Calcutta Telegraph, India
Aug 17 2004

INDIA IN 1865
– The first impact of globalization on India

Writing on the Wall Ashok V. Desai

George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen’s Most
Excellent Majesty, printed in 1867 a Statistical Abstract Relating to
British India, from 1840 to 1865 (as far as the Particulars can be
stated,) Compiled from Official Records and Papers Presented to
Parliament, and presented it to both houses of Parliament on the
Command of her Majesty. According to it, the population of India was
196 million – just about a seventh of what it is in the same area,
including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burmah, which became an Indian
province in 1852. Bombay then had 816,000 people, Madras 427,000, and
Calcutta 378,000. Of Calcuttans, 11224 were Europeans – 6820 men,
2545 women and 1859 children. Most of the men must therefore have
been unattached and childless. No wonder there were 11636
Indo-Europeans – 4082 men, 4218 women, and 2736 children. They were a
largely Calcutta phenomenon; Bombay had only 1891 Indo-Europeans as
against 8415 Europeans. The Madras census did not bother to count
them separately; they were probably too few. Calcutta also had 763
Armenians, 681 Jews, 409 Chinese, 53 Africans, 30 Greeks, and 1441
Asiatics, whatever that may mean.

The Government of India received £45.7 million in revenue in 1865
(the financial year then ended on 30 April), and spent £46.5mn –
£39mn in India, the rest in Britain. That is as many crore rupees; to
get the rupee equivalent, just multiply the figures by ten, for its
value was fixed at 2 shillings for decades. The revenue went up from
£20.1mn in 1840 to £47.6mn in 1865; the star performer was Bombay
presidency, whose revenue went up from £2.4mn to £9.6mn. It was
booming thanks to opium exports. The deficit shot up to an average of
£12mn in the three years following the mutiny because of additional
military expenditure; but taxes were raised, expenditure strictly
controlled, and the deficit was brought down to less than £1mn by
1864. The debt went up to £107.5mn in 1861, but prudent fiscal
management brought it down to £98.5mn in 1865 – £72.4mn raised in
India, and £26.1mn in England. On it, £4.6mn was paid in interest –
6.25 per cent on the average.

Opium brought in £7.3 million in revenue – only second to the £20
million from land revenue. It was a great arrangement – the Chinese
ruined their health, and Indians got rich; the government took a part
of their riches. Salt tax brought in an astonishing £5.5 million – no
wonder Gandhiji picked it for picketing 66 years later. Various
excises – sayer, abkarree etc – brought in £2.6 million, and customs
£2.3 million. Stamp duties were important then, bringing in £2
million. Unaccountably, tax on tobacco was abolished in 1854.

The year 1865 saw 26,823 ships entering British Indian ports; 26070
cleared out of it. Why their numbers differ, I do not know;
presumably 753 vessels slipped out while the harbour master was
sleeping – or were built in the ports. They weighed 4 million tons –
that is, 150 tons on the average. The 20577 Indian vessels weighed
771000 tons – an average of 37 tons; 6246 foreign vessels weighed 3.1
million tons – 500 tons on the average. An average British ship
weighed 940 tons, a Chinese one 620 tons, a Siamese one 62 tons, and
a Ceylonese one, 113 tons. Obviously, size mattered in longer
voyages, especially around the Cape of Good Hope. (In 2003/04, 13
major Indian ports handled 85 million tons.)

Over the 25 years to 1865, the number of foreign vessels entering
went up from 1390 to 6246; their tonnage increased from 460,000 to
3.1mn tons. The number of native vessels went down from 24497 to
20577; their tonnage increased from 591000 tons to 771000. Clearly,
the share of native vessels came down. An anticolonial would
immediately think that the British displaced natives in competition,
fair or foul. Not really; long-distance, inter-ocean trade increased
more than local trade, and the British had a bigger presence in the
latter. Bombay specialized in short-distance trade across the Arabian
Sea; the average vessel entering its port weighed 23 tons in 1840 and
81 tons in 1865. Its trade increased 2.3 times. Calcutta specialized
in long-distance trade; the average vessel entering its port weighed
340 tons in 1840 and 540 tons in 1865. Its trade multiplied 4.5
times.

Calcutta trade was then overwhelmingly international and
western-oriented. The only Asian vessels entering Calcutta in 1865
were 12 Arabian vessels weighing 6884 tons; native vessels accounted
for another 17000 of the total 1.092mn tons. The rest were from white
countries. The British dominated with 1584 of the 1796 foreign
vessels; there were 137 French vessels, 40 American and 22 from the
rest of Europe. Native ships accounted for 26 per cent of the traffic
in Madras and 38 per cent in Bombay. Clearly, native shipping
survived better on the south and the west coast.

India had a massive trade surplus in the entire quarter century from
1840 to 1865; its exports came to £69mn and imports to £50mn in 1865.
Even this is misleading; for of the imports, £22mn was bullion; only
£28mn was goods. The share of bullion climbed from 18 per cent in
1840 to 44 per cent in 1865.

The major suppliers of imports into India in 1840 were Britain (60
per cent), China (15 per cent), the Middle East and the Straits (7
per cent each). By 1865 the market shares of all had fallen –
Britain’s to 46 per cent, China’s to 8 per cent, the Middle East’s
and Straits’ to 3-4 per cent. India had acquired new trading partners
– Australia (7 per cent), France (6 per cent), and Alexandria and the
Suez (13 per cent). Remember, this was before the commissioning of
the Suez Canal in 1869; even before it, trade to Europe had begun to
pass through Egypt.

Exports nearly quintupled from £14mn in 1840 to £69mn in 1865. In
1840, Calcutta dominated with exports of £8mn; by 1865, Bombay was
exporting £41mn out of the £69mn. The reason lay in the direction of
trade. In 1840, 52 per cent of exports went to Britain, 15 per cent
to China, 12 per cent to the Straits, 5 per cent to the Middle East,
and 3 per cent each to Ceylon and Mauritius. In 1865, Britain’s share
was 67 per cent.

China held its share thanks to booming opium which, however, went
from Bombay; Straits’ share fell to 3 per cent, Middle East’s to 3
per cent and Mauritius’ to 1 per cent. India was becoming a raw
material supplier to industrializing Great Britain, and Britain’s
demand turned India’s exports away from the traditional markets
closer to it.

Thus we see in the mid-19th century the first impact of globalization
on India. Shipping technology changed; ships became larger and
travelled further (steamers were just coming into use in 1865). With
it, direction of trade changed; from trade within the Indian Ocean
region, India began to trade more with Britain and China.
Industrializing Britain and opium-eating China created new markets;
as they expanded, India developed a massive export surplus. It did
not know what to do with all that money, so it stashed away gold and
silver. Was that deindustrialization? There may have been; but there
was export-led growth too. For some of India’s people, this must have
been a golden era.

American Daily, OH
Aug 16 2004

The Next Films For Mel Gibson
By Bruce Walker (03/05/2004)

‘The Passion of Christ’ is well on its way to becoming the greatest
film in history, and this victory is despite all the agitprop of the
Left. Mel Gibson, like Rush Limbaugh and like President Bush, is
carrying a battle flag for all conservatives and other normal people.
Now – finally! – that Silent Majority seems to have grasped the
importance of those point men.

The defeat of the Left began when the various barbarian hordes who
constitute Leftism discovered that all their threats, all their
mocking, all their venom, and all their enticements could not sway
Rush Limbaugh or separate him from his tens of millions of listeners.
Although others will doubtless move into foxholes he has held, his
steely determination not to yield was critical.

The full weight of Leftism against President Bush will lead either to
the destruction of a great president or to the complete
demoralization of these hungry, rapacious barbarians. If the Left
cannot defeat President Bush in 2004, then it will never be able to
win an American presidential election.

Now, in the very heart of Leftism, Hollywood, Mel Gibson is proving
that he is stronger and braver than they are. Perhaps `Braveheart,’
which described a Scotsman who stood against all odds for his right
and the right of others to live free was the turning point. Although
a critically acclaimed film, the message was subtly anti-Leftist.

Certainly `The Patriot’ also had the same theme. These two films,
however, could also be explained away as defiance against colonial
oppressors, one of the mythical monsters of Leftism fantasy. The next
film, however, left less ambiguity.

Signs is profoundly religious and profoundly terrifying. It is also
profoundly Christian. Viewers and critics may have missed the symbols
– water, small communities in the Middle East, denial and then
acceptance – but astute Christians should not doubt that this was a
film very much in the tradition of `Out of the Silent Planet.’

