NATIONALIST-RELIGIOUS AND IRAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT BANNED
By Safa Haeri
PARIS-TEHRAN 19 Mar. (IPS) As expected, the Nationalist-religious, with the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM) as its flag-bearer, were officially banned Sunday, accused of "actively engaged in plotting the overthrow of the Islamic Republic".
The ban on the activities of the popular Nationalist-religious current was announced by the leader-controlled Islamic Revolution Tribunal warning that "IFM and the Religious-Nationalist are not entitled to conduct any activity under any form, title and name and the offenders will be seriously dealt by Justice officials".
The decision was accompanied by the announcement, this time by the leader-controlled Judiciary that four more reformist publications also close to the Nationalist-religious were shut, including the outspoken daily "Doran Rooz".
Coming on the eve of the Iranian New Year that starts on Tuesday 20 March, the move shows that Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the fundamentalist leader of the Islamic Republic is determined to fight to the end the movement that he and the ruling conservatives that rule Iran fears more.
In a sermon pronounced Friday, the lamed and contested Khameneh’i had denounced, without naming, both the reformists and the Nationalist-religious for "sowing seeds of division among the highest officials and spheres of the State in order to execute enemy’s plans to topple the regime by dividing the senior leaders".
The accusations was immediately interpreted by Iranian observers as giving the green light to the Judiciary he controls to launch the last offensive against the reformists, but most particularly the Nationalist-religious, the current that enjoys great popularity and influence among the students, intellectuals, scholars, islamist reformers and prominent journalists, most of them already behind bars.
Taking cue from the leader, the Tribunal said in its statement that "following the uncovering of the last hide-out of persons affiliated to the so-called Nationalist-religious, the tumult from foreign radios as well as the position taken by some foreign personalities, the group, claiming a fallacious schism from the so-called IFM, were in fact implementing ideals and goals of the said group using suspicious forms and methods aimed at overthrowing the Islamic Republic".
The Tribunal was both reflecting and confirming the anger of Mr. Khamenehe'i at the fact that the West, most particularly the European Union and the international media were openly taking side for Iran’s reform movement and backing the President against the leader.
Visiting Iran last month, Germany’s Bundestag (parliament President), Italian Prime Minister, British Minister for Co-operation, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights all openly stated their support for the reformists, met with Mr. Khatami and assured him of their backing, warning the conservatives of the consequences of the failure of the reorm movement in Iran.
One of Iran’s oldest political organisation created in 1960 and led by the late Mehdi Bazargan, the first post-revolutionary Premier appointed by the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the undisputed leader of the Islamic revolution that successfully overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979 and founded the Islamic Republic, Iran Freedom Movement was however "tolerated" but never allowed full official activity.
"All activities of the so-called Iran Freedom Movement are forbidden and illegal", an official from the Tribunal told the leader-controlled Radio and Television, confirming that the 30 Nationalist-religious personalities arrested last Sunday, as well nine others who were freed on bail were "conspiring to overthrow Iran's Islamic regime by abusing the reforms and the space created by the multiplicity of the press to spread false rumours.
They had been arrested following a surprise raid on the house of Mr. Mohammad Basteh-Negar, an IFM married to the younger daughter of the late (red) Ayatollah Mahmood Taleqani, an ally of Ayatollah Khomeini.
The statement said the detainees had "fine-tuned" their calls with terrorists and hypocrites, an allusion to the Iraqi-based terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organisation (MKO), the only Iranian opposition force that calls for the overthrow of the present regime by military means, according to the official news agency IRNA, observing that "plotting to topple the Islamic regime" amounts to "moharebeh", or waging war against God and Islam, an accusation that if confirmed, carries death sentence under Iran' Islamic penal code.
Among those arrested were leading Nationalist-religious journalists like Mr. Taqi Rahmani and Mrs. Fatemeh Govara’i and Mr. Ahmad Zeydabadi, who’s release from jail just two days before on bail after months of detention was celebrated that day.
