His name was Kambiz Rustayi. He was 36 and he was expecting for the outcome of his asylum request since 2001. He sprayed himself with several litres of gasoline in order to sacrifice himself in front of the Holocaust Memorial in Amsterdam right after he was announced he would be expelled from the Netherlands to Iran where he would be sentenced to death and to torture.

By committing suicide, Kambiz just brought forward the date of his death. However he chose a public and symbolic place and a violent method so to make his death change what is expected to be the fate of thousands of Iranian refugees across Europe.

Actually, before Kambiz, other exiled ones have tried to draw the attention of opinion and media by mutilating themselves but nobody never made a sole report about such suffering. Thus we remember that Iranian refugees who were on the point of expulsion from Greece stitched their lips. Others in Netherlands burnt their fingerprints in order to avoid being identified on their arrival in Iran.
© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG

© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG
Kambiz decided to go further in suffering by immolating himself on a symbolic and touristic place in order to be seen and thus overcome the indifference of media which react in accordance with the economic interest of their country. He was right : the scene of his death was filmed and broadcasted on Youtube.
© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG

© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG
What is amazing is that such suffering, which has hurt harshly exiled Iranians, didn’t make relevant organizations display any supportive reaction. Such silence has chocked even more the Iranian exiled whose asylum request was accepted. We were contacted because we are the Iranian website which is the most visited in France and in French-speaking countries in order to break this silence which surrounds extraditions with unforeseeable outcome.

During conversations with our interlocutors, we reached a consensus on a simple request : since the European Union declares it cares about human rights and since it tells it supports the Iranian people, it must protect Iranian asylum seekers by freezing extradition processes until the Islamic regime in Iran collapses.

© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG
We launch a call as well to Iranians who have good will and who are not politicized so to create an apolitical association that would support such request to European authorities but also in order to provide some judicial and economic support to Iranian asylum seekers.

© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG
The french version of this article :
 Iran : un appel solennel à l’Europe pour sauver des vies
 (13 AVRIL 2011)