What films should Mel Gibson make next? Here are some suggestions.
The only advice I would deign to offer beyond these suggestions is
this: Be bold! Be bold! Be bold! The staid, dull, dreary plots and
dialogue of Leftist culture is both craven and empty. Gibson can do
much more than that with films like these:

‘Venona and Hollywood.’ America now knows what Ronald Reagan knew
when he was in Hollywood. Communist infiltration was very real and
very dangerous. Mel Gibson should make a film – erring on the side of
caution in his conclusions – which historically describes the role of
communists in American culture.

We no longer have to speculate about whether or not the Soviet Union
actively manipulated the film industry. We have names, code names,
directions, actions – some through decryption, some through the
actual archives of the KGB and GRU, some through reports of agents
like Morris Childs (the second highest ranking member of the
Communist Party USA, who was an FBI agent) and some from the
intelligence services of other communist countries.

An honest telling of this tale would also show why a Hollywood which
once was largely run by patriotic Jewish Americans produced films
both gentle and sympathetic toward Christianity and why a Hollywood
with a much smaller Jewish involvement is so hysterical about `The
Passion of Christ.’ Jewishness and Judaism are not the villains;
communism is the villain.

`Tibet.’ The genocide of the Tibetan people was a direct consequence
of the triumphant of communism in China. The Tibetan Holocaust was
not discovered by Leftist prima donnas like Richard Gere; it was
first exposed by anti-communists in America during the 1950s and
1960s. I first recall eyewitness, horrific accounts in Dr. Schwartz’s
Christian Anti-Communist Crusade.

Why were people like Gere carrying about copies of Mao’s Little Red
Book (aka `Mein Kampf’) by the Tibetan people were being tortured,
imprisoned and exterminated? It was not chic to be anti-communist in
1965, and much more important than trifles like holocausts and
`cultural revolutions’ Leftists were concerned about always being
chic.

`Armenia.’ The first holocaust. The forgotten holocaust. The
un-holocaust. While the world watched – even worse, after the
Himmler, the Heydrich, the Hitler of Turkey had lost the war – at
least one million Armenians were exterminated for their Christian
faith and their misfortune of being a nation conquered by the Moslem
Turks.

This was the laboratory for what was later used in the Gulag by the
Soviets, then used in eastern Poland by the Soviets, then used
against Jews by the Nazis. Moreover, this was a war on Christianity
itself. Churches, priests, crosses all were the first objects of
Turkish atrocities. Nothing ever happened after this holocaust. No
Nuremberg Trials. No `Schindler’s List.’ No `Diary of Anne Frank.’

There cannot be too many descriptions of the very genuine moral and
physical horror of the Holocaust, but each dead soul murdered in the
Killing Fields or the barren fields of the Ukraine or in cattle cars
leaving Poland and crammed with Polish families deserve equal memory
to mankind and to God.

Why not start with the first holocaust? Why not begin with that
calculated sadism which was the First Holocaust, the extermination in
the Twentieth Century of millions of Christians – primarily
Armenians, but also Greeks and others – while the world watched, then
forgot, then pretended never happened? That, Mr. Gibson, would be my
next film, if I were you.

—
Bruce Walker has been a dyed in the wool conservative since, as a
sixth grader, he campaigned door to door for Barry Goldwater. Bruce
has had almost two hundred published articles have appeared several
professional and political periodicals.

iofilm, UK
Aug 17 2004

Edinburgh Film Festival preview

Plenty in treat with typically diverse EIFF 2004

By Rebort

EIFF opening and closing films: The Motorcycle Diaries (top) and E
J-Yong’s Untold Scandal

The glam

Edinburgh is not a big starry event on the level of, say, Cannes, but
still attracts a fair smattering of famous faces. Obvious places for
sleb-spotting are the opening and closing galas. The festival starts
strongly with Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries, a much feted
adaptation of revolutionary pin-up Che Guevara’s autobiographal
journal about his travels as a young man through South America.

Wong Kar-Wai’s follow-up to his luscious-looking In The Mood For
Love, 2046, was pulled as the closing film, at the last minute,
organisers said, because the film is still not finished. EIFF
artistic director Shane Danielsen quipped it was “one of the pitfalls
of working with eccentric artistic geniuses’. The organisers have
fallen back on E J-Yong’s Untold Scandal, a lavish period remake of
Dangerous Liaisons set in Chosun-period Korea.

The first Saturday of the fest always brings the paparazzi out, with
the world premiere of former EIFF award-winner Pawel Pawlikowski’s My
Summer of Love given the red carpet treatment at the Cameo on
Saturday night, 21 August. Pawlikowski uses his vivid cinematic style
to give a portrait of the blossoming friendship of two 16-year-old
girls during a languid Yorkshire Summer.

Hot tickets

Can’t get tickets to see those galas; or Morgan Spurlock chundering
on his umpteenth McDonald’s meal in Super Size Me; or film stars
puffing away in Jim Jarmusch’s eccentric Coffee and Cigarettes; or
those big waves in Stacy Peralta’s thrilling surf doc Riding Giants?
Don’t give up yet. Extra screenings are often scheduled in for
popular films, tickets for press and guests reallocated and people
don’t pick up tickets. Check with the EIFF box office (full details
at end of this article) what the state of play is. Alternatively,
check out iofilm’s reviews to see if our team has found any gems that
you can see instead – we cover the full programme of films.

Home-grown cinema

Obvious choices: Ken Loach presents Ae Fond Kiss, a Glasgow based
tale of inter-racial romance and Shane Meadows’ dark and gritty Dead
Man’s Shoes, about two brothers returning home to find the same old
drug dealing gangs.

In Hamburg Cell, Antonia Bird dramatises the events leading up to the
September 11 hijackings through the eyes of a young Muslim who
evolves from secular student in Germany, to Islamic ideologue,
jihadist and hijacker. Peter Mullan, a regular at the EIFF, is back
as a blind and jealous landowner caught in a love triangle of sorts
in a drama called Blinded.

Richard Eyre’s tantalising Restoration Comedy, Stage Beauty,
introduces Billy Crudup as the “compleat female actor” until he
becomes overshadowed by his own former dresser (Claire Danes) after
King Charles II (Rupert Everett) changes the law to allow women to
play themselves.

Other world premieres include Irish director Damien O’Donnell’s
Inside I’m Dancing and Terry Loane’s Mickybo and Me.

Kung fu escapes its Asiatic origins and relocates to Scotland, in the
not too distant future in Richard Jobson’s The Purefiers. The title
comes from a gang who having rejected a suspicious truce, find
themselves surrounded on all sides by factions warring to control a
disintegrating Britain. Chop-socky cinema that is one amongst a
fistful of Kung-fu films at the EIFF this year.

Documentary

Fahrenheit 9/11 has not been the only political documentary making
headlines in this US election year. Control Room, directed by Jehane
Noujaim who made the doc Start-up.com, has kept the talk shows stoked
with this embedded view of Al Jazeera, the Arab news service that has
been condemned by the Bush administration as “the mouthpiece of Osama
Bin Laden” and was shut down just days ago by the acting Iraqi
administration for a month.

Filmmakers also aimed their cameras into the darkest corners of human
existence to find stories such as Checkpoint by Yoav Shamir, which
follows the mutual insanity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and
A Social Genocide (Fernando E. Solana), an angry look at the
squandering of Argentina’s national resources. Guerrilla: The Taking
of Patty Hearst (Robert Stone) offers viewers a chance to step back
in time and re-examine the events surrounding the kidnapping of
Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army, an American 1970’s
terrorist militia.

It will be fascinating to see how Thomas Riedelsheimer, who made such
an evocative film about artist Andy Goldsworthy in River of Tides,
conveys the visual and aural harmony of Evelyn Glennie in Touch the
Sound – A Sound Journey. It just won an International Critics Award
at Locarno.

In a similar vein is Armenian filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan’s
Documentarist where he paints a black-and-white, cinematic mosaic of
life in his ruined homeland.

In Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, the real life hard rockers give
Spinal Tap a run for their money.

The Horror, the Horror

The EIFF has successfully carved out a spot with horror fans with
edgier, late night films. This year includes the world premiere of
American director Chuck Parello’s Hillside Strangler, a true tale of
two “tag-team’ Seventies serial killers (in the Late Night Romps
section of the programme). And Colin Firth wakes from a coma to find
his wife dead and himself implicated in a celebrity murder in
psychological drama Trauma.

Retrospective

The eye in the back of the EIFF head is cast upon Italian director
Valerio Zurlini. “Who’s he?’ You might ask. Between 1955 and 1976,
Zurlini made eight feature films, looking at men and women in crisis.
The retrospective is aptly called “Il Ritrovato: the Rediscovered.”

Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of director Lindsay
Anderson, the EIFF will be screening two of his features, O Lucky
Man! (1973) and the Whales of August (1987), and hosting a panel
discussion with a number of Anderson’s creative associates. Actor
Malcolm McDowell, pays tribute to Scottish director Lindsay Anderson
(he made his screen debut in Anderson’s If…(1968) by performing a
one-man show consisting of his personal stories and anecdotes.

