FDI's Weekly Newswire

The life and [troubled] times of the IslamicRepublic of Iran

Available on the Internet or by e-mail for a $25 per yeartax-deductible contribution at http://www.iran.org/ Tel: 1+ (301)946-2910. Fax: 1+(310) 942-5341

FDI WEEKLY NEWSWIRE NO 8

June 10, 1996

The women, initially just five strong, arrived at the Capitol onMay 27. Since then, however, they have been joined by Iranians livingin the Washington, DC area, former Iranian army officers, and theWashington, DC representative of the Iran Nation's Party, the leadingopposition group active inside Iran.

Kathryn Porter, a leading human rights activist and the wife ofCongressman John Porter (R, Ill), joined the protesters on Friday,June 7. On the 8th, a delegation of 14 former Iranian Generals andColonels arrived to show their support, as did delegations from theConstitutional Movement of Iran (CMI) and a group of former Iraniannaval officers. The Farsi-language services of Voice of America andRadio Israel have broadcast news of the sit-in.

The women handed a letter to a representative of the office ofHouse speaker Newt Gingrich, requesting that the U.S. expand its"patently inadequate" efforts to isolate the Tehran regime into"widespread political and diplomatic sanctions."

The women also asked the U.S. authorities to intervene to halt thepropaganda and lobbying activities of Islamic Republic agents in theUnited States. "These agents are engaged in propaganda activities andinfiltration of the opposition groups, and operate through clearlyrecognizable front organizations, television stations andpublications staffed and manned directly by the Iranian regime viaits Interest section in Washington, DC or the so-called MostazafanFoundation in New York City."

The Mostazafan Foundation of New York changed its name in 1992 tothe Alavi Foundation, to prevent easy identification between it andTehran. But in publications of the Bonyad-e Mostazafan in Tehran, theNew York outfit is clearly identified as the "New York branch" of theTehran foundation, which is run by former Rev. Guards Minister MohsenRafiqdoust. Iran's largest industrial and trading conglomerate, theMostazafan Foundation was created using properties confiscated fromthe former Shah and members of the former regime. It has beenidentified by Western intelligence agencies as a "procurement front"for Iran's nuclear weapons program, and a cover used for terroristoperations. [Iranfax, 6/10/96]

U.S. Sanctions are "success for Iran," says Rafsanjani

"U.S. sanctions against Iran have only brought honor and dignityto the Iranian people, and resulted in a total failure and shame forthe Americans," President Hashemi Rafsanjani told a Friday prayergathering in Tehran last week.

Speaking on the first anniversary of the announcement of U.S.economic sanctions against Iran, Rafsanjani claimed that "today ourrevolution is stronger than ever before, our economy is in its bestshape, our people more alert than ever, and the Islamic Republic ismore respected than ever in the eyes of other nations."

[We don't know what Rafsanjani had been smoking,but...]

The day before Rafsanjani's sermon, one of his deputies, HamidMirzadeh, who also heads the Plan and Budget Organization, toldreporters in Tehran that the government has devoted $14 million to"counter U.S. plots" against Islamic Republic, and has increased itsDefense Budget by 30.7% to $3.3 Billion.

It was not known whether the $14 million actually signified areduction of the initial $20 million voted by the Majlis to counter"American plots to overthrow Islamic regime," last year, or was anadditional budget.

Mirzadeh's comments were the first time than and IRI official hadcoupled the announcement of increased military spending to the U.S.sanctions. [Voice of the IRI, 6/7]

Flower shop executions...

Two men were hanged in public in Kermanshah, on charges of"belonging to a group of corruption and prostitution."

The two men, identified as Jahangir Afzali and Sadeq Laleh, werearrested "some time ago," the authorities claimed, along with anundisclosed number of co-conspirators.

"They deceived men and women in front of their flower shop, takingtheir photographs and blackmailing them," Sobh said. Other members ofthe group had already been punished, some of them lashed, the dailysaid, although it provided no other information on the group'sactivities, the date of arrest of its members, or the conditions oftheir trial. [Sobh 5/28]

...And lapidations

A woman and a man were lapidated to death on charges of adulteryand homicide, after they were convicted in a revolutionary court inOroumieh (ex-Rezaieh) of having murdered the woman's husband twoyears earlier. They were identified as Shahin Soltan Moradi andMohammad Ali Hemmati. [Hamshahri 6/8]

The last time a lapidation was reported it Iran was last November,when a man was stoned to death for homosexuality.

