Fresh violence reported in Iran

22 Dec 2009, 6:46 am   -   Source: AFP
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Iranian police clashed with stone-throwing protesters after the funeral of dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, attended by vast crowds of mourners in the holy city of Qom, websites said.

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Iranian police clashed with stone-throwing protesters on Monday after the funeral of dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, attended by vast crowds of mourners in the holy city of Qom, websites said.
  
Montazeri, a fierce critic of the clerical regime he helped create and an inspiration to reformists and human rights activists, died aged 87 on Saturday.
  
Opposition websites said hundreds of thousands of mourners poured onto the streets, many chanting slogans and displaying the green of Iran's opposition -- effectively turning the funeral into a massive anti-government rally.

Foreign media was banned from reporting at the funeral. The ban comes after post-election violence in Iran made international headlines earlier this year.

'Shots fired'
  
Mourners shouted such slogans as "Dictator, Montazeri's way will continue" and "Montazeri is not dead; it is the government which is dead," opposition website Rahesabz.net said.
  
A report on parliament's reformist minority faction website Parlemannews.ir said "shots were heard fired into the air at the shrine of Masoumeh" where Montazeri was buried.
  
Another website, Kaleme.org, said police and security forces clashed with a groups of chanting mourners who had gathered in front of Montazeri's house after the funeral.
  
"The police cracked down on people who were shouting (anti-government) slogans in front of his house and people threw stones at them," the website said.
  
Hundreds of hardline basij militia members and clerics also gathered near Montazeri's house and chanted slogans in favour of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and against the protesters, it added.

Cleric's house 'attacked'

Rahesabz.net said a group of "basijis attacked Montazeri's house and tore up his funeral banners."
  
There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.
  
Montazeri's son Saeed was quoted as saying the family had cancelled a memorial service on Monday evening at a Qom mosque after they learned the "mosque was filled basij and (revolutionary) guards forces."
  
Rahesabz and kaleme quoted him as telling the BBC's Persian-language service that "police equipped with batons and shields are deployed around the house and are not allowing anyone in or out."
  
Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi attended the funeral ceremony, which was marred by brief clashes between hardline pro-government vigilantes and mourners, reports said.

'Car vandalised'
  
Hardline vigilantes attacked Mousavi's car as he was returning from the funeral, his website said.
  
"A group of plainclothes people on motorbikes attacked Mousavi's car today and slightly injured one of his companions," Kaleme.org said.
  
It said the group had followed Mousavi's car, blocked its way several times and finally broken the car's rear window.
  
None of Monday's reports could be independently verified by AFP as foreign media were banned from covering the ceremony.

Number of mourners disputed
  
Crowd estimates could also not be verified, with a conservative news site Asriran.com also reporting "hundreds of thousands" of mourners at the ceremony.
  
Montazeri, who had been considered by his followers as the highest living authority of Shiite Islam in Iran, was buried in the shrine of Masoumeh, a revered Shiite figure.
  
Iran's Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi described him as the "father of human rights" and herself "one of the millions of his followers and students" in a statement on Rahesabz.
  
A White House spokesman also expressed condolences on the passing of the cleric.
  
"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who seek to exercise the universal rights and freedoms that he so consistently advocated," Mike Hammer said in a statement late on Sunday.
  
Mousavi and Karroubi had declared Monday a day of mourning and urged their supporters to participate in the funeral.
  
The authorities slowed Internet connections to a crawl, as has been the case whenever opposition demonstrations are anticipated.
  
Once designated as the successor to the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Montazeri came out in bold support of the opposition when it rejected the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June.

Montazeri critical of Khomeini
  
Iran's supreme leader Khamenei offered condolences to his family although Montazeri was also critical of him and questioned his credentials to be the country's highest religious authority.
  
Montazeri had long been critical of the concentration of power in the hands of the supreme leader and called for changes to the constitution, which he helped draw up after the 1979 Islamic revolution, to limit his authority.
  
Montazeri, one of the chief architects of the Islamic republic, was a student and close ally of Khomeini, whom he was set to succeed.
  
But he fell from grace in the late 1980s after he became too openly critical of political and cultural restrictions, most notably Iran's treatment of political prisoners and opposition groups.

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