Short life

As always, the EIFF programme is chocker with short films, from the
McLaren animation programme to short docs and short form drama,
usually of 5-20 minutes.

Recommendations? Always difficult, but we will have a keen eye on
this year’s three Tartan Shorts – directors often go on from these
prestigious Scottish short fiction pieces to greater things. The EIFF
shorts programmer, who whittled the programme down from 1000 has
these recommendations:

(1) Mona Lisa (Antipodean Shorts Programme)- “A guy lives with his
mother- very low key performances, so simple but well written and
beautifully shot.”

(2) Headway (Nordic Shorts Programme)- “The director (Jens Jonsson)
has done lots of short films. I think he is destined to be the next
big European features director.”

(3) Who Killed Brown Owl (UK Shorts Programme)- “One long take shot
in a summer park. Simply fantastic, everything a short film should
be.”

And there’s more: Mirrorball is back this year with “a mad mix of
music videos, rock documentaries, live events, promos, ads and
animations”. Mirrorball programmers David Drummond and David Ladd
have lined up music videos from Sweden to Australia in Global
Selection, toured to Japan for some commercials, and gathered “the
best of Britain’ (including Basement Jaxx, The Streets and LFO) in
Fresh Tracks.

Latest Edinburgh International Film Festival reviews

Edinburgh International Film Festival Box Office and Information
Edinburgh International Film Festival,
88 Lothian Road,
Edinburgh,
EH3 9BZ,
Ticket hotline +44 (0) 131 623 8030
Information line +44 (0) 131 229 2550
Telephone +44 (0)131 228 4051
Fax +44 (0)131 229 5501

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Interfax
Aug 17 2004

Bayerische Landesbank allocating over $50 mln for Armenal overhaul

Yerevan. (Interfax) – The German bank Bayerische Landesbank has
agreed to provide more than $50 million in financing for a
modernization program at Armenal aluminum foil plant in Armenia.

Negotiations with German insurance company Hermes, which will cover
the program should wrap up within a month, General Director at
Russian Aluminum (RusAl) Alexander Livshits announced at a Monday
press conference in Armenia.

On top of the German bank’s input, RusAl will itself be contributing
$20 million as working capital, Livshits said. Of that, $1.5 million
has already been spent on project preparations and readying the plant
for modernization, he said.

Armenal will get a factory for making aluminum foils with maximum
thickness of 0.57mm.

After the Armenal modernization work is completed, the plant will be
put into operation in 2005, Livshits said.

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_________________________________________ ____________________
RFE/RL Iran Report
Vol. 7, No. 27, 17 August 2004

A Review of Developments in Iran Prepared by the Regional Specialists
of RFE/RL’s Newsline Team

************************************************************
HEADLINES:
* PROTESTS MARK JOURNALISTS DAY
* TEHRAN BARS BAHAI STUDENTS FROM UNIVERSITY STUDIES
* NEW PROVINCE GETS A GOVERNOR
* PARLIAMENT WANTS NUCLEAR PURSUITS TO CONTINUE
* TEHRAN VOWS RESPONSE IN EVENT OF ‘U.S. OR NON-U.S.
AGGRESSION’
* PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS TEHRAN
* KHATAMI CALLS FOR CLOSER TIES ON AZERBAIJAN VISIT
* IRAN ENCOURAGES NORWEGIAN INVESTMENT
* IRANIANS SEE CONSPIRACY BEHIND DIPLOMAT’S KIDNAPPING IN
IRAQ
* AN IRANIAN CALL TO ARMS IN IRAQ
************************************************************

PROTESTS MARK JOURNALISTS DAY. Iranian reporters staged a 24-hour
sit-in and hunger strike on 7 August to mark Journalists Day, the
Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported.
The same day, President Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami
stressed the importance of freedom of expression in a speech marking
the day, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. According
to Khatami’s statement, which was read out by Islamic Culture and
Guidance Minister Ahmad Masjid-Jamei, “Press freedom will be
available if the press community enjoys political immunity and the
journalists are provided with job security.” Khatami said the low
level of legal support for the press has retarded cultural
development.
President Khatami discussed freedom of expression on 9 August
in a lengthy speech on the state news agency’s 70th anniversary.
Khatami said that journalists must have security, state television
reported, and he stressed the importance of freedom of expression. At
the same time, Khatami said, there are boundaries and democracies
have rules and regulations, too. “The interests of society should be
the yardstick in all economic, cultural, and news-distribution
spheres,” he said.
Khatami added that the information explosion of recent years
has had many benefits, but it is dangerous, too. Its danger is no
less than that of censorship. He warned that people are overloaded
with information and “the powers-that-be” try to take advantage of
this situation. Khatami said Iran is threatened by “propaganda and
cultural plots.” He hinted vaguely that powerful states take
advantage of their military, economic, political, and cultural might
to further their own interests.
Reformist journalist Emadedin Baqi apparently crossed the
boundaries mentioned by Khatami. Baqi and attorney Saleh Nikbakht
appeared in court on 6 August because of a complaint filed by the
Intelligence and Security Ministry, “Iran Daily” reported on 8
August. The complaint relates to Baqi’s banned book “Tragedy of
Democracy in Iran.” Baqi told the judge that the information in the
book was published previously in newspaper articles, and he was tried
for those articles two times.
The “Nasim-i Saba” daily apparently went too far also.
Managing director Hojatoleslam Rasul Montajabnia said on 9 August
that the Press Court has banned publication of his newspaper,
“Jomhuri-yi Islami” reported on 10 August. Montajabnia said news of
the ban came via an unsigned and undated letter citing the orders of
a “Judge Husseinian.” The ban is on the basis of a complaint from the
daily’s former managing director, Majid Qasemi-Feyzabadi. (Bill
Samii)

TEHRAN BARS BAHAI STUDENTS FROM UNIVERSITY STUDIES. Diane Alai, the
Bahai community’s representative to the United Nations, told
Radio Farda on 11 August that Bahai high-school students who pass the
university entrance exam are not being allowed to enter institutions
of higher learning in Iran. In previous years, she explained,
applicants had to declare their religious affiliation when
registering for the exam. The question on religion was omitted on the
applications this year, however, while the exam results identified
the individuals as Muslims. Students who corrected the mistake were
denied admission. Bani Dugal, a Bahai representative, said, “The
Iranian government is, in effect, attempting to force Bahai youth to
recant their faith if they want to go to university,” according to a
press release from the Bahai International Community
(). By taking the exam at
all, according to reports from Iran described in the press release,
“officials are saying that their action amounts to a de facto
declaration of faith in Islam.” (Bill Samii)

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION BANNED. Abbas Sheibani, a member of Iran’s
Parties House, said on 10 August that the Freedom Movement is not
allowed to join the organization, “Iran Daily” reported on 11 August.
He noted that it cannot become a member because it does not have a
permit from the Article 10 Commission. Article 10 of the law on
parties specifies that a commission — the Article 10 Commission —
of one Interior Ministry official, two parliamentarians, and two
judiciary representatives will issue party permits and dissolve
parties acting illegally. Sheibani added that because the Freedom
Movement is a banned group, statements by its leaders are against the
constitution and the Islamic system. (Bill Samii)

IRANIAN STATE ENTERPRISES AUDITED. Radio Farda economic commentator
Fereidun Khavand reported on 5 August that the national accounting
office has audited the 2003-04 books of 1,705 state enterprises. It
found that 1,006 were profitable, 583 were losing money, and 116
showed neither profit nor loss, Khavand said. Moreover, according to
press reports cited by Radio Farda, more of those enterprises would
have shown losses had the accounting office not used the statements
they provided. Details on the profits and losses were not provided,
but state enterprises consume 65 percent of the government’s
budget, according to Radio Farda. (Bill Samii)

NEW PROVINCE GETS A GOVERNOR. Ebrahim Rezai-Babadi, formerly the
Tehran governor-general’s assistant for political-security
affairs, was sworn in on 12 August as the governor-general of
Southern Khorasan Province, IRNA reported. The creation of Southern
Khorasan Province, as well as Razavi Khorasan and Northern Khorasan
provinces, came about through the division of northwestern Khorasan
Province in 2004 (see “RFE/RL Iran Report,” 3 May and 14 June 2004).
(Bill Samii)