In response to this latest case, Ayatollah Mehdi Rouhani, thespiritual leader of the Shiite community in Europe and a member ofthe FDI board, declared that these "brutal and inhumane punishmentstarnish the face of Islam in the world" and should "therefore not beissued."

Payam-e Daneshjou editor goes on trial

The trial of Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, the publisher and editor ofthe banned Payam-e Daneshjou weekly, began in a special press courtin Tehran on May 26.

A judge accused him of "Repeated assaults on servants of theIslamic Republic and false revelations about them, [notably]accusing the Honorable President of the Republic of having relationswith the U.S., insulting the clergy, printing false information thathas been used by foreign media, and creating a negative and pessimistatmosphere in society."

The defamation trial began following publication of articles bythe weekly exposing alleged corruption in the Bonyad-e Mostazafan(Foundation of the Oppressed) and the Rafsanjan Pistachio Cooperative(see FDI Newswire 6). Both organizations have joined the State asprivate plaintiffs against the weekly.

Tabarzadi sharply defended his weekly's record of investigativereporting. "We worked within the framework of the law and fulfilledour journalistic duties. Our revelations are documented. I willpresent the court with convincing documents about the RafsanjanPistachio Cooperation if you give me proper time."

"What we revealed on widespread corruption in Bonyad-e Mostazafanturned to be only a small portion of what was discovered by Majlisinvestigation," Payam-e Daneshjou publisher said."

Defending himself against providing foreign media with anti-regimematerial, he replied: "Those who created this corruption areresponsible for foreign media revelations, not us."

The trial resumes today (June 10) in Tehran. [Iran daily,5/29]

Hezbollah threats ease Nateq-Nouri victory

Speaking in a mosque in Kerman (South of Iran) mosque, a keyNateq-Nouri ally, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, buttressed Nateq-Nouri'svows to crack down on "liberals" in Majlis with a new threat:Hezbollah.

"Anybody in parliament who tries to break he boundaries ofIslamic norms, God's orders, and Velayat-e Faghih," will getHezbollah thugs sicked on them, he vowed. "We will crush them."

"What happened during the elections was an alert to supporters ofVelayat-e Faghih that they should always be on guard," Bahonar said."Following the Supreme Leader's warnings about the danger of"liberals" entering the Majlis, Hezbollah entered the scene anddemonstrated that it is ready to defend the Islamic revolutionwhenever it is confronted with a danger," Bahonar said.

Nateq Nouri has also warned that Ansar-e Hezbollah will "throw outfrom Majlis" any deputy who dares to deviate from the path ofVelayat-e Faghih. [Sobh Daily, 5/28]

The stepped up intimidation campaign paid off. On June 5,Nateq-Nouri was re-elected speaker of the Majlis with 146 votes. Hisonly competitors, Rafsanjani-supporter Abdallah Nouri, won 96votes.[Tehran Radio, 6/5]

Education deficit doubles in one year

"Iran's budget deficit in education will reach 2 trillion rials($1.4 billion) in current Iranian year. This means that our deficithas doubled in one year," a Deputy Minister of Education told aneducational seminar in Tehran.

For the first time in Iran's recent history, the official said,the number of primary and secondary school students has started todecline.

"Six years ago, 87.5% percent of Iranian children were attendingprimary schools," deputy minister Ghazavi said. "This dropped to79.5% last year." Ghazavi added that the number of studentsgraduating from high school had declined from 71% to 65%."

At the same gathering, however, it was announced that 395 mosqueshad been built inside Iranian schools over the past year.

The huge deficit in the education budget came almost at the sametime as the regime announced a %30 percent increase in defensespending. [Jomhouri-e Eslami 5/26]

'Iranian friends of the UN' attacked

A newly-established society, "Iranian Friends of the UnitedNations," has been violently attacked by a radical Tehran daily.

"At a time when the United Nations has lost all its prestige inthe world and nobody has any respect for this disgraced organization,and oppressed nations of the world consider it to be a tool in thehand of the U.S. and world arrogance, how can some people create sucha society?" Sobh wrote in an editorial. [5/28]

An earlier pro-UN society existed before the Islamic revolution,but was banned by the new regime and its members arrested or labeledas "spies" and "Freemasons." The renewal of the activities of the UNSociety was announced recently in Tehran in Iran daily, the officialpublication of IRNA. Iran promised that the names of it's founders,and it's chart would be announced at a later date.

