Two weeks after the mullahs' Majlis elections, some newspapers and officials in Tehran have been voicing alarm at prospects facing the clerical regime.

Tehran's ex-mayor Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi, a confidant of Rafsanjani and Khatami, in the column "Political Notes" of his newspaper, Ham-Mihan, on March 1, wrote: "...Our political system is in crisis. In this whirlpool of politics, economics and culture, people cling to a shipwreck for a few days, but lose their grip and then move on to another wreck... If we take this analogy as a true reflection of the state of affairs, we must say with bitterness that all those standing face-to-face today in the form of merciless rivals have been part and parcel of a single political regime for the past 20 years. What is in front of us today… is the result of the joint efforts of all of them. No one can evade his share in this joint responsibility."

On March 2, the daily Bayan, published by mullah Ali-Akbar Mohtashami, a close aide to Khatami, warned that the Majlis elections may have adverse consequences for the entire regime: "Here we are at a point where the state has, in a sense, put all its viable eggs in one basket. Extreme care must be taken to ensure that the basket gets to its final destination, for we are playing with the final cards in our hands and the last alternatives." The paper added: "We must not allow the final alternatives to reach an impasse. From now on, people cannot be expected to look for an alternative within our state. Their aspirations will be directed toward a third identity."

The former Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaii, also voiced anxiety over the critical state of the mullahs' regime after the elections. He said: "The political situation in the country after the elections is ripe for violence and tensions."
 

Students Describe Their Ordeal in the Police Chief's Trial, Associated Press, March 4

TEHRAN - An ex-police chief and 19 former subordinates on trial for July's raid on an Iranian university dormitory listened impassively as witnesses testified Saturday of brutal beatings and hallways slippery with blood.

Defense lawyer Mohsen Rahami told the court that one student, Gholamreza Mahmoudi, was beaten by unidentified assailants after testifying of police brutality when the trial opened Tuesday.

In Saturday's session, Mohsen Shafii-Pour, an industrial design student, recounted the July 9 raid on a Tehran University dormitory. "The whole area of the dormitory was full of tear gas, and we couldn't breathe," he said. "The floor was slippery from the blood of injured students who were being beaten and then arrested by police."

Alireza Zamani, an industrial management student, said police broke into his room and dragged him out. Outside, the corridor was lined with policemen who were beating other students. Zamani said he was hit on the head with a baton when he bent to pick up his glasses from the floor.

Student groups have complained that authorities were quick to try leaders of the demonstrations that followed the dormitory raid -- sentencing three of them to death -- while none of the vigilantes who joined police in the raid have been indicted.

"The main people involved in the incident are not being tried here," defense lawyer Rahami said. "The case has been limited to one commander and a few officers and soldiers."
 

Factions of Mullahs' Regime Warn Belgium Against Rights Allegations, Reuters, March 5

TEHRAN - Iran on Sunday denounced Belgium after a Brussels court opened an investigation into torture allegations against former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The Supreme National Security Council [headed by Khatami] on Saturday condemned the move and directed the foreign ministry to summon the Belgian ambassador to receive a formal protest.

The Iranian parliament overwhelmingly condemned the probe.

"The Iranian nation will not tolerate the insult of a Belgian court," read a "headline" in the Entekhab daily, summing up the mood in Tehran.

The Islamic Iran Participation Front, grouping "reformers" close to Khatami, condemned the move.
 

News Bites

Iran Zamin News Agency, March 3 - A senior officer of Revolutionary Guards and the State Security Forces was shot dead by young dissidents in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran on Wednesday afternoon, March 1. Col. Morad Malekshahi, a top commander in Kermanshah's State Security Forces, was attacked in the city's Keshavarz Boulevard. Malekshahi was actively involved in the bloody suppression of many protest demonstrations in the region, as well as arrest and torture of dissidents and brutal harassment of women.

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