Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – April 3, 1989

First, we visited the base by car. It is very vast and huge. It has about three thousand personnel and is self-sufficient for life. It has a lot of green space, agricultural fields, plenty of clean and tidy water. We visited the rocket repair place.

Efat and his companions went to visit Hoizeh and Khorramshahr, and my companions [Mr. Mohammad Rashidian, representative of Abadan, Bait al-Najat Mousavian, head of the Immigrants' Affairs Foundation, Mohsen Mirdamadi, governor of Khuzestan, and Dehdashti, head of Abadan Seminary] went by helicopter to Karun sugarcane cultivation and industry. Greeted by enthusiastic staff. They gave general explanations in the amphitheater hall. We visited the sugar factory. We saw a production line from the entry point of sugarcane to the bagging of white sugar; It is interesting. Then I spoke for the staff. The workers have many demands and objections to the management and they were very busy.

Then we visited the power plant and factories for animal feed and chipboard, which is obtained from sugarcane bagasse. They explained about the reconstruction. With 25 thousand hectares of land and about ninety liters of water, they get from Karun and Dez. They have 35 hectares of fish breeding ponds. We went to the guest house of the region for rest, lunch and prayer. In that area, the immigrants of war have been settled. Men and women got together and expressed their feelings and told their problems. They were mainly from Bostan region.

The governorate and officials of Abadan and Khorramshahr reconstruction came. They told the figures and the schedule of the reconstruction and the needs and problems. It will take three years to completely rebuild these two cities with the previous facilities.

We flew to Ahvaz. We landed at Mujahidan Mohajer settlement. In sixty hectares of Khalsa lands, they have built about nine hundred good residential units with relevant urban facilities. It is supposed to be given to fighters who are war migrants and married. Their opinion is to give for free and the governor's opinion is to take something. It was decided to discuss and negotiate more about this. Several other settlements have been built for the same purpose for immigrants, which have a total of about six thousand residential units. They gathered in the mosque. We had a short discussion and went to Ahvaz airport to fly to Tehran.

I gave a radio and television interview about the results of the trip. Efet and his companions had not arrived, so we were delayed for a while. They arrived in the evening. We flew immediately. On the plane, Mr. [Sidjalal] Sadatian explained about his trip to the East. I arrived home at half past eight. Eft and Mahdi had a bitter time in connection with the issue of Ayatollah Montazeri. I slept angry.