Democratic Voice of Iran
Or radio broadcasts to my homeBy: H. Hakimi
April 2012,
Oslo – Norway
The report below to the Norwegian Government summarizing the short history of DVI is self explanatory, click for Persian version of this page here, and the last broadcast in Persian MP3 format here and RealAudio format here:
Report on Democratic Voice of Iran (DVI)
Oslo 6th. February 1999
This report is not addressed to anybody in particular, yet in a way it is, since I was asked to put it down for the benefit of a certain Norwegian government body. I intended to write about the establishment of the Democratic Voice of Iran, (DVI) - a radio station outside of Iran - as the last chapter of my memoirs as a career diplomat in the service of my country and my political activities later in exile to free my country from the dark nightmare of clerical rule.
Since this part has to stand alone as a report on DVI, I have no choice but to introduce myself in brief, specifically as to how I came to Norway. In September of 1968, I was assigned as Counsellor to the Imperial Iranian Embassy to Norway, stationed in Oslo. I was in that post exactly five years, when I returned home in September 1973. During my term in Oslo, I was promoted to the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary Extraordinaire in 1970, and was virtually the permanent head of our mission.
Aside from developing a good working relationship with members of Norwegian administration with whom I came into contact during the course of my job, I had formed quite friendly and close relationships with a number of Norwegian dignitaries. Among these were officials of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, Bankers, Lawyers, Journalists, Publishers, Business, Parliamentarians, and, some members of the Norwegian Royal Court.
I can proudly state that my mission in Oslo was quite successful. With collaboration of two colleagues in Stockholm and Copenhagen, we were able to eliminate visa requirements for Iranian subjects entering the three Scandinavian countries after lengthy negotiations. At the same time the mission made all the protocol arrangements for the participation of the late King Olav the 5th in the festivities marking 2500 years of Persian Imperial history. We also made arrangements for a number of Norwegian dignitaries and journalists to visit Iran for that occasion. Despite of the adverse propaganda by sections of press in the West, the invitees came back with favourable reports.
In the field of economics, the mission was also successful in expanding trade between the two countries. Namely, a company called (Bandar Abbas Supply Company) was established as a joint venture to serve the Norwegian vessels sailing to Persian Gulf. Also quite number of Iranian Cabinet Ministers & high officials visited Norway for close contact with their Norwegian counterparts.
As a result of my efforts I was decorated by his Majesty the late King Olav the 5th with the St. Olav Cross rank of Commander. This was one of the high points of my career and
I cherish the memory. Much later when I came to live in Norway it was one of the factors in deciding to apply for Norwegian citizenship.
In 1970 I was appointed as Ambassador to Sudan. During my assignment there, the change of the Iranian Regime took place. I was warned not to return to Iran so I had myself retired never to return to my country.
I moved to Italy where I got a degree in Electronics at the age of 56. I then came to Oslo in 1981 to visit my middle son Ali who had settled in Norway and decided to apply for permanent residence (not political asylum) in Norway as my youngest son had also moved to Norway. My friends in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry were very sympathetic and assisted in obtaining my residence and work permit in Norway. Together with my sons we established a successful computer business specializing in microcomputers.
I came in contact with the Iranian community, which was expanding rather quickly on those days. There were a few Iranian political centres already established in Oslo. I joined none of them.
One of these centres was a branch of an organization run from Paris by a prominent Iranian politician, Manouchehr Ganji, with whom I had some official contacts while he was the Minister of Education in the cabinet of late Amir Abbas Hoveyda. Through mutual friends Ganji had learned that I had settled in Oslخ so he contacted me to request If I could oversee the activities of the Oslo branch of his organization called Derafsh-e-Kaviani in Persian or Kaveh’s Standard (Kaveh was a hero of Iranian mythology, a blacksmith who rose against an evil king).