Dr. Habibollah Payman, the leader of the Militant Muslim Movement (MMM), a junior Nationalist-religious party and Mr. Ali Reza Raja’i, a prominent activist of the now-banned current were also among those arrested.
The statement said the arrests were made on the basis of documents and information proving without the slightest doubt that the detainees were plotting against the regime, but it failed to produce any of them, promising only to bring them to the information of the people at a latter date.
Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi, the current leader of the IFM who is now in the United States undergoing medical treatments rejected the charges, told the Persian service of the BBC that his Party obeyed the Constitution and did never any action against the regime.
Iranian political analysts said the decision was to divide supporters of the embattled President Mohammad Khatami, forcing them to openly condemn the Nationalist-religious and take their distance from them.
"From the outset, the clerical leadership was aware of the threats posed to their rule by the Nationalist-religious who have great influence over the dissidents inside Iran, particularly intellectuals, journalists, scholars and most important, the students", said Dr. Karim Lahiji, the Paris-based President of the Iranian League for Human Rights.
In a press conference held Saturday in Tehran, the wives of some of the detainees warned Mr. Khatami that if he do not stand up to the conservatives, he could consider his promised reforms as finished.
They also told him that his silence over the arrests could negatively affect the forthcoming elections.
Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karrubi, Speaker of the Majles (parliament) had informed the families during a meeting last week that more arrests among Nationalist-religious are to come as the Judiciary has decided to treat them as apostates and "ovderthrowers"
In a letter to Judiciary Head Ayatollah Mahmood Hashemi Shahroodi, Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's biggest pro-reform organisation that is led by Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the President’s younger brother, blasted the arrests as "incredible and inexplicable" and called for the "immediate release" of the detainees as 152 MMs (member of the Majles) also denounced the arrest while questioning the Information (Intelligence) Minister Hojjatoleslam Ali Yunesi over the raid and the consequent arrest of the Nationalist-religious personalities.
But Mr. Mohammad Reza Taraqi, an influent member of the hard-line conservative faction had disclosed that agents belonging to the Special Security Organisation created recently by Mr. Khamenehe’i bypassing the Information Ministry made the arrests.
"This is an open provocation and one of the last cards the conservatives are playing before the presidential elections of June 2001 in order to intimidate voters and silence the Nationalist-religious, a current that rejects Mr. Khamenehe'i as absolute political and religious leader", Mr. Lahiji commented further.
Earlier Sunday, meanwhile, some 400 figures of Iran's progressive and liberal movements released a petition calling for the release of dissident cleric Hojjatoleslam Hassan-Yussefi Eshkevari, an outspoken islamist reformer arrested last August and accused by the controversial Clergymen’s Special Tribunal of "apostasy, activities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic and offending the leader and participating in the Berlin Conference".
His fate is unknown and friends and relatives fear for his life, as such accusations carries death penalty under current Iranian Islam-based justice codes.
On the closing imposed on "Doran Emrooz" daily, "Mobin" and "Jame’eh Madani" weeklies and "Payam emrooz" monthly, Iranian observers said the decision, taken solely by the Judiciary acting on the usual complaints from the State Prosecutor without prior warning or warrants from the Press court, was in "parallel" with the ban on the Nationalist-religious as they were supporting the reform process and close to the islamist-nationalist current.
"They are the victims of the unabated fight against the reform and Nationalist-religious movements and an effort to dissuade Iranian voters to go to the polls voting for Mr. Khatami", commented Mr. Ahmad Salamatian, a veteran political analyst based in Paris, adding that whether the conservatives like it or not, no one could impose a total censorship on the circulation of information in Iran".
Mr. Khatami has not stated officially if he would seek a new mandate or not, but analysts agrees that conservatives would like him to continue, being certain that in this case and the hard-line position taken by Mr. Khamenehe'i, he would be a more assertive Chief Executive than he was until now. ENDS NATIONALIST-RELIGIOUS BANNED 19301