Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 2, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg it a focus assassination is by Doyle Mcmanus the los Angeles times More than 80 officials of Iran ruling islamic Republican followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah have now been assassinated in a Little More than two months at least 600 members of the most of them allies of deposed president Abolhassan Bani have been summarily shot by firing squads in the same Iran Long revolution is noisily coming an underground civil As recently As six months iranians still Practised a chaotic but essentially peaceful Brand of politics there were competing debates in Parlia marches in the streets and anti government but these the struggle for Power is carried on by other Means bullets fired from speeding Blo Odily efficient wholesale arrests and Midnight exec assassination has an old and almost honorable history in was the iranians who coined the nine centuries ago Hassan the or of a heretical moslem sent his followers out of the mountains North of Tehran to kill his and since the cultists used hashish to fortify their they became known Asha there were two attempts to kill Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi by Assassin nation during his 37year and machine gun ambushes of military offi cers and government officials were frequent in the months before the 1979 insurrection that finally toppled the rarely has political murder been used so successfully anywhere As by Iran underground opposition groups this Khomeini most adroit and powerful the Ayatollah Mohammed was killed june 28 when a bomb exploded on the dais during a meeting of the islamic Republican party 73 More party including several members of the Cabi died with the ruling party Hassan also a member of was murdered by gunmen several provincial officials have been ambushed and killed three weeks the Headquarters of the part controlled revolution Ary guards was blasted with an anti tank and on the new islamic Republican Mohammed Ali and his prime min Mohammed Javoyd were killed with five others when a bomb detonated inside Baho Nars heavily guarded there is Little doubt among Iran and iranian exiles in the United states that most of the attacks Are being carried out by the the largest of the underground groups now battling the Khomeini regime in partnership with who was forced out of office in who else has the ability asked an iranian student in new York who sup ports the last Banisadr seemed to be publicly encouraging his followers to continue their wave of tonight five men were killed a Debili and Kani government would he two of the Rajai and Are now the All moslem make up the remaining leadership of the islamic Republican party Hashemi the speaker of Abdul Karim Mous Savi a senior revolutionary and Mohammed Reza Mahdavi Khomeini first minis Ter of the in charge of police and revolutionary the Youj Shedeen and their allies not yet succeeded in liquidating the entire top rank of Khomeini Politi Cal in addition to the three surviving names on Banisadr hit there Are a few men of ability still working to hold the Tehran regime together Mostafa Mir a former Cabinet Behzad the government spokesman who played a key role in negotiating the release of the american hostages held for 14 and Khomeini Al though he is 81 years old and in ailing the islamic republicans have a Builtin organizational the thousands of mosques and mullahs across the clerics have had Long experience with dealing with the masses on their and with running a Loose knit nationwide said Nikki Keddie of the University of los an expert on the on the other have had Long experience with main Taining an organization and with emerging Only to commit individual acts of violence the same Way they operated for two decades under the Pahlavi the Shah outlawed denounced them As islamic and built his some secret police partly in aft at tempt to stamp them in when Khomeini emerged As a magnetic Leader for the Alliance of factions then fighting the Shah re the underground Youj Shedeen holy warriors were among his staunchest moslem Socia list they viewed the Ayatollah As a progressive Clergyman who sympathized with their ideas of a state that would be at once revolutionary and Youj Shedeen leaders held several conversations with a Khomeini aide whose thinking seemed close to their Only after the revolution did they discover that Khomeini clerical backers had no intention of sharing Power with the ironies of Iran revolution pile one atop the themous Shedeen today Are using the same tactics of i Landrun assassination that they perfected during their Long struggle against the their strategy then was to weaken the autocratic regime bit by bit until it could be overthrown that appears to be their strategy again their Massoud is directing them from Paris alongside much As Khomeini rallied the forces of revolution from his exile in but the Youj Shedeen May find Kho Meini a More ruthless opponent than the Raja is organization has been loosely estimated at Mem Bers if the mullahs continue to execute anyone suspected of Youj Shedeen membership and they sent two teen age girls to the firing squad for that offence last month opposition May bleed faster than the govern Banisadr and Raja i also face an Uncertain political base inside Raja is Youj Shedeen come largely from the educated Middle Al though they enjoy considerable popu Larity among the illiterate poor who comprise the vast majority of Iran Urban Banisadr enjoyed vast popular support but lost most of it when his promises of economic improvement proved most there has been no sip that Khomeini stature As the country unifying figure has seriously the crowds that Demon Strate in support of the clerical regime May be Small and and iranians May privately rail against what Bani Sadr Calls the but Khomeini remains the personal Symbol of the above the excesses of his the islamic republicans who marched against the Youj Shedeen in Tehran streets last Spring had a favorite chant Only one Leader re meaning Khomeini Only one the party of Iran single party autocracy still de pends on its charismatic Leader once he is his the appear Likely to lose their sole claim to Doyle who has reported frequently from recently completed a Tiv year assignment for the los angelas times in the Middle he is now on assignment in new Banisadr top right Battles Khomeini from while in Rajai and Bah Onar from left Are dead a Sfanjani remains a target Liberal letter indicates centralization plans Ottawa if there was Ever any question about the degree of centralization that the Trudeau government plans for it should be dispelled by the latest missive circulating in the a letter from Treasury Board presi Dent Don Johnston to Cabinet ministers expresses alarm at the additional demand for personnel in various departments for fiscal one reason for the concern is that there will inevitably be a further heavy demand for person year authorization when priority plans Are put into an example of such plans is the switch to direct Federal delivery of programs in place of cos sharing with the provinces and provincial Deli in it would appear that the Trudeau government plans to exclude the provinces from administering pro Grams like Hospital insure pos secondary education and a Ottawa diary Peter Thomson Tivi ties of the department of regional