The organizer of the branch was Taghi Amirvar, a young inexperienced, apolitical bank teller from Tabriz. He was shrewd, talented and a very quick learner. I did not join the said Organization. I only supervised the political affairs. During ten years I became his mentor. He was polite, respectful and willing to learn; therefore we developed good working relationship. My role in the Organization as a consultant was totally gratis.
During ten years of political activities in Oslo, Manouchehr Ganji twice paid visits to Norway and he was once accompanied by and old colleague, Fereydoun Hoveyda brother of the executed Prime Minister Amir Abbas. Together we had meetings and discussions with various Norwegian political personalities. In all these meetings Amirvar was present but only as an observer.
I had in mind to train Amirvar up to the standard of a professional diplomat, so that eventually he could take the full charge of running the branch without supervision. The branch of Derafsh Kaviani in Oslo was successful. It had developed respectable, amicable relations with numerous organs of the Norwegian administration, such as Foreign Ministry, Justice Ministry, Police, and international bodies for refugees and Amnesty International. The Members were mostly from educated members of Iranians citizens in Norway.
The only problem was the financial dependence of the Oslo branch on Paris headquarters. The membership fee was not sufficient to make the branch sustainable. It did not survive and had to be closed down owing to cessation of financial support.
Derafsh-e-Kaviani had a clandestine radio, beaming news and political comments into Iran two hours per day, 365 days per annum from Cairo. The radio Station was also silenced due to lack of funds.
That was when I had the idea of lobbying for Norwegian assistance to give voice to the oppressed Iranian masses.
In 1995 I made and appointment to see Mr. Egland the General Secretary of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry whom I had met in previous occasions together with Messer’s Ganji and Hoveyda. Taking T. Amirvar along, I wanted to inform the Foreign Office of the new developments (closure of Derafsh-e-Kaviani radio) and to lobby for assistance in establishing a short wave radio station to give the democratic Iranians a voice and provide our compatriots in Iran with a channel to hear the real democratic voice of their brethren outside of Iran.
I asked Mr Egland that since the Norwegian Government through Noraid (Norwegian aid organization) and other charities regularly donated among other things, technical and financial assistance to Egypt, we would be very grateful if a short wave radio transmitter was made available to Egyptians, with a condition that, we could use that transmission for only one hour per day to broadcast our Democratic Voice of Iran (which was the name I had chosen for our clandestine radio station). We would not ask for any further help from the Norwegian Government.
We emphasized that the paramount aim of the programs aired, was to educate our people the principals of true democracy with the ultimate goal of paving the way for a kind of government, resembling the Scandinavian democracies.
After a few months we were asked to meet the General Secretary in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. He informed us that it was decided that the Norwegian Government would make directly available to us, a facility to use a short wave transmitter for our democratic and humanitarian activity. He then asked us from then on to liaise with the officials of the Norwegian Institute for Foreign Relation Studies, a semi-independent body attached to the Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister’s private office. We were to work out how to start the radio station with them.
It almost took two years with countless meetings, discussions, planning with the Norwegians, including meeting the Prime Minister Harlem Burntland’s political secretary for our request to bear fruit. The final go ahead came from the present Prime Minister of Norway, Kjell Magne Bondevik who at the time was the Chairman of the Foreign Relation Committee in the Storting (Norwegian Parliament).
Sometime in the midst of the planning process we were introduced to the officials of another organization called, World View Rights. I was told that, they would be responsible for all the operational aspects of the Democratic Voice of Iran (DVI).
During this time Amirvar was responsible for the day to day management and I only became involved when it was absolutely necessary. We developed amicable relation with the World View Rights officials, namely Oysten, Christian & at the end, with my dear friend Geir Andreasen.
We had assumed that we would work in Norway but we were later informed that we had to operate from a base in London. This came as a shock. Moreover we now faced extra unexpected expenses. Our budget of one million seven hundred thousand Norwegian Crowns had to be increased by a further million Crowns to cover the extra cost of the operation from London.
