Human Rights
Dec 14-18, 1998 / Azar 24-28, 1377
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* Iran meets EU amid concern over killings
* Moin: ignoranceroots of recent killings
* Leftist group calls for U.N. action
* Iran court arrests pro-Khatami cleric for fraud
* Khatami ally arrested
* Ardabili criticises Islamic regime
* New head of religious court
* Government awaiting decision on attackers
* Writer escapes possible murder attempt
* Funeral for slain writer, Pouyandeh
* Killings spark protest against Iran hardliners
* Editorial: Murder in Iran
Recent
* Thousands attend writer's funeral
* Iran closes activist newspaper
* Iranian opposition says death squad killed writers
* Rafsanjani: recent killings harmful to national honor
* Cultural relativism condemned
* A Call for Action Against Reaction and Repression
* Secularist writers said to be in hiding
* Writers letters to people & Khatami
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Friday
December 18, 1998
* Iran meets EU talk politics and economics
Dec 18, (BBC) - Senior officials from Iran and the European Union have
begun talks in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on economic, political and
human rights issues. The officials also discussed the recent killings
of a number of Iranian writers and opposition figures, suspected to have
been carried out by conservative Iranian elements opposed to President
Mohammmed Khatami's reforms ... FULL
TEXT
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* Moin: ignorance, devious thinking roots of recent killings
Qom, Dec. 17, IRNA - Minister of Higher Education Mostafa Moin said
on Thursday that the recent atrocities and killings of some the country's
writers arise from ignorance and deviative thinking of those who hold no
belief in rationality. Addressing a group of top students in the graduation
ceremony at Qom academic center, he expressed dismay over the outcome of
rampage in society... FULL
TEXT
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* Leftist group calls for U.N. action
December 13, 1998 (Organization of Revolutionary Workers of Iran) -
Rah-e Kargar, Organization of Revolutionary Workers of Iran, has called
on U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan to take appropriate action to stop
the wave of killings in Iran ... FULL
TEXT
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Thursday
December 17, 1998
* Iran court arrests pro-Khatami cleric for fraud
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - A court in Iran has arrested a prominent cleric,
who backs moderate President Mohammad Khatami, to serve a jail sentence
for fraud, the official news agency IRNA reported on Thursday. "Assadolah
Bayat, who had been sentenced to a one-year jail term and 100 million rials
($33,000) on fraud and forgery charges was arrested and sent to prison,"
the agency quoted a statement by the Special Court of the Clergy as saying.
Bayat, a former deputy speaker of parliament, is a senior member of the
pro-Khatami League of Militant Clerics ... FULL
TEXT
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* Khatami ally arrested
Dec 17, 1998, (BBC) - A prominent Iranian cleric who backs President
Mohammed Khatami has been arrested and sent to prison to serve a sentence
for fraud. The Iranian news agency said Asadollah Bayat was arrested on
the orders of the special religious court after he ignored a court summons
to begin serving a one-year sentence imposed earlier. Mr Bayat is a former
deputy speaker of parliament and a close ally of Mr Khatami.
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* Ardabili criticises Islamic regime
Dec 17, 1998, (BBC) - A prominent Iranian Ayatollah has criticised the
country's Islamic system for failing to protect its citizens following
the killings of a number of writers and opposition figures over recent
weeks. According to the Khordad newspaper, Ayatollah Abdolkarim Mousavi
Ardabili, a former head of the judiciary and a prominent Islamic scholar
at Qom's theological centre, strongly condemned the killings. He has also
expressed regret that non-clerical scholars were being undermined, which
he said did not bode well for the country.
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* New head of Iranian religious court
Dec 17, 1998, (BBC) - The judge who jailed the reformist mayor of Tehran
after a controversial trial last year, has been named as the head of a
special religious court. The official Iranian newsagency said Gholam-Hossein
Mosheni-Ejel will head the court which was set up by Ayatollah Khomeini,
to try crimes committed by the clergy. He replaces Mohammed Reyshahri who
has resigned for undisclosed reasons. Critics say the special religious
court is controversial because it is unconstitutional and that Mr Reyshahri
is a former intelligence minister.
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* Government awaiting decision on attackers
Tehran, (Hamshahri) - The interior ministry is awaiting a decision by
the judiciary on the case of those accused of attacking two ministers...
FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
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* Khatami: Iran "does not belong" to any one group
Tehran, (Hamshahri) - The interior ministry is awaiting a decision by
the judiciary on the case of those accused of attacking two ministers...
FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
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* Writer escapes possible murder attempt
Human Rights Watch, (New York, December 16, 1998) - Akbar Ganji, the
editor of the recently-banned weekly newspaper Rah-e No (New Way), was
approached by two unknown men as he was leaving his office in Tehran at
6:10 p.m. local time on December 13. Ganji had been held incommunicado
for three months in early 1998 for criticizing government policies. The
men asked him, "Where can we find Akbar Ganji?" Ganji, realizing
that they represented a danger, did not identify himself but asked them
who they were. After a brief exchange the two men ran away ... FULL TEXT
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* Funeral for slain writer, Pouyandeh
Tehran, dec. 17, irna - A funeral procession was held for the slain
writer and translator mohammad ja'far pouyandeh from al-nabi mosque in
tehran thursday morning. later, pouyandeh's body was calmly transferred
to emamzadeh taher cemetery in karaj, a suburb west of tehran ... FULL TEXT
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Wednesday
December 16, 1998
* Killings spark protest against Iran hardliners
The Times, London, December 16 1998 - A backlash by Iranian moderates
over the murder of dissidents spilt on to the streets of Tehran yesterday
when more than 1,000 university students called for the dismissal of the
chief judge and the heads of the intelligence and security services. Their
unprecedented protest came after the funeral of Muhammad Mokhtari, a dissident
poet who was found strangled last week. He was mourned by thousands of
writers and artists, some of whom had been in hiding in recent days, terrified
they were on a hitlist ... FULL
TEXT
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* Editorial: Murder in Iran
The Times, London, Dec 16, 1998: What frightens the religious leadership
is the swelling public support for the modernisers. Thousands of people
attended the funeral yesterday of Muhammad Mokhtari, one of the murdered
writers. And more than a thousand students afterwards joined a public protest
demanding the dismissal of Iran's chief judge and the heads of the intelligence
and security services. Almost half Iran's population was born after the
Shah was ousted, and is now demanding freedom. The ayatollahs know that
it was just such demands, 20 years ago, by angry and determined students
that overthrew imperial autocracy. No wonder they are desperate ... FULL TEXT
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Tuesday
December 15, 1998
* Thousands attend writer's funeral
Dec 15, (BBC) - Some 3,000 people have taken part in a funeral procession
in theIranian capital Tehran for the writer and poet Mohammed Mokhtari,who
was killed last week. He was one of several dissident writers who have
died recentlyunder mysterious circumstances. His coffin, covered in red
flowers, was carried through crowds ofrelatives, friends, artists and writers,
who joined the procession ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran closes activist newspaper
December 14, 1998, TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A court on Monday fined and temporarily
shut down a newspaper headed by Iran's leading woman activist, Iranian
television reported. The report did not say why the penalties were imposed
on the newspaper Zan, owned by Parliament member and women's rights advocate
Faezeh Hashemi. Only last Tuesday, a court cleared Hashemi of publishing
untruths. The report said Hashemi, the daughter of former President Hashemi
Rafsanjani, was fined about $830 and prohibited from publishing for two
weeks ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iranian opposition says death squad killed writers
WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Iranian opposition in exile said
on Tuesday that a special death squad drawn from members of the Revolutionary
Guards Corps and the Intelligence Ministry was behind the recent killing
of Iranian dissidents. The National Council of Resistance, which is closely
linked with the Iraqi-based Mujahideen Khalq group, said the aim was ``to
create an atmosphere or terror and intimidation'' after outbreaks of protest
against the government ... FULL
TEXT
* Rafsanjani: recent killings harmful to national honor, security
Tehran, Dec. 15, IRNA - ayatollah akbar hashemi rafsanjani, chairman
of the expediency council tuesday blamed "the enemies" for the
recent spate of political killings in the country and said these will leave
unfavorable impacts on national security and honor. he said the recent
murders of a number of opposition writers and intellectuals have disturbed
the people and followed "different aims." ... FULL TEXT
Part 1 -- Part 2
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* Cultural relativism condemned
By Maryam Namazi, Committee for Humanitarian Assistance to Iranian Refugees
(CHAIR) - Cultural relativists ... say that universal human rights are
a western concept. How come when it comes to using the telephone or a car,
the mullah does not say it is western and incompatible with an Islamist
society? How come when it comes to better exploiting the working class
and making profits, technological gains are universal? But when it comes
to universal human rights, they become western. Even if rights are western,
it is absurd to say that others' are not worthy of them. In fact, though,
rights are gains forcibly taken by the working class and progressive social
movements. Therefore, any gain or right obtained anywhere is a gain and
a right for all humanity ... FULL
TEXT
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* A Call for Action Against Reaction and Repression
By Maryam Namazi & Keyvan Javid, Committee for Humanitarian Assistance
to Iranian Refugees (CHAIR), December 10, 1998 - One of the most dangerous
criminals in this era is Islamic and Islamist governments and groups which
commit genocide and untold crimes against humanity in Iran, Afghanistan,
Algeria, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan Islam, though reactionary
as all other religions, has now dangerously become the mass murderer of
countless human beings. In Islamist societies, women and men are stoned
to death for love, women are denied access to male physicians, gender-apartheid
rules, strikes are considered haram (religiously prohibited), and girls
of nine are legally raped ... FULL
TEXT
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Monday
December 14, 1998
* Secularist writers said to be in hiding
TEHRAN, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Several Iranian secularist writers have gone
into hiding after a string of mystery deaths and disappearances among their
colleagues that threatens President Mohammad Khatami's reform efforts.
Firouz Gouran, editor of the banned monthly Jame'eh Salem, or Healthy Society,
said on Monday many of his colleagues had either left their homes or adopted
special security measures. ``This has spread panic everywhere,'' Gouran
told Reuters by telephone ... FULL
TEXT
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* In letters to people & Khatami, writers want "deliberate
violence" stopped
"As we speak out about this organized violence and express our
[concern about] the lack of protection for the lives of writers and intellectuals,
we ask for an unequivocal explanation by the state authorities; and, we
announce that, in the re-occurrence of such events, legal agencies can
not disavow their common responsibility for protecting the lives of citizens.
We ask all those who can not stand this situation, which is counter to
freedom and public security, to [help] end this production of terror."
... FULL TEXT
