HUSBAND AND WIFE LEADERS REVIEW IRAN REBEL MARCH PAST

 

October 19, 1991

By Andrew Hill

ASHRAF CAMP, Iraq, Oct 19, Reuter - The husband-and-wife leaders of rebels fighting to overthrow Iran's Shi'ite Moslem government on Friday reviewed the biggest parade of military muscle their National Liberation Army (NLA) has organized.

Massoud Rajavi, leader of the exiled Mujahideen Khalq movement and has wife, Mariam, took the salute at a four-hour march-past of tanks, artillery and hardware they will soon use to overthrow the "Khomeini mullahs" in Tehran.

"I will answer all your questions in my country," Rajavi told reporters after he and his wife laid a wreath at a cemetery to 43 guerrillas killed in Iranian operations against the group's bases in Iraq in March and April during failed twin revolts against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Asked when that would be, Rajavi replied only "sooner than you think" before driving off with his wife and another senior woman figure, Mujahideen Khalq deputy secretary - general Fahimeh Ervani, to the parade.

The occasion was the second anniversary of the election to post of secretary- general of 38-year-old Mariam, who is credited by her supporters with turning the five- year NLA from foot soldiers into a machinized fighting force.

"She has no military background, she has a degree in metallurgy, but she has transformed us," said Farzin Hashemi, from the movement's London office.

At least 140 Chinese, Soviet and British- made tanks as well as a score of heavy artillery pieces, dozens of armored personnel carriers and batteries of Katyusha rocket launchers were driven past the reviewing stand at this base 50 km.(30 miles) from the Iranian border.

Jeep - mounted rocket batteries are said to be Mariam's brainchild as are anti- aircraft guns mounted on armored personnel carriers.

By the standards of resistance groups the world over, it was an impressive display of might. The march- past included some 60 airmen-- The NLA has no airforce-- frogman, flatbed trucks repair vehicles, scores of communications jeeps and ambulances.

Spokesmen declined to say whether the NLA had put its entire army on display for the benefit of journalists in Iraq to cover the Gulf War aftermath, "We have several bases and many men along the border," said one.

Many tanks were driven by woman in drab olive fatigues and red headscarves, the uniform of a movement that says it counts on women for 30 per cent of its fighting force, which is estimated at up to 40,000.

It believes that the participation of women will be a draw in Iran where, it says, women are repressed by the brand of Islam followed by President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The NLA which is based in Iraq, is dedicated to the overthrow of Rafsanjani's government which it says has betrayed the people by following the Islamic revolution of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"The mullahs have been facing a tremendous crises in the country for the past three months. The entire country has been the scene of protests, demonstrations and clashes between citizens and the regime," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, head of the movement's foreign affairs department.

"This surge comes at a time when the regime's economy is on the brink of bankruptcy with 20 billion dollars of foreign debt, 150 billion in domestic debt, 50 per cent inflation and unemployment created entirely by the mullahs," he said.

Iraq, which fought the 1980-88 war with Iran, formalized a peace agreement with Tehran in the early days of the Gulf crises to free troops from its eastern borders for duty in the south.

The NLA has not taken part in large- scale cross- border operations against Iran since August, 1988, when the U.N.-brokered peace accord halting the Iran-Iraq war came into force.

REUTER FJH DLT WP