Iran: Revolution Devouring Its Own

Khomeini’s onetime protégé Ghotbzadeh is executed

It is perhaps the most enduring ritual in revolutionary Iran: the late-night summons, the slow walk along bleak prison corridors, and finally the waiting firing squad. Last week the executioners’ guns took aim, on the specific orders of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, at one of the founding figures of the Islamic revolution that swept away Shah Reza Pahlavi in February 1979: Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, 46, the man who sprang to international prominence as Iran’s Foreign Minister during the U.S. hostage crisis. Ghotbzadeh was shot after a 26-day trial in which he was accused by the Islamic military prosecutor of plotting to overthrow the Islamic government and assassinate Khomeini.

Like so many other vengeful spasms in Iran, Ghotbzadeh’s execution was a sign of the profound insecurity that reigns within the Khomeini regime. Islamic Guards are reportedly killing at least 30 people a night now; according to Khomeini’s opponents, some 20,000 people have died at the regime’s hands since July 1981. As Ghotbzadeh joins a long list of onetime Khomeini confidants who have been either killed or disgraced, the ailing Ayatullah, 82, appears more determined than ever to control Iran.

Ghotbzadeh strenuously denied the charge of plotting to kill Khomeini, but throughout his trial he made no attempt to hide his disillusionment with the murderous regime that he had helped launch. An urbane man who was educated in the U.S. and France, Ghotbzadeh had known Khomeini since 1963. He served as the Ayatullah’s interpreter and political adviser during Khomeini’s exile in Paris. He took on the Foreign Ministry post in November 1979, and stepped down from office following the country’s postrevolutionary elections for the Majlis (parliament). In January 1980, he made an unsuccessful bid to be elected President of Iran. Ghotbzadeh remained defiant until the very end. In a message smuggled out of prison before his death, he declared: “I want the record to be clear that I saw the light and tried as best I could to undo the damage I had done in terms of supporting the satanic regime of the mullahs.”

So hard pressed for space is the government’s repressive apparatus that it has turned the U.S. embassy into a detention center and execution site. Says a Western diplomat who lives close to the former embassy compound: “At night, you are shocked out of sleep by rifle shots and the cries of people being executed.” Iranians living in the area also complain of the horrifying sounds. Says a housewife: “We think the Islamic Guards shoot their victims in the embassy in a way that makes them die slowly and painfully. The screams are unbearable.”

As Iran’s domestic situation becomes more chaotic, so does its international position. The surprise Iranian offensive against Iraq that began on July 13 has been repulsed, creating an unprecedented crisis of morale on the home front. Iranian army officers blame the failure of the military thrust, which was designed to bring down the Baathist regime of Iraqi

President Saddam Hussein, on Khomeini’s fanatical Islamic Guards, who suicidally hurled themselves at the enemy in one human wave after another. In doing so, they upset the operations of the regular army. At least three Iranian brigades were destroyed in the early stages of the offensive; total Iranian losses during the campaign now stand at about 12,000 dead and 20,000 wounded. For their part, Islamic zealots are charging the army with treason. Says an army officer: “Tension between the guards and the army is higher than ever.”

Khomeini is anxious to continue his war against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, and U.S. intelligence sources expect another attack on the strategic Iraqi city of Basra, located on the Persian Gulf in the heart of Iraq’s oil-producing region, within the next few weeks. But for the first time, Iranian mullahs are having difficulty recruiting volunteers to die for their cause. Complains Hojjatoleslam Rouhani, chairman of the defense committee of the Majlis: “Only some valorous and militant youths go to the fronts, and the others loaf around with no sense of responsibility.” The mullahs are in the process of enacting draconian legislation against draft dodgers. The new law will demand that all able-bodied men in Iran provide documents proving that they have done their national service or are legally exempt from it. Without such documents, they will not be able to work, do business, get married or even apply for a driver’s license. Already, Islamic Guards are asking for the documents on street corners. Those suspected of avoiding military service are being sent to training centers pending further investigation. The zealous guards also make “house calls,” dragging away from their homes those accused of draft evasion by their neighbors.

As morale has dropped, discontent with the Khomeini regime has increased. So has violent opposition. Last month Massoud Rajavi, the Paris-based leader of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, the leading guerrilla organization opposed to Khomeini’s theocratic rule, ordered his followers to attack Khomeini’s “military-police apparatus.” Since then, more than 300 Islamic Guards and government officials have died in Mujahedin attacks.

Two weeks ago, in one of their more spectacular raids, guerrillas surrounded an Islamic Guard training base at Sardasht, in Kurdistan, and attacked it with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. More than 30 guards died in the assault. Yet another incident underlines the seriousness of what amounts to an undeclared civil war in Iran: early this month, Mehdi Mohammadi Gilani, son of Khomeini’s chief Islamic justice, Ayatullah Mohammadi Gilani, was killed in an armed clash with the guards. He was the third and last Gilani son to die fighting the regime that his father protects.

None of those problems, however, has quelled the desire of Khomeini and his fellow mullahs to export their Islamic revolution. Besides waging war on Iraq, Iran has chosen Saudi Arabia as a target for ideological subversion. As part of that campaign, Iran sent about 100,000 of its citizens to Saudi Arabia for this year’s hadj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The agitators were instructed to encourage massive demonstrations by the pilgrims against the Saudi government. The plan failed as thousands of Saudi policemen kept the Iranians from causing trouble. Most of their fellow worshipers simply ignored the zealots. Some even hurled taunts at them for the bloody atrocities being carried out in Iran in the name of Allah. —By George Russell.

Reported by Christopher Redman/Washington and Raji Sanghabadi/New York City