TEHRAN - President Mohammad Khatami urged the country Wednesday to be calm, after the judiciary arrested more liberals less than two months before the presidential election.

Khatami called for "an atmosphere of calm, without conflicts in society," adding: "These conflicts these past days have not been beneficial and the people don't want them."

"The people who provoke (conflicts) will not profit from them, and the people don't pay much attention to all these political conflicts that are growing on the eve of the election," Khatami said at a meeting with budget officials, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
 

MPs Acknowledge Ill-Treatment of Political Detainees, Reuters, April 11

TEHRAN - More than 150 Iranian MPs on Wednesday signed an open letter to the judiciary chief protesting against the treatment of dozens of dissidents arrested by the hardline Revolutionary Court.

The letter read out in an open session of parliament, protested against the detention of the dissidents in unknown locations and the fact that they have not been allowed access to lawyers.

The dissidents' families have repeatedly complained about ill treatment and foul-mouthed Revolutionary Court employees, a case taken up in the letter by the majority of Iran's MPs, which called the treatment of the families "inhuman".
 

Khatami's Foreign Minister Orders Closure Of Critical Institute, Tehran Times (State-Controlled daily), April 10

TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has ordered the closure of the Institute for Strategic Studies which had been working under the auspices of his own ministry.

Reports say that the reason behind the closure seems to be a report prepared by the institute which criticized the signing of an agreement by the Iranian representative to the United Nations during the tenure of Dr. Velayati at the Foreign Ministry.

At the time the Iranian representative to the UN was Kamal Kharrazi. The report presented by the institute concluded that the agreement signed by Iran was not in the best interests of the country.
 

Kurdistan Governor Facing Trial for Criticizing Oversight Body, Agence France Presse, April 10

TEHRAN - The governor of Kurdistan province is facing charges in court of defaming the conservative-led Guardians Council, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Abdollah Ramezanzadeh appeared Monday in court and was allowed to go free after posting around 12,500 dollars bail, it said.

The governor had criticized the council, which nullified election results for 17 parliamentary seats in last year's legislative elections, including two from Kurdistan province.
 

Press Watchdog Protests Arrests of Journalists, Agence France Presse, April 11

PARIS - International press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for the release of two Iranian journalists arrested over the weekend and 18 other jailed reporters.

In a letter Tuesday to Iran's top judge, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, the France-based RSF denounced the arrest of Reza Tehrani and Fazlollah Salvati, editors of two newspapers which have been shut down.

According to RSF they were arrested Saturday at the same time that 40 people were put in provisional detention for "collaborating with anti-revolutionary groups."
 

Iran's Road Conditions Leave 420 Dead- 6000 Injured in Two Weeks, Agence France Presse, April 9

During the first two weeks of the New Year which began on March 21, there were more than 3,000 road accidents, which left 420 people dead and another 6,000 injured, a press report said Monday.

Iran's roads are among the most dangerous in the world, with more than 200,000 accidents annually nationwide.

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