GRAND AYATOLLAH MONTAZERI WARNS CONSERVATIVES ON RECENT ARRESTS
PARIS 14 Apr. (IPS) Grand Ayatollah Hoseinali Montazeri once again condemned the conservatives for the arrest of dissidents, particularly members of the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM) and religious-nationalist groups and warned them against threats such violent actions presents for the survival of the Islamic Republic.
"Illegal detention of law abiding dissidents and forcing them to confess to crimes not committed will only result in the people running away from religion and the revolution, weakening further the very foundation of the regime", the dissident Grand Ayatollah warned in a new letter published Friday on his own internet site.
Considered as the 200 millions Muslim Shi’ites highest religious authority, Mr. Montazeri notwithstanding lives under house arrest condition since October 1997 on instructions from Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the fundamentalist leader of the present Iranian Islam-based regime, often criticised by Mr. Montazeri for his lavish, "kingly" lifestyle, his despotism and the crackdown on the reformists.
One of his two sons, Sa’id, is detained in an undisclosed prison, accused of anti-state activities, after he successfully put on internet political memories of his father, a monumental, 600 hundreds pages work on the origins of the Islamic revolution, the creation of the Islamic Republic, the start of the devastating Iran-Iraq war and particularly "grave mistakes" made, deliberately or inadvertently, by the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution.
Conservatives, including Mr. Khameneh'i, sharply criticised Mr. Montazeri for some the "chilling" revelations contained in his book, like imputing to Mr. Khomeini the "mass execution" of more than 6000 political prisoners in the summer of 1986 or the fact that it was he, and not Mr. Khomeini, who initiated the concept of "velayat faqih", or the Guardianship of a senior cleric as supervisor of the regime.
Mr. Montazeri also reveled the "plots" by Khameneh'i-Hashemi-Rafsanjani-Ahmad Khomeini trio to demote him as the heir to the regime as well as the fact that due to illness, Mr. Khomeini was unaware of the real situation in the country in the last months of his life, most of the decisions bearing his name being taken by the trio.
In a previous letter answering questions by some of his followers, Mr. Montazeri justified revelations made in his book, saying that in the very interest of the regime, he prefers "openness" to "secrecy" and informing people about realities.
On orders from Mr. Khameneh'i, the Tehran Islamic revolution tribunal arrested more than sixty members of the IFM and others affiliated to the Islamist-nationalists and banned officially all the activities of the groups.
In his letter, Mr. Montazeri "advised" the ruling conservatives, particularly Mr. Khameneh'i, to "revise" their "violent" attitude, "obey" the will of the people and stop oppressing dissidents and suppressing freedoms "before it is too late".
"Some in the leadership considers the nation and the people as their private properties, leaning on armed forces they trust, they considers themselves as eternal rulers and owners of the regime and the country", the grand Ayatollah warned, observing that regimes "depended on the people and not rulers".
Reminding that some of the arrested personalities were "pioneers" in the Islamic revolution and highly esteemed by Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, Mr. Montazeri said the world would laugh to a regime that imprisons the very ones once hailed as its best servants.
He said he personally knows many of the detainees and is certain that they have never plotted against the regime, as accused by the conservatives.
Stating that the arrests were "politically motivated" from the outset and aimed at the next presidential elections due on 8 June, Mr. Montazeri said methods by which despotic regimes, like those in former communist countries, extracts confessions from political prisoners "not only have no religious or political basis, but would lead where other dictatorships ended".
"Regretting" that under present system a "bunch" of people sitting in the leader-appointed Council of Guardians decides for the whole of the population who should be their president, Mr. Montazeri reiterated that the Council should "supervise" the elections and not "wet" candidates. ENDS MONTAZERI ARRESTS 14401