TEHRAN - Belgium on Monday rejected calls to halt a human rights investigation of a former Iranian president.

A Belgium court ordered the investigation last week after an unidentified Belgian citizen of Iranian origin alleged abuses by Hashemi Rafsanjani. The complaint claimed Rafsanjani was party to unjustified incarceration and physical and moral torture, Belgium's De Standaard daily said Monday.

Iranian leaders, newspapers and official organizations closed ranks around Rafsanjani, who led the nation from 1989 to 1997. More than half the members of Iran's new reformist-dominated parliament threatened to push for a break in diplomatic relations with Belgium.
 

Iranian Cleric Warns Belgium over Rights Probe, Reuters, March 6

TEHRAN - Hasan Sanei, head of a religious foundation that set a $2.8 million reward for the assassination of Rushdie, was quoted as saying on Monday that the Iranian people would not tolerate foreign meddling in the Islamic republic.

"At this juncture, I see it necessary to announce to the Belgian government that it must pay attention to this fact:(our) reactions will not be only verbal," Sanei told the daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami.

"If the Belgian government does not apologize as soon as possible and does not make up for the impudence of the Belgian court, it must expect practical measures from the Iranian nation and, especially, the 15th Khordad Foundation," Sanei said.

"What has happened in the Belgian court is part of the animosity (toward Iran) of international Zionism and the United States."

The main "reformist" coalition, which has already warned the West not to assume its victory at the polls would produce concessions from Tehran, has been particularly outspoken.

Last month, the 15th Khordad Foundation reaffirmed its $2.8 million bounty -- plus interest -- for anyone carrying out a death sentence against Rushdie for blasphemy issued by Khomeini in 1989.
 

Student Protests and Demonstrations Across Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 6

Student protests and demonstrations have risen sharply across Iran in recent days. On March 5 and 6, hundreds of students at the exclusively-female Al-Zahra University in Tehran demonstrated in protest against the mysterious death of a 23-year old student, Leila Forouzanifar, who was run over by a government car on Saturday.

Also on Sunday dozens of students at the Technical Training College in the northeastern city of Bojnourd began a sit-in in their dormitories to protest against the government’s apathy to their plight.

More than a thousand students at the northern city of Gorgan’s Azad University staged a protest against repressive measures including harassment of students by government agents, a purge of the academic staff, and the Intelligence Ministry’s bugging of telephones at the girl students’ dormitories. The protest was the fourth by students at this university in recent months. 600 students from the all-female Fatemieh University in Qom began last Monday sit-in outside the headquarters of the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution in Tehran to protest against government agents’ beating of protesting students on the campus. Women students at Tehran’s Allameh Tababtabai University also staged a demonstration Tuesday.

More than 1,200 students in Azad (Open) University in the city of Qazvin (140 Km west of Tehran) demonstrated for five hours last Monday to protest against the expulsion of many students and segregation of classes.

In Mashhad last Monday students at Ferdowsi University staged a demonstration to protest against rising tuition fees.
 

Clerical Body Blocks Khatami's Privatizations, Reuters, March 6

TEHRAN - Iran's outgoing parliament has endorsed a move by a clergy-based council to block Khatami's privatization plan.

The shift came after the Guardian Council, which vets parliamentary legislation, rejected most privatizations under Khatami's five-year development plan as unconstitutional.

Earlier, parliament had blocked key market-oriented elements in the plan on the grounds that the poor would suffer.

Among the setbacks to the planned privatizations were votes to maintain government control on banks and insurance companies, allowing limited room for private activities in these sectors.

The new moves also undermine government efforts to end the state's monopoly on airlines, the railways and other transport systems as well as telecommunications, water and power.

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