GUARDIANS COUNCIL WANTS CLEAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. Ayatollah Ahmad
Jannati, the secretary of the Guardians Council, the conservative-led
body that supervises elections and confirms voting results, said in
Tehran on 4 August that proper supervision of the 2005 presidential
elections is “very important” and authorities must ensure “there are
no violations,” “Aftab-i Yazd” reported on 5 August. “People must be
sure that the vote they drop in is the one that comes out,” Jannati
told a gathering of election inspectors. The Guardians Council’s
supervision of February’s legislative elections was “more
successful than past rounds,” he said. The council publicly clashed
with the reformist-led government and Interior Ministry, which
organized the voting, after the Guardians Council banned thousands of
candidates, and many sitting legislators, from running in the
election. It will be easier to supervise the next election, Jannati
said, because “the hopefuls are better known,” “Aftab-i Yazd”
reported. (Vahid Sepehri)

STUDENT ORGANIZATION FACES FOUR-MONTH SUSPENSION. A Yazd University
student association has been banned for permitting the reading of a
message from the banned Freedom Movement’s leader, Ebrahim Yazdi,
and for arranging a speech by Office for Strengthening Unity
central-council member Mehdi Aminzadeh, “Iran Daily” reported on 10
August. (The report did not say when the offense occurred.) The ban
lasts four months and began on 18 July. Three members of the student
association reportedly face charges of provoking student unrest and
participating in the July 1999 demonstrations in Tehran. (Bill Samii)

PARLIAMENT WANTS NUCLEAR PURSUITS TO CONTINUE. The parliamentary
presiding board received a draft plan addressing Iranian nuclear
activities from 238 out of 290 members of the legislature on 11
August, IRNA reported. The draft plan obliges Iran to pursue all
possible means to gain access to nuclear technology. The draft plan
also obliges the government to comply with its Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments.
The previous day, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi answered
legislators’ questions about the status of Iran’s nuclear
affairs, IRNA and state television reported on 10 August.
Tabriz representative Akbar Alami asked why Iran submitted to
pressure from the EU and the West instead of raising the issue at
international forums. Isfahan’s Ali Ahmadi asked why the
Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was
implemented prior to legislative ratification.
Kharrazi responded that the nuclear account was handled
legally and added that Iran successfully overcame U.S. pressure and
propaganda. He said implementation of the Additional Protocol was
meant to fend off anti-Iranian propaganda and to alleviate a tense
atmosphere, and he explained that Tehran never officially confirmed
that it would implement the protocol before its ratification. “We
have rather said that Iran will cooperate with the IAEA within the
framework of the Additional Protocol,” he said.
Tehran’s Mohammad-Reza Bahonar said that Kharrazi’s
answers did not satisfy the legislators.
Kharrazi told reporters afterwards that Iran will resume
uranium enrichment when it sees fit, Fars News Agency reported, and
it suspended this activity as a confidence-building measure.
Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee head
Alaedin Borujerdi later told reporters that unlike the previous
parliament, this one will support Iran’s right to nuclear
technology, IRNA reported on 10 August.
The legislators are not alone in their desire for a nuclear
capacity. Ali Akbar Velayati, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei’s adviser on scientific affairs, said in the 10 August
issue of “Kayhan” newspaper that Iran has a right to use nuclear
technology, not least because of its many scientific applications.
President Khatami said on 11 August that Iran has the right
to develop and use nuclear technology, state television reported. He
said: “Yes to the peaceful use of nuclear technology! This is our
national interest. This is our national honor. Our future development
depends on it.” “We are not going to ask for anyone’s
permission,” he added. “This is allowed by the international
covenants to which we are a signatory.” Khatami went on to say that
Iran voluntarily suspended enrichment of uranium but this does not
mean it will abandon the enrichment process. His comments come as the
legislature and the leadership stress Iran’s perceived right to a
nuclear capacity, and as the international community watches
developments with concern. (Bill Samii)

TEHRAN VOWS RESPONSE IN EVENT OF ‘U.S. OR NON-U.S.
AGGRESSION.’ Iranian Defense Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani said
on 9 August that there is little the United States can do to Iran
beyond the imposition of sanctions and the leveling of accusations,
Al-Jazeera television reported. Shamkhani was reacting to U.S.
national security adviser Condoleezza Rice’s comments of 8
August, when she said Iran’s nuclear ambitions concern the
international community and Washington does not intend to let Iran
produce an atomic weapon, AP reported. Rice also accused Iran of
trying to hide a weapons program. “We cannot allow the Iranians to
develop a nuclear weapon,” Rice said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
Shamkhani said the U.S. statements are inaccurate and relate to the
election campaign. “I say clearly that we shall respond to any U.S.
or non-U.S. aggression against our nuclear installations or any other
site in Iran,” he added. He said the U.S. presence in Iraq could be
used to Iran’s advantage.
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander General
Yahya Rahim-Safavi told commanders of IRGC ground forces’
divisions and battalions on 11 August that Iran will retaliate if
Israel attacks, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported. He
said, “If Israel is mad enough to attack Iran’s national
interests, we will come down on them like a hammer and crush their
bones.” Rahim-Safavi accused the United States and Israel of
spreading “sedition, evil, and Muslim-killing” across the region. He
described his view of the U.S. aim in attacking Iraq: “Gaining
mastery over the energy resources of the Persian Gulf, Caucasus, and
Central Asia, assisting the Zionist regime’s security, changing
the region’s political systems and creating a Greater Middle East
are among America’s aims in the region.”
Iran test-fired the Shihab-3 missile on 11 August, Mehr News
Agency reported. According to the Ministry of Defense and Armed
Forces Logistics, this was a test of the latest modifications to the
missile, although it did not disclose the nature of those
modifications. Defense Minister Shamkhani had said on 7 August that
there would be upgrades to the missile’s range, ISNA reported.
The Shihab-3 reportedly has a range of 1,300 kilometers. Shamkhani
said this step is in response to Israeli efforts to increase the
range of their missiles.
Shamkhani also denied that Iran is developing a longer-range
Shihab-4 missile, saying, “Israel is scared of Iran’s defense
capability and, therefore, alleges that Iran’s defense capability
is a threat to Europe; however, I announce explicitly that we
threaten no European country and that the Islamic Republic of Iran
poses no threat to Europe.”
Asked about the missile test during an 11 August press
conference, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said, “The
United States has serious concerns about Iran’s missile programs
and views Iran’s efforts to further develop its missile
capabilities as a threat to the region and to United States
interests,” according to the department’s Bureau of International
Information Programs website (). Ereli added,
“We will continue to take steps to address Iran’s missile
efforts, and to work closely with other like-minded countries in
doing so.”
IRGC political-bureau chief Yadollah Javani said on 14 August
that the United States is unable to take military action against
Iran, and he also threatened Israel, Fars News Agency reported.
Referring to U.S. concern about the Iranian nuclear program, he said:
“Such threats are issued as part of psychological operations and they
are not real or serious threats. Regional and international
circumstances do not permit military action against Iran.” He added
in a reference to Iraq, “Given the circumstances, it is highly
unlikely that America will have the wherewithal to open another
front.”
Javani also dismissed the danger of Israeli action against
Iran. He said: “At present, all the areas under the sovereignty of
the Zionist regime, including the nuclear installations and the
atomic arsenal of that regime, are within range of Iran’s
advanced missiles. Therefore, neither the Zionist regime nor America
will carry out its threats because such actions are not
cost-effective.” (Bill Samii)

PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS TEHRAN. Speaking at a 9 August news
conference in Tehran, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud
Kasuri said the two countries enjoy friendly political and economic
relations, Islamabad’s PTV World reported. In a later telephone
interview with PTV World, Kasuri said he and Iranian counterpart
Kamal Kharrazi talked about Kharrazi’s recent trip to India.
Kasuri told Kharrazi that Pakistan has taken all the steps necessary
to guarantee the security of the Iran-Pakistan-India natural-gas
pipeline. Kasuri added that the two sides said there should be more
private-sector involvement in bilateral trade.
Iranian President Khatami told Kasuri on 9 August that their
respective countries should contribute to peace and security in
Afghanistan by investing there and in Central Asia, IRNA reported.
When he arrived in Tehran on 8 August, Kasuri said Islamabad wants to
see progress on the Iran-Pakistan-India natural-gas pipeline, PTV
World reported.
Kasuri left Tehran for Islamabad on 10 August, IRNA reported,
telling reporters at the airport that the trip was successful. He
said Islamabad would like to see an increase in bilateral trade.
Foreign Minister Kharrazi, who saw Kasuri off, referred to their
discussions about trade issues, elimination of tariff barriers, and
the transportation of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
Prior to his departure, Kasuri met with Expediency Council
Chairman Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and briefed him on
New Delhi-Islamabad relations, PTV reported.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency has
determined that particles of enriched uranium that it found on
Iranian equipment originated in Pakistan, “The Jerusalem Post”
reported on 10 August, citing “Jane’s Defence Weekly.” (Bill
Samii)

