December 1998, Week 1

Iran leads the world as haven for refugees

By John Daniszewski / Los Angeles Times TEHRAN, Iran -- Which country is the most magnanimous toward refugees? Not Sweden, Canada, Switzerland or the United States. Although not generally regarded in the West as a charitable country, Iran now and for most of the past two decades has provided safe haven to more refugees than any other nation. Afghans, Tajiks, Azeris and Iraqi Arabs and Kurds have sought shelter here, escaping civil war, insecurity and oppression in their homelands. In most cases, the refugees are not sequestered in camps, but are allowed to live and work alongside Iranians. Many attend schools, and a few even attend universities. Discrimination and abuse of refugees have occurred, and their numbers may be on the rise, according to media accounts and refugee activists. But overall, Iranian treatment of more than 2 million refugees appears commendable. "Iran, believe it or not, outlaw of the world ... has over the last 10 years been the most generous asylum country in the world," Soren Jessen-Peterson, assistant high commissioner of the UN refugee agency, said last year. He praised Iran for being in the forefront "not only in terms of numbers but in the way" refugees are integrated into society. Despite its willingness to shoulder the burden of refugees, Iran gets little credit and only limited financial aid from the international community. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees budgeted $17 million this year for programs in Iran, and donor nations have been slow to come up with even that. In contrast, in the former Yugoslav federation, where the UN group is faced with fewer than 1 million displaced people, governments have contributed $149 million this year alone, as UN member states increasingly earmark donations for particular refugee crises. "Iran complains that it does not get a large enough share of the pie, considering the number of refugees here," said Pierre Bertrand, a UN program director in Iran, who voices concern that the Iranians' patience may be running out. That is a concern because the tide of refugees shows signs of rising again as more Shiite Muslims flee Afghanistan's strict Sunni Muslim regime, which denies women and girls an education and the right to work.

Iran and Regional Energy Development

LONDON- A conference on "Iran and Regional Energy Development" held here in London on Thursday was given rosy picture of the Islamic Republic of Iran but at the same time agreed that the country was facing an economic collapse and despite putting an interesting sale ad, there was no buyer coming. The conference was part of a three days meeting organised at the Chatham House in London by the prestigious Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) at which took part senior analysts, economists, bankers and oil and gas experts from Iran, Britain, France, the United States as well as some Middle Easter countries. According to Mr. Ahmad Azizi, the Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank of Industry and Mines, the overall Iranian short, middle and long term debts at the end of present Iranian year of 1337 that ends on 21 March 1999 will stand at 11.103 billions US Dollars against a peak of 23.159 in the period of 1993/94. He acknowledged that despite a good and positive record of debt payment, the Iranian government which is facing a severe economic crisis mainly because of diminishing revenues from oil due to declining oil prices, was not receiving a "helping hand" from major creditors, including Germany, France, Italy and Japan. He said to get out of the present economic crisis, the government of president Mohammad Khatami needed an urgent cash of 3 billions USD, but so far no creditor was giving a positive answer despite the fact that the government was ready for advance selling of some of its oil. "According to predictions, unless the current trend is reversed, GDP in 1998/99 will experience a growth rate of - (minus) one per cent. It the current trend continues till 2006, taking the predicted population growth rate of 1.9% into account, per capita income will diminish by 2.9%, annually. The number of unemployed people will increase from 1.5 million to 9 millions, bringing the unemployment rate to 23%, the average inflation rate to 38%, increasing poverty and increasing social and cultural losses", Mr. Azizi said. To Mr. Ali Ansari, a Lecturer in Political History at the University of Durham, though "fragmented", the Iranian government was not weak neither. "What is needed is a balanced and gradual changes in both political and economic fields, changes that would not come smoothly", he noted. Mr. Vahe Petrosian, a senior staff writer with the Middle East Economic Digest agrees that foreign and local investment have been very small in size and hard to come, but "assures" that the future of Iran will be "brighter and more secure" than that of its neighbours and this for one major reason, that is, as observed by Mr. Anoush Ehteshami of the University of Durham, because Iran has had its revolution. Talking on the various projects concerning the transport of oil and gas from the Caspian Basin to the world's consuming markets, Mr. Narsi Ghorban of the newly created International Institute for Caspian Studies (IICS) noted that the Caspian region, with an estimated oil reserve of 30 to 40 billions and natural gas estimated at 100 TMC "was not the Persian Gulf, Khazakstan is not Saudi Arabia and Azarbaijan will never become another Kuwait". As Miss Beverly Rudy, a partner in the Washington law office of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan LLP assessed that the Clinton Administration could encourage oil and gas companies to opt for other routes that Iran for the transport of the region's energies, Mr. Ghorban's view, like that of many experts, including Americans, was that Iran remains the best and most economic route, stressing that many present costly projects to build pipe lines connecting oil and gas fields in the Caspian to ports in Turkey would never materialises. Mr. Bijan Khajehpour, the Managing Director of the Atieh Bahar Management Consultancy and the Editor of the London-based Iran Focus monthly said as a result of passed mismanagement in the economy sector, more than 10.000 large and small projects have been finished up to less than 10 per cent and the present economic situation badly affected by dwindling revenues will not help. He also insisted that economic liberalisation needed political reforms and, according to him, this is what president Khatami is trying to do. "He may be not succeeded in redressing the economical situation, but at least he has the merit to be honest and present a certain transparency, something that was missing in the past", he pointed out. Like other economists of the day, he also singled out the large, bankrupt state owned sector as well as the existence of several Foundations and revolutionary organisations that constitutes a heavy burden. Mr. Hormoz Nafici, Managing Director of Hydrocarbons Venture Ltd said despite some hindrances, Iran was "altogether" safe for foreign investments compared to other countries of the region that get more investments. Asked about the future of relations between Iran and its Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf, Dr Abbas Maleki, a former Deputy Foreign Minister who now is the Chairman of the IICS in Tehran noted that Iran could in fact participate at the meetings of the 6 nations Gulf Co-operation Council in its capacity as the current president of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. He proposed that besides Iran, the GCC, a concept that, according to him, was put forward originally by Iran, should be opened to Iraq "of after Saddam" (Hussein, the Iraqi dictator) and also to Yemen. He reminded Tehran was ready to deal about the thorny question of the 3 Islands of Abu Mussa and the Great and Small Tumbs situated strategically at the entrance of the Persian Gulf directly with the United United Arab Emirates or with the Emirate of Sharja that claims the ownership of the Islands that Iran says are integral part of its territory.

Iran Protests U.S.-Jet Interception

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Iran has protested to the United States that an F-14 fighter jet from an American aircraft carrier intercepted an Iranian aircraft, according to a document published by the United Nations. The Iranian government said the incident took place on June 23 when an F-14 flying from the carrier USS John C. St ennis violated Iranian territory ``and in a vertical air intercept maneuver, soared sharply upward in the path of the oncoming Iranian aeroplane.'' In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said Wednesday that the United States was aware of the Ir anian complaint. ``The Persian Gulf is a very small region in which the air forces of several nations operate routinely. Their gove rnments do not always interpret the international understandings concerning international waters and airspace in t he same way,'' he said. Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations, Hadi Nejad Hosseinian, asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi An nan to circulate the complaint, which was published Monday as a U.N. Security Council document.