BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 1267
Monday, November 8, 1999
Representative Office of
The National  Council of Resistance of Iran
Washington, DC


UN Says Human Rights Situation in Iran Worsened, Associated Press, November 3

UNITED NATIONS - Maurice Copithorne, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights' special investigator on Iran, said in the report Tuesday to the General Assembly that the period from January to mid-August "has seen more political and social turmoil than in recent years."

Massoud Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, called on the General Assembly to strongly condemn the government's violation "of the most elementary rights of the Iranian people and export of terrorism."

Copithorne said executions, torture and poor treatment of prisoners remain at unacceptably high levels. He cited reports of 138 executions between January and mid-August, most for unknown crimes.
 

Iranians in Capitals, Major Cities in Europe And U.S. Condemn Mullahs' Missile Attack, Iran Zamin News Agency, November 5

On Friday, thousands of Iranians supporting the Mojahedin staged demonstrations in 16 capitals and major cities in Europe, U.S. and Canada to protest against the mullahs' missile attack on National Liberation Army's Camp Habib.

Five Mojahedin members were slain and several more wounded in the November 2 missile attack on Camp Habib, 45km north of Basra and 35km from the Iranian border.

Carrying pictures of the martyrs of this terrorist assault, the protesters described the attack as a barbaric attack of vengeance by the clerical regime to make up for the humiliating defeat of Khatami's visit to France.

The 10,000-strong demonstration by Mojahedin's supporters and their unrelenting campaign during Khatami's Paris visit totally overshadowed the trip and became a double political defeat for the clerical regime.
 

Regime’s Agents Killed in Clashes with People and Tribes in Baluchistan, Iran Zamin News Agency, November 6

A large military convoy made up of State Security Forces units and detachments of Revolutionary Guards was ambushed by a force of armed Baluchi tribesmen and indigenous people earlier this week as it entered the mountainous region of Sarbaz, 60 km from the city of Iranshahr in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan. The convoy was assigned to subdue the local tribes after recent unrest in the area.

In the heavy clashes that ensued, some 70 members of the mullahs' Revolutionary Guard and security forces were killed and many more were wounded. The Baluchis also shot down two helicopter gunships that came to the convoy's rescue. Battalion 123 of the State Security Forces was decimated in the attack.

Many local inhabitants and Baluchi tribesmen have also been killed or wounded in the clashes. Last year, the clerical regime executed two members of Salah Zehi tribe because they opposed the regime.

On Friday evening the mullahs' regime broke its long silence and in a bid to overshadow the atrocious military defeat suffered by the regime, claimed the mullahs' repressive agents had been killed in clashes with narcotics smugglers.
 

Students Protest Against Mounting Press Clampdown, Agence France Presse, November 2

TEHRAN - Some 600 students demonstrated in the provinces against the mounting clampdown by the courts on Iran’s press, the government-run Iran paper reported Tuesday.

"Some 600 male and female students from the Bu-Ali Sina and medical sciences universities staged a demonstration Sunday" in the western city of Hamedan, the paper said.
 

Mullahs Vow Ongoing Struggle Against the U.S., Reuters, November 4

TEHRAN - Tens of thousands of Iranians rallied outside the former U.S. embassy on Thursday, the 20th anniversary of the hostage crisis, burning American flags and vowing to renew the struggle against the "Great Satan."

The demonstrators also burned an effigy of Uncle Sam while chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," familiar cries in the streets of Tehran over the past two decades.

A former chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards pledged there would be no let-up in Iran's 20-year feud with the United States.

"The struggle of the Iranian nation is a struggle against U.S. monopoly and lack of principle, and...the Iranian nation will not give up this struggle," Major General Mohsen Rezaie told the demonstrators in front of the former U.S. embassy.

His speech was interrupted by periodic chants of "No Surrender, No Compromise, War with America."

Rezaie is now the secretary of Iran's top consultation body, the Assembly of Experts, whose tasks include offering advice to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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