Iranians stage new protests despite crackdown

8 Dec 2009, 11:23 am   -   Source: AFP
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The protesters used an annual commemoration to stage fresh anti-government demonstrations (AAP)

The protesters used an annual commemoration to stage fresh anti-government demonstrations (AAP)

Iranian protesters defied police firing tear gas as they used an annual commemoration to stage fresh anti-government demonstrations despite a crackdown by security forces, witnesses said.

Iranian protesters defied police firing tear gas as they used an annual commemoration to stage fresh anti-government demonstrations despite a crackdown by security forces, witnesses said.
  
Clashes were reported between protesters, mainly university students seen as a backbone of the opposition movement, and police at several universities and prominent districts in the capital, which was flooded with security forces who arrested several demonstrators, they said.
  
Among those detained was student leader Majid Tavakoli from the prominent Amir Kabir university, the official IRNA news agency said, adding that he was "disguised as a woman" and was held for leading "riots."
  
"Police fired tear gas at groups of protesters chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Vali Asr intersection and Enghelab Street," one witness said.
  
AFP could not independently confirm the incidents as foreign media were banned from covering Monday's annual Students Day protest.
  
The reported violence was condemned by the United States, Britain and rights group Amnesty International.
  
Washington said that Iran's continued crackdown reflects a "disregard" for the rights contained in its own constitution.
  
"We believe that the continued harassment, arbitrary detention and conviction of individuals for their participation in peaceful demonstrations... reflects a... disregard for the kind of rights that are enshrined in the Iranian constitution," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
  
"And they should know that their voices are being heard," he added.
  
In London British Foreign Secretary David Miliband issued a statement voicing "concern."
  
"Freedom of speech and freedom of political expression are fundamental values which all governments should respect," he said. "We look to the Iranian authorities to uphold the freedoms of their own citizens, not stifle them."
  
Amnesty condemned what it called excessive force "against people who nevertheless choose to exercise their right to freedom of expression and assembly."
  
Protesters on Monday chanted "Death to the Dictator" and "Do not be scared. We are all together," a witness said, adding that a policeman was also beaten.
  
Opposition website Mowjcamp.com reported that police also used tear gas against protesters in the popular Haft-e-Tir and Ferdowsi squares.
  
Another witness described events as "a cat and mouse game with protesters being chased by Basijis (Islamist militia)."
  
Websites reported anti-Ahmadinejad protests at Tehran University, Sharif University, the University of Fine Arts, Amir Kabir University and universities in the cities of Kermanshah and Mashhad.
  
"A number of rioters who wanted to misuse Students Day had gathered in streets adjacent to Tehran University. They clashed with police as they tried to enter the campus," IRNA said.
  
The elite Revolutionary Guards had warned of a crackdown on any attempt by regime opponents to hijack the annual Students Day, which marks the 1953 killing by the shah's security forces of three students.
  
Students at Amir Kabir University ignored the warning.
  
"We are asking all people to come to universities so we can have one voice to protest at the coup d'etat," they said in an online statement under the name "Green university students of Iranian universities."
  
Green was the campaign colour of main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi for the June 12 presidential election, which he lost to Ahmadinejad in what he said was a "fraudulent" poll staged to return the hardliner to power.
  
Since then, Mousavi supporters have staged street protests at the slightest opportunity, accusing Ahmadinejad of "stealing their votes."
  
Another witness told AFP that around 1,000 policemen had surrounded Tehran University.
  
"Plain-clothes policemen were filming the events inside the campus and two protesters were also arrested," the witness said.
  
Pictures obtained by AFP showed students covering their faces with green masks and scarves as they chanted anti-Ahmadinejad slogans inside the campus.
  
Fars news agency said protesters broke windows of the university's technical college, where the three students were killed in 1953, while protesters also broke a gate at Amir Kabir university.
  
At Tehran's Sharif University, some students staged a symbolic funeral in honour of those killed in 1953.
 

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