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International reaction to the Mykonos verdict on April 10 has been widely reported, so we will only summarize it here.
• All EU countries except Greece recalled their ambassadors from Tehran
• Germany expelled four Islamic Republic diplomats (Tehran responded in kind), and announced it was calling off its "critical dialogue" with Tehran.
• Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also recalled its ambassadors (Tehran announced it would halt all purchases from New Zealand... although the New Zealand government discovered none existed) [International Iran Times 4/18]
• The U.S. called for a tougher EU policy toward Iran.
• Germany's state prosecutor has opened a new file on Foreign Minister Velayati that could eventually lead to a court-issued international arrest warrant against him.
• EU Foreign Ministers are scheduled to meet on April 29 to decide on further actions.
• In contrast to most reactions in Germany, former Economics minister Juergen Moellemann, a Free Democrat, has called for a strengthening of the dialogue with Iran, saying that a Berlin judge could not decide policy towards other states.
• Austria is contemplating reopening the investigation into the murder of Sharafkindi's predecessor as KDPI Secretary General, Abdulrahman Qassemlou, who was killed by Iranian government agents in July 1989 in Vienna. Following a statement by FDI Executive Director Kenneth Timmerman on Austrian radio on April 11, the opposition Liberal Forum demanded that a special parliamentary committee investigate the 1989 killings. [AP 4/13]
• Frances D'Souza, the chair of the International Rushdie defense committees and the executive director of the human rights group Article 19, wrote to the Europe's Council of Ministers urging them to contemplate Europe-wide sanctions against Tehran. "The only way in order to make it quite clear to Iran that you mean business and that you will not tolerate terrorism anymore is by discussing sanctions," she said. [Reuters 4/11]
Shoreh Baddii, the widow of one of the Kurdish victims of the Mykonos killings, praised the German court for highlighting the role of the Islamic Republic political leadership in ordering the killings, and said that exiled Iranians would now feel safer in Germany. She called the verdict "a great victory for German justice....This victory is not only a victory for us, but a victory for all democratically-minded people in this country." [AFP 4/10]
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i, has called the Mykonos trial a "U.S. puppet show, co-starring the Zionist propaganda machine and intelligence service," the state-run Tehran press reports.
"Germany has left behind a very bitter experience and it should pay the price of its mistake. Germany has lost something it cannot regain easily, and that is the Iranian nation and government's trust in Germany's sincerity,'' Khamene'i said.
The Berlin court's action was "a mockery of justice" and had "no value in the eyes of the Islamic Republic," the Leader told military commanders on the eve of Army Day, which is April 18.
The reaction of certain European countries to the Mykonos affair was "very bad," Ayatollah Khamene'i said. "The Foreign Ministry has been instructed to carefully register the behavior of those governments in this meaningless show, so that it can be recorded in the history of the Iranian people.'' [Iran News 4/17]
In a separate statement, contained in an official three-page letter from Foreign Minister Velayati distributed to foreign ambassadors in Tehran on April 17, he called the Mykonos verdict "unfair, ex-parte, biased and illegal... The abnormal and unjudicial behavior of the court renders the ruling null and void. It is only a political tool to be exploited to distort Iran's image." [Iran News 4/17]
The Iranian Majlis held a special closed session on April 13 to review Iran's relations with the European Union. Hassan Rouhani, the deputy speaker of the Majlis, said the government had canceled a planned visit by an Australian economic delegation. In a speech broadcast by Iranian television, Rouhani threatened that "without doubt, it [EU's actions against Iran] will be replied in kind by Iran." [AP 4/13]
He urged the government to "press the Germans for compensation" for huge contracts placed with German companies by the Shah and canceled by Khomeini, including a 300 million DM contract to purchase German submarines, and the 18 billion DM contract with Siemens for the Bushehr nuclear power plant. He also called for the cancellation of Iranian investment in eastern Germany. He did not mention the billions of DM Iran owes to German financial institutions. [Iran Press Service, 4/13]
In Lebanon, former Hezbollah secretary general Sobhi Toufaili has called on the Lebanese government to expel the German ambassador to Lebanon, to protest the Mykonos court decision. He said that Lebanon should retaliate similarly to all countries who took action against Tehran in response to the Mykonos verdict. [UPI 4/13]
FDI has received reports from sources in Tehran that three - and possibly ten - Baha'is have been executed in recent weeks. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.
