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Iranian
Desecration
To the Editor:
“...life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...”
As we celebrated the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, fireworks of other sort were exploding across the seas. For example in Iran the flagrant international violations of basic human life, human liberty, and human happiness continues against, the members of the Baha’i Faith, their largest religious minority.
Recently I recieved a letter from the Office of Public Information, for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, that informed me that Iranian officials, in their capital city of Teheran,, are destroying gravesites and exhuming and removing the bodies of Baha’is to unknown destinations to make way for the building of the "( ultural Center of Khavaran.” Although all Baha’s cemeteries were confiscated, mortuaries and a memorial hall were razed, gravesite markers obliterated, and many headstones sold at public auction prior to this, by the Islamic regime, this is the first time that bodies have been actually exhumed. These acts ari' consistent with guidelines detailed in a secret Iranian government plan recently revealed by the U.N. which calls for suppressing and destroying the Baha’is and their cultural roots. On April 22. President Clinton cited Iran’s “abusive treatment of the Baha’is" as one of todays critical human rights issues.
BERDINA A. JENKINS
Front Royal
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