BOL itt

Protest lack of human rights
in Iran, dissidents tell Carter

A recent letter has been sent to -
U.S. president Carter urging him
to speak out against the despotic
_Yegime of the Shah in Iran. It was

signed by 28 persons representing
- Various political, cultural and so-
cial spheres of Iranian life and
gives a. vivid picture of mass rep-
ression:

*x* * *

_. We address this open letter to

you, because you have repeatedly
promised to take a_ position
against all kinds of violation of
human rights throughout the
world. But contrary to this sol-
- €mn promise, a regime which has
tumed a country to a concentra-
tion camp, i.e., the present despo-
tic regime of the Shah in Iran, en-
joys your full blessing.

You are fully aware that the
Shah’s regime, is the product of
an anti-natjonal military coup
which toppled the legal and na-

tional government of the great
- Iranian Patriot Dr. Mohammed
Mossadegh and brought back the
Shah to power. :

The military coup of August
1953 was masterminded by the
CIA and the American military
advisers of the Iranian army. The
plotters imprisoned the legal pre-
Mier, condemned him in a milit-
ary tribunal and imposed an illegal
government on the Iranian
people.

In the last 25 years, tens of
thousands of Iranian patriots have
been sent to prisons and concent-
ration camps. Thousands of them
have been shot or died under tor-
ture. These people had commit-
ted no crimes. They had only
loved their country, its indepen-

“dence and the freedom of its

people, .

Surely you know that in the
past two years more than 250 Ira-
nians have been condemned and
executed on political charges.
The Iranian\people ask you: why
you have never protested to the
Shah regime for its crimes?

All political parties and organi-
Zations are banned in Iran. Only
an “Imperial Party’’ exists which
Stands under the direct command
Of the Shah and its leaders are
appointees of the Court.

The Iranian Parliament, ac-

Cording to the Constitution, the
centre of debates and decision-—

making of the peoples’ represen-
tatives, is nothing but a club for
Savak (Secret Police) nominees.

All the free workers’ trade-
unions, youth organizations,
trade unions of the state
employees; all the social, cultural
organizations of intellectuals,
writers and artists are banned.
Even the cultural and sport clubs
of the students at the universities
are dissolved.

There is no sign of press-
freedom. Only three newspapers,
affiliated to the government, are
permitted to publish. And this
too, happens under the strict con-
trol of Savak. ack

Thirty percent of our national
income is going to the military.

The budget of Savak, this evil
police organization, in 1977,
$800-million, jumped in 1978 to
$1-billion.

More than $1-billion of our na-
tional income is paid to more than
30,000 American ‘‘advisers’” who
have changed the Iranian armed
forces to a mercenary army. —

Under the impact of these
anti-national policies, the
economic situation in Iran is de-
teriorating rapidly. . :

The cost-of-living, the price of
food, clothing, rent, medicine has
reached a point which is totally
intolerable for majority of the
people in the towns and country-
side.

As the correspondent of the

‘New York Time in April 1978

stressed, the people of Iran are in
a desperate situation. Between
January and May 1978, in 26 big
towns hundreds of thousands of
people took to the streets to show
their deep hatred of the despotic
regime. The peaceful demonstra-
tions were crushed with unpre-
cedented brutality by Savak
agents and the army. More than
1,000 killed, several thousand
wounded and between 8 to 10
thousand jailed. The lives of those
jailed is threatened by the military
tribunals. :

The most reliable reporters and
columnists of the world press,

‘among them some Americans,

have emphasized that the popular
protest expresses the frustration
of a people fighting for bread,
freedom, and national indepen-
dence and which has no fear of the

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We are convinced that you are
aware of the state of affairs in
Iran. Nevertheless, neither in
your talks- with the Shah in
Tehran nor in your warm recep-
tion of him in Washington, did
you remember your undertakings
with regards to human rights.

Is your silence over the crimes

of the Shah not unrelated to the

sale of more. than $25-billion
worth of arms in the last six years
and the preparations for further
sales of tens of billions in coming
years?

