Iranian Government Implicated In Mu

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.cic.net>
Subject: Iranian Government Implicated In Murder Of Kurdish Dissidents

Iran Angrily Denies German Charges It Was Involved In Killings Of
Dissidents

Dubai, Iran (Reuter - November 14, 1996) Iran protested to
Germany Thursday over allegations by a German federal prosecutor
that Iranian leaders ordered the killings of four dissident Kurds
in Berlin, Iranian state television reported.
     Germany's envoy to Tehran was summoned to the foreign
ministry where Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi told him:
"The German judiciary and judicial authorities, under the
influence of the Zionists, have embarked on an evil political
game against the Islamic Republic of Iran", said the television,
monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
     "Their repetition of insulting remarks and baseless
allegations against the highest authorities of the Islamic
Republic of Iran...shows that the German judiciary...has turned
the Mykonos trial into a political one and has thus marred its
credibility", Sarmadi was quoted as telling the ambassador.
     He was referring to allegations by the German Federal
Prosecutor's office on Tuesday accusing the Iranian leadership of
being responsible for the murders of four Iranian Kurdish
opposition figures in Berlin's Mykonos restaurant in 1992.
     The German prosecutor's office told the court in Berlin that
an Iranian special state committee, which allegedly included
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani, had ordered the assassinations.
     "The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran does not
accept, under any circumstances, such insulting actions and
considers that responsibility for any consequences rests with the
German government", Sarmadi added.
     The ambassador was quoted as saying as saying he would
convey Iran's position to the German government.
     Iran earlier denounced the Geman prosecutor for his remarks
and suggested it might take legal action against him.
     "Germany's prosecutor has stepped outside his bounds and
through this grave error has committed an offense which makes him
liable for legal action", said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mahmoud
Mohammadi, quoted by Tehran radio. He did not elaborate.
     He reiterated Iran's denial of any involvement in the
slayings of the three Kurdish opposition leaders and their
translator for which an Iranian and four Lebanese are on trial.
     The newspaper Kayhan called on Tehran to break ties with
Bonn, its biggest trade partner, and suggested that Muslims would
take unspecified actions against Germany.
     "After this affront to the sanctities of the Muslim nation
of Iran, it is the duty of the honorable government of the
Islamic Republic of Iran to expell Germany's ambassador without
hesitation and to cut all trade, economic and political ties with
this government", the hardline daily said.
     "Of course, the Iranian Muslim nation and other Muslims know
their duty in the face of this indignity and will certainly not
let this affront to Islam and Muslims go unanswered", Kayhan
added. It did not elaborate.

Germany, Iran Trade Barbs Over Accusations Tehran Approved
Assassination Of Kurdish Dissidents

Bonn, Germany (Agence France-Presse - November 20, 1996)
Germany's foreign ministry warned Iran Wednesday against an
escalation of tensions between the two countries after Iranian
Shiite clergymen threatened German prosecutors with a
'Rushdie-style' fatwa, or death decree.
     Muslim clergymen in the Iranian city of Qom threatened to
issue the death sentence in response to accusations by German
prosecutors that Iranian leaders - including paramount leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - approved the 1992 murder of four Iranian
Kurdish opposition figures in Berlin.
     Foreign ministry spokesman Martin Erdmann said the ministry
had learned of the threats via the media and warned "all Iranian
officials against an escalation" of the dispute between the two
countries.
     Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel meanwhile said that "an active
policy of influence" was needed to improve relations between the
two countries, rather than a "critical dialogue."
     Germany and the European Union use the term "critical
dialogue" to describe their policy of continued ties with Iran, a
concept that is rejected by the United States. Washington favors
a policy of isolation.
     On Wednesday, officials from Chancellor Helmut Kohl's
Christian Democratic Union called for the policy of "critical
dialogue" to be abandoned in favor of tougher action against
Tehran.
     Kinkel said the term had taken on too much of a "symbolic
value", but said that maintaining relations with a country was
always better than excluding it.
     Germany is Tehran's largest trading partner.
     Development Minister Carl-Dieter Spranger also criticized
what he called "Iranian state terrorism", which, he said, had
become evident in the Mykonos case, referring to the Berlin
restaurant where the killing of the four Kurds took place.
     "Unveiled death threats against representatives of the
German legal system are intolerable and show the Tehran regime's
disdain of people", he said in an interview with the mass
circulation Bild.
     "Terrorism at home or overseas can never be tolerated and
must be fought with all legal means."
     The Iranian threats were made during a rally by several
thousand clergymen and religious students from seminaries in Qom.
     "We find this insult to be in the same category as The
Satanic Verses", the protesters said, referring to the
controversial British novel that earned author Salman Rushdie a
death sentence in a "fatwa", or religious decree issued in 1989
by Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
     "The mercenary prosecutors should be given the maximum
punishment for this treason and crime", they said in a final
resolution.
     An Iranian opposition group Wednesday condemned the threats
which "once again show how far this regime indulged in terrorism
to blackmail and intimidate other countries and advance its
foreign policy", the National Council of Resistance of Iran said.