FDI's Weekly Newswire

The life and [troubled] times of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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FDI WEEKLY NEWSWIRE NO 19

Sept. 09, 1996

Rafsanjani has got his own ideas how to resolve the conflict. "There are still four million Palestinian refugees," he said. "Peace can only come when Israel accepts that all these Palestinians return to their homeland. Then, if there is any place left vacant, Jews could remain in Palestine. But if not, they will have to leave," he said. Rafsanjani is frequently touted by the Europeans for his "moderate" views.

"The people of Israel voted for a Prime Minister in recent elections, who says he will not give up Beit-al-Moqaddas [Jerusalem], and will maintain Jewish settlements. This shows us that the majority of Israelis do not want peace. They are under the influence of rabbis who have brainwashed them."

Rafsanjani said he was confident that the Palestinians living abroad "will not give in. They will create a government and will continue the struggle." [Jomhouri-e Eslami, 8/27]

Germany to forbid asylum seekers

In a move destined to create panic among Iranian exiles, the Islamic Republic's Consul General in Hamburg has announced that the German government has pledged it would "no longer allow" any Iranian to apply for political asylum in Germany. [Resalat 9/8]. The German promise appears to have been made by Chancellor Kohl's Intelligence Coordinator, Bernd Schmidbauer, who met with the IRI Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian while on a secret trip to Tehran in July. [Iran Brief, 9/9]

The German pledge is only the latest episode in Europe's history of concessions to the Islamic Republic. Asylum seekers were summarily deported from Turkey last week (see last week's newswire), and have been deported from Holland. Iranian exiles say government authorities in Denmark and Belgium have also threatened to deport exiles, some of whom are long-time residents of their countries.

In one case of particular concern to FDI, the Belgian Interior Ministry is seeking to deport three Iranian families tied to former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar, who have lived in Belgium for seven, five, and four years.

One of the exiles, a former Iranian Army officer, Mohammad Reza Heydayat, warned that his ties to Bakhtiar put him at risk of immediate arrest if he was returned to Iran, and possible execution.

FDI has written to the Belgian authorities, and to the UNHCR, to protest Belgium's treatment of the case. (See Action Memorandum 021).

Ansar-e Hezbollah defies authorities

A clash between the authorities and the radical Ansar-e Hezbollah gang is in the works, as the authorities have banned a demonstration by the group scheduled to occur this Thursday in the Tehran suburb of Karaj.

The group distributed leaflets on Sept. 5 announcing a demonstration against "liberals," which was outlawed by the Governor General of Karaj on Saturday, Sept. 7 In response, Ansar-e Hezbollah reconfirmed their plans to take to the streets on Thursday, even if it means facing off with the LEF, which the Governor General has promised to call out. [Iran daily 9/7]

FDI sources in Tehran say that privately some Rev. Guards commanders support the show of force by Ansar-e Hezbollah as a means of putting pressure on the Rafsanjani faction.

Banisadr fingers leadership in murders

Former Iranian President Abolhassan Banisadr has accused the top leadership of the Islamic Republic of having directly approved the murder of four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin in October 1992.

Speaking before a heavily-guarded Berlin court room last month, the former President said he had three separate sources who had provided him with detailed accounts of how the murder plots were planned and approved.

He told the court that the Islamic Republic has established a "Council for Special Operations," directly controlled by the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i. "This council decides on who becomes a death candidate," the former President said. The most important member of the Council was Minister of Information and Security, Ali Fallahian. The German court issued an international arrest warrant for Fallahian in connection with the 1992 Berlin slayings earlier this year.

Once the assassination targets have been designated, he said, they are handed off to a four-person committee that meets in Tehran's Firouzeh Palace, which works out the operational details of the attack. On this committee sit representatives of Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, President Hashemi-Rafsanjani, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i, "as well as a Pasdaran General named Zolqadr," Banisadr said. Banisadr appears to have been referring to IRGC Chief of Staff Brig. General Mohammad Bagher Zolqadr, an outspoken opponent of "liberals" within the Iranian political structure.

The operational plans must then be approved by Khamene'i and Rafsanjani before they can be implemented. "Without their agreement, carrying out the attack was just as unlikely as it would have been without massive support from the state, for example through passports, plane tickets, money, special telephone numbers,'' the former President added.

