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Iran May Crack Down on Reformists
TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader raised the possibility of a harsh crackdown Thursday after two days of pro-reform demonstrations during which hundreds of increasingly bold young people have gone so far as to call for his death. OW! That got his attention The last two days have seen the largest demonstrations against Iran's political leadership in six months. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech broadcast on state television and radio Thursday, referred to violence in 1999, when vigilantes and security forces attacked students protesting media restrictions, killing at least one student and touching off the worst street battles since the 1979 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed shah. ``If the Iranian nation decides to deal with the (current) rioters, it will do so in the way it dealt with it on July 14, 1999,'' Khamenei said.
pious youths with truncheons, weak moustachios Tehran state radio originally misquoted Khamenei as blatantly urging vigilantes to intervene. Later state television and radio broadcast the full speech. There was no sign of further protests at the university hostels at midday Thursday. Students tend to protest in the evenings during summer. It's cooler and darker. We may be threats to the mullahs, but we ain't stoopid Exiled opposition groups are seizing the opportunity created by restless Iranian youth, encouraging dissent through avenues like Los Angeles-based Persian TV channels. U.S. pressure on Iran, which Washington accuses of hiding a nuclear weapons program and harboring terrorists, may have further emboldened those who hope to see the regime toppled. On Wednesday, dozens of hard-line vigilantes on motorbikes chased about 300 mostly teenage protesters, beating them with sticks in the streets outside a Tehran University dormitory in the city's Amirabad district. Several people were seen being carried away with head injuries. motorbikes, hmmm? Ever heard of the clothesline-across-the-street trick? Around 200 students in the dormitory compound threw stones and Molotov cocktails at anti-riot police after they joined the vigilantes attacking the protesters. The protesters chanted ``Death to Khamenei'' and threw stones at anti-riot police, who tossed them back. Gotta light the wick on the Molotovs, amateurs In Iran, criticism of Khamenei is punished by jail and is rarely heard in public. things change About 80 protesters had been arrested for chanting slogans against the leadership and for participating in unauthorized demonstrations after a small student gathering Tuesday night against privatizing universities grew into an anti-regime demonstration. ``The clerical regime is nearing its end,'' demonstrators chanted. ``Vigilantes commit crimes, the leader supports them.'' Demonstrators also called for the resignation of President Mohammad Khatami, a popularly elected reformist, accusing him of not pushing hard enough for change. Khatami doesn't have the power of unelected hard-liners who control the judiciary and the security forces. But the hard-liners don't have popular support, leaving Iran at a stalemate. Posted by: Frank G 2003-06-12 |
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