Kermanshah Paper Assails Neshat Report on Mine Deaths

Unclassified

Document ID: FTS19990725000772

Version Number: 01

Region: Near East/South Asia

Sub-Region: South Asia

Country: Iran

Topic: DOMESTIC POLITICAL

Source-Date: 05/01/1999

Kermanshah Paper Assails Neshat Report on Mine Deaths

 MS2507192299 Kermanshah Bakhtar in Persian 1 May 99

[Unattributed article: "The bloody move of the tribes in Kermanshah is a big lie!"]

[FBIS Translated Text] The bloody move of 170 nomads of Kermanshah in border area [subhead]

The regions in Kermanshah Province not cleared of mines caused the death or injury of some 170 nomads who were moving across this province. According to IRNA, some 52 nomads of Kermanshah Province were killed and 118 injured as they hit mines planted in the area. 'Ali Ashraf Azadi, head of the tribal center of Kermanshah Province, told reporters: "Unfortunately, due to the fact that the border areas have not been cleared, some dozens of people were killed as they hit mines and a high number of animals were lost as well." Brigadier General Chapoghli, the commander of disciplinary forces in Kermanshah, spoke of two or three people who lived in the border areas being killed in a recent interview while elaborating on the performance of the disciplinary forces and the events of the last year. The IRNA correspondent in Kermanshah interviewed the people in charge of tribal affairs to get more news. They told him that some people had walked on to the mines in previous years, but that was reported, in the form of "special" news. However, all of a sudden, this story got published by the daily Neshat, in issue number 41 dated 22 April 1999. The report titled "Bloody move of 170 nomads of Kermanshah" surprised and worried us as well as the people.

The Bakhtar daily has always tried to obtain the latest news in the province; that is why it was so surprised at hearing the news and made great efforts to get more information. Its results showed that the news as published by the Neshat daily was false, and that the truth was somewhat different. The news as reported by Neshat was totally false and sheer lies, and therefore worried and frightened the people. This is our case: What was the source of the news published by Neshat according to which some 170 nomads were killed or injured on Wednesday after hitting the mines? From whom did Neshat receive the news, that led it to publish this with capital letters on the front page of the daily? If the news regarding some people hitting the mines was announced by IRNA as special news, how is it that the daily Neshat could publish it in such detail? Moreover, the event (the death of 2 or 3 people) related back to last year and had not happened two days before the publication of that issue of Neshat. The manager in charge of the daily -- who is also from Kermanshah himself -- knows full well that the publication of such news could demoralize people and that the negative impact would cause harm and damage to the province. Fortunately, due to the efforts of military and disciplinary forces, the region has been cleared of mines and there are now only a few mines left as proved by the statistics for last year. A question for the IRNA office in Kermanshah.

We also have something to ask the IRNA office in Kermanshah: How is it that "special" news items that cannot be published are so widely available, and are in fact published by Neshat or other dailies. This is not the first time that the special news items of this news agency have been published by the dailies in the center; the Bakhtar daily asked the head of IRNA the same question some time ago. We still hope to receive a convincing reply.

Bakhtar considers it has an obligation to inform the good people of Kermanshah that the news report referred to above was false. According to the commander of the disciplinary forces only 2 to 3 people were killed or injured by mines last year. Therefore, the false report published by daily Neshat should be disregarded.

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