LONDON: Britain, citing security concerns announced the expulsion of “a number of Iranians” and ordered the closure of Iran’s consulate in the crown colony of Hong Kong.
The moves Wednesday came one day after Tehran broke diplomatic ties with London in the Continuing controversy over British author Salman Rushdie’s novel, “The Satanic Verses” which Moslems consider blasphemous.
Police in Sydney Australia, were guarding bookstores Thursday following death threats and a televised warning from a Pakistan born Moslem who demanded that publisher Penguin Books pull the novel from store shelves by Friday.
The owner of Abbey’s bookshop in Sydney said his store was under 24 hour police surveillance following death threats. The owner, who requested anonymity, said he had sold 250 copies of “The Satanic Verses.”
The threats were quite blunt,” he said “The caller simply said he would kill me if the book continued to be sold.”
In a television interview Wednesday Pakistan born Javed Chaudry demanded that Penguin pull the novel from circulation by Friday and pledged support for Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death sentence ‘on Rushdie.
“I am a very violent man and the people who are helping me are violent,” Chaudry warned, “If someone wants to put me in jail, they can. If they want to kill me they can. But they can’t take away my obedience to the ayatollah.
Prime Minister Bob Hawke said Thursday he was personally offended by Chaudry’s threats.
“If any Australian individual or group infringes the law, then the law should take its full course,” Hawke said.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe said the decision to deport an unspecified number of staff from the Iranian Embassy and other Iranians was made because Khomeini refused to lift his February 14 death decree against Rushdie.
We have made clear throughout that as with any other country, normal relations between Britain and Iran must depend on Iran’s fulfillment of her international obligations in particular by renouncing the use or threat of violence against our citizens,” Howe told the House of Commons.
“Tran has not withdrawn those threats. We have therefore decided that on security grounds a number of Iranians must be required to leave this country,” Howe said,
Home Secretary Douglas Hurd would issue orders to leave Britain “to a number of locally engaged staff of the Iranian Embassy and other Iranians,” Howe said.
“We are keeping the activities of other Iranians under very close review and further action will be taken as necessary,” he said.
Howe also said the Iranian government must close its consulate general in the British colony of. Hong Kong within two weeks.
In Katmandu, Nepal, U.N. Secretary-general Javier Perez de Cuellar said Thursday that freedom of expression as well as belief must be protected.
“The United Nations is for 100 percent human rights,” Perez de Cuellar told a news conference at the end of a four day visit to Nepal. “But we have to remember two things respect and protection of human beliefs and the right of expression. We have to have a balance between these two. I have made more than one appeal to protect the right of the author.”
Tran’s break in ties with Britain came seven days after the Majlis, or parliament, issued an ultimatum giving London a week to ban “the Satanic Verses” and reverse its “hostile stand” on the death decree against Rushdie.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 17, 1989
