Eagle eye

Factions at war

Our drama has apparently two sides. For simplicity we will call one faction the caliph?s men. By these I mean the ultra-conservative and obscurantist mullahs, with or without turbans but always with drawn scimitars, bunched around the religious ruler Khamenei?. The other side is less easy to name. For convenience sake I will call the less-conservative factions gathered round president Khatami "the presidents men" or TPM for short. Note that I have avoided the commonly employed term right and left since when it comes to economic equality, there is little to chose between the two [1] A third actor, the people, has moved from the sidelines to centre stage.

Song not the singer

Round one saw the factional squabbles entering a new phase when Khatami won with a landslide majority in 1997 against the caliph?s candidate to become president. Round two began with a compromise over the elections to the Assembly of Experts (which chooses the leader) last summer. Both president and caliph urged voters to participate, thereby giving a thumbs up to the regime in its totality. The voters completely ignored the call. The boycott was massive. The regime in its totality got the thumbs down. Mr President found out that people did not follow the singer, but his song of freedom and an end to repression.

Murders 1 &2

It was an impressive performance from the real actors in this drama - the people down below. Then came the murders. The Caliph himself, and a number of his henchmen such as ayatollahs Jonnati and Yazdi sounded the early warning bells. Opposition to the Islamic regime would be at a heavy price. Revolutionary Guard commander Safavi was more blunt and threatened to sever heads and cut out tongues. He was echoed by other security chiefs. He got the go ahead from the caliph himself in the form of a fatwa quoting the Qura?nic verse "if they refuse [to go in God's way] capture and kill them wherever you find them". The henchmen duly complied.

Septuagenarian Dariush Foruhar was decapitated and his elderly wife Parvaneh Eskandari murdered in their home. They were the most outspoken of the opposition tolerated inside the country. There was commotion in society. Foruhar?s funeral was turned into a demonstration against the regime with cries of "long live freedom, down with despotism!"

Murders 3,4 &5

Then came the abduction and murders of writers Majid Sharif, Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Ja?afar Puyandeh, the last two active in setting up a writers union. These too caused an uproar, inside and outside the country. Even some of the caliph?s men thought it had gone too far - at least in the current climate. Some students demonstrated and were dispersed by shooting. Scapegoats had to be found quickly.

The first finger was pointed at the opposition abroad. Then Hosseinian, head of Archives for Official Documents, said that it was the work of TPM manipulated by US intelligence in a "malicious campaign" to gain control of the Intelligence Ministry.

A committee was set up to unmask the culprits. In an inglorious compromise, they pointed the finger at rogue elements in the intelligence ministry. Apparently no one higher up knew anything, not even the minister. This was much too lumpy to swallow whole. Despite some arrests, the call for the minister?s head continued in street, university and the pages of TPM?s papers.

Finally intelligence minister Ghorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi resigned and was replaced by another compromise, Yunesi, who had actually led the investigation. Meanwhile a spate of unexplained killings in the northern Teheran suburbs heightened the atmosphere of terror. Jurist Javad Emami and wife were killed in their flat and Fatemeh Eslami wife of well known translator was strangled. The air was expectant for a coup by the caliph?s men.

Attacks

A day did not go by without an attack on one or other TMP somewhere or another. Earlier in November former interior minister Mohtashemi had been attacked as he spoke in public. On January 12, security forces attacked students gathered in Teheran University protesting at the killings. January 20 the caliph?s thugs disrupted Isfahan?s Friday prayer meeting, throwing stones and iron bars at ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri. The next day they attacked a gathering of 10,000 at the anniversary of Mehdi Bazargan, the revolution?s first prime minister, in a Teheran mosque. Not long afterwards Hadi Khamenei?, the caliph?s brother who happens to back the rival camp and runs the paper Jahane Eslam, was beaten up in Qom. Pro-president Majles MP Gholi Zadeh (Bojnurd) was also beaten up.

