BRIEF ON IRAN No. 347 Monday, February 12, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 U.N. Rights Investigator to Visit Iran, Reuters, February 9 GENEVA - United Nations Human Rights Commission new special representative on rights in Iran Maurice Copithorne will travel to Tehran on Saturday for a six-day tour, U.N. officials said on Friday.... His mission is aimed at gathering material for a report to be presented to the next session of the Commission, which will begin six weeks of meetings next month in Geneva. In a message to Copithorne, a copy of which was made available to journalists, the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran called on him to investigate what it called specific cases of rights abuses. These included mass executions, torture and rape of female prisoners, Council President Massoud Rajavi said. In the past, the Iranian government has declined to accept U.N. rights investigators. Rajavi said in his letter to Copithorne that Tehran had accepted the new investigator's visit reluctantly "and for a very short and insufficient duration." Rajavi also asked Copithorne to question the Iranian authorities about the number of political prisoners it had held since the 1979 revolution, "the burial sites, including mass graves, of execution victims, and the number of those executed under the age of 18." Council officials in Geneva said they had information from Tehran that political prisoners were being moved out of prisons that Copithorne was likely to visit in Iran. They said Iranians who had tried to send messages to the investigator in Geneva by telefax had been arrested after their telephone lines were tapped. Iran Tells U.N. Envoy Human Rights Western Tool, Reuters, February 10 TEHRAN - A senior Iranian official on Saturday told a visiting United Nations human rights envoy that human rights issues were being used by Western countries to pressurize Iran, Tehran radio said. "Numerous factors have led the Iranian people to not be optimistic about this (U.N. Human Rights) Commission's work, as human rights have gradually become a tool of great powers to put pressure on specific countries," Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hassan Rowhani was quoted by the state-run radio as saying.... The following are excerpts from Reuters reports on the anniversary of 1979 Revolution. Khamenei Vows no Compromise with West TEHRAN, February 9- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday Iran would not yield to U.S. pressure as any compromise with the West would deal a severe blow to the morale of the world's Moslems.... Khamenei rejected any compromise with the West, saying such moves would demoralize Islamic movements, such as in Algeria and Turkey, that he said had been inspired by the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and its achievements. "Any compromise...any accords by the Islamic Republic with Arrogance (the West) would hurt the morale of Moslems...around the world,'' he told the crowd on the wake of the 17th anniversary of the revolution.... Rafsanjani Acknowledges Export of Fundamentalism TEHRAN, February 11- Witnesses said security appeared tighter than in previous years.... "It is the justice-seeking message of Islam that attracts people everywhere. We do not care if that is called exporting revolution.'' Rafsanjani said the Iranian people still regarded the United States as "the Great Satan,"... Senator Helms Calls On Clinton To Sanction China, Dow Jones News, February 9 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R.,N.C.) is urging President Clinton to slap China with sanctions over sales of missile technology to Iran. Helms, in a Feb. 8 letter to Clinton released today, stressed that Clinton should ''act decisively'' against China given ''consistent reports in the media detailing U.S. government documentation of China's sales of missile technology and equipment to Iran.''... Turkey Says Syria, Iran Dithering on Arms Find, Reuters, February 9 ANKARA - Turkish officials have accused neighbors Syria and Iran of dodging questions about their possible role in a seized arms cache that Turkey says was bound for Kurdish rebels, Anatolian news agency said on Friday.... Iran "is trying to avoid the issue by just saying it is investigating and wants to cooperate with Turkey,'' Anatolian quoted unnamed foreign ministry officials as saying.... But Israeli security sources have said the arms may have been an Iranian shipment bound for Hizbollah (Party of God) guerrillas in southern Lebanon.