Four Baha'is were known to have been sentenced to death in 1996 for apostasy (see FDI Newswire #24). In late February, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts, Gholam Hoseyn Rahbarpour, said that of them had been convicted not of apostasy but of spying for Israel. He named them as Musa Talebi and Zabihollah Mahrami, but did not make clear whether they had actually been executed. [See FDI Newswire #37]
The Islamic Republic has outlawed the Baha'i sect and declared that anyone professing the Baha'i faith is an Israeli spy.
Iranian war veterans claiming to be victims of Iraqi poison gas attacks during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) held a protest march from Ferdowsi Square to the German embassy on April 16, Iran News reported from Tehran. The veterans, some of them in wheelchairs, have been encouraged to file complaints with the Justice Department against German firms that supplied Iraq with poison gas components and technology in the 1980s. [Iran News 4/17]
On Friday, Deputy Majlis speaker Hassan Rohani asked the veterans to call off their sit-in in front of the German embassy, which had been in progress since Wednesday, asking them to leave the case up to the Majlis. [IRNA 4/18]
The head of the Judiciary branch, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, said in Tehran on Friday that the Islamic Republic was preparing to sue the German companies, and warned that the Islamic Republic "has the names of all the German officials who were personally involved in issuing export licenses for those chemicals to Iraq." [IRNA 4/18]
The head of the Center for Victims of Chemical Warfare at the Bonyad-e Mostazafan va Janbazan, Hamid Sohrab-pour, said that 118 Iranian veterans have died since 1991 from illnesses resulting from CW attacks during the war. The Center estimates some 100,000 persons were victims of poison gas attacks. Sohrab-pour said that 1,500 of them are still receiving constant medication. [IRNA 4/17]
The deputy head of the Bonyad-e Mostazafan, Dr. Farzad Panahi, said the Islamic Republic had spent "tens of millions of dollars" to clean up toxic waste after Iraqi gas attacks and to send some 500 seriously-wounded victims to foreign countries for special treatment. [IRNA 4/18]
Iran has executed 13 people who were convicted of drug smuggling and killing several police agents during clashes.
The men were executed in seven cities in the southeastern province of Sistan-Balouchistan, which lies on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, which announced the executions, provided no further details as to where they were carried out or the names of those executed. It noted, however, that government law enforcement agents had seized 1,540 pounds of opium on Sunday during an "armed encounter" with "smugglers" in Sistan va Balouchistan province. [IRNA 4/13]
More than 1,000 people have been executed under tough new drug enforcement laws took effect in 1989.
FDI believes that the total lack of information provided by the government on these executions, however, raises strong suspicions that the regime may be using the drug laws as a vehicle for executing political opponents.
As we reported in last week's Newswire, the KDPI has claimed that 60 Iranian Kurdish dissidents have been poisoned using thallium in northern Iraq.
Now an Iraqi Health Ministry undersecretary, Shawky Marcus, has confirmed that not 60 but 85 Iranian Kurds were being treated in Baghdad hospitals for poisoning. He accused the Iranian regime of having contaminated their food with thallium. [Reuter, 4/13]
Houshang Golshiri, chairman of the banned Iranian Writers' Association, has been permitted to leave Iran for Europe, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau. The paper said he was now in Amsterdam and plans to travel to Germany, where he has been awarded a four-month grant from the Boell Foundation, which is close to the Greens. Golshiri had to wait nearly six months for an opportunity to leave the country. In a letter of thanks to the Swedish Pen Club, Golshiri demanded on behalf of his colleagues "the complete printing of all works of all writers, without any ifs and buts of censorship."