Meanwhile we had chosen our staff from among the Persian community in Norway that not only we could trust, but were chosen for their prior broadcasting or journalistic experience. Fortunately we could find trusted professionals in their own field. So much so that when they were taken to the NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Agency) for relevant examinations, they went about the studio equipment with ease to the amazement of the NRK officials. They were so much at home and did not need a lot of extra training to work with the latest equipment.
But when the news came that we had to set up shop in London, save one of them the rest dropped out. This one was B. Arghadeh (An Iranian Kurd) who had been an escapee junior Army Officer (during the Iran/Iraq war), ending up in Norway. He was a real studio wizard!
In March 1997, I brought the team to London. Although Amirvar had never been to England, he spoke fairly good English. I introduced him all aspects of London life such as using the Underground. World View Rights had engaged or subcontracted a British firm to look after all our operational needs, including offices, recording equipment and computers.
We were given our own offices in the building of World Radio Network near south London. Appropriate measures were made for our security, for instance the name DVI did not appear anywhere in the building. Jeffrey Cohen was in charge of WRN. He was a nice but not very effective and we had to make a number of improvisations ourselves when it came to recording equipment, the DVI web site and we had to keep monitoring our transmissions ourselves to make sure they were broadcast at the right time and correct frequencies.
We were fortunate enough to immediately find two other professional Iranians. One was living in London and the other from Paris who had worked in the Drafsh-e-Kaviani Radio there. The former was Assad Naghshbandi and the latter Morteza Lotfy.
We had to use utmost secrecy and discretion for our own safety; therefore we chose pseudo-names for each and every member of the staff. Taghi Amirvar was named, Taji Azari. Bahram Arghadeh was Babak, Asad Naghshbandi was named Kaveh, and I chose Hojabr for myself. Morteza Lotfy later dropped out, but we were lucky to replace him. His replacement was Miss Shadi Asad-Alahi, that we named her Shiva. They were all highly educated and courageous. They were willing to risk and did risk their lives to serve their people and the cause of democracy.
The Democratic Voice of Iran (DVI) short wave Radio program hit the airwaves for the first time on 8th of April 1997. We started with one half hour program every day, 365 days a year. We were renting air time on two very powerful transmitters of 250 watts each. One was situated in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and the other in Yerevan, Armenia. We used two frequencies on 49 meter band, 6210 & 5835 KHz. The two transmitters which worked simultaneously cover very large area. Our voice was heard from Finland to Japan to South Africa. We received numerous informative correspondence from Ham radio listeners confirming our existence and the effectiveness of the power of the two transmitters. They all asked for QSL certificate, which we always obliged. These are well documented for the benefit of non-believers.
I stayed back in Oslo and did not take an operational role. I had provided the team with computers and laptops so we stayed in contact using the internet and facsimile. I monitored their news coverage and provided editorials and they in turn made the program complete with news and interviews. I never charged DVI for any work merely for expenses incurred while doing the work for DVI. All the equipment in Oslo was my own private property and the only items I charged to DVI were for the expenses involved for doing the job such as internet connection, fax and telephone line charges or occasional travel expenses to London.
Our part of the job was efficient and smooth making each day’s programme ready for WRN to send over to the transmitters but the work did not end there as we noticed sometimes they would forget to transmit our programmes on time missing our designated slot therefore on several occasions we had to complain to Jeff Cohen about the inefficiency of his staff.
In September 1997, Amirvar was hit with terminal cancer. He very soon became incapacitated and could not carry on, there was nothing that could be done except for him to return home and pass the few remaining months of his life with his family. This was a very sad time for all of us and left us with a real problem in London. There was no body to replace him hence I had to take over the day to day affairs of our office in London by moving to London. I managed to fly back to Oslo for few days per month to renew my contacts with World View Rights and be with my family. For a year I was shuttling between London and Oslo regularly.
I was particularly grieved by Amirvar’s death. It was sad to witness ten years of training suddenly taken away by illness. It was a shattering blow to my dreams. Amirvar passed away in Oslo in March 1998. He was only 44 years old.
