BAM’S EARTHQUAKE UNDERMINES IRANIAN RULING THEOCRACY
TEHRAN 2 Jan. (IPS) As the number of the people dead in the strong earthquake that hit the south-eastern region of Iran, particularly the old and historic city of Bam announced officially at more than 30.000, critics at the way the Iranian clerical-led authorities handled the tragedy is getting more virulent.
"Everybody toiled in Bam, but there were no necessary tools", acknowledged Mr. Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, the official spokesman for the government, as the authorities decided, without providing any reason, to pull out all domestic and international rescue workers from the city, despite the fact that they had found seven people, including two children, from the rubbles of the ruined city.
"How come that those who have no other skill than to talk and give conferences that are broadcast endlessly by the controlled media can, by describing the devastating earth shake as a natural disaster or God’s wrath escape from their responsibilities", asked a statement issues by a group of banned Nationalist-religious movement.
"Despite possessing 80 per cent of all Iran’s heavy machinery and construction materials, the Revolutionary Guards, the Praetorian Guard of the ruling mullahs left the poor people of Bam to dig the ruins with their bruised hands", Mr. Nima Rashedan, a European-based Iranian political analyst told Iran Press Service.
The reason, he explained, is because most of the bulldozers and cranes so badly needed for Bam were busy on projects like building roads, projects that instead of being given to the private sector, were offered to the Guards against lucrative commissions and kick backs filling the big pockets of some Guards high-ranking officers and ayatollahs.
What adds to the people’s anger all over the country is that since the ayatollahs came to power 25 years ago, Iran has seen several major earthquakes, but no lesson has been drawn.
By the early 1970s, the government, aware of the fact that the region was sitting on an earthquake crater, had decided not to allow people to build new houses in Bam itself. The city's ancient monuments were declared part of the heritage of mankind under UNESCO and no new buildings permits were issued for almost six years.
"But the revolutionary turmoil of 1978-79 provided racketeers with an opportunity to seize large chunks of land in Bam and use it for poorly designed and badly constructed houses and shops. The racket was backed by a group of powerful mullahs who, in exchange for a cut in the proceeds, issued fatwas (religious opinions) that cancelled government orders that banned house building in the city", observed Mr. Amir Taheri, a veteran Iranian journalist.
"The mullahs claimed that the shah had wished to keep Bam empty because of a secret plan under which the city would be turned into a Zoroastrian centre. They also dismissed warnings from the National Seismological Centre in Tehran that opposed the repopulation of Bam. The mullahs claimed that the Hidden Imam would protect the new inhabitants of the city against all disasters", he said, concluding that: Thus, more than half of those who died in the earthquake could be regarded as victims of a racket ran by mullahs and their associates with the help of religious prejudice and superstition.
Local inhabitants, talking to reporters on condition of anonymity, expressed their lack of confidence at government’s pledges to rebuild the city on strong foundations. "Other cities in Iran were hit by strong earthquakes before Bam and every time, the authorities had made same promises, but go now to these places and see by yourself. Except few buildings, the majority of the houses are build as before, without any anti-seismic norms", one teacher who had lost his family and small house in the quake told IPS.
In the view of many Iranian observers, the action, or more appropriate, the inaction of the authorities towards the tragedy has "gravely" undermined the political and religious legitimacy of the ruling theocracy.
"One of our major handicap was the lack of coordination and preparedness. Contrary to the foreign missions that arrived fully equipped prepared and knowing exactly what to do, we had no central command, no coordination", confessed the lamed President Mohammad Khatami at the end of his visit to the ravaged city.
Confirming this view, Mr. Rashedan said "busy making business, the Revolutionary Guards and other popular units that had gained experiences during the Iran-Iraq War for providing assistance to the needy people at short notice became a burden for local population of Bam, having lost their valuable experiences".
"It is an irony that after 25 years of a corrupt, inefficient, oppressive rule of a half-divine regime, the only building that stands intact is the city’s prison, the symbol of the Iranian regime", one Iranian scholar cited the British newspaper The Guardian as having wrote.
http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Jan_04/iran_earthquake_2104.htm