The case of his imprisoned colleague Faraj Sarkuhi has recently drawn attention to the escalating persecution of writers and intellectuals, who are trying to find positions independent of the regime in Iran. [Frankfurt/Main Frankfurter Rundschau in German, 4/5]
The editor of the daily Tus was convicted on April 6 of violating the press law and has been barred from practicing journalism for ten years, because of a dispute with the Mashad Religious school.
The press court in Mashad found Mohammad Sadegh Javadi-Hessar guilty of spreading "false information" and determined that "the continuation of his activities will be detrimental to national unity," citing a February 1997 article in which he quipped that the country's public universities were more Islamic than its seminaries.
Already in 1995, Javadi-Hessar was jailed briefly for articles that "insulted" officials, and his paper has been suspended on occasion since that time. [IRNA 4/8]
The United Nations Human rights Commission voted on April 15 26-7 to condemn the Islamic Republic for its record of killing Iranian dissidents overseas. 19 members of the commission abstained.
The resolution, introduced by the Netherlands on behalf of the European Union, also demanded that Tehran "provide satisfactory written assurances that it does not support or incite threats to the life of Mr. Rushdie," and deplored the increase in the bounty offered to Rushdie's killers by the 15th Khordad Foundation.
The resolution also cited "torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including amputation and public executions." Tehran's ambassador to the conference, Bozorg-mehr Ziaran, said the resolution was based on "misinformation." [International Iran Times, 4/18]
Tehran has received praise for its treatment of human rights issues from an unusual source: the Communist government of the People's Republic of China. During a trip to Beijing this week, Deputy Foreign Minister Allaedin Boroujerdi was reportedly told by the head of the Foreign Commission of the Chinese National Congress that "the proximity of views of Iran and China on international issues, especially human rights, is beneficial for both countries." [Iran News 4/16]
31,000 polling stations have been designated across Iran, deputy interior minister Alireza Tabesh said last week. The campaign officially begins on May 10, after the Council of Guardians rules on the eligibility of the 12 candidates, who are required to officially register on April 24. The first round of elections is scheduled for May 23. [IRNA 4/11]
Mostafa Mirsalim, Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance, has banned Iran's social, artistic, literary, cultural, sports, and labor societies, as well as Islamic associations, from any involvement in political issues. His cabinet decree was seen in the Tehran press as a setback for presidential candidate Khatami, who has been vigorously courting non-governmental and cultural groups with pledges of cultural and political openness.
Mirsalim specifically banned social groups which must obtain permits from the government from supporting electoral candidates and any campaign activities. "If such groups embark on political activities the results will be crude and will create disruption and division among their constituent members."
Referring to the point that recently some presidential candidates have resorted to artistic groups, such as calligraphers and film directors in efforts to win popular support, he said: "This move is a new deviation which, during this round of presidential elections might become worse unless the vigilance of the members of social groups as well as the country's administrator prevents it." [Akbar 4/6]
One group (and one candidate) appeared unaffected by the ban. On the same day as Mirsalim's decree, the conservative Jameh-e Rouhaniat-e Mobarez (Military Clerics Society) released a statement from its branches in Shiraz and Kerman, announcing their support for the presidential candidacy of Majlis Speaker 'Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, the regime's hand-picked candidate to succeed Mr. Rafsanjani. [Tehran Times, 4/6]
The state-controlled media has been giving extensive coverage Nateq-Nouri's doings as of late, treating his every utterance and ribbon-cutting ceremony as a state occasion.
