Rafsanjani appeals for factional truce in Iran after
dissident murders
TEHRAN, Jan 15 (AFP) - Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
pleaded with rival political factions on Friday to call a truce in their
bitter quarrel over a recent spate of dissident murders.
"None of you will benefit from this dispute. Our being at each
other's throats has pleased the enemy and prompted them to raise questions
about our regime and the (1979 Islamic) revolution," Rafsanjani said
in a sermon at weekly Moslem prayers at Tehran University.
"What is all this fighting for? You brothers, who with your unity
pulled off the revolution, how can you allow your division to reach such
a point and make the enemy happy?" he asked.
"I welcome criticism as it helps our society to grow. But not at
this level in a country which faces so many enemies and threats from Israel
and arrogant powers," said Rafsanjani, who is still immensely powerful
as a top adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Supporters of President Mohammad Khatami have been locked in a fierce
battle against conservative opponents after the intelligence ministry admitted
last week that rogue agents carried out the killings of several writers
and political dissidents in October and November.
Reformers are demanding a thorough clean-up of the secret service and
the removal of its conservative chief Ghorban-Ali Dorrie Najafabadi, but
rightwingers accuse them of trying to score political gains from the murders.
The dispute took a bitter turn this week after both sides openly accused
the other of having a role in the killings and seeking to cover up the
affair.
The murders have dominated public affairs in Iran in recent months
and overshadowed International Qods (Jerusalem) Day, held here on Friday
to express sympathy for the Palestinian struggle against Israel.
Iran has organised Qods Day on the last Friday of the Moslm fasting
month of Ramadan each year since the revolution in solidarity with the
Palestinians.
Rafsanjani, whose speech was dominated by an analysis of the Palestinian
question, vowed that the regime "is determined to dry up the roots
of the recent murders."
"The leader (Khamenei) has issued a strict order to this effect.
We will not show any political consideration or forgiveness. Everyone
wants to root out this sedition and spare people of its evil effects,"
he said.
"Our regime and people definitely suffered from these murders.
They damaged our security and harmed our international prestige,"
Rafsanjani added. He urged the rival factions to calm down and let the
investigation take its course."
A committee set up by Khatami in December to solve the murders said
this week that 10 people had been arrested and that more were under surveillance.
It pledged to reveal "the whole truth" to the public when
the probe is completed and the case goes to trial. But Khatami's supporters
and the press are impatient want the murderers' identities revealed.
"Everyone linked to the murders, from the masterminds to the agents
and those who issued the orders to kill or possible foreign connections
should be subjected to an investigation," an association of former
MPs said in a letter to Khatami.
"The chain of killings must be probed with strength and without
political considerations, and the criminals must be eliminated with courage,"
they said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency on Friday.
Around 50 current MPs also sent a letter to the president demanding
action against the conservative-run radio and television.
The television provoked uproar after it aired an interview this week
with hardline cleric Ruhollah Hoseinian who suggested Khatami's radical
left-wing supporters were involved in the murders.
"They (conservatives) want to turn this important issue around
and reduced into a negligible affair," the MPs said. "Instead
of blaming the enemy for the killings, they are blaming our own people."
Their move came after 180 MPs in the conservative-dominated parliament
issued a statement on Thursday backing the intelligence chief.
Links