The struggle of the Iranian
people for an end to the despotic
regime of the Shah, for freedom
and national independence, in
spite of all atrocities of the regime
will undoubtedly continue. —

The people will triumph. Your
personal support and the support

of your administration of this cor- _
rupt and despotic regime isacry- ;
ing disgrace for you and your ~
country. The United States of -

America and its president bear a
great responsibility with regards

s Re = i ~ “ » :- =
At the San Francisco demonstration, held in November

fi an ~ aed wt
1977 to protest

to the events in Iran. History will the Shah of Iran’s visit to the U.S., many Iranians wore masks to prevent
o the Iranian secret police from identifying them.

not forget this.

U.S. arms build up threatens

_ ‘The American military doc-
trine is still geared to securing for
the USA a superiority in strategic
forces for dealing the first strike at
the Soviet Union’, Radmomir
Bogdanov, Deputy Director of
the Institute of U.S. and Cana-
dian studies the USSR Academy
of Sciences, an expert on military
and political problems, told Vla-
dimir Ostrovsky, an APN
analyst.

“*The recent speech by Harold
Brown, U.S. Defense Secretary,
confirmed once again that the Un-
ited States, in the military build-
up or, as the Americans, say, ‘in
creating the deterrent effect’,
places its emphasis on increasing
arms and giving secondary con-
sideration to control over them’’,
noted Bogdanov.

Of eight projects being im-
plemented by the~ Pentagon to
modernize and strengthen U.S.
strategic forces, at least three are
aimed at obtaining tangible
superiority in delivering the first
strike, he pointed: out.

In Bogdanov’s view, moderni-
zation of the U.S. submarine fleet
with the introduction of the Tri-
dent system (each such missile-
carrying submarine can hit more
than 400 targets, and 29 are to be
built), creation of mobile inter-
continental ballistic missiles
(MX) and new nuclear warheads
(MK-12A) will greatly add.to the
nuclear power of missiles and

dangerously increase the number .

of warheads and their target-
hitting accuracy.

In addition, the so-called con- |

cept of target multiplication, now

‘being developed in the USA,

under which each of the MX mis-
siles is allotted 20 silos in whichit
will be hidden in turn and 6,000
silos will be required altogether,
means the withdrawal of Ameri-
can strategic missiles from under
control by the other side.

; Bogdanov believes that such
intentions (and Defense Secretary
Brown does not conceal them) in

no way fit in with the interim
Salt-1 agreement between the
Soviet Union and the USA which
limits the number of launching
silos possessed by the sides. He
says this now undermines the
principle of reliable control hoped
for by the new Salt-2 agreement
being negotiated.

If technical means of veri-
fication are unable to determine
how many missiles are in launch-
ing silos, then a comparison of the
Soviet and American strategic po-
tentials will prove impossible.
The point is not only where a mis-
sile is deployed, but how many of
such missiles are found in posi-
tion. ‘‘Where is the guarantee that
having concealed the missiles ag-
reed upon between the sides, the
Pentagon would not increase their
number, taking advantage of lack
of control?’’ asks Bogdanov.

He recalled that according to
the London Institute of Strategic
Studies, such a pattern for station-
ing several hundred missiles will

' enable the United States to pos-

sess a counter-force potential

against Soviet ground-based mis-

siles, that is, to have the advan-
tages of the first strike. This is

world security Soviets wam

also the conclusion formed by a
team of American scientists at the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology who made a special
study. of the problem.

Bogdanov emphasized that the
MxX system is really a weapon de-
stabilizing the balance of forces
by its mobility, great power and
accuracy in hitting targets. This
system combined with the Tri-
dent system and long-range
Cruise missiles will turn the
American deterrent effect into a
“‘first strike’ one and make the
American strategic potential in-
compatible with the potential of
the other side.

- This destabilizing trend, which
has become apparent now in the
USA and, as seen in the recent
speech by the Defense Secretary,
will surely not promote a healthier
political situation between the
two sides.

What is no less dangerous, it
will upset the principle of equality
of forces and equal security, thus
burying the possibility of limiting
strategic armaments on the basis
of the. principle of their equiva-

‘lence.

M4 Sherman tank $215 thousand -

The High Cost of Hardware

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XM 1 tonk $738 thovsend*

Cost of WWII weapons in 1977 dollars

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PACIFIC

TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 15, 1978—Page 5