Letter: Mullahs persecute Mujahedin victims

Sir: In his article of 17 June, Charles Richards correctly points out the failures of Rafsanjani's four-year tenure and the Iranian public's overwhelming rejection of the clerical regime.

He is wrong, however, to describe the People's Mujahedin, a Moslem and democratic movement, as a 'terrorist organisation' which 'enjoys little support inside Iran'. Had Mr Richards paid attention to the mullahs' recent propaganda against the Mujahedin, he could have recognised that the latter represents the most serious threat to Iran's turbanned tyrants.

As for the unfortunate label of 'terrorist', suffice it to say that the writer has put the victim in place of the executioner. For the past 14 years the Mujahedin has been the prime target of the mullahs' state- sponsored terrorism. Tehran's terrorists have carried out more than 90 terrorist attacks against Iranian dissidents abroad, leaving 263 dead, wounded or missing.

That 'no alternative is immediately apparent' does not mean the regime is without an alternative. Aside from its vast social support inside the country, the 150-member National Council of Resistance, which includes the Mujahedin,

has gained enormous international recognition.

In late 1992, more than 1,500 parliamentarians, including 230 British MPs, declared their support for the NCR as the sole democratic alternative to the theocratic regime in Iran.

Yours faithfully,

MEHRY MOUSSAVI

Mujahedin spokeswoman

in the UK

People's Mujahedin of Iran

London, NW11

22 June