BRIEF ON IRAN No. 185 Thursday, June 8, 1995 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Burton, Torricelli, Other Members Seek a Comprehensive Policy on Iran, Excerpt from Statement by the Office of Congressman Dan Burton, June 6 Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN-6), Robert Torricelli (D-NJ- 9), and several other Members of Congress will hold a press confrence on Thursday, June 8, at 11:30 AM, 2247 Rayburn HOB, to release copies of a letter to the President seeking a stronger, more comprehensive policy toward Iran. In the letter, signed by 194 Members of Congress, the legistlators call for a more comprehensive approach to seeking the ouster of the Iraninan regime, including a coordinated international effort to impose sanctions on Iran and a braoder dialogue with democratic opposition groups, including the National Council of Resistance of Iran. IRAN: Over 1.3 Million Mistreated in Past Year, From Statement by the Press Office of the People's Mojahedin of Iran - Paris, June 7 The mullahs' Guards Corps announced today that more than 1.3 million people were officially harassed or mistreated over the past year, international news agencies said. 86,000 of them were arrested. Such measures carried out under the name of prohibiting vice and promoting virtue are none but naked suppression of the public under the pretext of religion. Many of the victims of these street arrests and harassment's are women. These figures are far below the actual number of arrests and executions going on in Iran, a Mojahedin spokesman said. As it was recently reported by Amnesty International, the mullahs regime has officially banned publication of the news of its crimes. This is while everyday in every corner of the country, people's uprisings are met by barrages of bullets, with a large number killed and many arrested... Iran Vice Squad Arrests 86,000, Reuters, June 7 TEHRAN - A voluntary force fighting social vices in Iran warned more than a million people and arrested 86,000 in the past year, a newspaper said on Wednesday. Members of the Bassij paramilitary force notified 907,246 people verbally and issued 370,079 written notices against "social corruption" and arrested 86,190 people, the daily Abrar said. Bassij forces broke up 542 "corrupt gangs," arresting their 2,618 members, and seized 86,597 indecent videocassettes and photographs, it added... Tens of Thousands Have Died, Says Amnesty International, Pinkerton Risk Assessment Services, May 31 Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog, issued a scathing report on May 31 accusing Iran of "appalling" human rights record over the last 16 years. Abuses cited by the agency include grossly unfair trails by Islamic Revolutionary Courts, the execution of tens of thousands, summary arrests and detention without benefit of counsel or notification of families... The independent Amnesty International is a highly respected source on human rights abuses around the world. The report essentially validates similar reports by the exiled Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance (NCR) and the People's Mujahedin, who have been claiming for years that dissidents have been abused by the Islamic regime in Iran. The NCR's leadership has suffered first-hand the effects of the Mullahs' wrath as Iranian-sanctioned executions have been carried out in Western Europe. No Happiness in Western Culture - Iran's Khamenei, Reuters, June 7 "Western culture proved itself incapable of making mankind happy a long time ago and it is now clearly heading toward corruption," Khamenei was quoted by Tehran radio as saying... Western culture had been imposed on many countries, but only Islam could provide mankind with a new way leading to liberation and happiness, he said. The United States, as "the century's mother of all corruption," led the states that imposed their will on the United Nations, making injustice and discrimination prevail in the world, Khamenei told a group of foreign visitors attending ceremonies marking the sixth anniversary of the death of his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...