economic the Johnston letter reminds one of the words once uttered by an aide to prime minister Trudeau we will reduce the provinces to the level of one reason that it has taken so Long for Ottawa and Alberta to reach agree ment on Oil pricing and taxing is that the Federal government wants to obtain a big share of Oil revenues to carry out the master plan on Central or Access to tax is of course the key to Federal centralization the present strategy is to confront provincial governments with the Prospect of having Federal financing Cut finance minister Allan Maceachen said last Spring that he wanted to reduce Federal transfers to the prov inces by billion Over two provincial governments and organizations and individuals who foresaw dire consequences in a reduction of Federal funding have taken Issue with idea of reduced Federal a parliamentary task which heard these has issued a report in that Federal funding not be the alternative has to be that the Federal government or even the level of funding but re quires additional revenues to do it and thus claims a larger share of tax reve Nues leaving the provinces with less Money and less at this time it appears Only a decision by the supreme court of Canada us porting provincial Powers will pre vent of Power to Ottawa from the the supreme which recon Venes after its summer recess at the end of has a couple of vitally important judgments to Issue in the near one is on the legality of the Trudeau governments constitutional the other is on the Federal authority to tax provincially owned natural decisions in favor of the Federal government on these issues will Speed up the centralization q d d a More immediate problem for the Federal government is the criticism it is drawing for High interest the prime at his press conference last week continued to blame interest but noted that he will hear from Liberal caucus Mem Bers in mid september about the extent of the he will no doubt hear that people Are angry with the Dan Mckenzie pc Winnipega Sini Boia has written to the prime min ister urging reestablishment of debt moratorium boards like the ones that existed on the Prairies in the the boards would act As mediators Between desperate homeowners and lending in order to extend payment periods and lower monthly Mckenzie Back in to get the government to consider such a proposal like All others who have called for interest rate was not Able to get government it is expected the government will bring in an Early budget Likely in october that the budget will contain some kind of interest rate re at least for those who Are renewing mortgages at ruinous finance officials Are that it is almost impossible to draw the line Between those who must have interest rate Relief and those who should be tories fudge position on provincial debt Back in the Spring of when the new conservative government was in the first flush of Power and its restraint program was in top former nip Cabinet now progressive party Sidney had these prophetic words to say the Public Doest want to do Noth the conservatives notion that the Public Doest want government used As an instrument of social and economic Progress is when the Public pressure builds the Rob Lin conservatives in the caucus will win out and the Noni Terven zionist conservatives will whether its a Case of caucus Wran Gleser the bold words of the election Campaign Are gone and while the Lyon government has hardly become activist or inter it has bowed to reality and Public pressure and abandoned some of its most cherished the most apparent change of heart has occurred in the area of debt and Manitoban will remember Premier Sterling Lyons repeated pledges to clean up the mess left by eight years of nip waste and mis in one of his first legislature speeches As Premier during the Lyon waxed indignant about the weight of debt the nip had placed on the shoulders of Frances Russell nobody dealt with the debt in Manito youd think that in addition to the that honorable members oppo site would be interested in the heritage that they left us in the we find that the Gross debt As of March less the sinking funds is billion you work that out on a per capita basis and it comes to somewhere around it is the second High est debt in and weve got to make sure that were that we have the financial capacity within the private sector of this to meet the kind of debt payments that we its going to take All of the Best All of the Best judgment that we can find in the next four years to bring this province Back again into a competitive position with other prov both in terms of taxation and in terms of three and a half years last week to be Energy minister Don crate told a Winnipeg service club that Manitoba will have to borrow billion in one year alone 198485 to pay for its Meg projects and to refinance other but cracks far from apolo was he told the club members that this massive infusion of Money would have a very beneficial effect on the provincial Economy throughout the Manitoba debt has been accumulating steadily during the tory from the billion that so exercised the Premier in the debt has now climbed to or about for each an increase of nearly billion or per capita since the government pledged to reduce it came into Manitoba debt per capita is still the second highest in most signify the portion of the debt caused by government spending for general purposes has risen from million in 1977 to a projected million this the Premier denies emphatically that this signals any change in course for his answer ing questions at his news conference in Morden last Lyon said his objectives always were to stabilize the which he implied had been our purpose was stabilize the debt the nip was inflict ing on especially in the in stance of Hydro where there was no Cash flow coming to pay off the debt they were attempting to prop up the Economy by building facilities that were not they were accumulating debt for no return in the foreseeable the tories believe their Mega pro especially the Power Grid and Alcan smelter which will allow them to begin work on the next Hydro station on the represent responsible debt because there will be a Market for the of they would not be in a position to negotiate either a Grid or the smelter if the nip had not undertaken the irresponsible debt it did to build the Hydro system to its current capacity at a time of much lower semantic arguments about responsible and irresponsible debt still do not hide a Welcome change of heart in the tory government the i that in a province such As Mani lacking any major private sector economic the provincial gov itself i Trust act As a catalyst and pump primer for the one voiced by opposition so is that the government May be Selling out Manitoba interests to get the Meg projects just so that it can eat its past words about no debt without a return nip Hydro critic Jim Walding and Liberal Leader Doug Lauchlan claim the Power Grid makes no economic sense unless Manitoba Sells its Power to Alberta at a blended Price melding the paid for plants on the Winnipeg River with the new billion Limestone Albertas own Power is much cheaper than the Power that will be produced at Lime if Manitoban will be subsidizing Alberta and picking up much of the Tab anyway for the resumption of Hydro the distinction the pre Mier tries to draw Between stabilized and a stabilized debt be comes even doonesbury ;