Iranian Student Protesters Clash With Police

          
          Iranian Student Protesters Clash With
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          Iranian Student Protesters Clash With Police
          Dy NAZILA FATHI and RODERT F RTH
          Published: December 7, 2DD9
          Thousands of Student protesters gathered at universities in Tehran
          and other cities across Iran on Monday, chanting antigovernment
          Slogans and fighting with security forces in what appeared to be the
          most violent street protests since the summer.
          Enlarge This Image
          European Presaphoto Agency
          An injured Iranian protester received
          help during a derrnnstrations in Tehran
          on Monday. More Photos a
          Multimedia
          Photographs
          Students' Day Protests in fran
          Related
          The Lede: Latest Updates on New
          Protests in Iran
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          The main entrance to Tehran REPRINTS
          University was sealed off by security SHARE
          forces while clashes broke out
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          TPONO.OREO 0?
          between protesters and tens of
          thousands of jj militiamen in
          squares around the city, witnesses and _______________
          WATCH TRAILER
          opposttton Web sites reported. Protests
          erupted at universities throughout the country, including
          Kennan, Mashhad , Isfahan and Hamdean. The opposition
          staged a street raily in Shiraz.
          Witnesses said there was an anger to the protests not seen
          since the summer months, when protests broke out after
          the June 12 presidential election, which the opposition has
          dismissed as fraudulent. The Basij responded with ferocity,
          using copious amounts of tear gas, electrical truncheons
          and stun guns in an effort to disperse the crowds.
          There were reports of gunfire, apparently warning shots
          fired over the protesters' heads by the security forces.
          In Tehran, protesters chanted, “Death to the dictator,”
          followed by, “This is the last Warning.” They carried
          Iranian flags missing the word “ailah,” which was added
          after the 1979 revolution, and burned posters bearing the
          image of Ayatoilah Ruhoilah Khomeini , the founder of the
          Islamic republic.
          A crowd of about 1,000 students gathered at a university in
          Sanandaj, in the Kurdish region of Iran, unusual for an
          area where security is extremely tight, the Kurdish
          Rawanews reported. Students in Kerman , in central Iran,
          ,rJUAST Ic
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          Iranian Student Protesters Clash With
          shouted, “Death to dictator,” “Azadi” — Persian for freedom
          — and, “My brother, the street sweeper, take Mahmoud
          away,” a reference to the country's president, Mahmoud
          Ahmadinejad .
          Agence France-Presse — Geiiy images Videos posted to YouTube, Twitter and opposition Web sites
          Iranian opposition supporters
          dermnstrated at Tehran University on early on Monday showed students gathering i ii large
          Monday. More Fhotos>
          crowds m Tehran and the northeastern city of Mashhad.
          The police, who are barred from the universities, had
          gathered outside the schools and in public squares to head off the protests, and by early
          afternoon there were widespread reports of tear gas, beatings and arrests.
          An opposition Web site, Fararu, said that the Basijis threw two students, including a young
          woman, out a second floor window at Boo-Mi Sina University in Hamedan, injuring both
          seriously.
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          The protests came on National Student Day, an official holiday in which the government
          commemorates the 1953 killings of three students by the shah of Iran, who was
          overthrown 30 years ago by I slamist revolutionaries. Antigovernment activists had
          signaled they would take advantage of the day to protest despite repeated warnings by the
          authorities.
          Protesters from the opposition movement last thronged to the streets in early November as
          Iran celebrated another official holiday, the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the United
          States embassy in Tehran. Tens of thousands of protesters wearing green masks marehed
          through the streets shouting anti-government slogans in those rallies, but were beaten
          back by police.
          On Monday, witnesses in Tehran were quoted by Reuters as saying that Iraninn police
          fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators at Vali Mr Square, and they said police officers
          had used batons to beat protesters at a separate demonstration.
          The authorities ordered foreign news outlets not to cover the protests, and Internet service
          was reduced to a trickle on Saturday, so slow that it was impossible to “open e-mails or
          any Web pages,” a journalist in Tehran said. Several reports said that mobile-phone
          networks — which protesters have used to coordinate their actions and broadcast
          messages outside Iran — had been shut down.
          The measure appeared to be aimed at preventing information about the crackdown or the
          protest to get outside the country and also to deprive the opposition from its primary
          means, the Internet and Facebook , to mobilize their supporters. Videos posted online have
          played a critical role in showing the worid what has been happening inside Iran.
          Mir Hussein Moussavi , one of the two opposition leaders who ran against Mr.
          Ahmadinejad in June, issued a statement on Sunday characterizing the movement “as
          alive” despite government suppression.
          He warned that the authorities could not end the protests with the arrests of students
          because 1 in 20 Iranians were university students, several opposition sites reported.
          “They are asking us to forget about the election results as though people are concerned
          only about the elections,” he said. “How can we make them understand that this is not the
          issue? It is not about who the president is or is not; the issue is that they have sold out a
          great nation.”
          Mr. Moussavi has been issuing statements regulariy since June. Despite threats of arrest,
          he remains free, but his movement is restricted, according to an ally outside the country.
          His comments were followed by criticism of the government by Akbar Hashemi
          Rafsanjani , an influential politician who sided with the opposition but had been silent
          recently.
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          12/7/2009 Iranian Student Protesters Clash With
          “Constructive criticism is not tolerated in the country,” Mr. Rafsanjani said at a meeting
          with students in the city of Mashhad, according to the Web site mowjcamp.com . “It was
          not right to put the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards to confront the people.”
          A day earlier, Iran tightened security in an apparent attempt to suppress any
          antigovernment rallies, an'esting more than 20 mothers who were mourning children
          killed in the unrest that has broken out since the disputed June 12 elections. The mothers
          had taken part in a vigil in Laleh Park in central Tehran every Saturday since the death in
          June of Neda Agha-Soltan , 26, whose shooting became a symbol of the government's
          violent repression. The rally had been attacked by the police before, but Saturday was the
          first time the mothers were arrested.
          An opposition Web site reported that the protest was broken up by the police and that
          many demonstrators were taken away. The BBC Persian service quoted a witness who
          said 29 women were arrested, some of whom were later released. But at least 21 remained
          in jail, the BBC said.
          It was unclear whether Ms. Agha-Soltan's mother, who had participated in the vigils, was
          present on Saturday and was among those arrested.
          Next Saturday, six months after Election Day, protests are planned around the world “to
          honor the Iranian people's peaceful struggle for their human and civil rights,” according to
          the organizer, United4l ran, a network of activists supporting human rights in Iran.
          Nazila Fathi reportedfrom Toronto and Robert F. Worth reported from Beirut, Lebanon.
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