Iranian president vows to end wave of dissident murders
TEHRAN, Jan 9 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammed Khatami pledged on
Saturday to put an end to the political violence in the country which has
claimed the lives of at least four liberal dissidents in the past two months.
"I will make every effort to find the cause of the recent murders,
whether they have their roots at home or abroad," he said at a public
meeting to mark the death of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Moslem prophet
Mohammed and a figure revered by Shiite Moslems.
"This is a stain of disgrace that must be eradicated. We will remove
any corrupt cell in the body of the country," he said.
"These hateful murders are taking place at a time when the regime
has put difficult conditions behind it and is moving
toward establishing the rule of law," he said, appealing for the
public to help to establish law and order. "The advocates of violence
do not want to see a stable Iran."
He also praised the efforts of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
who on Friday ordered a further investigation into the murders.
Iran's formidable intelligence ministry made the extraordinary admission
earlier this week that rogue intelligence agents were involved in the stabbing
to death of opposition nationalist leader Daryush Foruhar and his wife,
Parvaneh, on November 22.
"Ill-minded, irresponsible colleagues" also carried out the
kidnapping and murder of at least two secular writers -- Mohammad Mokhtari
and Mohammad Pouyandeh -- in early December, it said, adding that the responsible
agents had been arrested.
Another writer, Majid Sharif, was found dead in mysterious circumstances
around the same time but the authorities said he had died of a heart attack.
The state news agency IRNA also mentioned Friday, for the first time,
the name of Piruz Davani, a writer-translator who went missing several
months ago, saying that "according to unofficial reports" he
was among those killed.
The intelligence ministry said that the rogue agents had been working
for a foreign country, and Khamenei on Friday repeated the charge.
"This matter is not finished. I have difficulty believing that
these murders have taken place without a foreign scenario," he said.
On Tuesday Ali Razini, head of Tehran province's justice department,
survived an assassination attempt.
Razini, who is reportedly close to hardline religious conservatives
in the Iranian regime, was slightly wounded in the leg, abdomen and chest.
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