The most blatant was the attack on ex-interior minister Abdollah Nuri and culture minister Ataolah Mohajerani in Teheran Friday prayers, with the collusion of the police chief. Zan newspaper which exposed this was closed for two weeks. The first group of US tourists since the revolution were also attacked, though no one admitted responsibility. Mohsen Rezai?, former Pasdaran commander and currently secretary to the Expediency Council blamed the Israeli secret service Mussad. The president?s men blamed the rival faction for sabotaging their plans for closer ties with the west.

Municipal elections

The caliph?s men must have had nightmares. The coming municipal elections could only spell disaster. Khomeini had made a gaffe in those early days of the revolution. In order to beat the (real) left at their own game he had promised local councils (shora) in the Constitution - sanctified in vague a Qur?anic verse open to interminable interpretations [amrehom shoraum beinehum]. They had wisely shelved it for 20 years.

The caliph?s men now resisted the calls to hold elections by hypocritically pointing out the "low turnout in the elections to the Assembly of Experts", the economic conditions of the country, "the dangers of the councils for the extent of government jurisdiction" and the "possibilities of ethnic and tribal conflicts". Once it became clear that the groundswell would be irresistible they decided to do the usual - stop the rivals from standing for election. But there was a snag.

The Council of Guardians, which normally sifted candidates, had no legal jurisdiction here. Seeing that they had a majority in the Majles (parliament) the caliph?s men formed a Majles committee, which promptly debarred all the main candidates from the rival faction. Apparently these men (and women) did not believe in the Islamic Republic and its constitution. TPM were indignant. Of course they do. Had they not, hand in hand, removed everyone else from the path of the Islamic Republic?

A new committee was set up to arbitrate. Put your allegiance in writing: said the arbitration committee. Some of the president?s men felt it beneath their dignity [after all they had already done so in the forms they signed when they volunteered as candidates]. Five swallowed their pride and wrote that they believed in the Islamic Republic and the velayate faqih [2]. They were allowed to stand literally in the 11th hour and won hands down. Indeed all 15 Teheran seats went to TPM.

Sour grapes

The caliph was furious. First his papers said the turnout in the capital was only 30% (it was in fact 40%) and the president should take this "non-participation seriously". This was true for large cities but not of smaller municipalities - in all 25 million voted out of a potential electorate of 36 million. The implication was that TPM are losing their fans. But for the caliph the results were not short of a disaster. When the final count came out his team had got a mere 5% of the capital?s vote. It seems that not even all the security forces, 200,000 of whom are in Teheran, voted for them. What to do?

The parliamentary commission promptly cried foul and disqualified Teheran?s top five candidates. Apparently one had resigned from his post a day too late, another?s repentance letter was not up to scratch, a third had some criminal record pending? The disqualified five were promptly elected to the city council executive committee. Among the disqualified was the bete noire ex-minister of interior Abdollah Nuri who was also blasted for "hobnobbing with outlawed parties". He became Council chairman. The Majles committee chairman, however, continues to insist on their disqualification.

Desperate, judiciary chief Yazdi warned that the shoras should only busy themselves with local affairs and " keep out of factional and partisan disputes". They called for the resignation of the interior minister for "mishandling" the polls. And they arrested Mohsen Kadivar a prominent clerical critique of the regime, a supporter of the president and of the disgraced ayatollah Montazeri - once lined up to take over from Khomeini.

Mohsen Kadivar

Kadivar?s arrest for upsetting public opinion, weakening the system, insulting the caliph and ayatollah Khomeini and supporting Montazeri provoked a wave of protest - not least among the militant student movement. The student Office of Fortifying Unity, threatened nation-wide protest meetings, but backed down when they sensed that the other side would hit hard. Kadivar had given an interview with Nouri?s Khordad in which he said "the people made a revolution in order to decide for themselves, not for someone else to decide for them no matter how competent" and in a speech in Isfahan was critical of those who give secret fatwas of apostasy and a death sentence. This time the caliph did not make the same mistake twice - no unfriendly journalists, no cameras in court. He got 18 months. In an unprecedented move, students held a huge candle-light procession with cries of "freedom of thought, for ever, for ever".

