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 International Committee to Save

the Archeological Sites of Pasargad

 

The Honorable Judge Blanche M. Manning

The United District Court

Northern District of Illinois

Everett McKinley Building, 20th Floor

219 South Dearborn Street

Chicago, IL 60604

 

Date: August 17, 2006

 

Dear Judge Blanche M. Manning,

On behalf of the members of our Committee who come from all over the world, we are humbly forwarding a petition addressed to the honorable judges at the US Supreme Court with regards to the Persian antique artifacts that are held at University of Chicago, waiting for your coming decision which determines their future faith.

 

The petition is, we hope, self-explanatory and shows the depth of the anxiety with which thousands of people all over the world are monitoring your decision-making. We are enclosing the text of the petition for your attention and the ever-growing list of signatures under it can be examined in the following website:

http://www.petitiononline.com/Irassets/petition.html

 

We impatiently address your kind conscious and would like to ask for your attention to the vast consequences of your decision on the international laws and relationships. We are not defending the actions of the Islamic regime in Iran. What we are after is preserving our national heritage, as any people from any culture and background would. This is not only for our children, but for all future generations who believe that only through doing good, we can create a better world.  We are asking for your decision to throw this file out of your court and order the plaintiffs to be compensated for their losses in many other means that are always accessible to them here in the United States.

 

Thank you in advance and we await your honorable decision, with our expecting hearts.

 

On behalf of the Committee

Shokooh Mirzadegi

 


 

To:  The Honorable Judges at the US Supreme Court

And for the attention of all advocates of preserving the cultural heritages of humanity

According to the news sources, a Rhode Island lawyer has turned to the Iranian collections of leading US museums to seek compensation for American victims of Middle East suicide bombers. The reasoning being that Hamas, the terrorist group guilty for such atrocity, is partially financed by Islamic regime that controls Iran. He wants the University of Chicago to surrender a treasure trove of ancient Persian artifacts to survivors. We know that a vast international fight is being wedged against terrorism and believe that every action capable of stopping stop it should be adopted. Nevertheless, we do not consider this legal action anything tuned to that goal. It only seeks to liquidate the non-transferable historical assets of a country into a source of material satisfaction of a number of people who deserve all the sympathy and help of every one of us. There are actually two points in this legal action that deserve special consideration. First of all, in the words of the US President, we should not punish the Iranian people for whatever the Islamic regime of Iran is doing on the international arena. This is a nation kept under horrendous captivity that needs international sympathy rather than punishment. Secondly, plundering this nation?s cultural heritage, especially by taking them from their safe public and educational holding places in museums and universities and giving them to private individuals should be consider as a crime against the cultural values of the whole civilized world. We strongly protest against this irrational move and hope that no fair deciding authority would create such an ugly precedence that only reminds us of Hitler?s decision to confiscate the cultural treasures of embattled nations.

Sincerely,

Shokooh Mirzadegi (Writer)
Dr. Esmail Nooriala (Writer)
And thousands of signatories

June 30th 2006