University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, June 7, 1989
Nation/World
Death of Iranian leader could signal change
Khomeini burial stirs emotions
The Associated Press
TEHERAN, Iran — Ayatollah Khakimi was buried yesterday after frenied mourners knocked his body to the ground and ripped his hair a burial shroud to pieces for memorials in a nationalary who ruled Iran for 10 years.
Thousands of Revolutionary Guards and civilians pushed and shoved around the graveside, kicking up clouds of dust as Khomeini's body was taken from a metal casket and lowered to the grave.
"They are burying a sacred body," screamed a television announcer, his voice horse with emotion, as sofi rode up the walls of blocks on top of the shrouded body.
"Oh, Father, don't leave your children! Oh, father, don't leave your beloved!" he wailed.
Khomeini, the driving force of Iran's Islamic revolution, died Saturday at age 86.
Several people were knocked unconscious in crushes at the cemetery and earlier at Marmara Mosque, where they were brought nearly 10-hour funeral procession.
A mid scenes of mass hysteria, the huge crowd surrounding the grave beat their heads with their hands in expressions of grief and threw dust themselves to show they wanted to be buried with their spiritual patriarch.
to pieces. The body fell to the ground.
In the chaos, Khomeini's son was
knocked down, but appeared uninjured.
carrying the body to the cemetery,
grabbed the corpse out of an open
wooden coffin and ripped the shroud
to pieces. The body fell to the ground.
They blocked the path of a van
State television later showed mourners grabbing the body and pulling the shroud when the feet could no longer be reached but out of abruptly for several minutes.
The body was rewrapped, placed in a closed metal casket and airlifted to the Bahseh Zahra cemetery, with mourners clinging to the helicopter until it was several feet off the ground.
Khomeini was buried next to Iranians who helped him seize power in the 1979 revolution that toppled a 2,500-year-old monarchy, and soldiers killed in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.
Analysts anticipate transition
NICOSIA, Cyprus — After the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran moves into what is arguably the Islamic revolution's most decisive phase as rival factions jockey for power.
The Associated Press
Some analysts and Iranian opposition figures in exile predict that Iran will be gripped by more bloody insurgency in Benjamin's herds battle for supremacy.
Others say the transition could take many months of bitter, but
largely peaceful, maneuvering.
The swift action Sunday by the 83 member Assembly of Experts, formed in 1979 to ensure the smooth transition of power, in naming Presi- tors, would appear to have contained an open struggle for power for the time being.
But it has not been eliminated. The country's political future is more uncertain now than at any period since Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled in 1979 and Khommieni was elected in 2006 by the theoretic Islamic republic.
Even as Khomene was being buried amid scenes of mass anguish, the men he installed in power were lining up against each other.
On one side are the so-called pragmatists led by Khamenei and Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanji. They favor a collective leadership, opening doors to the West and tackling the urgent task of warreon-
struction.
On the other side are the anti-Western radicals led by Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtasemi, who believe the revolution's survival depends on Iran's pre-eminence in the Moslem world and spread of Khomeini's fundamentalism.
Some analysts believe that Iran will move toward a less rigid religious-based system, downgrading the theocracy that has played such a dominant role since Khomeini was catapulted to power.
Khamanei, a middle-ranking cleric, clearly has not inherited Khomein's undisputed spiritual authority.
Since his appointment, Iran's official media has accorded him the courtesy title of "avatollah."
But he has not been referred to as "imam," or spiritual leader, as Khoomei was universally known throughout tran.
Solidarity turns down offer to join coalition
The Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland — Spokesmen for the Solidarity movement said yesterday that despite the group's overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections, the group is accepting the Communist Party's offer to join a governing coalition.
In a conciliatory move, however, representatives from the free trade union movement offered to stand by
the agreement made with authorities in April, allowing the party the two thirds majority in Parliament's powerful lower house.
As many as 35 seats might be vacant because some party and government officials, including Prime Minister Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski, had to have been defeated in Sunday's vote despiteunschosed.
DUKE BILLS STALL! David Duke, ex-Ku Klux Klan leader turned ambitious freshman legislator, riled many people with his election, but he was not alone. Other leaders had little effect on Louisiana government.
With the 1989 general session nearing its end, none of his bills has made it through the legislative process. Only one was passed by the House and it is pending in a Senate committee.
News Briefs
"Some of my legislation's gone through. I mean I'm on a one-month freshman legislator. That's not bad."
It's not unusual for a newcomer to have difficulty getting legislation passed. Rep James St. Raymond had a similar experience last year.
"The major difference is David is sort of a one-issue type of guy. He's interested in the business."
AIDS DRUG RESULTS! A decoy drug designed to confuse the AIDS virus by mimicking its natural target is safe and may lower levels of the virus inside the body, researchers said yesterday.
Scientists said they were encouraged by the results. But they warned that testing was at an early stage and that no one could be sure how much the medicine would be in stopping AIDS.
"Nevertheless, this represents an exciting
step forward," said Dr. Ian Weller of Middlesex School of Medicine in England.
The drug, known as soluble CD4, is one of more than a dozen being used experimentally against HIV, the AIDS virus.
So far, only one medicine, AZT, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use against HIV. Although it can prolong the lives of people with AIDS, AZT does not cure the disease and has a variety of toxic side effects.
"It clear that we desperately need alternation of leadership," said Dr Thomas Merrell of Stanford University.