Iran to refuse entry to human rights envoy
Jan. 06, 1999 Teheran (dpa) - Iran will refuse entry to an envoy of
the Human Rights Watch Organization who intends to visit the country soon,
the official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.
The daily newspaper Zan reported Wednesday that an envoy of Human Rights
Watch, Elaheh Hicks, who is in charge of the Middle East and North Africa,
is due to arrive in Teheran within the next two weeks.
``Iran will refuse entry to any fact-finding (mission by a) human rights
individual or group,'' IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza
Assefi as saying.
``Iran does not allow any individual or group to interfere in its domestic
affairs. It's an insult to the great Iranian nation,'' he added.
Hicks, who is a native of Iran and emigrated from that country in 1982,
told the daily that she planned to go to Teheran ``for a general fact-finding
mission'' within the next two weeks.
There was speculation in Teheran that Hicks' fact-finding mission would
include an investigation of recent murders of at least five liberal Iranian
intellectuals.
The information ministry disclosed Tuesday that it has identified and
apprehended a group of secret police officers who were involved in the
slayings of the liberal dissidents.
Iranian opposition groups in Western countries have called on international
human rights groups to travel to Iran to investigate the murders.
Iran has repeatedly rejected U.N. reports on Iran, saying they were
based on ``false information'' and ``allegations'' provided by militant
Iranian opposition groups such as the People's Mujaheddin and Kurdish separatist
movements.
Iran also accuses the U.N. of ``a lack of accurate understanding of
Islamic norms'' and ``ignorance of Iran's Islamic characteristics''.
Teheran claims that human rights criteria cannot be standardised but
should be assessed according to the culture and belief of the respective
countries.
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