2,700 MARCH HERE IN SUPPORT OF IRANIAN REBELS

RASH OF SETBACKS TO KHOMEINI REGIME BREEDING OPTIMISM, SELF-DESCRIBED EXILES SAY

Soode Fard's younger sister, Marylm, 20, has lived in a jail cell in Iran for three years. She was arrested and tortured after officials caught her passing out anti-Khomeini pamphlets, Fard said.

"I am here for her, because she can't be here," said Fard, one of the 2,700 people who marched in the downtown area yesterday to express support for the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLAI), a year-old rebel force of about 10,000 that hopes to overthrow the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The parade came nine days after the rebel army captured the Iranian city of Mehran, a small town about 400 miles southwest of Tehran, near the Iran-Iraq border. The surprise attack, which ended with the rebels' retreat, represented a setback and an embarrassment for the Khomeini government.

"I will go back to Iran someday," Fard said yesterday. "When I can have my sister and my family there under a safe government." The desire to end Khomeini's rule of Iran was repeated by many protesters, who carried Iranian flags and NLAI posters and yelled anti-Khomeini chants through the streets.

"Of course I would return to my family there," said Saeid Mortazavi, 26, of New Haven, Conn., who also was in the parade. "But not under Khomeini. We are young people, and once we've had a taste of freedom we cannot go back under Khomeini."

Many of the protesters said they had come to the United States as higher education students and had remained after Khomeini took power in 1979 because they realized they would not be able to return to their old life styles under the Khomeini's Islamic government.

People traveled here from across the nation and Canada for the protest, which began at Lafayette Park and went to Dupont Circle before returning to the park. Many marchers said they had taken off work and had spent hundreds of dollars and long hours to get to the rally. The large turnout and apparent dedication to the NLAI and the People's Mujaheddin, a seven-year-old liberation group now joined with the NLAI, reflected the close-knit community feelings that these self-described exiles feel.

"There are not many people who know what it is to be away from your homeland," said Ali Javahari, who works for an electronics manufacturer in San Diego. "Sure, I would like to go home, but now these people are my home," he said. Javahari and several other protesters said they try to remain active within their respective Iranian communities and frequently attend events at which people can talk about news from Iran.

For some, these small communities are their only contact with other Iranians. "It is difficult, almost impossible for me to find out about my sister, about my family," because of suspicions that such communications would arouse in Iran, said Fard, 28, who lives in California and runs a small retail business. "I sometimes feel cut off and need my friends so I know there is hope."

The prospect of ending Khomeini's rule seems almost a possibility to the marchers and other observers who believe that recent political developments in Iran indicate a power struggle among Khomeini's subordinates. Iran's continuing war with Iraq, the sinking of six Iranian Navy vessels by U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, the loss of the Faw Peninsula and the brief capture of Mehran all are seen as setbacks for Khomeini's regime.

Last week, intelligence reports circulated that Khomeini, 85, has liver cancer and is not expected to live out the year.

"This all makes us optimistic," said one marcher who traveled from Montreal for the parade. " {Khomeini} will die, the government will fall and then we will return," said the marcher, who did not want to be identified for fear his comments would jeopardize his parents, brother and sister in Iran.

Although the NLAI has yet to achieve its request that the United States declare Khomeini's regime as not representing the Iranian people and then recognize the NLAI as the voice of Iranians, two U.S. representatives, Democrat Mervyn M. Dymally of California and Republican Donald E. Lukens of Ohio, attended yesterday's rally and expressed support for the NLAI.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.