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The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement on Wednesday indicating that in a letter to the foreign ministers of member states of the United Nations, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran called on them to adopt a transparent, decisive and strongly-worded resolution in condemnation of the flagrant violations of human rights in Iran.
Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin said in his letter that unfounded hopes expressed in the Human Rights Commission's April 1998 resolution about "positive positions" of the clerical regime constitute one of the reasons of the deterioration of human rights abuses in Iran in recent months.
Mr. Mohaddessin emphasized that executions, death under torture and stoning have continued and increased during Khatami's tenure. As far as freedom of expression is concerned not even one real opposition publication has been allowed to publish. In the past two months, a number of other publications affiliated with the ruling factions were shut down and their editors detained.
The NCR's Foreign Affairs Committee chairman said: Despite Cook-Kharrazi accord, the regime's foreign minister declared upon returning to Tehran that the regime's positions regarding Rushdie had not changed at all. Subsequently, the state-run 15th of Khordad Foundation increased the bounty for Rushdie's murder to 3.1 million dollars.
In another part of his letter, Mr. Mohaddessin said: The interim report of the Special Representative of the United Nations Human Rights Commission reflects clearly the deteriorating state of human rights in Iran in recent months and persisting suppression of women and religious and ethnic minorities, an unjust Judiciary, high number of executions, and condoning of cruel punishments such as stoning.
The Chairman of the NCR Foreign Affairs Committee said the adoption of a strongly-worded resolution in condemnation of human rights violations in Iran is the minimum expected from the fifty-fifth session of the U.N. General Assembly. "A weak tone or unjustified concessions and credits to the regime or any of its factions, would in no way contribute to improvement in the situation of human rights in Iran and would only reassure the clerics that their crimes will go unpunished by the world community," Mr. Mohaddessin said.
Mullahs Toughen Anti-US Stand on Embassy Seizure Anniversary,
Khatami Justifies Takeover Agence France Presse, November
4
TEHRAN—Iran toughened its stand against the United States on Wednesday, setting draconian conditions for starting an official dialogue, as demonstrators burned American flags on the 19th anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy here.
President Mohammad Khatami, at a public gathering at a Tehran school, sharply criticized the United States for continuing hostile policies towards Iran, 19 years after radical Iranian students stormed the US embassy and held its staff hostage for 444 days.
He sought to justify the event as "a spontaneous act to protest."
In front of the former US embassy, tens of thousands of people set fire to American flags and effigies of Uncle Sam and shouted "death to America" and "death to Israel."
The flag-burning ritual had been more or less removed from Iranian political ceremonies since Khatami denounced the practice in a televised address to the American people in January.
The hardliners have made it a point to burn flags to prove that the regime campaign against the "Great Satan" continues.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called earlier this year for talks with Iran on a "road map" that would lead to restoring diplomatic relations severed in 1980.
But Khamenei ruled out any dialogue with Washington on Tuesday, insisting that Iranians were better off without relations with the United States.
Iran Sanctions Czechs for Radio Broadcasts,
The Washington Post, Nov. 4
TEHRAN—Iran has recalled its ambassador from the Czech Republic and reduced trade contacts to protest U.S.-funded radio broadcasts to the Islamic republic from Prague, Tehran radio reported. It quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi as saying the Czech Republic had "backed hostile action by America" by hosting the new Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, based in Prague.