News on Iran

No. 54

October 16, 1995

A Publication of

National Council of Resistance of Iran

Foreign Affairs Committee

17, rue des Gords, 95430 Auvers-sur-Oise, France

Tel: (1) 34 38 07 28


85 New Members for NCR

NCR Secretariat, Paris, October 12 - Mrs. Mahvash Sepehri, the NCR's Senior Secretary, today announced the names of 85 new members for the NCR. This is the first group whose applications for membership have been ratified with the legal and administrati ve procedures completed according to the constitution and internal regulations of the NCR and voting of all members.

46 of the new members are women and 39 are men with an average of two decades of experience in the movement. Eighteen of them were political prisoners under the shah or Khomeini regimes.

24 are officials of the offices of the Resistance's President-elect and others are members of the NCR committees. Following the interim session of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, it was announced on September 27 that the new applications for membership had been examined, the voting on them started, and the results due to be announced after ratification. < /P> Austria and Ireland Called to Cancel Nateq-Noori's Trips

NCR Secretariat, Paris, October 10 - According to the reports of the news agencies, Ali Akbar Nateq Noori, speaker of the mullahs' Majlis (parliament) will begin a trip to Austria and Ireland on October 29.

The failure of the European Union in its several-month campaign to gain renunciation of the death decree for Salman Rushdie proved that the mullahs are the only party benefiting from every form of "critical dialogue" to advance their repressive policie s inside the country and export terrorism abroad.

The NCR calls on both countries to cancel the planned trips which are obvious insults to the parliament and representatives of the people of Ireland and Austria and an affront to the people of Iran and against their best interests.

Crackdown on Women

TEHRAN, Iran (AP), October 9 -- Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the Iranian capital demanding stricter enforcement of the Islamic dress code for women, the Akhbar newspaper reported Monday.

The Farsi-language daily said demonstrators calling themselves "God's Helpers" demanded punishment for violators of the hejab, the Islamic dress code that requires women to be covered in head-to-toe chador robes in public. Violators of the dress code can be publicly flogged, jailed, or fined.

Kurdish rebels say Iran arrests 26 Kurds

NICOSIA, October 10 (Reuter) - An Iranian Kurdish opposition group said on Tuesday that Iran had arrested 26 Kurds on suspicion of supporting the rebel organisation.

The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, in a fax sent to Reuters from its Paris office, gave the names of the 26 and named the villages in northwestern Iran where it said they were arrested in the past two months.

More than 60 arrested in Tehran for Immoral Behavior

Agence France Presse, October 12 - According to the report of the Iranian press, the Guards Corps arrested 64 persons in its combat with the "absurd culture" of the West. According to the papers, persons accused of "corruption" were arrested in downtow n Tehran, where they can hunt customers for cassette tapes and "absurd" pictures.

Shortage of Science Faculty

Voice of Mojahedin radio, October 8 - To counter the serious shortage of cadres in the faculty of science in the universities, the mullahs' regime is planning to hire instructors who do not possess a doctorate degree and lack the actual credentials of a professor. This will lead to the deterioration of the quality of education in the universities. According to the official statistics, the shortage of cadres in the faculty of science exceeds 90,000.

Mass Arrests

Voice of Mojahedin radio, October 9 - Alarmed at the escalation of the activities of students in response to the call by the Iranian Resistance's President-elect, the clerical regime's security forces have embarked on a massive campaign of street inspe ctions in cities throughout the country. Reports from western Iran indicate that on October 5, the regime's security forces attacked business and residential neighborhoods for inspection. They claimed to have found "absurd" tapes. The regime's forces are thus trying to prevent distribution of the videotapes of the Resistance's television programs and the messages of the Iranian Resistance's President-elect, as well as the cassette recording of the programs of the Voice of Mojahedin.

Elections

Salam, Tehran-based daily, October 9 - The Interior Minister changed four governors yesterday. The measure follows a trend of replacements of governors and mayors in most provinces. Two weeks ago, Rafsanjani said such replacements for the sake of elections are forbidden. But they are believed to continue in the few months remaining until the elections. By doing so, the ruling faction and its lobby groups want to impose the absolute hegemony of only one sector.

Poverty

Salam, October 9 - A letter to the editor: "I am a high school teacher hired by the Ministry of Education. A friend of mine just recently had a heart stroke due to the pressure of work. Why is it that a teacher must work 70 hours instead of 24 p er week to earn his living?"

Names Restricted by Law!

IRTV, mullahs' state-run TV, October 9 - The head of the National Registration and Birth Certificate Bureau lent support to the recent measure by the government to restrict the kind of names given to newborn children. He recommended that parents choos e from among the names listed in the book put out by his department. He told the IRTV, "Our country is Islamic, and if suitable names are not given to the children, we will refuse to register and issue them birth certificates."

