BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 567
Tuesday, January 7, 1997

Representative Office of
The National Council of Resistance of Iran
Washington, DC


Confrontation in Three Iranian Provinces Between Resistance Forces and the
Mullahs' Agents, Reuters, January 6

	DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Iranian tribesmen and government forces
killed five members of an Iraq-based opposition group in clashes in western
Iran, the Iranian news agency IRNA said Monday.
	It quoted a local official in Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province as saying
security forces killed two members of the Mujahideen Khalq armed opposition
group and arrested a third...
	An official in Iran's western city of Kermanshah said Sunday that tribesmen
killed three Mujahideen members, two men and a woman...
	The Mujahideen said Monday their forces had clashed with government troops
in several points along the Iran-Iraq borders but denied that any of them
had been killed or arrested.
	In a fax sent to Reuters from their Paris office, the group said the
operations were carried out by Mujahideen members based inside Iran in an
escalation of their activities...
	... The Mujahideen have denied attacking civilians, but have taken
responsibility for striking military and economic targets.


NCR Urges Italy to Cancel Velayati's Visit to Rome, Iran Zamin News Agency,
January 6

	The National Council of Resistance of Iran in a statement condemned the
scheduled visit to Rome of Ali Akbar Velayati, Foreign Minister of mullahs'
regime.
	The statement said:  "Shaking hands with the officials of the religious,
terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran contradicts the fundamental principles of
human rights and is against the highest interests of the Iranian people.
This is a regime condemned 39 times by various bodies of the United Nations
for its systematic violations of human rights and export of terrorism abroad."


UNICEF Deny Role in Iranian 'Dying Rooms' Scandal, OneWorld News Service,
December 15, 1996

	Further light has now been shone on the controversies surrounding a filmed
report exposing terrible conditions in an Asylum for abandoned children in Iran.
	Horrifying footage shot on October 23 by AP journalist Kaveh Golestan
showed mentally retarded children, who had been abandoned by their parents,
fastened to their beds by chains or ropes.  Some were lying naked on an
asphalt floor, while others had wounds and scars from rope-burns - some of
which were infected.  Other youngsters were being kept in cage-like beds
with no room to move.
	Three minutes of this footage was broadcast by CNN on 31 October and the
report raised a storm among the viewers, whose outrage was compounded by the
allegation that UNICEF had been involved in the management of the
institution....
	A spokesperson from UNICEF's New York headquarters has told OneWorld
categorically that: "UNICEF has no involvement either financial, managerial
or otherwise in the center"....
	... One of the reporters, Kaveh Golestan, has already experienced a period
of house arrest (1992-95) for           exposing human rights violations via
a film broadcast on British television; he has now had press card taken away
once again by the Ministry of Information and is not free to leave Tehran
[Iran]. There are fears that the other reporter, Mrs. Zare Kamel, may also
be persecuted.
	UNICEF has now repeatedly confirmed to OneWorld that it sees no reason to
consider the filmed report a fake - UNICEF "has not in any way questioned
the authority of the report"....
	UNICEF disclaims, however, the Iranian media's condemnation of the
reporters' work and denies that it in any way reflects their own official
position; instead they say that their representatives have been repeatedly
misquoted by the Iranian media....


Iran Deadline to Fire Foreign Workers Expires, Reuters, January 4

	TEHRAN - A deadline for Iranian employers to fire an estimated one million
foreign workers, mostly Afghan refugees, expired on Saturday as part of
Iran's campaign to fight high unemployment....
	Employers said many state bodies themselves hired thousands of Afghans, who
are generally willing to work for lower wages than Iranians....
	"Whenever Iran does not receive international aid for refugees it starts to
pressure us to return home," an Afghan construction technician told Reuters....


Iran Offers Military Pact with Turkey, Associated Press, January 5

	ISTANBUL, Turkey - Iran invited Turkey on Sunday to enter a defense pact
that would have the neighboring countries share military information.
	Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati made the offer while in
Istanbul for a weekend summit of eight predominantly Muslim countries...
	Erbakan's moves to improve Turkey's ties with Muslim nations, especially
Iran and Libya, has raised concern among the United States and other
traditional Western allies....