Zan

Yazdi wags his fingers. Any opposition to the "certainties of Islam such as inheritance, martyrdom, hejab [veiling] and other things that are Qura?nic texts and not in dispute among mujtaheddin [3] is a crime of apostasy" - which caries a death sentence. Soon afterwards Zan was closed for committing a "counterrevolutionary act" and for lampooning "one of the main judicial and religious principles of Islam and we regard it as a direct insult" as Rahbar-Pour revolutionary court head put it.

A cartoon had depicted a thief holding up a couple at gun point. The man says: shoot the girl: her blood money is half of mine. Blood money is a sum you have to pay to get off being executed for murdering or accidentally killing someone. The revolution court summoned 17-year old cartoonist Davood Ahmadi Mouness. The issue is reminiscent of the arrest and flogging of another cartoonist some years ago who has the misfortune that one of his characters on a football field resembled Ayatollah Khomeini.

Executives of Construction

The caliph himself entered the fray. In March he had criticised the ministries of culture and interior for allowing free rein to such pagan fire festivals as chahar shanbeh suri and the new year festivities of Eid. Now he used his powers as absolute velayate faghih to openly criticise the government?s Five Year Plan. Pro-TPM papers panicked. Sobh-e Emruz unveiled a secret plan to liquidate 200-300 people during the holy month of muharram when religious fervour is brought to boiling point in the ceremonies marking the martyrdom of Imam Hossein. Zan hinted at the same in its last editorial.

On April 9 Yazdi hit out at the president in a most savage speech. He accused him of helping Western interests "if you think that [if you] let everyone be free, to move around without hejab (the veil) freely, the West will be satisfied with you, you are mistaken". He warned him to abandon "political expansion", "cultural compromises" and "detante in foreign relations" and urged him "force women to obey the hejab rules".

A new tactic was adopted. To split off the coalition round the presidents where it was at its most fragile: the Executives of Construction party, close allis of Rafsanjani. They had once before - at the elections to the Assembly of Experts deserted the coalition. They seemed the best bet.

Former Teheran mayor Karbaschi, member of the Executives of Construction had been sentenced for embezzlement to 5 years prison, reduced to two, with ban on office of 10 years and a fine. He appealed. The Supreme Court upheld the sentence. The caliph ignored the pleas of 123 Majles deputies and refused to overturn the verdict.

Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, editor of the banned Zan was also in the executive of Executives of Construction. When a third member of the party, minister of culture Ataollah Mohajerani was impeached for having given prizes to some writers it seemed that the expected coup was in progress. On April 20, at the height of the religious mourning, 254 individuals accused of "moral corruption" were arrested. But by this time the caliph?s line up had began to crack. A "third faction" had entered the scene.

Hitting back

The Majles impeachment debate had echoes of the time former president Bani Sadr was impeached in 1980. "In the name of Allah the giver of power" the caliph?s spokesmen began and went on to remind us that the Prophet?s son-in-law had ordered a poet to be whipped and in battle had killed so many "hypocrites" that blood reached up to the stirrup of his horse. Respected writers such as Simin Behbahani, Ahmad Shamlu, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, and Ghazaleh Alizadeh were branded enemies of Islam (moaned) deserving of death.

"In the name of Allah the merciful" replied Mohajerani. Why persecute writers who begin their constitution in the name of Allah. Clearly the battle is not about freedoms in any accepted term but for freedoms within a well defined perimeter - Islam.

In the end the impeachment was defeated by 135 to 121 votes. It seems that a "third faction" fearing that the antics of the caliph can only end in the ruin of the whole house, moved sideways. This third faction, which came out into the open, even has its own newspaper Entekhab.

The president?s men have won some victories in the judicial front. Brigadier General Naghadi commander of defence of the security forces plus ten others will go to court accused of arresting and torturing 30 Teheran municipal mayors as part of the crack down on mayor Karbaschi.

