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| Iran |
| Iran’s regime take aim at its defenders to restore order |
| 2003-06-18 |
| In a bid to stamp down on a week of student-led anti-regime protests in Tehran and Iran's main cities, Iranian authorities have for the first time targetted their most determined defenders: hardline vigilante groups. While rounding up student leaders, dissidents and scores of people who have taken to the streets to shout virulent slogans against the ruling clergy, the extremists previously called out to silence such demonstrations have suddenly found themselves out of favour. Until now, stick, chain and knife-wielding vigilantes have enjoyed free reign over anyone daring to criticise supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When the latest protests kicked off on Tuesday, groups such as Ansar Hezbollah were quick to display their zealous loyalty to the nearly 25-year-old Islamic republic. Whizzing around on motorcycles, they chased demonstrators and beat, stabbed or bludgeoned anyone they could lay their hands on. Student dormitories were wrecked, while residents seeking to join the protests by car had their windscreens smashed in. But the authorities appear to have been quick to realise that rather than dampening student resolve, the hardliners were only making the task of containing the protests even harder. On Saturday, after a vicious assault on a Tehran university dormitory, police detained several members of the extremist grouplet Dakhmeh (the Cave), including their leader Said Asghar — convicted but released well before his jail term was up for attempting to assasinate a close aide to reformist President Mohammad Khatami in 2000. Between June 10 and 16, more than 250 people were arrested in connection with the unrest in Tehran. According to Deputy Interior Minister Ali Asghar Ahmad, 35 percent were "counter-revolutionaries" or "hooligans", while many others were people trying to "disguise themselves as Basij (an official hardline volunteer army) and Revolutionary Guards." And Iran's police chief, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, called on the conservative judiciary to "vigorously" handle the cases of detained extremists "so as to show that there is no discrimination in the application of justice." While no official figures have been given on the number of extremists arrested, they have all but disappeared from the streets during the protests — which in Tehran at least have been winding down. The driving force behind the decision to rein in the hardliners appears to have been lessons from the clashes around the university in July 1999, when hundreds of students took to the streets for three days of unrest that saw at least one student killed and hundreds of others detained. The memories of that unrest and the activities of vigilantes remain bitter among students and reformists. "If four years ago we had arrested those who attacked and ransacked the campus, we wouldn't be seeing the same thing again today," reformist MP Fatemeh Haghighatju told parliament Tuesday. "In the past few years, these groups have committed the most violence on the streets, and at the same time some students arrested four years ago are still in prison," she complained. Mohammad Reza Khatami, reformist party leader and brother of the president, described such hardline groups as "rogues", lumping them into the same category as protestors who have chanted insulting slogans at regime leaders. But even though they may be out of favour for the time being, the groups still have clout. "We are in a very sensitive situation," commented a reformist journalist, who asked not to be named. "The authorities are trying to neutralise the extremist Islamist groups and the more radical protestors." Putting a leash on their attack dogs and keeping them in the kennel. They'll let them out again if it looks like they are losing the fight. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 or maybe khatami is trying to keep control of the police for a potential 3 way game with the protestors and the reformers. If he does nothing the police may go over to the protestors - in any case they look weak. If he lets them hit the vigilantes, he shows his strength against the mullahs, while at the same time keeping the police loyal and so weakening the protestors. Just a theory. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-06-18 12:53:43 |
| #1 or maybe the Mullahs are arguing amongst themselves or maybe the thugs took some unexpected hits and are training/rearming for more serious thugery later this week |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-06-18 13:37:47 |