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There is no greater mitzvah than Redemption of Captives
Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Matanot Ani’im, Chapter 8, Article 10

IRAN UPDATE 26 - September 8, 2000

Toronto, September 8, 2000…In a blow to the hopes of the defendants and their families, the verdicts expected this week in the appeals process have been postponed yet again, this time until September 12^th. This delay has followed disturbing new reports that Iran may be holding captive as many as 11 Jewish teenagers who disappeared in the early 1990’s near Iran’s border with Pakistan, presumably trying to flee the country.

Until recently it was presumed by their families that they had been executed, but Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice-Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, recently reported that some of these youngsters have been sighted in a Tehran prison. This fresh disclosure has emerged as an even more chilling indictment of the clandestine means by which Iran’s regime can target innocents with impunity.

Such revelations have cast a pall over Iranian President Khatami’s appearance at the UN Millennium Summit of Heads of State in New York. Apart from protests by Jewish groups, organizations representing Iranians in exile took to the streets to demand redress for the human rights abuses that are rife in their homeland. What could have been a public relations coup for Khatami has quickly turned sour as the general perception takes hold both within Iran and abroad that his inclinations towards reform are being restrained by the conservative forces still controlling the country.

This perception has been fuelled by the Iran News Agency (IRNA) announcement last month that the reformist majority in Iran’s Parliament, the sixth Majlis, will be led by an Islamic radical, Ali Akbar Mohtashami, who reportedly has links with extreme fundamentalist groups which are strongly anti-US. Recent attacks on student protestors in the provincial city of Khorramabad by anti-reform vigilantes have only increased this mood of pessimism and frustration.

Meanwhile the Iranian media tried to exploit the public relations value of the inclusion of Maurice Motamed, the sole Jewish MP, in the Iranian delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in New York, quoting him as assuring American Jewish representatives that “Iranian Jews are living a good life”. Meetings between these representatives and IPU delegation leader Mehdi Karroubi, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, were also reported to be useful. Some observers feel that such contacts could lead to increased dialogue that might help free the captives.

However, until a positive judgement is announced, there is little room for optimism. Khatami responded to the New York protests by reiterating that his government would not intervene in the appeals process, while a public statement by Information Minister Ali Yunesi, broadcast just last week on Iranian State TV, charged that the “Jewish spy network” was so major that it “could have certainly threatened our security and possibly even that of the region…” This statement is hardly a sign that leniency is imminent.

	The B'nai Brith Canada Institute for International Affairs has a mandate to protest the abuse of human rights throughout the world and advocate on behalf of worldwide Jewish communities in distress. The Institute has a special focus on pro-Israel advocacy and education.
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