KHATAMI CALLS FOR CLOSER TIES ON AZERBAIJAN VISIT… Azerbaijan and
Iran share a border, but this has not been enough to foster close
relations between the two. Iranian President Khatami visited
Azerbaijan in the first week of August, the first official trip to
the neighboring country by an Iranian leader in more than 10 years.
The three-day trip began on 5 August and featured talks
between Khatami and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Speaking
after the meeting, Khatami called for closer bilateral ties. He said
history and geography have brought the fates of the two countries
together. “The border between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the
Republic of Azerbaijan is a border of peace, friendship, and
brotherhood,” Khatami said.
Khatami said an Azerbaijani consular office will open in the
northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, the center of an Iranian
province where millions of ethnic Azeris live. The sides also signed
an agreement to improve road and rail links and to fund the building
of a power line between Imisli in southern Azerbaijan and Astara at
the Iranian border.
Azerbaijani leader Aliyev expressed satisfaction about the
agreements, saying he believes relations between Azerbaijan and Iran
are developing successfully. “The implementation of the agreements
signed will create thousands of jobs in Azerbaijan,” he said. “And
agreements on energy and gas swaps will allow us to provide [the
Autonomous Republic of] Nakhichevan, which is integral part of
Azerbaijan, with electricity and gas.”
On the political front, Aliyev praised Iran for what he
called its “support” for Azerbaijan in the conflict over the
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. “We have always felt Iran’s support in
the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh,”
he said. “And we are still feeling that today.”
Khatami said Iran is ready to contribute to a peaceful
solution of the conflict. He added that Iran considers
Nagorno-Karabakh part of Azerbaijan and that the use of force in
settling international problems is “unacceptable.”
However, talks did not produce any breakthrough on the issue
of the maritime borders of the Caspian Sea, which touches both
countries. The legal status of the Caspian, which contains large
reserves of oil and gas, has been in dispute since the Soviet Union
collapsed in 1991.
Davood Hermidas Bavand, who teaches international law in
Tehran, said the visit was important nevertheless. “The significance
of the visit is [the] development of good neighborly relationships
with Azerbaijan, bearing in mind that we have certain difficulties
with that state in connection with the Caspian Sea,” he said. “The
very objective of this visit is to [come to terms with] existing
problems. When the two parties accept this kind of communication,
it’s an indication that there is a certain intention for
improvement of the existing problems.”
Experts in Baku suggested the two sides would also discuss
the growing U.S. military presence in Azerbaijan, which has
contributed to the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq. But neither
side was ready to comment.
Khatami addressed Azerbaijan’s parliament and met with
the parliamentary speaker. He is expected to visit Ganca,
Azerbaijan’s second-largest city, before returning to Iran.
(Antoine Blua, with RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service)

…AND SIGNS AGREEMENTS. During his trip to Baku, Khatami said Iran
wants “a stable, strong, and progressive” Azerbaijan, separated from
Iran by a frontier “of peace and friendship,” IRNA reported on 5
August. Officials from both countries signed 10 cooperation
agreements, IRNA also reported, including agreements on border trade,
terrorism, drug trafficking, and police training. Iran’s
Development and Export Bank will provide $75 million for electricity
projects in Azerbaijan and the two countries will also increase road
and rail links.
In Tehran, Hassan Noi-Muqaddam, a lawmaker for Ardabil, told
Fars News Agency on 5 August that Azerbaijani officials owe Iran an
apology for recent remarks made by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov, who said Azeri speakers in Iran are “guests.” Azeris
form Iran’s second-largest ethnic group, and Iran is sensitive to
any talk of links between Iranian Azeris and Azerbaijan. “These
comments are influenced by the policies of the CIA and global
Zionism, which aim to divert healthy relations between Islamic states
to meet their own interests,” Muqaddam said. (Vahid Sepehrii)

IRAN ALLOCATES CREDIT FOR AZERBAIJANI ENERGY PROJECT. Baku’s
Bilik Dunyasi news agency reported on 9 August that the Export
Development Bank of Iran has allocated a $75 million credit for a
power line and substations between the towns of Imisli, Ali Bayramli,
and Astara. The project is intended to improve the quality of
electricity transmission from Iran to Azerbaijan, and it will require
reconstruction of three major substations. These are the 330-kilovolt
substation in Imisli, the 330-kilovolt substation in Ali Bayramli,
and the 220-kilovolt substation in Masalli. The report adds that a
new 200-kilovolt substation will have to be built in Salyan. The
project, which is expected to take 20-24 months, reportedly will
roughly double the amount of electricity Iran supplies to the
Nakhichevan exclave. (Bill Samii)

SUPREME LEADER’S ADVISER MEETS LEBANESE HIZBALLAH. Ali Akbar
Velayati, a former Iranian foreign minister and current adviser on
foreign affairs to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, met with
Lebanese Hizballah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on 26
July, “Kayhan” reported on 27 July. Velayati later told IRNA in
Beirut that Iraq’s occupation by the U.S.-led coalition was
designed to loot the country’s oil and is a “plot against Middle
Eastern countries,” “Kayhan” added. He said that Iraq’s
“complicated” problems could only be resolved if Iraqi officials
consult Iraq’s neighbors, and he urged Iran, Syria, and Lebanon
to confront Washington’s “plans” for regime changes in the Middle
East, “Kayhan” reported. (Vahid Sepehri)

IRAN ENCOURAGES NORWEGIAN INVESTMENT. Iranian Industries and Mines
Minister Ishaq Jahangiri said during his visit to Oslo that Statoil,
the Norwegian oil company, is active in the South Pars oil field,
“Aftenposten” reported on 11 August. He continued, “We have also
asked the company to play a part in other regions and envisage
Statoil being an active cooperation partner in the future.”
Jahangiri said that a recent scandal in which Statoil
officials were dismissed and fined for the payment of money to win
influence in Iran would not undermine Statoil’s involvement there
(see “RFE/RL Iran Report,” 22 and 29 September, 6, 13, and 27
October, 10 November 2003, and 5 July 2004). Jahangiri did warn the
Norwegians against corruption and influence buying, however. “There
is always a danger that some people could abuse their positions in
connection with major projects. The companies which become involved
in Iran must not make such abuses possible,” he said.
In Tehran, meanwhile, Petroleum Minister Bijan
Namdar-Zanganeh told the legislature that there is no evidence
connecting Statoil with any Iranian official in the aforementioned
scandal, and he promised that his ministry would continue to monitor
developments, IRNA reported on 11 August. (Bill Samii)

IRANIANS SEE CONSPIRACY BEHIND DIPLOMAT’S KIDNAPPING IN IRAQ.
Iranian consular official Fereidun Jahani disappeared on the highway
from Baghdad to Karbala on 8 August, IRNA and international news
agencies reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi
initially refused to confirm whether or not Jahani had been
kidnapped. He did say, however, that “an armed group in Iraq has
released information about him and there is speculation about his
kidnapping, but we do not have sufficient information in this respect
yet.”
According to iht.com on 9 August, a video shown on
Al-Arabiyah television suggests Jahani was kidnapped by a group
called the Islamic Army in Iraq. They reportedly accuse Jahani of
provoking sectarian conflict in Iraq and warn Iran against
interference in Iraqi affairs.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi said during a 9 August news
conference in Tehran that Jahani is “in good health,” state
television reported. Kharrazi said Tehran has no other information on
Jahani’s status, adding, “We must find out which group has
kidnapped him and how we can arrange his release.”
Al-Jazeera television and Al-Alam television reported on 15
August that the Islamic Army of Iraq released a statement on 13
August announcing that unless Iran released 500 Iraqis held since the
Iran-Iraq War, it would take action against Jahani. Al-Alam added,
“Jahani was abducted by elements of the Mujahedin Khalq terrorist
organization,” and “the group planned the abduction in the corridors
of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Hamid Reza Assefi denied that there are any Iraqi prisoners of war in
Iran, IRNA reported. He said the identity of the kidnappers and the
nature of their demands are “suspicious.”
“Kayhan” newspaper Managing Director Hussein Shariatmadari,
who is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said on 9
August that only the United States has a motive for the Jahani
kidnapping, Mehr News Agency reported. That motive, he claimed, is
that Iran is blocking unspecified U.S. regional ambitions and it
opposes the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Shariatmadari claimed that the
kidnappers’ call on Iran not to interfere in Iraqi affairs is
identical to calls from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and
Secretary of State Colin Powell, adding that this confirms the
kidnappers’ U.S. connection.
An anonymous “informed security official in Iraq” claimed on
9 August that U.S. intelligence agents had direct knowledge of the
kidnapping, Fars News Agency reported. This individual reportedly
went on to say that the United States has created “fake assassination
groups and [is] abducting non-native forces in Iraq,” and that
Washington is using Ba’athist groups to carry out abductions and
assassinations. The anonymous official also referred to the
involvement of “Israeli agents.”
Tehran-based journalist and filmmaker Mohammad-Hussein
Jafararian has traveled to Iraq several times in recent months, and
he told Radio Farda correspondent Siavash Ardalan on 9 August that
the kidnapping is part of a plot by some Iraqis to revive Iran-Iraq
hostility as way of limiting Iranian influence in their country.
“There are elements in Iraq who are against Iran’s successful and
influential presence in Iraq, and would like to revive hostilities
between the two countries,” he said.
Jafararian linked the kidnapping to a 2003 bombing in Karbala
that killed scores of participants. “The Polish Army investigated
that bombing and it is still not known who was responsible for
attacking the mourners and shedding the blood of so many,” he said.
The kidnapping, he added, is an anti-Iranian act, as was the Karbala
bombing. “Last year’s Karbala bombers and the kidnappers of the
diplomat appear to be following the same goal, which is to prevent
Iranians from going to Iraq’s Shi’ite holy cities of Karbala
and Al-Najaf, because they believe that the Iranians’ pilgrimage
is a guise for Iran’s interference in Iraq’s domestic
affairs,” he explained.
Jafararian went on to tell Radio Farda’s Ardalan that the
diplomat’s kidnapping and the bombing of the Karbala mourners
could have been the work of some Iraqi Shi’a groups who oppose
pro-Iran Shi’a groups. He added that in a recent trip to Al-Najaf
he did not feel safe, and the main threat was from the militiamen
following radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
“It appears that Tehran is determined to continue its
diplomatic efforts in Iraq, despite the heavy price it is paying for
it. This diplomacy may be dangerous and hazardous to some in Iraq,
but this does not mean that Iran should back out,” Jafararian
concluded. (Bill Samii)

