“Test case” mission to Iran

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/1616

11 October 2007

An ITF representative from Indonesia, who arrived in the Iranian capital earlier this week in a bid to meet with imprisoned trade unionist Mansour Osanloo, described the mission as a “test case” of relations between two Islamic states.


Hanafi Rustandi (sitting right) and Syukur Sarto (sitting left) with the families of Osanloo and Madadi


Hanafi Rustandi, Chair of the ITF’s national coordinating committee in Indonesia and President of the Indonesian seafarers’ union, the Kesatuan Pelaut Indonesia, first broached the subject of the mission with the Iranian Embassy in Jakarta during worldwide protests for Osanloo on 9 August.

Accompanied by Syukur Sarto, General Secretary of the FSPSI, an Indonesian trade union confederation, Rustandi had hoped to visit Osanloo, who is being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, but this did not happen. However, during Hanafi’s visit, Osanloo was admitted to hospital for an urgent eye operation.

Osanloo’s detention is the latest move in a brutal two-year government campaign against him and other members of the Tehran bus workers’ union, Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed.

FULL story at link.