| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Students protest against Ahmadinejad |
| 2007-10-09 |
| TEHRAN: Students staged a noisy protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Iran's top university in Tehran on Monday, likening him to the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. In scenes rarely witnessed in Iran, scores of university students chanted anti-Ahmadinejad slogans, clashed with pro-government militia and made public a highly critical letter addressed to the Iranian leader. Riot police barred the group of chanting students from leaving the Tehran University campus, where Mr Ahmadinejad was giving a speech marking the start of the new academic year. "Ahmadinejad is Pinochet! Iran will not become Chile," the students shouted. The demonstration was organised by Tahkim Vahdat, the student union organisation. Many of its leaders were arrested this year and three remain behind bars. The semi-official Fars news agency said the demonstrators at Tehran University, Iran's top academic institution, were calling for the release of students detained since May for publishing writings considered insulting to Islam. The demonstrating students were also confronted by a rival group of supporters of the hardline president who shouted, "Shame on you hypocrites! Leave the university!" Last December, Iranian students disrupted a speech by Mr Ahmadinejad at Tehran's Amir Kabir university, setting fire to his picture and shouting "death to the dictator". Mr Ahmadinejad, an ultra-conservative who won a shock election victory in 2005 on a wave of popular support, responded then by describing those students as an "oppressive" minority. In recent months, Mr Ahmadinejad has also faced mounting criticism of his Government's economic policies. The protest came just two weeks after Mr Ahmadinejad addressed New York's Columbia University during a highly controversial visit to the US for the UN General Assembly. "Why only Columbia? We have questions too," read banners brandished by the students at Tehran University. Mr Ahmadinejad was treated to a humiliating and public dressing down at Columbia, where he was described as a "petty and cruel dictator" by the university president. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 Er, didn't Pinochet deliver Chile into a full-fledged and prosperous democracy? Democracy? Pinochet was one of the most brutal thugs in Latin America. Prosperous? Yeah, tell that to the Mothers of the Disappeared. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2007-10-09 23:09 |
| #3 "Ahmadinejad is Pinochet! Iran will not become Chile," the students shouted. Er, didn't Pinochet deliver Chile into a full-fledged and prosperous democracy? |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-10-09 21:21 |
| #2 You won't hear about these particular students anymore. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-10-09 20:11 |
| #1 "Why only Columbia? We have questions too," Law of Unintended Consequences. (Thanks God! I really appreciate this gift, one of the greatest! ;-)) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-10-09 18:56 |