TEHRAN SAYS IRAQI POLICE HOLDING CORRESPONDENTS AND BUSINESSMEN.
Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, the Iranian charge d’affaires in Baghdad,
confirmed on 11 August that two days earlier Iraqi police arrested
the head of the local Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) office,
Mustafa Darban, and several Iraqi reporters, ISNA reported. Reporters
Without Borders identified the correspondents on 12 August as
Mohammad Khafaji, Mohsen Madani, and Abu Ali.
Mohammad-Reza Ramezani, chairman of the Iranian Chamber of
Cooperatives, said on 11 August that U.S. troops arrested four
Iranian businessmen on 18 July and handed them over to Iraqi police
on 27 July, IRNA reported. The four were identified as Mohammad-Mehdi
Teimouri, Masoud Zareh, Yusef Muhseni, and Qasem Salehi. Ramezani
said the four were taken to an undisclosed location.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Mohammad Sadr said on
15 August that Tehran is “almost” convinced that Iraqi police have
detained the IRNA personnel, but Tehran still cannot confirm this,
IRNA reported. He added that his ministry is constant touch with
Iraqi officials in an effort to secure the release of the IRNA
personnel. Amir Mohebbian, an editor of Iran’s “Resalat”
newspaper, said on 14 August that the IRNA personnel were arrested in
a calculated move to sever communication links between Iraq and the
outside world. (Bill Samii)

IRAQI PREMIER GETS OFFICIAL INVITATION TO TEHRAN. Radio Farda
reported on 10 August that Tehran has invited Iraqi Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi to visit Iran. The invitation comes at a tense time in
the two neighbors’ relations, as Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim
Sha’lan al-Khuza’i continues to accuse Iran of interfering in
his country’s affairs (see “RFE/RL Iran Report,” 9 August 2004).
In his most recent outburst, al-Khuza’i said on 9 August,
“Weapons manufactured in Iran were found in Al-Najaf in the hands of
those criminals, who received these weapons from the Iranian border,”
Al-Arabiyah television reported. He accused Iran of being Iraq’s
“first enemy.” Al-Khuza’i went on to say that Allawi will provide
details on this situation during his visit to Iran, and he said
information in Iraqi possession indicates official Iranian
involvement.
Iranian officials are unhappy with the Iraqi’s
accusations, with Interior Minister Hojatoleslam Abdolvahed
Musavi-Lari saying on 10 August that such anti-Iranian comments are
meant to appease the United States, IRNA reported. (Bill Samii)

AN IRANIAN CALL TO ARMS IN IRAQ. Tehran is speaking out against the
continuing violence in the Iraqi city of Al-Najaf, but large numbers
of Iranians are participating in the fighting there. Both Iranian
officials and the hard-line Iranian press are encouraging their
compatriots to play a more active role in Iraq.
“Jomhuri-yi Islami,” one of Iran’s more hard-line
newspapers, is calling for Iranians to act in defense of the holy
sites in Al-Najaf. An editorial in its 8 August issue said that
occupying Iraq and establishing a “servile government” there is not
enough for the United States. “They want to own Iraq for good and
forever,” the editorial said. It accused the United States of waging
“vicious and extensive psychological warfare against Muqtada
al-Sadr,” and it described the interim government as “a cast of
hand-picked actors.” The editorial said people are waiting for their
leaders to embark on “real action.” “Everything now indicates that
the time for such a decision and call is fast approaching,” it
concluded.
The next day, another “Jomhuri-yi Islami” editorial referred
to a “premeditated conspiracy to eliminate the forces of resistance”
in Iraq. It said that only the action of Shi’a religious leaders
and the masses could save the holy shrines. Cooperation between the
sources of emulation and officials in Iran to “end the crisis the
Americans have fomented” is important. Iraq has been turned over to
“foreign agents and alien lackeys,” and this is dangerous for Iran
and Islam. It concluded, “Has the time come for us to get up and go
after the crown of Islam, the very existence of the Shi’a, and
the national interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran?”
The newspaper’s urgings have not appeared in a vacuum,
and in light of official statements, they may elicit action. Earlier
this year, Tehran was encouraging volunteers for martyrdom operations
(suicide bombings) in Iraq (see “RFE/RL Iran Report,” 14 June 2004).
It is not yet clear if the volunteers have headed for Iraq.
Iranians, however, are making their presence felt there. Police in
Al-Najaf arrested an Iranian, an Egyptian, and a Jordanian who had
weapons of Iranian origin in their possession, Baghdad’s
Al-Sharqiyah television reported on 14 August. An Iraqi Interior
Ministry source said the weapons included RPGs, “Kalashnikovs” (it
did not specify if they were AK-47s, AK-74s, or AKMs), and machine
guns. Earlier media reports described more extensive Iranian
involvement in Iraq unrest (see “RFE/RL Iraq Report,” 12 August
2004). Iraqi police arrested 28 Iranians and three Afghans in Karbala
on 8 August, and they deported about 1,000 Iranians from the city on
7 August. The governor of Al-Najaf, Adnan al-Zurufi, said on 8
August: “There is Iranian support for al-Sadr’s group, and this
is no secret. We have information and evidence that they are
supplying the [Imam] Al-Mahdi Army with weapons and have found such
weapons in their possession,” Al-Sharqiyah reported.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign-policy adviser to Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said on 8 August that U.S. military
activities in the holy city of Al-Najaf will encourage resistance,
IRNA reported. “The Americans, by affronting holy sites across Iraq,
have now sown the seeds of combat and resistance, whose sibling will
be irrigated with the blood of martyrs and grow up stronger,”
Khamenei said. He also accused the United States of attacking Iraq in
order to control its oil resources.
The previous day, Khamenei said the United States is stuck in
Iraq, state radio reported. “If they go forward, they will be hit. If
they back up, they will still be hit. If they continue, they will be
hit; and if they withdraw, they will still be hit. They are mired
down there and a wolf which is caught in a trap might frighten some
people by screaming,” Khamenei told a group of theologians. Other
officials who have criticized events in Al-Najaf include Ayatollah
Nuri-Hamedani, parliamentary speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, and
President Khatami.
Khamenei said in an 11 August speech to officials from the
Islamic Culture and Communications Organization, “The crime committed
by America in Iraq today, in Al-Najaf in particular, which is one of
the most holy sites of the Shi’a or perhaps one of the holiest
centers of all Muslims, is a black dot and a blot which arrogant
America can never erase from its face, never,” state television
reported. (Bill Samii)

*********************************************************
Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

The “RFE/RL Iran Report” is a weekly prepared by A. William Samii on
the basis of materials from RFE/RL broadcast services, RFE/RL
Newsline, and other news services. It is distributed every Monday.

