Clampdown deters Iran protests

[DinoDoc]

The Iranian capital, Tehran, has seen a third night of student protests against the Islamic authorities - but only a few hundred demonstrators turned out.

A heavy security presence made it difficult for large crowds to mass as they did on previous nights, and students were mainly confined to areas near university residences.

Police blocked roads around the campus, and prevented hardline pro-government militias from clashing with students.

The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused the United States of trying to foment disorder and division, and warned protesters not to expect any pity.

The authorities have blamed US-based satellite TV channels for inciting the protests.

The number of people protesting on Thursday night was far smaller than the several thousand who turned out on the previous two nights.

Some students chanted "Freedom, freedom" and "Democracy, democracy".

Others shouted "Khamenei the traitor must be hanged".

But the protests have also been directed against reformist President Mohamed Khatami, as well as hardliners who are blocking the president's attempts at social reform.

As on earlier evenings, a few dozen hardline militia members on motorcycles armed with chains tried to approach the students, but they were held back by police.

There were a few stone-throwing incidents, but no clashes.

About 80 people were arrested earlier in the week, but most have now been released.

Blame

On Thursday, Ayatollah Khamenei again blamed the United States for provoking the protests.

"Leaders do not have the right to have any pity whatsoever for the mercenaries of the enemy," he said.

Many people have lost hope in Mr Khatami, reports the BBC's correspondent in Tehran, Miranda Eeles.

After voting him in six years ago on a platform of reform, Iranians - especially the young - are fed up at the slow pace of change.

The authorities are anxious for the situation not to get out of hand.

They have stressed to students that they will not tolerate a repeat of the events of 1999, when clashes with law-enforcement officers lasted for three days and left at least one student dead.

Those anti-government protests were the most serious since the fall of the Shah in 1979. About 70% of Iran's 65 million population is under 30, and has little or no memory of the late Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution.

Personally, I think the constant harping about the US on the part of the mullahs is a particularly poor attempt to paper over the failiures of thier rule.

[GePap]

It is, but the Mulahs do still have support. University students alone do not any real change make.

Either the students need to get organized and attempt some entry into politics (if they hate Khatami, beck some other guy), or the Mullahs will repeat 1999.

[Spiffor]

Except for communist guerillas, is there any form of influent opposition in Iran ?

[Edan]

IIRC, there's a general strike breing planned in Iran for July 9th. It'll be interesting to see how succesful that will be.

(I wonder if there will be any protests (in support of those striking) in the US.)

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Except for communist guerillas, is there any form of influent opposition in Iran ?

I heard there were two forms of opposition in Iran:
1. The people
2. The government
Together they should be unstoppable. I wish them luck.

[DanS]

Here we are after a sixth night of protests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2992628.stm

Good luck to them! They have good perserverance.

[Dinner]

The Mullah's have trashed the Iranian economy. Not that it was ever that great, but, there antifamily planning "we must out breed the infidels" approach has lead to half the population being under twenty years of age and sky high unemployment.

[Ted Striker]

Don't Mecca big deal about it.

[Az]

*crosses fingers* I hope the "Republic" will be toppled soon.

Unfortunately, there are always the morons in the outbacks, that want the "old values".

I esp. liked what one of the students has said "We don't want reform, we want revolution", thus distinguishing himself from the "reformists", the Smiling Ayatollahs.


Good luck to you, students, good luck.
And remember, we have never had any quarrel with your people.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by DanS
Here we are after a sixth night of protests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2992628.stm

Good luck to them! They have good perserverance.

Did everyone read the comments by Iranians at this site? Informative.

[C0ckney]

i think what's very interesting is that many senior clerics are calling for a seperation of church and state, because they say the government is using religion for its own ends (like duh!).

more power to the students, hopefully this will be the start of the road that leads to a free and democratic iran

[GePap]

The students don;t like the system, but ask 50 of them what the alternative should look like and you will not get the same 50 answers. Given that they shout dislike Khatami as well, they have no political aims, no one unifying force (the return of the sahs boy is NOt a serious end result). As such they present no alterative to the rest of society. Very young people may make the great bulk of the state, and sicne they are well educated may chaffe at the Mullah's rule, but without presenting an aletrnative they are unlikely to get the support of any other groups in society that might lead to a change in government.

As I said in the beginning, they need to get organized and get some answers, and then they can be effective.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by GePap
As I said in the beginning, they need to get organized and get some answers, and then they can be effective.

Well, I´m not sure. Of course it would be better to have clear alternatives, but when you look on Eastern Europe there weren´t clear alternatives in the beginning of protests there either. In most of those countries there were no organized political opposition forces, they developed within the process that lead to those revolutions in the East.

For instance in Eastern Germany people started protesting about very practical things, lack of freedoms, no free press, no (or only small) chances to visit relatives in Western Germany etc. At this time they hardly thought about big new concepts for their societies. Very few people thought of abandoning communism or even a re-unification with Western Germany at this stage - all this developed over time, during the protests. And also organizations or new parties developed only over time. Most of them started as very small private initiatives (because before the democratization people couldn´t simply organize political opposition without fearing repression).

[GePap]

In most of those countries there were no organized political opposition forces, they developed within the process that lead to those revolutions in the East.

But did the people protesting have anotion of what type of soceity they wanted at the end? (read, like Western Europe, like West Germany) And in many East European states there were major dissident figures, and in Poland you had Solidarity.

Plus in Eastern Europe its was more than students tking to the streets, and the governments in eastern Europe could always be denoucned as formations of an outside power (the USSR), but the Iranian goernment is the result of a revolution itsef: no one impossed the system on Iranians from the outside.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by GePap
But did the people protesting have anotion of what type of soceity they wanted at the end? (read, like Western Europe, like West Germany) And in many East European states there were major dissident figures, and in Poland you had Solidarity.

Well, generally I´d say many protestors thought of democratic changes on their societies without changing into a clearly "Western" model, because the consequences of such a complete shift to a new society were feared. Think of the Czech idea from 1968 - a "human" communism (they called it democratic socialism, but it was not exactly the same as social democracy known from Western Europe). I think that is what many people wanted initially, because many thought it would be possible to have both the advantages of communist and capitalist concepts together.

Of course OTOH there were also people from the beginning who wanted a clear orientation towards the West. But generally this was not the dominating idea first, it became it only during the process, because of the difficulties of a "capitalist" reality. Means if you start to change a system towards democracy and free market, you can´t stop easily were you want to preserve elements of communism, esp. not when the ugly things of the communist past are brought into public discussion (which wan´t possible before) and when you have existing successful Western examples directly at your borders. From my experiences in Eastern Germany at some point the entire process got its own dynamics towards the west. It was fueled by Western Germany, but not "forced" upon us from outside. It wouldn´t have been successful without the people accepting the Western idea finally as working alternative.

From what I know I´d say at least in some countries of Eastern Europe this development took place as described above (eg. Czechoslovakia -sp?, Eastern Germany, to some extent in Poland and Hungary). I´m not sure about eg. Baltic or Balkan states.