In an interview with a Berlin radio station on Aug. 24th, German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said "Of course we must evaluate what Banisadr said in the trial. And of course this is something which must be of significance to the type of relations we have with Iran. [However,] I don't want to draw any hasty conclusions or make premature judgments in any form whatsoever, above all because I can not and do not want to interfere in the trial."

Banisadr told AP he was anxious to testify because he was afraid Germany had struck a deal with Iran to free the defendants if they were convicted, an allegation that Bonn immediately rejected.

"I have proof of this," Banisadr said. "I have to ask if (German Foreign Minister Klaus) Kinkel is not the attorney for Rafsanjani." [Iran Brief, 9/9]

Higher Education in a shambles

An official from the ministry of Culture and Higher Education has called government higher education policies during the 1st five-year plan (1989-1994) "a mistake" that resulted in "a drop in the quality of university education."

Mr. Farhad Daneshjou, head of the governmental Higher Education Studies Institute, told Salam in an interview that the policy of accepting ever larger numbers of students at university, as called for in the plan, resulted in lower standards. "So now, faced with the consequences of this drop, we are trying to limit the number of students and focus instead on the quality of education."

According to statistics released by the Institute, only 3.13% of university teachers have professor status, while over half are simple "instructors."

At the same time, a Deputy Minister of Health and Medical Education, Dr. Mohammad Hossein Imami, announced that degrees obtained by Iranian students in Central Asia and Eastern Europe would no longer be accepted in Iran, because of the low quality of education in those countries. "From now on," he said, "we will send students on government grants to countries with high scientific standards." [Salam 8/27]

Thousands of Students had been sent on government scholarships to Central Asia and Eastern Europe as a result of bilateral education agreements negotiated by the Islamic Republic authorities.

Back on the home front, Hojjat-ol eslam Mohammad Mohammadi Araqi, head of the Islamic Propagation Organization, sounded what may have been an unintended prophetic note in an interview with the Tehran Times. "Our educational system will prove the righteousness of the Islamic system to the world," he said. Its success "will guarantee the future triumph of the country." [Tehran Times 8/26]

Government health care reform collapses

A much-touted government health care reform program, initiated two years ago, has failed so miserably that the government has been forced to abandon it, Salam reports [8/27]

"The policy of cutting subsidies to state-run hospitals and declaring them to be self-sufficient was so naive that it didn't last more than a few months. The problems created by this policy - which was voted by Majlis into law - were so immense that the Minister of Health officially confessed its failure," the paper wrote. "Cutting subsidies for medicines and eliminating reimbursement for many drugs by the social security system last year caused popular protests while increasing the danger of different diseases. A Deputy Minister of Health was fired, and yesterday (8/26) the new Deputy Minister for Medicines announced that all domestic and imported drugs will be reinstated on the government's insurance lists."

Salam was sharply critical of the government's lack of authority and poor management, which it said resulted in taking "major contradictory decisions on a national scale in just one year."

Iraq "no longer a threat"

In an unusual display, the Tehran Times launched a fierce attack on Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, the Swedish diplomat who has spearheaded the UN effort to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction over the past five years, and said that Iraq was no longer a threat to regional security.

Ekeus arrived in Baghdad on Aug. 26 to deliver a tough message from the UN Security Council to the Iraqi government, after Iraq once again prevented UN weapons inspectors from visiting a military site in Iraq. UNSCOM still believes Saddam Hussein is hiding from between 6 to 16 ballistic missiles and biological warfare agents.

While Ekeus was still in Baghdad, the Tehran Times called him a "U.S. servant," and called for an end to the weapons inspections.

"How many more children and innocent people is Mr. Ekeus willing to see dead before putting an end to his ceaseless disclosures of so-called Iraqi caches?" the paper said. "It is clear that Iraq, with its present military capability, is no longer able to pose a threat to other countries in the region. Even if it throws all of its military might into an attack, the victims of such an offensive would be far fewer than the Iraqi civilians who are currently the victims of the UN sanctions. Needless to say, the Zionist regime, with missiles in its arsenal far outnumbering those in Iraq, poses the most serious threat to regional security," the paper said. [Tehran Times, 8/28]

Egypt accuses Iran of assassination attempt

In a dramatic escalation of the war of words between Egypt and the Islamic Republic, a top Egyptian official, Presidential advisor Ossama al-Baz, has accused Iran of complicity with last year's assassination attempt on President Mubarak in Addis Ababa.

In an interview carried by the Qatar News Agency on Sept. 4, Al Baz said that "an Egyptian terrorist carried out the plot with assistance from Sudan and Iran." Until now, Egypt has limited its accusations of complicity to Sudan.