Watershed

The failure of the impeachment of Mohajerani might well be a watershed. It meant that the caliph can no longer rely totally on the Majles to do his bidding. The battle has now moved to next year?s Majles elections. Majles has been asked to pass a bill reducing the right of the Council of Guardians to veto parliamentary candidates (so-called estetvai? control). Khamenei? in person lashed out that any opposition to the veto was an opposition to the whole system, subordination to foreigners and enmity with Islam. He warned of a plot to overthrow the regime hatched by writers and journalists. The Council of Guardians promptly put its weight behind the Caliph?s warnings. Those around the president were labelled "enemies", "Western agents" and "political players". They were not going to give up without a fight.

Caliph of one faction

Khamenei? pulled out all his stops. He used his powers under Article 110 of the Constitution to give a 36-point counsel on the Third Five Year Plan - challenging Khatami?s economic plans. All pretence of impartiality for the leader was dumped. He made it clear that he was no longer a Caliph overseeing the system as a whole. He was the caliph of one faction. There were, however feelers for peace. Jomhuri Eslami, a paper close to Khamenei?, sheepishly admitted that the Council of Guardians could have made errors in the past and counselled a compromise over the veto on candidates - perhaps a list they could all agree on beforehand.

New slogans

All this while the third actor, the people, were upping the stakes. The battle outside was slipping out of the control of both factions. In the second half of May numerous student demonstrations in campuses, and parks took place with ever more brazen slogans: "down with despotism" and "free political prisoners". Specifically they had asked for the release for Mohsen Kadivar and Abbas Amir-Entezam, the latter Islamic Republic?s longest serving politico, and a minister in the first post-revolutionary cabinet. But even more significant were slogans in favour of the nationalist premier (1950-53) Mossadeq.

In Qom (May 25) a large gathering broke down the wall segregating men and women. In Yazd a large crowd shouted anti-despotic slogans. Thugs disrupted many of these the gatherings. Student leaders such a Manuchehr Mohammadi, Moradi, Ali Sadeghi were arrested and taken to unknown destinations. Reports speak of 37 arrests. Mohammadi was a leader of the United National Front of Students.

The war is far from over. The caliph still has the radio-television, the judiciary and most of the repressive organs of the state in his control. He might be unwise to turn to repression under present circumstances, but he may have little option left. It would be foolish indeed to close his file.

Mehdi Kia

Footnotes to the drama

Hostage 1

Khomeini?s fatwa on the British author Salman Rushdie?s head was ten years old in February. The two factions used him like a political football. The president?s men said that while the fatwa is irrevocable the executive branch would not encourage anyone. The caliph?s men promptly increased the reward to $US 2.6 million while their tame student group added its own $300,000. Teheran radio went further "the body of the apostate author of the Satanic verses may be seemingly moving in the physical sense. But the evidence indicates that? he is a moving corpse waiting in disgrace and humiliation for his inevitable fate? Yes some analysts and experts are right to believe that mercenaries such as apostate Salman Rushdie .. have only a bitter and miserable end ". Ayatollah Sanei? said something similar. As Iranian poet Esmail Khoi? wrote "Salman, my dear, watch out".

Hostage 2

German businessman Helmut Hofer too has been used as a pawn. Arrested in 1997 with an Iranian woman Vahideh Qasemi, he was sentenced to death for allegedly having had sexual relations with the 26 year old medical student. She was sentenced to 100 lashes. Hofer?s arrest came soon after the Berlin court accused persons at the highest level of the Iranian regime of masterminding the murder of Kurdistan Democratic Party (Iran) leader Sharafkandi and his colleagues in a Berlin restaurant in 1992.

The 57-year old German was clearly a hostage for the release of the Iranian Darabi imprisoned by the Berlin court. He then became a pawn in the factional squabbles as the president tried to draw closer to the West and in particular the EU. The unexplained murder of Deutsche Bank representative Heinrich Heimes has also been blamed on the caliph?s team. In April a higher court released Hofer with a 500 million rial bail (US$166,000 at the official exchange rate).

Alcohol no, hair no

The factional fray has its farcical side. Khatami had to postpone his visit to France because the French had refused not to serve wine at his reception and to have women wear headscarves. In early April the caliph?s men distributed photographs at the Teheran Friday prayer meeting showing the president all smiles sitting during his Italian visit next to an unveiled girl with two goblets in front of them - circled in black ink!