Basijis prevent University election

Growing differences between two main Islamic tendencies in Iran'suniversities has led to violent clashes, and now to the cancellationof student elections.

The Islamic Students Society of Tehran University's Faculty of Lawwas scheduled to elect new leaders on May 21, but was prevented bythe intrusion of a group of Basiji students. The Basijis insultedmembers of the Islamic Student Society, and tried to elect their owncandidates by force, until the meeting was forcibly disbanded and theelection was canceled indefinitely.

The hard-line Basiji students and their allies who call themselvesAnsar-e Hezbollah have increased their violent presence on universitycampuses in recent months. They not only attack regime opponents andsecular students, but even Islamic students who until recently wereconsidered the ideological pillars of the regime. [Sobh Weekly,5/28]

Azerbaijan Governor attacked by Rev. Guards General

The local commander of the Rev. Guards for West Azerbaijanprovince has sharply attacked Mr. Ali Abdolali-Zadeh, the GovernorGeneral for the province, accusing him of "liberalism" andanti-revolutionary tendencies.

Rev. Guards General Ra'oufi denounced the Governor General for hiscriticism of Ansar-e Hezbollah.

"With the things I have seen as the result of your policies inthis part of the country, our relations with you are broken entirely,and we feel free to do whatever we decide," General Ra'oufi told agathering of Tabriz Hezbollahis and war veterans. Ra'oufi accused theGovernor General of "organizing public exhibitions with music anddance, and staging love story plays." He also criticizedAbdolali-Zadeh for "wiping the names of martyrs from the streets andreplacing them with other names."

In an address one week earlier, Abdolali-Zadeh had called for theend of Hezbollahi violence and accused them of "Club-wielding"methods. "We can't fight liberals or capitalists by silencingspeakers, closing down newspapers, setting fire to book shops,attacking theaters, creating tumults and clubbing people. Thesemethods will only damage social coherence. If we want to get rid of"liberals," the only way is to be more liberal and more democratic.In today's world, only technology and logical thinking counts,"Mr.Abdolali-Zadeh said. [Sobh weekly 5/28]

Azerbaijan is ours!, Ayatollah says

"The Azerbaijan Republic once was ours. So if there is any talk ofunification of the two Azerbaijans, it is they who should come backto Iran," Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestary, the Friday prayerImam of Tabriz, said recently.

Speaking to religious students in Tabriz, he added: "Some agentsof world arrogance [U.S.] are trying to damage our nationalunity by spreading secessionist sentiments in our region.Unfortunately some of their mercenaries in Tabriz repeat these words,and talk of Pan- Turkism."

"The policy of the Islamic Republic is to avoid such polemics. Wedo not want to create a hue and cry. But if we are faced with thesesatanic plots, we should remind everyone, including the people ofAzerbaijan Republic, that we have lost some Azeri cities, and wecould one day claim them back." [Sobh daily, 5/28]

Iran produces 122mm Self- Propelled howitzer

Iran's regular army has announced that it has conducted successfultests of the first Iranian-made 122mm self-propelled gun. Accordingto a military spokesman for the Defense Industries Organization, theRa'ad-1 ("Thunder-1") gun has an automatic loader, laser rangefinder,and a computerized fire control system. He said the canon is mountedon the "Boraq" armored personal career, which is also produced by theIslamic Republic Defense Industries. The vehicle has a maximum speedof 65 Km/h. [IRNA 5/26].

Another version of Boraq personnel career, with a 30mm canon and agyro-stabilized turret has also been tested successfully.

The DIO claimed that Ra'ad-1 can fire up to 5 rounds per minute atranges in excess of 15 km, making it able to "compete with the bestcanons in the world."

Regular army commander General Dadbin announced following lastmonth's military maneuvers in Kushk-e Nosrat desert in south ofTehran that a wide array of new Iranian-built military products hadbeen successfully tested, including "Zolfaqr" main battle tanks,"Kobra" armored personnel carriers, guns and surface to surfacemissiles. [Resalat 5/25, Salam 5/29]

FDI's Weekly Newswire

FDI WEEKLY NEWSWIRE NO 8

June 10, 1996

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