For the first time in Iranian history, a woman has declared her candidacy for the highest elected office in the land. On April 15, Ms. Azam Taleghani, daughter of the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taleghani and a well-known political activist, declared she sought approval from the Council of Guardians to run for president. Ms. Taleghani heads the Society of Islamic Women, and is editor in chief of a magazine called Payam-e Hajar. [Hamshahri 4/15]
The evening of her announcement, the BBC's Persian service asked Ms. Taleghani whether she felt her candidacy would be approved. "Article 110 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran does not say that only men can be candidates for President," she said. "I am waiting to see what will be the reaction of the Council of Guardians." [BBC Persian Service 4/15]
In a gesture lost on no one, Majlis speaker Nateq-Nouri headed for Moscow on April 10, the day of the Mykonos verdict, and won a strong endorsement from Russian President "We have good, positive cooperation with Iran, which shows a tendency to grow," Yeltsin said. Yeltsin was seconded by Gennadi Seleznyov, speaker of the Russian Duma and a Communist Party member, who called the Islamic Republic leadership "far-sighted." He added: "Iran like Russia does not see the need for NATO enlargement, is opposed to a unipolar world subordinate to U.S. interests."
Presidential hopeful Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri gushed that "relations between Russia and Iran are becoming so close for the first time in the past 100 years." [Moscow Interfax, April 10]
Appearing in "Fox News Sunday" last week, House Speaker New Gingrich said that the United States should "consider very seriously" military action against "certain very high-value targets in Iran" if there is strong evidence linking a senior Iranian government official to a group of Shiite Muslims suspected of bombing a U.S. military compound in Saudi Arabia last year. "We have to take whatever steps are necessary to convince Iran that state-sponsored terrorism is not acceptable," he said. The indirect killing of Americans is still an act of war." [Fox News 4/13]
Gingrich was responding to new allegations that an senior IRGC officer, Brigadier Ahmad Sharifi, had met two years before the Khobar Towers bombing with a Saudi Shiite arrested on March 18 in Canada, and may have coordinated the attack. Intelligence sources quoted by the Washington Post noted that "the evidence of Iranian links to the Saudi Shiites suspected in the Khobar bombing includes bank checks signed by Sharifi." [WP 4/13]
Apparently in a ruse to deflect attention from the Mykonos verdict, Islamic Republic diplomats in Uruguay are claiming that they have been victims of a terrorist attack at the hands of Israeli intelligence agents. "It was a Zionist attack," Tehran's ambassador Mohammad Ali Sarmadi claimed.
But the Uruguayan police doubts any attack ever took place.
"The administrative officer of the Iranian Embassy, who was allegedly attacked by two individuals, is Iran's former wrestling champion and has desert warfare training," one of the Uruguayan investigators told the local press in Montevideo. "This man runs three to four kilometers every day and is very fit." He added: "He would have killed both attackers in a second." The wrestler, 49-year old Amir Haghjoo, 49, claimed he was hit on the head with a full bottle of mineral water. The police investigator noted that Haghjoo was nearly bald, and yet had "not even a scratch" on his head.
He also claimed he was attacked with a barbecue knife. Said investigators: "What kind of expert terrorist would park his escape vehicle on the other side of Artigas Boulevard."
Iranian Ambassador Mohamed 'Ali Sarmadi told the press that the Uruguayan Police had arrested three suspects for the alleged April 4 incident, but police said they had no suspects and no clues "except a nickname the Iranian official said he overheard." [Montevideo El Pais in Spanish 4/8]
The United Nations Information Center said on April 7 notes that Iran's population will reach 109.5 million by the year 2015, and top 170 million by 2050. The latest figures released by the United Nations put the Iranian population at 69,975,000 in 1996, of whom 46% are under the age of 15 and only 4% are 65 or older.
The UN said that during 1990-1995 Iran's population grew annually at a rate of 2.9%, with 38 life births per 1,000 . The death rate stood at 7 per 1,000, which is extremely low when compared to other developing countries, although this appears to be due primarily to the youth of the population, not the Iranian health care system. The average life expectancy is 67 years, while the infant mortality rate is 43 per 1,000 live births. [IRNA 4/7]