Summary of Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiTuesday, August 26, 2003
<b>US Fails to Convince Russia to End Nuclear Cooperation with Iran</b>
• US Undersecretary of State John Bolton ended his two-day mission to Russia, failing to convince Russians to end their nuclear cooperation with Iran. Meanwhile, Russia's nuclear energy ministry asked Iran to let Russia build a second nuclear power plant in Bushehr, indicating that, despite US efforts, Moscow would continue its nuclear work in Iran. While Islamic officials may rejoice at the failure of Bolton's mission, it may not spell the end for the US and international pressures on Iran to cooperate with the UN International Atomic Energy Agency. (Siavash Ardalan)
• The IAEA board of governors will review Iran's nuclear program on September 6, announced IAEA spokesperson in Vienna. She said there were still questions, particularly about Iran's uranium enriching facilities, which need to be answered. (Mina Baharmast)
• Israeli foreign minister Sylvan Shalom, in Tokyo for an official visit, urged Japan to pressure Iran through economic means to abandon its alleged plan to develop nuclear weapons. (Nima Tamadon)
<b>Higher Education and Intelligence Ministries Ban 29 Student Councils for Writing to the UN</b>
• In separate circulars, the higher education and intelligence ministries called for banning of 29 Islamic student councils who jointly signed a letter last June to the UN Secretary General Kufi Annan. In their letter the students called for UN's intervention in order to end the human rights violations of the Islamic government. While the higher education ministry seeks to punish the student organizations, the intelligence ministry wants them to denounce the letter, member of the central council of the Amir-Kabir University's Islamic student council <b>Hamid Tabatabai</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Bahman Bastani)
<b>Majles Speaker Opposes Tehran Municipality's Plan to Bury War Dead in City Squares</b>
• Majles speaker Mehdi Karrubi said the Tehran municipality's new plan to bury the bodies of dead soldiers recently returned from Iraq in Tehran's major intersections was politically motivated and misguided. He said the plan would have had a meaning during the war that eneded 15 years ago. In last Feburary's municipal elections, in which more than 80 percent of voters declined to participate, conservatives took control of the Tehran city council and the city's municipal government. (Arash Qavidel, Tehran)
• Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad said as a part of his plan to “Islamize the nation's capital, bodies of unidentified soldiers who died in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war will be buried in major city circles and intersections. Curbing the activities of the cultural centers that the city opened under the previous reformist mayors was announced as another part of the mayor's Islamization plans. (Ali Sajjadi)
<b>Intelligence Ministry Denies Judiciary's Claim that Agents' Murdered Kazemi</b>
• The reformist-controlled intelligence ministry rejected the judiciary's charges that two of its agents were responsible for the death in custody of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. The intelligence ministry vowed to reveal more details about Kazemi's death in the near future. Some reformists expressed concern that the Kazemi's case may follow the path of the 1998 serial murders of dissidents by intelligence ministry agents, the main perpetrators of which were never identified. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham applauded on Monday news that Iranian officials had brought charges in the case, calling the move “big breakthrough” in the Canada-Iran relations. “My expectation now is for the foreign minister of Iran to guarantee an open process in which we would be able to participate, with access to that process, and for it to remain open and transparent,” Graham said. A criminal court prosecutor on Monday charged two intelligence ministry agents who interrogated Kazemi with her “semi-premeditated murder.” Kazemi, a Montreal-based news photographer, died of head injuries she received during interrogation, a special panel appointed by president Khatami said after her death last month. (Golnaz Esfandiari)
• The Majles complaints committee would review Kazemi's case in a hearing today, in which intelligence minister Ali Yunesi and Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi have been invited to testify, said Tehran MP Mosen Armin. (Fariba Mavedat)
• The intelligence minister and the Tehran prosecutor failed to appear at the hearing before the Majles complaints committee on Zahra Kazemi's death. In today's Special Report, Tehran-based lawyer <b>Mohammad Hossein Aghasi</b> and Tehran University political science professor <b>Sadeq Zibakalam</b> comment on the dispute between the intelligence ministry and the judiciary over the investigation into the death in custody of Montreal photographer Zahra Kazemi. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)
<b>Reader Complains about Sameness and Emptiness of Newspapers</b>
• A reader quoted in the reformist Tehran daily <i>Mardomsalari</i> complained that most items in the reformist newspapers are statements of government officials, quoted verbatim. He said newspapers are empty of news and original reporting. (Behnam Nateghi, New York)
<b>Khatami Fails to Implement Economic Reform</b>
• President Khatami failed to implement the economic reforms he promised in his election campaign six years ago. He came to believe in the need for privatization and deregulation, but failed to make any major progress, <b>Radio Farda</b>'s Paris-based economic commentator Fereydoun Khavand says in an article on the occasion of the celebration of “government week.” Under Khatami, Khavand adds, Iran became more dependent on oil income, and unemployment rose to unprecedented highs.
