Feature

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Iran: Welcome cease-fire brings new crisis

A.F. Faraz, an Iranian research scholar, is executive director of the U.S.-based Commit- lee in Solidarity with the People of Iran.

ecently in Toronto on a speaking tour, he talked to the Tribune just two days after the announcement of the United Nations- arranged cease-fire between Iran and Iraq that it is hoped will end eight years of bloody war,

Tribune: Why a cease-fire now?

Faraz: For a long time the Iranian §0vernment was faced with serious internal °pposition to the war. Its last mobilization effort failed; young people refused to go.

© economic impact has been disastrous.

here were compulsory deductions from Wages to pay for the war.

Iranian army morale was extremely bad. Soldiers simply refused to fight, as they saw the futility of the effort, especially as U.S. Imperialism pursued a policy of allowing Neither belligerent to win. All these things threatened the very existence of the Iranian Tegime. People’s anger against the war, and the Tegime’s insistence that it continue, turned into popular opposition against the Tegime itself.

This took the form of spontaneous pro- test. Families of political prisoners would demonstrate in favour of their loved ones in Jail. If an Iraqi missile landed in a specific area, local residents would demonstrate their Opposition to the war. This became Very broad, very massive, reaching the point Where the regime was unable to handle the Situation. Finally the Iranian leaders went to Khomeini and told him that the war had toend: Khomeini very reluctantly agreed to 4 cease-fire, although his mind-set was totally opposed.

Tribune: Why then did the war continue so long?

Faraz: The war broke out as an attack on Tran, which was really a plot to defeat the Initial popular revolution, and it partly suc- Ceeded. In the first year of the war, the Nght-wing forces in Iran, (consisting of) those who had lost their positions as a result of the revolution (and) some of the newly- €merging merchant capitalists, who were More or less repressed by the Shah because Of the dominance of foreign capital, used the emergency situation caused by the war ‘0 make super-profits.

There suddenly appeared a very rich, Very powerful economic category of mer- Chants who managed to take over the econ- Omy as the result of the emergency Situation, and accumulated enough money fo be able to influence policy. First they Penetrated parliament, and then had repre- Sentatives chosen for the government.

They had a vested interest in continuing the War, because they were making profits

Tom it. So once the Iranian army had Pushed the Iraqi forces back over the

Order, when the call came from the demo- ‘ratic forces and most of the people in the Country to end hostilities and commence Negotiations — at that time Saudi Arabia Was prepared to give $60 billion in damages to Iran — the right wing refused. They

New the continuation of the war would Make more money for them, and pushed for It to go on.

Internationally, of course, the arms mer- Chants, oil corporations and insurance ompanies benefitted. The Israelis also had

J€ir Own reasons to push for the continua- “ion of the war. So all these factors com- ned to prolong the war for as long as Possible. There were also the subjective

Slamic” factors.

T believe that had it not been for internal Pressure and the possibility of the collapse the regime, the war would still be going

Nn, =

lraqi soldiers return home after declaration of cease-fire. Inset: Young Iranian girl, a

victim of chemical warfare.

Tribune: Will this cease-fire hold?

Faraz: We can’t assume our task is over. First, the Iranian government did not accept this crease-fire of its own volition. It was forced to do so. But it has not given up the idea of the export of the Islamic revolution — if not to Iraq now, perhaps somewhere else.

Second, it appears not in the interests of the United States or Israel to see the war end. They may erect obstacles preventing total implementation of a peace accord.

Third, the U.S. forces, which are one of

Letters

the main sources of tension, remain in the Persian Gulf. And until they withdraw there is no chance of a genuine peace. So it will be a tough struggle to move from a cease-fire to an all-embracing peace settlement.

Tribune: So one of the terms of a peace accord should be the scaling down of foreign presence in the area?

Faraz: Yes, one of our demands is the total demilitarization of and total withdra- wal of foreign forces from the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, especially since many of the U.S. ships in the gulf are carrying

AIDS just one of many Third World epidemics

Harold E. Macy, Courtenay, writes: In the July 13 edition the article on AIDS research gave rise to an interesting comparison. Since 1981 over 72,000 people have died of this disease worldwide. During that same time period 14 million have died of measles! This figure is from the United Nations World Health Organization statistics.

Despite its probable origins in Africa, I cannot help but think of AIDS as a Western disease, and measles as a Third World afflic- tion. Research into the causes and preven- tion of AIDS takes precedence on nightly news, but nowhere is there mention of the epidemic of common, yet curable, sick- nesses which are still rampant in developing countries. °

I am not suggesting that we abandon AIDS research, but can we not cure other ills with the same zeal, or do we not because AIDS stalks our white bourgeois streets?

Vote denied

Harry Rankin, Vancouver, writes: For a lifetime humanity has fought for the right to vote. People have died for that simple bal- lot. People have gone to jail and rotted in dungeons.

The Non-Partisan Association council, in one fell swoop, has disenfranchised 85,000 voters.

How’s that for progress?

nuclear weapons. Without it I don’t think we will be able to achieve a lasting peace.

One of the objectives of the war was to weaken the two strongest anti-Israel coun- tries in the gulf, and increase the presence of U.S. forces in the gulf. The U.S. is seeking a permanent base for its rapid deployment forces in the region; most probably it will press for a permanent presence and maybe even bases in the gulf.

Tribune: Do you think this cease-fire could

‘lead to opening the door to democracy in

Iran?

Faraz: If you refer to opening wide the government, I would say no. This peace process will bring the government a lot of problems.

For example, Iran’s economy has been geared to war for the past eight years. Now it has to return to civil production. Unem- ployment, even during wartime, stood at about 40 per cent. Those who were working were in the weapons assembly and muni- tions plants. They look to now join the ranks of the unemployed. That will intensify the economic crisis the regime will face.

Of course, our people are now asking what was the reason for all the eight years of war, since nothing was achieved at a cost of millions of people and billions of dollars. I think we can look ahead to mass opposition to the policies and practices of the Islamic government. We may see more repression by both regimes against the Kurdish people, split between the two countries.

Internal opposition will be intensified, as will repression. Asa first sign of that we can see that a wave of political executions has

~ already started in Iran. Twelve to 15 politi-

cal prisoners were executed in the past two weeks; another 55 are on death row await- ing execution. They represent the same for- ces who declared their opposition to the war in 1982.

So the attack has already begun on the peace and democratic forces in Iran. We expect violations of human rights to con- tinue and even intensify. We are asking for solidarity with the political prisoners in Iran, as this will be one of the major issues before us from now on. The cease-fire may release some popular anti-government feel- ing in both Iran and Iraq, and both regimes can be expected to reply with even greater repression in order to maintain their con- trol.

Let’s have more letters

Bill Campbell, Kamloops, writes: I believe that readers of newspapers generally, after they’ve looked at the front page headlines, turn to “letters to the editor.” Consequently it was a particular pleasure to see a whole half page of such letters in the Tribune of July 27.

Let’s hope that our readers will keep them coming and you at your end will do everything to encourage this.

Pacific Tribune, August 31, 1988 « 5