Direct comments to A. William Samii at [email protected].
For information on reprints, see:

Back issues are online at

ArmenPress
Aug 16 2004

MAMEDIAOROV TO FOCUS ON KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN MOSCOW

BAKU, AUGUST 16, ARMENPRESS: In an interview to Azeri Zerkalo,
Azeri foreign minister Elmar Mamediarov said before his visit to
Russia that the important issue to be raised there will concern to
the role of Russia as a mediator for Karabakh conflict and a chair of
OSCE Minsk Group. The next group of questions will relate to economic
ties between the two countries. The sides will also refer to Caspian
Sea issues.
According to Mamediarov, Russia plays a decisive role in Karabakh
conflict resolution. Azerbaijan thinks that unless the conflict is
resolved there will be no stability in the region. “Therefore we
think that politically stable and economically strong Caucasus is in
the interests of all countries which have their stake in the region,”
he said. He also said that relations with Armenia are deeper though
Russia has strong economic interests in Azerbaijan. “If Russia were
interested in conflict resolution, peace would be sooner achieved in
the region,” Mamediarov said.
Zerkalo daily asked about recent talks especially at the military
level saying that negotiations are in deadlock and military force
should be used to liberate the lands, to which Mamediarov answered, ”
we are talking at the level of foreign ministry and not ministry of
defense. As a foreign minister I would to that last point insist on
peaceful regulation of the conflict.”

California Courier Online, August 19, 2004

1 – Commentary
Israeli Paper Says Jewish Groups
Still Blocking Genocide Resolution

By Harut Sassounian
California Courier Publisher
**************************************************************************
2 – Mardikian/Saroyan Banquet
Organized to Benefit Schools
3 – Banderas, Saban, Yemenidjian to Chair
Benefit for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
4 – ARS Western Region Convention
Elects Four New Members to R.E
5 – Armenian-Language Domestic
Violence Hotline Set by YWCA
6 – Soghomonian Starts 500 Mile Bike-a-Thon
To Benefit ATG Milk Project in Armenia
************************************************************************
1 – Commentary
Israeli Paper Says Jewish Groups
Still Blocking Genocide Resolution

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper published last week a lengthy article on the
approval by the House of Representatives of an amendment that prohibited
Turkey from using American aid money to lobby against the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide.
The article provided interesting details about the role that several
Jewish-American organizations continue to play in assisting Turkey to block
the passage of the congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide.
Reporter Nathan Guttman stated: “The battle to gain recognition of the
Armenian Genocide by the U.S. Congress is transformed annually into a fight
between the small group of Armenian supporters in Congress and the rest of
the world — the Turkish representatives and the lobbyists working on their
behalf, the administration, the supporters of the administration in
Congress, and also several of the large Jewish organizations. …The Jewish
community in the U.S. and the Israel issue are also entwined in the
pressure campaign preventing approval of the [genocide] resolution.”
Guttman quoted “a key Jewish activist in Washington, who like many others
involved in the issue asked to remain off the record,” as confirming that
“The [Jewish] community is certainly a player on this issue.”
Guttman further reported that representatives of Jewish organizations feel
” ‘a sense of discomfort,’ as one described it, when coming to explain
their position on the Armenian resolution. On one hand, the Jews, as a
community, are sensitive to the tragedy experienced by the Armenian people,
but on the other hand, there are Israel-Turkey relations to consider. ‘We
have always had a level of uncertainty regarding the balance that should be
kept between the moral factors and the strategic interests,’ one Jewish
organization official cautiously explained.”
Disclosing the continued involvement of certain Jewish-American
organizations in anti-Armenian lobbying, Guttman wrote: “Last year, Jewish
organizations, primarily the American Jewish Committee (AJC), have been
more active in thwarting the resolution acknowledging the Armenian
Genocide. …A central activist in a Jewish organization involved in this
matter clarified that if necessary, he would not hesitate to again exert
pressure to ensure the resolution is not passed and the Turks remain
satisfied. The same activist said he had received numerous requests in the
past to work against the Armenian cause in Congress. ‘The State Department
asked us, other people in the administration did, even the Turkish Jewish
community asked us to act on this issue,’ he said. The prevailing opinion
among the large Jewish organizations is that ‘Turkey’s relations with the
United States and Israel are too important for us to deal with this
subject,’ according to one [Jewish] community activist who was involved in
blocking Resolution 193 last year.”
Concerning the recent souring of relations between Israel and Turkey,
Guttman wrote: “The Jewish community’s involvement in the issue of the
Armenian Genocide is affected by the status of Israel-Turkey relations. One
senior organizational official related that during the honeymoon years of
Turkish-Israeli ties, the Jewish organizations were more enthusiastic about
openly helping Turkey thwart previous Armenian-related resolutions in
Congress. Now, he adds, since ties have cooled off somewhat, many Jewish
activists are trying to lower their profile in this matter.”
It is a fact that several Jewish-American organizations have been lobbying
for years against the Armenian Genocide Resolution. It is astonishing,
however, that some of these groups continue to express their willingness to
support Turkey in its denial of the Armenian Genocide, even after former
Prime Minister of Turkey, Bulent Ecevit, accused Israel of committing
“genocide” against the Palestinians. The present Prime Minister, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, recently characterized the Israeli army’s attacks on
Palestinians as an act of “state terrorism.” According to a recent poll,
82% of the Turkish public also agrees that Israel is committing “state
terrorism.”
Despite such statements of condemnation, some Jewish-American
organizations, by continuing to side with Turkey, are in fact supporting
Turkey against Israel. How could any self-respecting Jew continue to do
Turkey’s bidding after the leaders of that country call Israel a terrorist
state and accuse it of committing genocide?
Fortunately, such misguided Jews are in the minority. They are the
dinosaurs of the Jewish-American community and their days are numbered!
Dozens of Jewish-American groups are co-sponsors of the Congressional
Resolution on the Genocide Convention that mentions the Armenian Genocide
as well as the Jewish Holocaust.
Any Jew who lobbies against this Resolution is in fact denying not only the
Armenian Genocide, but also the Jewish Holocaust!
**************************************************************************
2 – Mardikian/Saroyan Banquet
Organized to Benefit Schools
LOS ANGELES – Plans are underway for a very special Memorial Banquet to
honor two remarkable California benefactors, George Mardikian & Souren
Saroyan for their dedication to the Armenian people through ANCHA (American
National Committee to Aid Homeless Armenians). The banquet will be held on
November 14, at the Los Angeles Police Academy.
Louise Mardirossian-Gill will chair the committee along with Vice Chair
Baydsar Clair Thomasian. A special program and a booklet for the event are
in the works.
Proceeds from the event will go to the newly established Mardikian/Saroyan
Endowment Fund for scholarships to the Armenian Parochial schools in Los
Angeles, San Francisco.
“We are forever indebted to the memory of these two great philanthropists
whose vision was to see that Armenians have a better chance in life,” said
an organizing committee member. “We are proud to say that their dream was
realized. Thousands of Armenians who migrated to the United States in the
1940’s and thereafter have prospered and are the blood life of our
communities.
For further information, call Mrs. Mardirossian at (323) 662-9259 or (818)
335-2101.