<b>Argentina Responds to Iran on Envoy's Arrest in London</b>
• Argentina foreign ministry said in a statement issued on Monday that the arrest in London of Iran's former ambassador to Buenos Aires Hadi Soleimanpour was a judicial matter and criticized Iran's reaction. “The Argentine government laments political declarations absolutely outside the realm of the judicial nature of the cause,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the arrest of last Thursday. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman accused Britain and Argentina of having plotted with Israel against Iran. (Baktash Khamsehpour)
• Iran's ambassador to London Morteza Sarmadi met on Monday with Hadi Soleimanpour in jail. (Fariba Mavedat)
<b>Oil Prices to Remain High, Iran Predicts</b>
• Iran believes that the international oil market has come to terms with oil prices as high as $27 per barrel, and does not expect the prices to fall until at least the end of 2004, head of the Iranian National Oil Company's international operations Hojatollah Ghanimifard said. In the budget of the fiscal year that will end on March 22, 2004, the oil income is calculated at $19 per barrel, but Iran has been selling oil at above $27 per barrel for some time. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris)
.
بهمن باستاني (راديو فردا): وزارت علوم و وزارت اطلاعات با اعلام دستورالعملهايي جداگانه و همزمان از هيئتهاي نظارت دانشگاهها خواسته اند كه از فعاليت تشكلهاي دانشجويي كه شكايت نامه به دبير كل سازمان ملل را امضا كرده اند، جلوگيري كنند. از شانزدهم تيرماه كه دادنامه دانشجويان ايران به كوفي عنان، دبير كل سازمان ملل ارسال شده تا امروز، خبرهايي از اعمال فشار نهادهاي گوناگون حكومت به تشكلهاي دانشجويي امضا كنده اين نامه انتشار مي يافت، اما انتشار خبر صدور دو دستور وزارتخانه هاي علوم و اطلاعات، از تصميم جدي حكومت در برخورد با دانشجويان در اين زمينه حكايت دارد.
نامه به كوفي عنان را 29 تشكل دانشجويي ايران امضا كردند با عنوان نمايندگان منتخب دانشجويان منتخب دانشگاههاي كشور، دفتر تحكيم وحدت. در نامه دانشجويان با صراحت از بي حقي مردم ايران در تعيين سرنوشت خود و از آپارتايد سياسي نوشته اند كه به گفته آنان امان از مردم ايران بريده است. اين بيست و نه تشكل دانشجويي كه تشكلهاي دانشگاههاي صنعتي امير كبير تهران تا دانشگاه كرمان و سيستان و بلوچستان و اصفهان و شهر كرد و لرستان از آن شمارند، با ذكر بند بند اعلاميه جهاني حقوق بشر، حكومت ايران را محكوم كردند و خواهان دخالت سازمان ملل متحد در اين زمينه شدند. دانشجويان عليرغم فشارهاي حكومت براي عقب راندن جنبش دانشجويي، مي گويند به مبارزه دموكراسي خواهانه خود ادامه مي دهند.
