Monday, December 21, 1998

Murderous chill in Iran

In the last month, three writers critical of Iran’s hard-line theocracy and an opposition leader and his wife have been murdered.

The widespread belief is that the killings are intended to reverse a growing movement toward moderation and accommodation with the West as espoused by President Mohammed Khatami.

Khatami was elected by a landslide in a 1997 election whose results came as a shock and an upset to the conservative Islamic clerics who still control Iran’s police, judiciary and intelligence services. Khatami has eased up on censorship, tolerated token opposition movements and even made tentative gestures toward renewing relations with the United States, the "Great Satan" to Iranian conservatives.

The murders — another critic is missing and presumed dead — follow a series of beatings and trumped-up arrests of other outspoken moderates. The nonsensical and paranoid explanation of the hard-liners is that the United States and Israel are behind the crimes.

The escalating violence against its critics shows how insecure the Islamic fundamentalists are, even now, 20 years after they took control of the country.