UANI Calls on Terex to End Its Business in Iran in New Cranes Campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2011
Contact: Nathan Carleton, [email protected]  
Phone: (212) 554-3296   

UANI Calls on Terex to End Its Business in Iran in New Cranes Campaign 

New York, NY -  United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) on Tuesday called on Terex to end its business dealings in Iran and keep the Iranian regime from using Terex cranes for public executions.  The Terex Corporation, an American construction equipment manufacturer based in Westport, Connecticut, does business with Iran through foreign subsidiaries.  Terex is also a major contractor with the U.S. Department of Defense, benefiting from close to $300 million in defense-related contracts over the past ten years.  

As part of its newly launched "Cranes Campaign," UANI is highlighting the Iranian regime's abhorrent execution method of public hanging from construction cranes, and the disturbing reality that these cranes are coming from Western and Asian companies.  In 2009, the SEC's Office of Global Security Risk initiated correspondence over concerns regarding Terex's sales to Iran, Syria, and Sudan.

In a letter to Terex Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ronald M. DeFeo, UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace wrote:     

As part of its newly launched "Cranes Campaign," UANI is urging all crane manufacturers, including Terex, to end their business operations in Iran until the current regime in Tehran ends this grisly practice and stops threatening the world through the pursuit of an illegal nuclear weapons program.

Sadly, this issue has taken on greater salience in the last several months.  Iran has set a blistering pace of executions in the first months of 2011, with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran proclaiming that the regime is on an "execution binge."  According to Freedom House, Iran has executed at least 132 people since the New Year, setting the regime on pace to far exceed the 179 reportedly executed in 2010.  The disturbing reality is that the Iranian regime's preferred method of execution is hanging from a construction crane, gruesomely leaving the bodies on public display.

UANI is calling upon all crane suppliers, including Terex, to end their business dealings in Iran.

***

 Even putting aside the clear misuse of these cranes for public executions, the possibility of Terex's name being even remotely associated with the thugocratic regime in Tehran should be reason enough to end Terex's business in Iran. 

UANI Advisory Board Member Irwin Cotler, a Member of Canada's Parliament and a prominent human rights lawyer, also stated, "Iranian assaults on human rights executions have escalated dramatically in 2011. Indeed, the rate of executions has been unprecedented, even by wanton Iranian standards.  We are witnessing in Ahmadinejad's Iran the toxic convergence of four distinct yet interrelated threats: the nuclear threat; the genocidal incitement threat; the threat of state-sponsored terrorism; and the systematic and widespread violations of the rights of the Iranian people."

Responsible corporations, notably construction companies Caterpillar and Komatsu, have already pulled out of Iran.  In addition to Terex, as part of the Cranes Campaign UANI is also calling on Manitowoc, a U.S. cranes company, and foreign equipment manufacturers such as Tadano (Japan), UNIC (Japan), Liebherr (Germany), Cargotec (Finland), Konecranes (Finland), XCMG (China), Kobelco (Japan), Zoomlion (China) and Gottwald (Germany) to account for their business in Iran and the likelihood (and in some cases direct photographic evidence) that their cranes are being used for public executions.

Andrew Apostolou of Freedom House added, "Companies need to be aware that doing business with Iran can mean assisting in gross human rights violations.  The use of the death penalty in Iran is highly abusive and unfair.  Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has called for a moratorium on executions-responsible companies can do their part by ending their dealings with the Iranian regime."

Click here to send a message to Terex.
Click here to read the letter to Terex.
Click here to learn more about the UANI Cranes Campaign.
 

###