Mr. Rajavi said: Like the heroic uprising of the people of Kermanshah, the strike today of Tehran's oil workers - which took place despite full control and brutal suppression by the regime's security and intelligence forces - denotes the explosive state of Iran's 70 million strong society and their general hatred towards the illegitimate ruling regime.
In his message on the 18th anniversary of the Iranian anti-monarchic revolution, the leader of the Iranian Resistance called on the nation to rise up against the mullahs' medieval regime. Mr. Rajavi's message has been beamed into Iran over the past several days via the Resistance's satellite and its radio and television network.
This morning, thousands of striking workers of Tehran's Oil Refinery converged on the Oil Ministry and chanted anti-government slogans. Tehran's oil workers protested suppression at the work environment, small salaries and lack of other facilities and resources for Iranian workers.
The terrified mullah regime dispatched the Special Forces of Greater Tehran (Yegan-e Vije-ye Tehran-e Bozorg) to the site. They were commanded by the Guards Corps brigadier generals Abdollah Oghbaii and Abolfat'hi, commander of the Security Forces of the Greater Tehran. The Special Forces clashed with the workers, as a result of which hundreds were arrested and taken to unknown locations. No information is available on their fate.
Ali Nejad, director of the security division of Tehran's oil refinery, affiliated with the Intelligence Ministry, has submitted the list of today's absent workers to the Ministry of Intelligence and widespread arrests of workers has already begun.
The NCR President calls on all international human rights organizations to take urgent action to free and save the lives of the imprisoned oil workers.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris
February 16, 1997
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