Foreign Bank Accounts

Sobh, Tehran-based daily, October 9 - The Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone has illegally kept its bank accounts in Germany. Member of Majlis (Parliament), Yousefpour has asked a parliamentary question in this regard and demanded that th e government provide answers.

Banning Mullahs from Book Exhibit

Frankfurt, October 11 - The largest book exhibition in Frankfurt begins its sixth annual exhibit in Frankfurt while German officials have refused granting participation permit to the Islamic Republic.

Arms Build-up

Il Journale, October 8 - It is a long time that the Tehran government is striving to reach a stage where its armed forces can possess non-conventional nuclear, chemical or bacteriological weapons, writes SISMI, the military secret service. The s ubject has been also confirmed by the American press and fomented by the State Department which has recently imposed an embargo on this Islamic state.

This objective in mind, Iran has founded a complete procurement network on the bases of telephone import channels, run by the Ministry of Defense and offices affiliated with the Organization of Defense Industry. On the other hand, these offices are run by personalities, members, offices and import-export companies in Europe, where the technology wanted by Iran is found.

Touran, Azerbaijan's official news agency, October 10 - Azerbaijan has prevented cargo of military equipment to Iran. The police and special guards of Azerbaijan's Presidential office took part in a coordinated operation in which they foiled the effor ts of members of a band who wanted to transfer to the Islamic government the anti-rocket systems of Azerbaijan's air-defense.

Pravada, Russia, October 8 - The destination route for a large shipment of US-made rockets sent for Bosnia-Herzegovina to help Bosnian Muslims, was hastily changed and the equipment sold to the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to this group, this shipment included military equipment: TOW2 missiles and a number of anti-aircraft Stingers. Two advanced tomahawk guided Cruise missiles and the remains of an American plane deployed in Bosnian region, were put in the disposal of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Reuters, October 11, Washington, D.C. - Gannon and Tarnoff told the Senate Banking Committee that Tehran had difficulty lining up buyers for about one-sixth of its oil exports soon after the sanctions went into effect. As a result, Iran had chosen to market more of its oil from foreign locations rather than from its own export terminals, increasing its transportation and storage costs.

"Although these costs are short-term expenses, it is clear that our embargo has cut into Iran's available hard currency," Tarnoff said.

"By aggravating Iran's cash crunch, we are weakening the government's ability to meet its external expenses," he said, adding that this would affect Iran's debt payments which are due to double in 1996. Its total estimated foreign debt is $30 billion.< /P> Iran's Non-Oil Export Plunge

Agence France Presse, October 9, Tehran - An Iranian official announced Monday that Iran's non-oil exports has been on a free fall since when a law was executed according to which merchants have to give back their foreign currency revenues from exports . In an interview with the Ressalat daily (affiliated with the bazaar), Assadollah Asgar Oladi, deputy for the Iranian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the situation of the Iranian economy is alarming in its totality. He said if the government does n ot revise this law in any way, "there is the probability that Iran's non-oil export will not exceed 2 billion dollars." Last year, this figure amounted to 4.5 billion dollars.

Export revenues from carpets, comprising 40 percent of Iran's non-oil exports, have been affected by this law and come to a halt this summer. On the other hand, the Iranian press quoted Ali Naqi Khamoushi, head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as saying that the plunge in Iran's non-oil export is due to the government's unrealistic designation of the value of Rial, which took place in May after the foreign currency free market was eliminated. "If Rial attains its true value relative to the doll ar, we could export much more," he said.

To pay their short and mid-term debts of 35 million dollars, Iran's foreign exchange authorities are determined to cut the national foreign currency expenditure at any cost and have compelled the exporters since last May to return all of their trade re venues to the government. The authorities have also declared a fixed dollar exchange rate of 3000 rials, which is considered half of its actual value on the free market. This decision has angered the industrial and market circles in Iran whose activities had already come to a virtually a complete halt for the ban imposed on the import of unnecessary material. The halt in the import of unnecessary material was also decided to cut the country's foreign exchange possessions.

The policy of financial savings has faced increasing opposition from the conservative factions in the regime and this problem will be one of the main topics in the parliamentary elections in March. Asgar Oladi announced Monday that the government's res trictive policies have led to the "serious increase" in illegal exports and smuggling which the officials are trying to combat in order to prevent flight of capitals from the country. Asgar Oladi did not give any figures for illegal exports. According to the evaluations given by Khamoushi, 40 percent of the country's import-export activities, aside from oil, are carried out underground and out of government control. According to the official estimates, the country's illegal imports range between 3 and 5 b illion dollars, i.e. one-third to half of the legal imports of the country.



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