Egypt has also stepped up its investigation of Islamic extremists who have been carrying out assassinations and terrorist attacks in upper Egypt and in the Nile Delta.

In July, the Egyptian authorities announced they had arrested 44 activists from the Jihad group who had recently entered the country from Syria and Lebanon. The activists, who had been living in camps in Pakistan after the Afghan war, "infiltrated into Syria and Lebanon after the Pakistani government's decision to expel foreign nationals at suspected terrorist training camps," an Egyptian police spokesman said. The group then slipped into Egypt, and were arrested in what appears to have been a simultaneous round-up of suspects in Cairo, Giza, and the northern Nile Delta region. [Iran Brief, 9/9]

LEF kills "notorious thug" in Balouchistan

A deputy commander in chief of the Law Enforcement Forces, Rev. Guards General Mohsen Ansari, has said his forces recently killed four men in armed clashes, including "the most notorious thug" of Balouchistan, Hassan Shahli Boro, aka "Hasanak."

Hasanak hailed from the Balouchi town of Iranshahr, and was behind several armed attacks inside Iranian Balouchistan, Ansari said, including an assault on a electric power plant in Bazman.

There have been increasing reports of sabotage and armed resistance to the Islamic Republic authorities inside Iranian Balouchistan over the past two years, which has led the Rev. Guards to station additional troops in the area.

Gen. Ansari named three others killed by his forces as Hanif Naroui, Said Naroui, and Ali Salari, without providing any details at to when or how they were killed, or whether the government had accused them of criminal activity.

Ansari proudly announced that the LEF had "cleansed" unsafe areas in Kuh-e Khorasan, Khaf, and southern Talbad of "thugs," who were "mostly Afghans."

"Now we live in complete security in our country, and we owe this security to our beloved Supreme Leader," the LEF commander told reporters in Tehran. "The huge reconstruction programs underway in our country are clear indicators of the total security we enjoy.... Our Islamic country is now the most secure place on the surface of the earth." [Kayhan 8/27]

Marine life at risk in Persian Gulf

Increased pollution of the Persian Gulf is taking its toll on fish and the eco-systems of the area. According to a report in Ettelaat, large numbers of fish and turtles were recently found dead by fishermen. "The old fishermen say marine life is suffering from a lack of oxygen in the water," the paper said. [Ettelaat 8/27]

Breeding the new "Islamic" generations

For the first time in the post-communist world, a government is seeking to use behavioral engineering to breed new generations of supporters, Ettelaat reports.

The Islamic Republic authorities have put together what they call a "Charter for the Cultivation of Youth," which they intend to use to sustain the Islamic Republic beyond the generation of its creators.

The aim of the charter is "safeguard our Islamic society from the cultural assault of world arrogance," the paper said.

The new IRI rulebook was compiled by Presidential advisor Morteza Mir Bagheri, who heads the Supreme Youth Council, and was endorsed by Rafsanjani.

In presenting the new Charter, Bagheri told Ettelaat that "Iran is among the rare countries which has a detailed plan for orienting and molding its youth in order to achieve society's goals." {Ettelaat 8/27]

In an earlier interview with Iran daily, he said that the first stage of the application of the Charter would involve 500,000 Iranian youths.

The Charter consists of 14 chapters and 98 articles. Among its many tenets are these: children should be raised to become highly religious, "true believers" in "pure" Islam. They should practice Islamic rituals, recite Koran, and control their instincts (and especially the sexual instinct). They should be taught to accept the Velayat-e faghih, and to be totally obedient to the orders of the Supreme Leader. They should learn to avoid moral corruption, to believe in sexual segregation, and to become good Basijis. And of course, they should be prepared to wage Jihad (Holy War) for the regime and to become a martyr for Islam. [Iran, 8/27 and 8/28]

Forouhar offers to mediate Iraqi crisis

The leader of the outlawed Iran Nation's Party, Darioush Forouhar, has offered to mediate between rival Iraqi Kurdish leaders, a statement released by the Party in Tehran said [9/6]

After speaking with Forouhar by satellite telephone, PUK leader Jalal Talabani said he accepted in principle the INP offer, if it would be accepted by Massoud Barzani, leader of the rival KDP.

FDI's Weekly Newswire

FDI WEEKLY NEWSWIRE NO 19

Sept. 09, 1996

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