Baby milk shortage
Iran, June 10 - Powdered milk shortages in pharmacies in Karaj, west of Tehran, has caused problems for feeding the children in the city. Profiteers are taking advantage of the shortages to make a bundle of money. Currently, the cost of a packet of baby milk in the open market is around 6.5 dollars. The government approved cost with coupons is less than one dollar and its non-regulate price in the pharmacies is about 1.5 dollars.
Bread prices rise again
Salam, June 10 - Director General of the city of Qom said that the cost of a loaf of different kinds of bread will rise 45, 20 and 40% respectively.
ILO blacklists mullahs
NCR Secretariat, June 10 - In its current session in Geneva, the International Labor Conference decided to put the mullahs' regime under special scrutiny for its suppression of Iranian workers.
Citing a report by the Committee of Experts and the widespread abuse of the international labor rights conventions by the Khomeini regime, the ILO's Committee on the Application of Standards decided yesterday to include a special paragraph concerning the situation of work and workers in Iran in its final report. The ILO Committee called for the designation of a Contact Mission to immediately investigate the situation of workers in Iran.
Swiss deputies seek fresh look at Dr. Rajavi's slaying
Reuters, June 12- Senior Swiss members of parliament called on Thursday for the authorities to step up efforts to prosecute 13 Iranian suspects linked to the 1990 murder of a leading Iranian dissident near Geneva.
Spurred by a German court ruling that Iranian leaders ordered the gangland-style slaying of dissidents in Berlin's Mykonos restaurant five years ago, officials said it was time to get to the bottom of who gunned down Kazem Rajavi in Switzerland.
"After the courageous Mykonos verdict, the time is right to reopen the Rajavi case," Victor Ruffy, head of lower house's foreign affairs committee, told reporters.
His call to move ahead with the case was signed by 116 of the 200 members of the lower house.
Committee members said it was imperative that the 13 suspects face a Swiss court, if only in absentia.
Rajavi, a former Iranian diplomat in Switzerland for 10 years, was the brother of Massoud Rajavi, head of the Iranian opposition Mujahideen Khalq guerrilla movement.
FEATURE
Agents for change in Iran?
By Arnold Beichman, Excerpts:
The Washington Times, June 13, 1997 - The Iranian election May 23 has inspired a wave of hope in Washington and other Western capitals that the election of a "moderate" president of Iran may herald a reconciliation with the targets of Iran's theocratic-terrorist revolution. Are these hopes misplaced or realistic?
There are 10 criteria by which we will be able to judge whether Iran's new president Sayad Mohammad Khatami, 54, who takes office in August has the power and the will to reverse the Ayatollist 8-year-old hate-America foreign policy:
(1) In a new governing Cabinet who will hold the two crucial posts-the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry?
(2) Nullification of the fatwa that has condemned Salman Rushdie to death.
(3) Dissolution of the Revolutionary Guards Qods Force which carries out extraterritorial terrorist actions ordered by Iran.
(4) Permit extradition of two Iranian terrorists wanted by Swiss authorities for the assassination of Kazem Rajavi, a human rights advocate. Such an action would make credible any Tehran announcement that it would no longer engage in terrorism.
(5) End attempts to produce or procure weapons of mass destruction, including missile launchers pointed at Saudi Arabia.
(6) End interference in the affairs of other countries, especially in the Middle East.
(7) End active opposition to the Israeli-PLO peace process by ending subsidies and other aid to terrorist groups responsible for suicide bombings and guerrilla aids along the Lebanese border.
The above are standards for testing Iran's foreign policy. Domestically, I would offer these criteria:
(8) Allow freedom of press, assembly and religions and introduce a rule of law.
(9) Allow Iranian women equality with men in social, political and cultural spheres.
(10) End the tyranny of the "religious" police so as to allow women to chose freely how they dress and where they can work.
It could be argued that it would take another revolution for President-elect Khatami, described as a middle-of-the-roader, to meet one or all of these standards... On July 7, 1991, Mr. Khatami was quoted in the Iran newspaper Ressalat as follows:
"Where do we look in drawing up our strategy? In expanding and extending the revolution or to preserving the country? We must definitely focus on extension and expansion."Yes, this statement was made six years ago, however, he lost his post as culture minister, for his supposedly "moderate" views.... Has Mr. Khatami changed? Perhaps more important question is: Has Iran's bitterly anti-American spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, changed? In his post-election press conference May 27, Iran's president-elect said he would obey Mr. Khamenei's orders. Good? Bad? Who knows? It is in the nature of Western statesmen to seek mirror images abroad; most often the search is in vain. Perhaps the supreme example of such an exercise in futility was President Carter's Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who said of the onetime president of the Soviet Union: "Leonid Brezhnev is a man who shares our dreams and aspirations."
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