BRIEF  ON  IRAN, No. 253
        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        Friday, September 15, 1995



        3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007


Mullahs' Desperate Bid to Cover Up Economic Bankruptcy,
from a statement issued by the NCR-Paris, September 14

        The "ban" imposed on the import of sodas, biscuits
and chocolates by the mullahs' Majlis is a "hypocritical"
policy aimed at covering up the regime's bankruptcy and
the failure of Rafsanjani's economic policies, the NCR's
Industries Committee said in a statement issued today.
        The NCR Committee said: "The Iranian industries are
faced with a disastrous bankruptcy. Shortages of cash and
raw material have driven the country's factories into
virtual closure and their worker's dismissal. Since the
beginning of the new year, numerous cities across the
country have seen a wave of workers' strikes and
protests."
        The regime imported 15 dollars of consumer goods
for every single dollar of non-oil export between 1979
and 1992, the statement added. Official figures released in
the Iranian year 1373 (Mar. 94-Mar. 95) indicate that
224.7 billion dollars of consumer goods were imported for
14.2 billion dollars of non-oil exports.
        The NCR's Industries Committee said the regime's
recent measure is aimed at overcoming the country's
irremediable money crisis. The statement also revealed
that a remarkable portion of the banned items used to be
imported from the United States and with the American
boycott of trade with the mullahs, it was impossible to
import many of them anyway.


Iran Holds 30 for Making Satellite TV Dishes, Reuters,
September 14
        TEHRAN - Iranian police have arrested 30 people in
Tehran after finding three workshops making banned
satellite television dishes, a newspaper reported on
Thursday.
        The daily Kayhan quoted west Tehran police chief
Brigadier- General Massoud Kiumarsi as saying police also
seized 226 dish antennas at the workshops in and outside
the capital.
        In April, Iran ordered all satellite TV equipment in
the country to be dismantled after banning them earlier
in the year to combat a Western "cultural invasion."
        Residents said some of the estimated 250,000 dish
owners have in the past few weeks put them back up on
the roofs, often camouflaging them as air-conditioners or
other equipment.
        Under the ban, satellite dish owners face fines of
three million rials ($1000 at the official exchange rate)
and the confiscation of their equipment.


New School Year to Begin with Students' Crackdown, from
a statement by the NCR-Paris, September 14

        Fearing the students' protests and demonstrations,
the mullahs' religious terrorist dictatorship has announced
a special security plan to be implemented "simultaneous
with the beginning of the new academic year" in the
schools all across the country.
        The Guards Corps Brigadier General Seifollahi,
commander of the regime's Security Forces, announced
this news underlining "the expansion of discipline and
security" as one of the main objectives of the plan. He
shamelessly called on both parents and the academic
faculty to cooperate with his forces in cracking down on
students.
        The mullahs' regime undertakes such a "special",
"security" plan on the eve of the new school year, while
the Iranian students are suffering from serious shortages
of educational facilities, including schools, classrooms and
at least 100,000 teachers.
        Participation of students and adolescents in anti-
government demonstrations and strikes was widespread
last year and they comprised a considerable number of
those arrested.


Iran Publishers Want Protection after Attack, Reuters,
September 14

        TEHRAN - Iranian publishers demanded state
protection after the offices of a publisher which brought
out a book deemed anti-Islamic were set ablaze, a
newspaper reported on Thursday
        In an open letter ..., more than 40 publishers asked
the government to "deal legally with anti-cultural
elements and book burners."
        They were referring to the attack in Tehran last
month against the offices of the publishers of a novel
accused of mocking Islamic activists as sexual deviates....
        Senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati had
supported the attack against Morgh-e Amin publishing
house and bookstore. No one was injured but the premises
were badly damaged.
        There have been no official reports of arrests in the
case. Jannati said the attackers were following a directive
by the late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini urging people to stop "corruption" if the
authorities failed to do so....