Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – March 27, 1997

At half past seven in the morning, I left home for the airport to travel to Ardabil, in order to visit the earthquake affected areas of Meshkin Shahr and Sarein. Chastity and immorality also came. Mr. [Ali Mohammad] Besharti, [Minister of the Interior], [Isa] Kalantari, [Minister of Agriculture], [Ali] Ghayuri, [Representative of the jurist in the Red Crescent], [Jalil] Besharti, [Head of the Office of the Presidential Disadvantaged Areas] and [Rasul] Zargar, [Deputy Minister of Civil Engineering and Head of the Unforeseen Events Staff] were also there; In addition to the representatives of the province. At half past nine in the morning at Ardabil airport, the witness's son welcomed and greeted him.

We went to the region and to the village of Golestan by car. The residents gave a warm welcome and I spoke consolingly and encouragingly. We visited the earthquake ruins. Almost all the buildings have been destroyed, if a building was built with good materials and the right style, it remains.

We sat for a while in the tent of one of the residents. We greeted each other. He had five children. They are satisfied with the first aid and hope for reconstruction. The phase of rescuing people and temporary accommodation has been completed, and the work of debris removal and reconstruction by the Housing Foundation will begin today. 13 thousand units were damaged from 20 to 100 percent and 225 billion Tomans were damaged. Then we went to Shiran village. It was the same there. The people there had gone to the city.

We went to the city of Sareen. The people gave a warm welcome. Because the buildings were built with cement, brick and iron, the damage to the city was minor and there were no casualties. I spoke in the community and appreciated the people's patience and cooperation and the efforts of the officials and promised a quick and good reconstruction. They are very passionate and loyal. [Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad], the governor, gave explanations about the status of facilities that were built to use hot [mineral] water and attract tourists.

We went to Ardabil city. There was a briefing outside the city at the governor's guesthouse. The governor and engineer Zargar, head of the country's disaster headquarters, spoke and reported on the measures and reconstruction plan. They are going to give each family 600,000 tomans as a good loan for construction, 300,000 tomans for animal stables, and 100,000 tomans to build a fifteen-year-old house, and I also agreed to give 200,000 tomans for each unit. We will also deliver materials to them at work. Two types of maps are presented; small and big Separate aid should be given for the lost livestock. They said 16 thousand animals were lost. We have to build schools and other public facilities. It is done in such a way that people will have a house next winter.

Then we went to the airport. On the way, the people of the city and the villages gathered together and offered sacrifices and thanksgiving. The officials of the province demanded that we buy some of the potatoes left by the farmers; It may spoil. I told [Mr. Isa Kalantari], Minister of Agriculture, to follow up. We had lunch and breakfast in the plane on the way back and forth. We reached home at half past three in the afternoon.

Asr Aseed Abbas Tabatabayi and his family members came to congratulate Eid. Mr. [Kamal] Kharazi, [Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations], called from America and said, the broadcast of Mike Wallace's interview with me in America has caused a major change and changed the minds of many people, especially since after the broadcast of the interview, Wallace himself answered people's questions about the contents of the interview and was mostly defensive.