with the multitude of other protesters who always congregate around the UN General Assembly session each September.
Minutes before President Ahmadi-nejad addressed the UN, about 1,000 Iranian-Americans staged a protest rally in nearby Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.
Children stomped on a poster of Ahmadi-nejad among banners that covered the pavement. “Down With the Islamic Republic of Iran,” read one.
John Bolton, who served as UN ambassador during George W. Bush’s presidency, addressed the assembly of Mojahedin supporters. Later he told The Associated Press the United States had failed to stop Iran from torturing and killing its own people.
“We expect that our commitment to the people of Iran is going to be upheld,” he said. “Right now, the Obama Administration is doing almost nothing.” He didn’t explain what more the Bush Administration had done.
Some protesters were draped in the Iranian flag, while others hoisted yellow flags of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran led by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).
Speaking live from Paris via satellite on a giant television screen, Mojahedin co-leader Maryam Rajavi urged the UN and the US to stand with the more than 3,000 Mojahedin members in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
“There is no doubt today that the United States has clearly abandoned its international obligations toward Camp Ashraf,” Rajavi said.
Also addressing the protesters, former US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the Mojahedin should not be listed as a terrorist organization.
As the nation’s first head of homeland security after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Ridge said he started every day with a list of potential threats against the United States.
“Never, not once, among hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of potential terrorist threats, did I ever see the MEK as a terrorist organization,” said Ridge. “It’s about time we took them off the list.”
That position was echoed by many of the protesters, including one group busy assembling cardboard rolls into a “cage” symbolizing the one that held former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at his trial. Inside was a man wearing a mask resembling Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi.
“We hope that Khamenehi will be in a cage like this soon, to be tried for crimes against humanity,” said Farid Ashkan, 55, an Iranian-born New York dentist.
At the entrance to the plaza, a same-sex “wedding” was staged mocking the alliance of Syria and Iran. A protester posing as ousted Libyan leader Moammar Qadhdhafi presided over the ceremony uniting in matrimony figures dressed as Ahmadi-nejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Yellow cake was served to onlookers, representing the uranium used to make nuclear weapons.
But the Mojahedin didn’t have the plaza to themselves.
Three men dressed in black came from the American group, United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI). They rode by on bicycles pulling billboards with Ahmadi-nejad’s picture and the words: “As we remember 9/11 ten years later, al-Qaeda’s silent partner comes to New York.”
And then there was Ernesto Lacayo, 60, who carried an Iranian opposition banner but also a blue and white Nicaraguan flag. He said his president, Daniel Ortega, was “the same thing” as Ahmadi-nejad. “He’s like a king. The country is like his kingdom. He’s suppressing the people.”
Marching by this one-man, Iranian-Nicaraguan rally was a woman with “Free Tibet” inscribed on her headband.
Next, a procession of people in multi-colored clown wigs appeared. These turned out to be Jews protesting a UN conference against racism, which they said is skewed against Israel, and also against efforts by Palestinians to get UN backing for statehood.
Confusingly, a small group of gaunt, ultra-Orthodox Jews turned up to support the Palestinians. “We are here to end Zionism,” an elderly rabbi said as his young acolytes stood by dressed identically in long black coats. “Palestine should be for the Palestinians.”
Not to be left out, pro-vegan activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals came in costumes to look like a rabbi, a nun, and a Buddhist monk. “We want to remind people that although there’s a lot of human violence in the world that we may not be able to do much about immediately, we can take a stand for peace at our next meal,” Ashley Byrne said.
In the center of the growing confusion, one man stood still holding a Bible and a placard in the air. “Be wise and repent. The time is fulfilled. The end is at hand,” the placard said. And, indeed, all the demonstrations soon did end.
