KHAMENEH'I LINKED TO THE FAILED ASSASSINATION OF HAJJARIAN
By Safa Haeri
TEHRAN 27th March (IPS) Ignoring orders by ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i to observe a strict black out on all information concerning the assassination attempt on the life of Mr. Sa'id Hajjarian, the Publisher of the reformist daily "Sobhe Emrouz" (This Morning) that do not come from official sources, politicians and journalists belonging to the Second Khordad Movement continued denouncing the conservatives and some forces behind them for the failed murder.
Second Khordad refers to the surprising triumph of Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami in the 23 May 1997 presidential elections.
The leader's instructions were given to the authorities after it was revealed, including by this News Service, that the men who organised the shooting of Mr. Hajjarian belong to the Intelligence Department of the Pasdaran, the ayatollahs Praetorian Guard.
Informed sources told Iran Press Service that Mr. Khameneh'i knew of the involvement of the Revolutionary Guards in the assassination plot of Mr. Hajjarian and it was for this reason that he imposed a news black out, warning the independent press and journalists he denounced as "mercenaries" not to "dishonour trusted forces of the regime such as the Pasdaran or the Basij".
But his call was largely unheard, as while the officials in charge of the case insist that the suspects had acted "on their own", without "any link to any (conservatives-controlled) political or military organisations", several reformist dailies rebuked them by publishing simultaneously a picture of Mr. Sa'id Asgar, the man who shot Mr. Hajjarian at close range, showing him carrying a poster.
Though the poster is deliberately cut out from the picture that was shot during the day pro-Khameneh'i thugs and security services crushed the student demonstrations of July 1999, but it leaves no doubt that it is the portrait of Mr. Khameneh'i, pointing to the source of emulation of Mr. Asgar and the four accomplices who assisted him in the failed physical elimination of Mr. Hajjarian.
The 47-year-old Hajjarian, a former deputy Intelligence Minister turned moderate and considered as one of the architects of the sweeping victories of both Mr. Khatami in the presidential elections and the reformists in last month's parliamentary polls had published several articles in the run-up to the elections linking conservatives with the serial killing of prominent dissidents and intellectuals in 1998.
He was shot outside the Tehran City Council building by a man who fled with an accomplice on a type of motorcycle that is available only to security forces.
In a conference he gave last year, Mr. Hajjarian had denounced Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a hawkish cleric close the leader for promoting violence and anarchy by ruling that Muslims did not need authorisation from the government or any court to kill apostates.
At the time of the controversy, what surprised many Iranians was that not only Mr. Khameneh'i did not condemned Mr. Mesbah-Yazdi, nicknamed as "Temsah (Crocodile) Yazdi", but he praised him as one of the most learned and respected teacher of Islamic Canon.
The text of the conference was published in several reformist publications one day after his failed assassination, pointing to the hard line ayatollah.
The authorities said the main suspect is a Chemistry student at the Tehran's Islamic Azaad (Open) University adding that the powerful motorcycle used in the operation was privately owned.
But they did not explained how a jobless man could have afforded such an expensive engine, or where Mr. Asgar had acquired his professional handgun equipped with a silencer or how a bunch of ordinary people were able to mount such a highly professional operation, including diversion, protection, escaping etc.
Vice President for Women's Affairs, Mrs. Ma'soumeh Ebtekar linked the shooting of Mr. Hajjarian, an adviser and close friend of President Mohammad Khatami to the November-December1998 "chain murders" by Intelligence Ministry agents and the violent crushing of students protest movement by the Basij, the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), the Revolutionary Guards and the Islamic vigilantes on the payroll of the leader.
"A link connects" the three events and "the connection is very serious," she told the pro-Second Khordad daily "Bayan" that replaced "Salam", the newspaper of Hojatoleslam Mohammad Kho'einiha.
The closure of the leftist "Salam", the pioneer of reformist publications very popular among students in July last year by the Judiciary acting on orders from Ayatollah Khameneh'i triggered a six days anti-regime demonstration by thousands of angry students in Tehran and major Iranian cities.
The unprecedented protest that surprised both the Iranians and the world was put down after Mr. Khameneh'i, afraid of its transformation in a national uprising, personally directed security forces and Islamic vigilante thugs to crush it at "any cost and by any means", resulting in the arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of students.
The remarks by Mrs. Ebtekar echoes the concern among many Iranians that "shadowy forces" are still at work within the conservative clerical and military establishments to thwart reforms promised by President Mohammad Khatami.
As in the case of the chain murders, the independent press took the lead in disclosing that contrary to claims by Hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi, the Intelligence Minister who reiterated that the alleged killers of Mr. Hajjarian acted on their own, the suspects acted on orders from what some investigative journalists have coined as "Grey eminencies" working the physical elimination of dissidents from the "Darkroom of Phantoms".
Mr. Mohammad Quchani, an investigative journalist, observed that assassination of political dissidents is a professional act needing professional terrorists enjoying solid infrastructure and organisation, as seen in both cases of chain murders and the attempt on the life of Mr. Hajjarian.
He pointed out to the "co-ordinated" efforts by hard line fundamentalist organisations like the Islamic Co-ordinating League that controls the conservatives, the leader-controlled Voice and Visage (Radio and Television) of the Islamic Republic and conservatives-controlled press to present the suspects as belonging to the reformists or members of the Iranian Islamic Participation Front (IIPF) that swept the great majority of the seats of the next Majles (parliament).
"How come that the Intelligence Minister so quickly blame the assassination attempt on rogue elements? How many such elements or groups do we have in this country and how come that no one is able to control and eradicate them?" he noted, referring to a programme aired by the Television in which hawkish personalities explained that since Mr. Hajjarian's name was in the list of those to be murdered by the Intelligence Ministry, some rogue elements close to the reformists decided to go ahead with the project concerning the elimination of Mr. Hajjarian.
Dr. Mohammad-Reza Khatami, the leader of the IIPF and younger brother of President Khatami vehemently rejected charges that reformers were linked to the shooting of Mr. Hajjarian.
"Several conservatives are trying to heighten political tensions in an effort to bury the inquiry into the attack and prevent the identification of those responsible," he said.
President Khatami warned Sunday that terrorism could destroy Iranian society "like termites" and called for swift justice against the authors of the assassination attempt. ENDS HAJJARIAN KILLERS 27300