بر پايه آنچه حميد طباطبايي، عضو شوراي مركزي انجمن اسلامي دانشجويان دانشگاه اميركبير مي گويد، هدف وزارت علوم از صدور اين دستورالعمل عليه تشكلهاي دانشجويي، بيشتر تنبيهي است، درحالي كه وزارت اطلاعات مستقيما مجبور كردن تشكلهاي دانشجويي به پس گرفتن امضاي خود از زير نامه به سازمان ملل را هدف قرار داده است.
حميد طباطبايي(عضو شوراي مركزي انجمن اسلامي دانشجويان دانشگاه اميركبير، تهران): ظريفيان، معاون دانشجويي وزارت علوم، به هيئت نظارت بر تشكلهاي دانشگاههايي كه نامه آقاي كوفي عنان را امضا كردند كه مجوز فعاليتهاي رسمي به اين انجمنها داده نشود. اين به اين معني نيست كه در انجمنها را بيايند ببندند، بلكه فعاليتهايي كه اين انجمنها مي خواهند انجام دهند، مجوز به آنها داده نمي شود، مثل برگزاري تريبون يا تحصن. و پيوست اين نامه هم نامه اي است از آقاي يونسي به دكتر معين كه درخواست كرده تا موقعي كه تكليف اين انجمنها مشخص نشده، شما اجازه فعاليت به آنها ندهيد. نامه آقاي ظريفيان مربوط به تاريخ 6 يا 8 مرداد است و دو نامه هم محرمانه است.
ب . ب : در نامه آقاي يونسي به هيئت نظارت بر دانشگاهها آمده است، آنطور كه شما مي فرماييد كه تا تكليف انجمنهاي اسلامي دانشجويان روشن نشود، اجازه فعاليت به اينها ندهيد، منظور از تكليف روشن شدن چيست آقاي طباطبايي؟
حميد طباطبايي: اينها خيلي تلاش كردند از همان وقتي ه نامه نوشته شده بود، به انجمنها فشار آورده بودند با تهديد كه امضايشان را پس بگيرند و تا حالا بيشتر دانشجويان امضايشان را پس نگرفتند جز يكي دو دانشجو كه خوب مشكل داشتند و فكر مي كنم معلوم شدن تكليفشان يعني همين كه اگر پس بگيرند كه هيچ، اما نگيرند، شايد برخوردي بشود با آنها.
ب . ب : باز خبر ديگري است مبني بر اينكه اگر آن دانشجوياني كه هنوز در زندانند، آزاد نشوند، دانشجويان باز دست به اعتصاب غذا و تحصن مي زنند. اين خبر تا چه حد تاييد مي شود.
حميد طباطبايي: بچه هاي يكي دوتا از دانشگاهها گفتند كه اگر دانشگاهها باز شود و اين دوستان ما آزاد نشوند، ممكن است كه دست به تحصن و اعتصاب بزنند. وزارت علوم و وزارت اطلاعات با اعلام دستورالعمل هايي جداگانه و همزمان از هياتهاي نظارت دانشگاهها خواستند كه از فعاليت تشكل هاي دانشجويي كه شكايت نامه به دبير كل سازمان ملل را امضا كردند، جلوگيري كنند. در اين نامه دانشجويان با صراحت از بي حقي مردم ايران در تعيين سرنوشت خود و از آپارتايد سياسي نوشتند كه به گفته آنان امان از مردم ايران بريده است. 29 تشكل دانشجويي امضاء کننده اين نامه، با ذكر بند بند اعلاميه جهاني حقوق بشر، حكومت ايران را به نقش آن متهم كردند و خواهان دخالت سازمان ملل متحد براي برگزاري رفراندوم در ايران شدند. حميد طباطبايي، عضو شوراي مركزي انجمن اسلامي دانشجويان دانشگاه اميركبير در مصاحبه با راديوفردا مي گويد که هدف وزارت علوم از صدور اين دستورالعمل عليه تشكلهاي دانشجويي، بيشتر تنبيهي است، درحالي كه وزارت اطلاعات تلاش مي كند تشكل هاي دانشجويي را به پس گرفتن امضاي خود از زير نامه به سازمان ملل وادار سازد.
