IPPNW Delegation to Tehran on 20^th-23^rd of January 2007

Between 20^th-23^rd of January an IPPNW delegation from Sweden consisting of doctors (Dr Hans Levander, Dr Gunnar Westberg, Prof Gösta Arthursson), student (Wenjing Tao), researcher (Gustav Andersson) and other peace activists (Ann-Mari Westberg, Kristina Levander) visited Tehran, Iran. The delegation was planned by Dr Hans Levander, a very active IPPNW doctor and the founder of Life-Link Friendship Schools (www.life-link.org). Our host was Dr Shariar Khateri from SCWVS - Society for Chemical Weapons Victims Support (www.scwvs.org) which is a non-governmental organisation with the purpose of supporting victims, both civilians and soldiers, from the chemical weapon attacks during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). SCWVS has been co-operating with other peace organisations from e.g. Hiroshima, and they are now interested in forming an Iranian affiliate to join IPPNW. The purposes with this delegation was to learn about SCWVS and check their possibilities to join our organisation, plus learning more about the terrible gas attacks that took place during the war and their consequences.

Our schedule was tight and included:

A visit to the Peace Exhibition at SCWVSs head office with materials from Hiroshima and the Iran-Iraq war. All the materials has been collected by the SCWVS and they hope to be able to extend this to a Peace Museum. At this exhibition, Dr Khateri also gave us a very informative presentation about the Iran-Iraq war.

A short conference with SCWVS members, doctors and medical students. Totally around 40 people attended the conference, including 5 medical students from Tehran. During this conference, each member of the delegation group did a short presentation of a valid topic connected to IPPNW or chemical weapons. I talked about the student projects and primarily NWIP. Some of the members of SCWVS who had survived the gas attacks or was family members of victims from the attacks told us about their experiences. For me, the most moving moment was when the son of one of the victims read a letter that he had written to Dr Gösta Arthursson from our delegation. His father was treated in Sweden by Dr Arthursson after the gas attack and had recovered from the injuries. However, he was unfortunately killed when he returned to Iran during the war. As Iran did not have enough capacity to treat the victims from the gas attacks during the Iran-Iraq war, some of them were sent to hospitals around Europe for intensive care treatment.

After the conference, the medical students and I had a short meeting. The students were very eager to start up a local group with medical students from their university. I gave them some information materials and we discussed what kind of activities they could arrange at their university and in Tehran. Unfortunately, we discovered that many of the activities within the framework of NWIP are not suitable for countries with regimes like the one in Iran. We agreed that a small group of experienced NWIP members should return to Tehran to help the students start up a local group, teach them our dialogue techniques and brainstorm around suitable activities. Hopefully they can invite twenty to thirty students that the NWIP delegates can hold dialogues with. I am currently discussing with them about the possibilities of sending a group there in the beginning of April.

Visits to centres for war victims including a hospital for patients with mustard gas injuries, a rehabilitation home for traumatised patients from the war and a spinal cord centre for soldiers injured during the war. The delegation was especially impressed by a patient with a quadro paralysation who has been lying in his bed immobile for more than twenty years. In spite of his condition, he has learned English and has many opinions on current political situations. A true “man of thoughts” as we called him. This is when some of the delegation members came up with the idea to start a world-wide network with soldiers paralysed during war and give them the opportunity to communicate with each other.

Meeting with the Swedish Ambassador. The delegation had a fruitful discussion with him about the possibilities for IPPNW to establish an affiliate in Iran and what kind of obstacles the organisation might face. The Ambassador was not very optimistic, as he’s seen the kind of difficulties human rights organisations are dealing with in Iran. However, he is willing to give us his support.      

A visit to middle school in Tehran, a member of the Life-Link Friendship-Schools. Dr Hans Levander and the delegation were received as royalties with an impressive ceremony in the name of peace. After the ceremony, Dr Levander also visited the national UNESCO office to discuss the possibilities to start the Life-Link program in more schools in Iran. Currently 34 schools in Iran are members of Life-Link.  

We asked Dr Shariar Khateri how he became involved in working against weapons of mass destruction and he told us that he himself had joined the war as a soldier and lost family members in the gas attacks. The interest in anti-war activities amongst the people we met was based not least on the fact that they had been affected by war themselves. Some of the medical students I met during the conference had lost both relatives and close friends to their families in the Iran-Iraq war. My impression was that many Iranians feel that the outside world has neglected the sufferings of their people during the war. Although it was Iraq that attacked Iran, the western world still unofficially supported Iraq - an action that during the time agitated both the leaders and the people of Iran. This is one of the reasons to why the medical students wish to inform students from other countries about the Iran-Iraq war and the consequences of the chemical attacks. An opportunity that is given to them through IPPNWs numerous student conferences.

I am very glad to have given this opportunity to join this delegation to Tehran. I have learned a lot about the turbulent political background of Iran and most importantly I have increased my understanding of the people. Hopefully NWIP will manage to help them establish an active student group in the capital city, so that more of you will be able to experience what I have experienced!

Wenjing Tao

NWIP co-ordinator