people of Iran on the first anniversary of the massive people’s protests of November 15, 2019, in over 200 cities, which were triggered by a huge increase in petrol prices combined with petrol rationing.
The people chanted “Down with the Dictator” and asked for their basic human rights and freedoms.
But the Dictatorship responded with a shutdown of the internet and brutal deadly force. More than 1,500 protesters, mostly youth, teenagers, and women, were shot dead in the streets by the Revolutionary Guards and other security forces.
More than 12,000 were arrested and they are currently being held in prison under medieval torture. At least 30 of them have been sentenced to death simply for protesting.
We call on all people and governments who support democracy and freedom to put an end to the blatant human rights violations, torture, and arbitrary executions in Iran, and call for the unconditional release of all political prisoners. Let us work together to put pressure on the fundamentalist dictatorship which has caused such great suffering to the Iranian people for the last 41 years.