Apart from the inconvenience of shuttling to London, I always felt more secure in Oslo than in secluded residential part of North London. The residence for the staff of DVI was chosen by WRN in the most secure district of London which was right in the middle of the Jewish community in North London.
The problem was the long commute every day to the office in south London, with the result that it wasted three hours of our time every day. And in my age (73-74) that was an impossible burden. Therefore I had to set up the same shop as I had in Oslo in the London residence. World View Rights were helpful to arrange for new computer as well as ISDN line & a fax machine so that I did not need to go to office every day. I worked from home and only went to the office for meetings with WRN or to fill in for others when they were on leave.
I was very much worried for our safety. At the back of my mind I was constantly expecting that one day we would either be assassinated or bombed. We were informed by WRN that there were inquiries concerning our identities and location.
As part of getting the message of DVI to as many Iranians as possible, I had a Web page on the World Wide Web in mind. On hearing my idea, my nephew suggested we make the DVI broadcasts available on the same page for those in Iran who had access to the Web to be able to listen to DVI, without jamming and government interference. It would also be available on the Web for 24 hours giving those who missed the radio bulletin the chance to listen to the program at their leisure.
For some time the DVI program was jammed by the Iranian government. After the election of the new president, jamming was gradually decreased, so much so that at the end there was no jamming at all. The Iranians inside of our country could listen to the Democratic Voice of Iran without interference, load & clear.
In March 1998 DVI hit the internet with a pleasing page set up by my nephew who did all the work voluntarily and gratis. It was linked to the other Iranian Web pages as well. The Web address on the Web was (http://www.dvi.org/). The DVI page quickly became very successful as evidenced by the usage statistics we received from our service provider, in the first two months it averaged 3057 daily hits and in the first six months the page was hit 362,725 times. During its existence we received numerous supportive as well as a few abusive correspondence.
It is understood that the number of listeners of a radio is a multiple of the number of its listeners on the Web. Using this rule of thumb, DVI had about 15 to 20 million listeners in and out of Iran every single day. We had chosen 10:00PM Tehran time to broadcast DVI’s programme, when almost every body would be at home. DVI was their own voice touching their hearts and minds.
DVI was the only true Iranian voice which had no affiliation to any government, religion, political organization, creed or community. DVI was talking ordinary people’s language, so that the masses perfectly understand the real meaning of democracy and the spirit of the Government by the People for the People. DVI was never pompous. DVI team strove to be all inclusive and remained as such all the way.
DVI was so successful that people from inside Iran risked their lives to send facsimiles with their views or news to it. DVI received notifications, declarations and commentaries from the entire political spectrum of Iranians form inside and outside of Iran which all without exception were aired. In this way DVI proved its impartiality. Probably that was the reason for DVI’s tremendous success. While adhering to strict neutrality DVI refused to air any thing from the Iranian terrorist organization Mojahedin Khalgh also known as MEK or MKO or NCIR (National Council of Iranian Resistance), the armed opposition group stationed in Iraq. That was the sole exception to the rule. The decision was made due to the fact that DVI opposed adherence to any kind of violence. This claim is well documented.
DVI was not under the influence of any faction or government, even the one who sponsored it. The sponsors had only requested that, the rules and regulations of the International Convention governing the behavior of the radio and TV transmitters adopted by United Nations special agency be strictly observed. A copy of the above said document was delivered to DVI, as a necessary guide. According to the spirit of that International Convention, I wrote an extensive directive for the staff to read and understand our limitations.
During DVI’s operation, the leaders of the Islamic Republic (even the Supreme Spiritual Leader) started blaming foreign based radios of adverse propaganda and diversion of people’s minds from the so called Revolutionary Ideals. After the sudden silence of DVI, we do not hear any more of the foreign based radios mentioned by the Islamic Republic authorities. This was an indirect reference to DVI and clearly shows the impact it had on the Iranians inside the country.