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3 – Banderas, Saban, Yemenidjian to Chair
Benefit for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (PRNewswire) – Some of the biggest names in Hollywood are
gearing up to host one of the most important nights this fall: film star
Antonio Banderas, child advocate Cheryl Saban, and MGM Chairman and CEO
Alex Yemenidjian have joined forces to chair the first annual “Noche de
Ninos” (“Children’s Night”), a star-studded benefit for Childrens Hospital
Los Angeles.
Giselle Fernandez-Farrand is executive producing the event, with David
Foster and Humberto Gatica as entertainment producers.
Set for October 2nd at 6:00 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, “Noche de
Ninos” will feature entertainment from the evening’s emcee, TV star and
comedian George Lopez, as well as Latin music superstars Marc Anthony,
Alejandro Sanz, and Carlos Baute, dancer Joaquin Cortez, and singer/actress
Renee Olstead. In keeping with the evening’s Latin theme, the menu is being
overseen by celebrated chef Julian Serrano from Picasso at Las Vegas’s
Bellagio Hotel; Serrano will prepare his signature paella. With many of
Hollywood’s elite already slated to attend, the festivities will celebrate
and benefit the Campaign for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, an effort to
raise $500 million for new facilities as well as for endowment, program,
and annual support.
“The work done by Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is humbling,” says
Yemenidjian. “It would be difficult to find a cause more worthy of support.
The work done by the doctors, nurses, and other caregivers at this
extraordinary place is not only of the highest quality, but it is done
without regard to a patient’s ability to pay.”
Founded in 1901, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been treating the most
seriously ill and injured children in Los Angeles for more than a century,
and it is acknowledged throughout the United States and around the world
for its leadership in pediatric and adolescent health.
Since 1990, U.S. News & World Report and its panel of board-certified
pediatricians have named Childrens Hospital Los Angeles one of the top
pediatric facilities in the nation.
**************************************************************************
4 – ARS Western Region Convention
Elects Four New Members to R.E.
GLENDALE – The 84th regional convention of the Armenian Relief Society of
the Western US, held July 15-18 at the Glendale Hilton Hotel, elected four
new members to its Regional Executive.
The newly elected members are Angela Savoian, Nanik Kupelian, Rita Hintlian
and Maral Nashalian. They replace retiring members Nova Hindoyan, Asdghig
Tejirian, Guitarig Kocharian and Nora Shirikian, whose two-year term had
expired. Seta Hagopian, Araxie Aykanian, Nevart Mouradian and Seta Kojayan
were elected as alternates.
The Convention was attended by 35 delegates from 23 participating chapters,
along with representatives from the ARS Center and Regional Executives,
invited guests and almost 140 observing members. After the Convention, the
Regional Executive elected its officers as follows: Angela Savoian (Chair),
Sona Madarian (vice-chair), Rita Hintlian (secretary), Knar Avedissian
(treasurer). Nanik Kupelian, Vicky Marachelian, Maral Nashalian, Serpouhie
Messerlian and Alice Yeghiayan are the advisors.
One of the first official functions of the new board was meeting with the
administrator of the orphan sponsorship program, who was visiting
California from Armenia.
Administration Anahid Mesrobian visited the ARS Regional Executive
headquarters in Glendale, along with Maro Frounjian of the ARS in Montreal,
and met with ARS Central Executive members Hasmig Derderian and Anahid
Meymarian, current and past member of the ARS Regional Executives and
headquarters staff.
Mesrobian reported on the status of the orphans in Armenia and Artsakh and
their increase in numbers, which will require securing 1,200 new
sponsorships.
The ARS program channels the funds from donors in the Western Region at
$130 per child, to the Central Executive, which in turn forwards the funds
to Armenia for direct distribution to the orphans ($120), who may have lost
either one or both parents.
Mesrobian said that sponsors traveling to Armenia may visit the ARS
Regional Executive offices in Yerevan and request information or set up a
meeting with their sponsored orphans.
Those who are interested in becoming orphan sponsors may contact the ARS of
Western US, at (818) 500-1343.
**************************************************************************
5- Armenian-Language Domestic
Violence Hotline Set by YWCA
By Naush Boghossian
L.A. Daily News
GLENDALE — The Glendale YWCA has long served English-language speakers who
have called Los Angeles County’s Domestic Violence Hotline, but it is now
reaching out to Armenians across the county who need their help. Anybody in
the county who calls the hotline — (800) 978-3600 – and chooses to receive
assistance in Armenian will be routed to the YWCA.
The 24-hour hotline, administered by the District Attorney’s Office, struck
a partnership with the Glendale YWCA to take calls in Armenian in an effort
to expand the number of languages the hotline serves.
“We don’t want language to be a barrier when somebody wants assistance. We
want them to be able to contact the hotline regardless of the language they
speak and be able to talk to somebody live who can help them find safety
and shelter,” said Mark Delgado, field deputy for the district attorney’s
bureau of crime prevention and youth services.
The YWCA was selected because the city of Glendale has the largest Armenian
population in the United States.
Lida Soulikhan, the program coordinator for the YWCA’s domestic violence
outreach, said the hotline’s service is very important, because the lack of
English skills is a barrier for immigrants seeking help.
“We know that there is a huge amount of domestic violence, but we have to
bring down that cultural wall,” she said. “The cultural belief for
Armenians stops them from sharing what’s happening within their four walls.
They don’t know these services, but when it’s explained to them in Armenian
it makes a huge difference.”
**************************************************************************
6 – Soghomonian Starts 500 Mile Bike-a-Thon
To Benefit ATG Milk Project in Armenia
FRESNO – Vatche Soghomonian of Fresno and his bicycle are ready once again.
He departed Fresno for Armenia on August 17, and will start the
bike-a-thon on August 21-27, and bike approximately 500 miles throughout
Armenia in altitudes ranging from 2639 – 6200 ft. high.
Through the Bike-a-Thon, Vatche and the Armenian Technology Group, (ATG) a
California-based Public
Benefit Corporation, are targeting to raise $55,971 to purchase four
milk-cooling containers from Tulare, CA, each between 800-1000 gallons and
install them in the villages allowing over 3,000 families to have access to
wholesome milk.
Three thousand families in the rural villages of Armenia currently do not
have access to milk because they lack adequate storage capacity. Without
these containers the milk spoils quickly and sufficient quantities cannot
be kept to satisfy the villages’ needs. According to the Minister of
Agriculture the plan, once implemented, will provide milk to the following:
1. Lori region, Vahakn village- 700 families
2. Shirag region, Akhourian village- 1200 families
3. Arakadsz region, Charinch village- 620 families
4. Davoosh region, Ardzvapert village- 780 families
The milk collection tanks will also serve as an extension for the proposed
Veterinary Central Diagnostic Lab. by having a designated Veterinarian at
each location to monitor the quality of the milk and:
1. Serving as a field station to detect and monitor indigenous and
trans-boundary infectious diseases such as Anthrax, Tuberculoses,
Salmonellae, and Brucellosis, that are transmittable from animals to
humans.
2. Providing Central Diagnostic Laboratory scientists raw data needed to
diagnose and treat diseased animals.
3. Ensuring the animals from which milk is gathered are healthy and safe.
Tax deductible donations could be mailed to ATG, 1300E. Shaw Ave. Suite
149, P.O. Box 5969 Fresno CA 93755.

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********************************************************
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Interfax
Aug 16 2004

Azerbaijan doesn’t need to join military blocs – ambassador

Moscow. (Interfax) – Azerbaijan sees no need to join military blocs
such as NATO, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia, Ramiz Rizayev, told
Interfax on Friday.

“We do not see any need to participate in any military blocs or
organizations,” Rizayev said.

“As for cooperation that meets the interests of the parties, this is
a routine feature of modern times,” he said.

“I can assume that if we did not have the [Nagorno] Karabakh
conflict, Azerbaijan would possibly declare its military neutrality,”
the ambassador said.

Baku is still concerned over military contacts between Moscow and
Yerevan, Rizayev said. “I will not say that there is no concern. This
issue is particularly worrisome as the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
has not been settled yet,” he said.

Azerbaijan hopes that “the wisdom of the Russian authorities will
eventually prevail” in this issue “and these problems that we have
inherited from old times will be resolved as well,” he said.

“As for Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation in the military sphere, I can
remind you about one quite significant fact. We succeeded in settling
all issues related to the functioning of the Russia’s Gabala radar
station in Azerbaijan. This is a very important step on our part
toward Russia,” the ambassador said.

For details, see today’s Interfax-Diplomatic Panorama. The full
version of Rizayev’s interview is available on the
website.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NKR HANDS TRESPASSER ANAR MAMEDOV OVER TO AZERBAIJANI SIDE

STEPANAKERT, August 16 (Noyan Tapan). On August 13, at 2:00 pm local
time, the NKR State Commission for Prisoners of War and Missing
Persons handed over to the Azerbaijani side Anar Misha Oghli Mamedov,
a serviceman from Baku, born in 1983, at the contact line between the
Nagorno Karabakh and the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in the direction of
Aghdam. According to the Commission, A. Mamedov was captured by the
NKR Defense Army militaries on August 6, 2004, when passing a line of
demarcation at the north-eastern sector of the NKR frontier.

The Commission informed about the incident the representatives of the
International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and the OSCE officials
accredited in Stepanakert. The handing over of A. Mamediv was carried
out by the decision of the NKR authorities through the mediation of
the Nagorno Karabakh Office of the International Committee of Red
Cross after obtaining the Azerbaijani side’s permission to accept its
serviceman. During his captivity in the NKR, A. Mamedov was regularly
visited by the ICRC representatives who were given the right to see
the Azeri serviceman freely.

IT’S ENVISAGED TO RELEASE SOME ORGANIZATIONS FROM LAND TAX BY 50%

YEREVAN, August 16 (Noyan Tapan). The draft decision of RA government
“On Ratification of the List of Institutions and Organizations
Released from Land Tax by 50%” was discussed on August 13 at the
office of Hovik Abrahamian, RA Minister of Territorial Government and
Infrastructure Activities. It’s, in particular, proposed to fix in the
decision that for the agricultural, scientific and
educational-practical organizations included into the list the
privilege on land tax amounting to 50% is applied in relation to the
lands, which are exceptionally used for the purpose of scientific and
educational, agricultural, forestry work. It’s also envisaged that
control for purposeful use of lands and amounts of land plots will be
carried out by RA Ministry of Agriculture. According to the Press
Service of RA government, H.Abrahamian gave a number of instructions
on revision of the draft, the results of implementation of which will
be summed up at the nearest sitting.