DVI also received confidential reports from inside the country that the contents of our program were extensively discussed upon in closed door sessions of the so-called Islamic Parliament and the leadership’s highest circles. The Minister of Culture & Guidance in reply to the criticism of one of the MPs concerning the freedom of the press had said “it is this kind of talks and behavior that the foreign radios take up & use like a hammer to fracture and shake the very foundation of the Islamic Republic”!
DVI had indeed shaken the very foundation of the totalitarian, dictatorial, and theocratic regime of Iran. Since 1996 the so-called hardliners have been increasingly facing the impossible task of silencing the internal opposition & the cosy freedom of the press achieved after the election of the new president. To that end, they have recently used brutal intimidating tactics including outright savagery.
According to the public declaration of the Ministry of Information of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its high ranking officials had adhered to systematic physical elimination of opposition individuals, groups as well as journalists inside and outside of Iran.
This kind of action is of course a futile exercise, since the situation had gone out of control, so much so that even high officials are not immune. Their own Minister of Culture, Mohajerani, and cleric Abdullah Nouri, Political Secretary to the president of the Republic, were beaten in public by the ultraconservative gangs under the direct command of the so-called Spiritual Leader. No amount of physical terror and intimidation will save the eventual speedy down fall of the theocratic regime of Iran, especially with a moderate but ineffective clergy as incumbent President of the Islamic Republic. He is following the slow path of attrition which will end in fiasco.
There is now no doubt that the highest official of the Islamic regime are engaged in sponsoring terrorist activities in the West against westerners and Iranian opposition groups. The revelations in Berlin court of justice examining the assassination of Iranian Kurdish leaders in Germany (Mykinos Restaurant murders) had directly implicated the highest echelons of the regime including the Spiritual Leader Khamenehee along with the Foreign Minister Velayatie & Fallahian the Minister of Information.
The revelation of the involvement of the Information Ministry high officials for physical elimination of the opposition in & out side of Iran for the last twenty years, as a usual & normal practice, has created uproars in Iran as well as in International circles. The permanent damage is done & the true brutal face of the Theocratic Regime is exposed for entire world to observe.
Nobody with a right mind can ever refute the revealed atrocities taken place by the high officials of the Theocratic Regime of Iran.
Just when it was the right time to increase DVI’s allotted transmission time to at least one full hour per day or even more, for reasons unknown to us, DVI’s voice was abruptly silenced. The funding was not renewed. One cannot help but ponder as any Norwegian Tax payer would do, why so much money and energy was allowed to waste?
The only logical conclusion was that the closure of DVI may have been to gain some trade or financial advantages from the Islamic Republic, but as the French and German experiences have shown the Islamic Republic has a nasty habit of letting down its friends. It is the proverbial scorpion who cannot help but sting friend as well as foe. So any such plan is doomed to fail.
Furthermore this sudden unilateral decision is completely against the Norwegian humanitarian principles. DVI was not established due to my personal contacts or friendship with some high Norwegian Officials. It was established due to its exalted merit inherent in the goals of the original proposal. Therefore, it could be asked, has Norway given up the exalted aims? The question remains unanswered.
No amount of financial gain will ever justify such a change of heart & mentality or even policy, especially with an administration which can easily ignore such a minor gain. The theocratic Regime of Iran is virtually bankrupt morally as well as financially. Where does Norway fit into this miserable state of affairs?
Moreover, is not there any other European Government who regularly transmit Persian Language programs openly from their own premises? BBC criticizes the theocratic Regime every now and then. It even conducts interviews with the members of the opposition groups. Has England jeopardized her trade with the Theocratic Regime? Norway have given the same opportunity as DVI to the Tibetans, then how about the relations with China? The examples are so many.
The irrefutable fact is that the staff of DVI was so careful that to this very day their own identity as well as the identity of the sponsors has remained secret. In the two years of its existence, not once DVI had any trouble, misunderstanding, contradiction or conflict with the officials of World View Rights. The relations remained respectful, cordial and smooth right up till the end.
I am fortunate that I gained some more friends within the World View Rights. I can proudly state that DVI was perhaps the most successful of the Norwegian humanitarian efforts. DVI had achieved so much in so short a time. It will remain as an outstanding legend with the oppressed, enslaved Iranian masses. The question on each & every listener remains as WHY WAS IT SHUT DOWN?
In that respect, expecting at least an explanation – any explanation - from the Norwegian authorities, I permitted myself to take up the matter with a personal letter direct to the H.E. Kjell Magne Bondvick, the Prime Minister, copy of which is attached.
There is also a CD Rom attached to this statement, containing the last 59 daily programs of DVI, which was transmitted on the air as well as on its Web site, to be kept for the records.
Finally I would like to express to the generous Norwegian people and government the gratitude of DVI staff, my Iranian compatriots, and myself for making the short life of DVI possible.
These pages are submitted to World View Rights for their record as well as eventual use.
With best regards,
H. Hakimi
Retired Ambassador,
Holder of St. Olav cross, Commander
نامه به آقای کی یل ماگنه بوند ویک نخست وزیر نروژ
CONFIDENTIAL
Oslo, 10.12.1998
His Excellency Kjell Magne Bondevik,
Prime Minister of Norway
Your Excellency,
On behalf of 60 million oppressed Iranians who for the last two years had a chance to listen to the voice of hope through Democratic Voice of Iran (DVI), profound gratefulness is due to the generous Government of Norway & each and every single Norwegian.
But, with due respect it is brought to your attention that during your chairmanship of the Foreign Relation Comity in Storting, you put the final approval to the establishment of (DVI), yet during your tenure as Prime Minister of Norway DVI came to sudden & abrupt end?
The harsh realities of politics as well as the exigency of economics are well understood yet it is indeed disheartening to drop 60 million hopeful oppressed people dead, just by stroke of a pen due to false assumption.
To hope to establish a meaningful dialogue with the present regime of Iran with slightest success is indeed wishful. Only few days ago they adhered to the most brutal tactic of eliminating one of their opponents. They mutilated Mr. & Mrs. Fruhar, General Secretary of the Iranian Nation Party, Ex Minister of Labour, & his wife in their own home in Tehran. Exactly the same way that they had mutilated Mr. Bakhtiar the Ex. Prime minister, in his own home in Paris few years ago.
The most recent UN Human Rights Report does not leave favorable argument, to establish any contact with the present regime in Iran. Contrary to recent Norwegian attitude, it recommends the democratic governments to be more prudent.
In fact within the last 15 days five prominent Iranian dissidents are mysteriously murdered, which shocked the world community. And according to their own statistics they have more than 168,000 prisoners of conscience. At this junction for Norway to improve & expand her diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran is indeed unique but deplorable.
According to undeniable statistics DVI has been very successful among the populace, propagating Democracy, fighting dictatorship, terrorism, teaching the true meaning of the Government by the people for the people, with the ultimate goal to bring about a replica of the Norwegian democracy & government in Iran.
Now, the only voice of hope, for the 60 million oppressed people, & the most successful Norwegian project, is abruptly being silenced.
Your Excellency, I do not venture to allow myself either to question the change of heart by the Norwegian authorities or expecting any response to this plea, yet I leave the final decision concerning the future of DVI entirely on your hand.
Wish you all success in your difficult endeavor,
Yours very sincerely
Hashem Hakimi,
Retired Ambassador,
Holder of St, Olav Cross (Commander)
CC:
His Excellency Knut Vollebekk, Foreign Minister of Norway
Her Excellency Gro Harlem Brundtland. (The Ex-Prime Minister of Norway who had profound vision for the future of humanity & made DVI possible).
His Excellency Egeland, Chairman of WorldView Rights (Who was kind enough to work for the establishment of DVI while He was Secretary General of Norwegian Foreign Ministry.)
Mr. William Nygaard (The Norwegian victim of the terrorist activities of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.)
Mr. Håkon Blankenborg (AP), Chairman of the Norwegian Foreign relation comity of Storting.
Mr. Geir Andreasen, DVI’s liaison officer, World View Rights.