Author: IPS
Publication: Iran Press Service
Date: June 13, 2003
URL: http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Jun-2003/students_unrest_13603.htm
As the clerical authorities tuned
down their previous harsh rhetoric against demonstrators, the Democratic
Front of Iran called on the people to continue the protest movement "until
the regime falls".
"Not only will the protest movement
will not go away by oppression, imprisonment, torture and violence, but
it will get stronger", the Front said as more people took to the streets,
repeating earlier chants and slogans against the regime's highest clerical
authorities, including Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini, the most veneered
icon of the Islamic revolution, and the present leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i.
Chairman of the Assembly for Discerning
the Interests of the State (ADIS, or Expediency Council), Ayatollah Ali
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called on students to be "vigilant and not to
be influenced and misled by US conspiracies".
But Richard Boucher, the State Department
senior spokesman expressed the hope that "the voice of the Iranian people
and their call for democracy and the rule of law will be heard and transform
Iran into a force for stability in the region".
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was
addressing worshippers, most of them busses to the Tehran University campus,
blamed the unrests to anti-revolutionaries, former members of SAVAK (the
toppled Monarchy's intelligence agency) and monarchists, warning them not
think that they can fish from troubled waters and take advantage of the
recent events.
Protesters, most of them ordinary
residents of Tehran, again chanted "Death to Khomeini", "Death to Khameneh'i",
"Death to Hashemi (Rafsanjani) and "Khatami, Resign, Resign", as heavily
armed units of Law Enforcing Forces (LEF) and the Basij militia, along
with the thugs of Ansar Hezbollah, a pressure group controlled by the conservatives,
had cordoned off the University and students dormitories, not only preventing
people and journalists to get close, but even beat some journalists, photographers
and cameramen.
Eyewitnesses said the unrests renewed
after plainclothes men of the "Party of God" attacked people that had come
to streets around the dormitories to express solidarity with the students,
bringing them food, clothes and other necessities, but were charged by
the vigilante gangs.
"Traffic was bumper-to-bumper in
downtown Tehran until the early hours of the morning as curious residents
stayed out to watch developments", one protester reported.
"Khameneh'i, the traitor, must be
hanged". "Freedom of thinking is not possible with beard and turban", some
demonstrators chanted, while others vowed to continue demonstrating until
9 of July, the fourth anniversary of the 1999 students revolt that was
crushed on orders of Ayatollah Khameneh'i wit the blessing of Mr. Khatami.
Angry demonstrators chanted death
to Khameneh'i as any criticism of the leader is punished by imprisonment.
"Hundreds of students residing at
the Tehran University hostel held a gathering at the central square of
the hostel complex at the invitation of the Islamic Association of Tehran
University and the Medical Sciences University", the official news agency
IRNA reported after being silent since the start of the unrests three days
ago.
Although the authorities had imposed
a total black out on the media ordering them not to report the violence,
but the independent students news agency ISNA continued its coverage of
the events, going as far as reproducing some of the most daring of slogans.
The thugs, riding on powerful motorcycles
and armed with chains and clubs, chased protesters and badly beat them,
mostly women who had taken off their scarves, but they were beaten back,
eyewitnesses said.
"At times, the police stopped the
plainclothes thugs from beating women and separated the protesters from
the Basij militia. But in other places, the LEF behaved very violently
against demonstrators", one female eyewitness told an IPS reporter, adding
that the violence of the LEF might be the result of the leader's order
to security forces to deal "mercilessly" with anti-regime demonstrators.
In a speech pronounced Thursday,
Ayatollah Khameneh'i, while calling on his troops, meaning the Basij volunteers
and the Party of God not to play in the hands of American "plotters and
their local mercenaries", but also warned the protesters that if they continue
their anti-regime movement, the faithful people would crush them, as they
did four years ago".
Analysts said though Mr. Khameneh'i
tried to look not impressed by the protests, but he was visibly shocked
and destabilised by both the violence of the slogans and the continuation
of the demonstrations.
"He reminded me of the late Shah
after he heard the first death to Shah chanted in the first anti-regime
demonstration", a former Iranian official recalled after seeing Khameneh'i
on the television.
However, in a statement received
by Iran Press Service, the Democratic Front of Iran (DFI) told Mr. Khameneh'i
and the regime that the protest movement of the last three days "not only
will it not go away by oppression, imprisonment, torture and violence,
but it will get stronger".
"The last days students protest
movement, on the threshold of the 4th anniversary of the attack on the
students at Tehran University, showed that the people's struggle has entered
a new stage and the continuation of this struggle will defeat the regime",
the statement said.
"The regime is weaker than it appears.
The nation's fear from this regime is over. Now the nation demands its
legitimate rights such as Democracy, Justice, freedom and referendum for
its future government", the DFI, which is led by the veteran political
activist Heshmatollah Tabarzadi pointed out.
"The student movement proved once
again how effective it could be for the creation and coordination of the
mass movement of the people", the statement said, adding that the "struggle"
includes workers, students, teachers and especially women.
The nation wants people's rule,
and one that honours separation of church and state, freedom of all the
parties and political groups, as well as freedom of speech by a referendum.
Mr. Tabarzadi, a former leader of
students urged the "government reformists" to resign and join the nation
for the establishment of democracy, "now that the nation has come to the
conclusion that this regime will not change or accept any reform".
Several reformists close to Mr.
Khatami have urged him to resign, and with him all the reformists lawmakers
that form the majority in the present Majles, in case the leader-controlled
Council of the Guardians reject the his bills for curtailing some of the
powers of the Council in the one hand and enhancing the prerogatives of
the president on the other.
The CG has already rejected the
bills that have been approved by the House, but Mr. Khatami resists the
idea of resigning and reverting to national referendum instead.
Neo-reformists and the national
opposition both inside and outside Iran also calls for a referendum, one
that would allow Iranians to choose a democratic and secular system instead
of the present Islam-based theocracy.
"The dictators should know that
any violence against the people will cause more hatred against them and
the arrest of more than 80 people, including Hassan Zarezadeh, (the spokesman
of Student's United Front and a member of DFI who was arrested Wednesday
night), will have no result except to accelerate the process of the collapse
of the regime", the statement said in a direct hint to Mr. Khameneh'i.
"The people of Iran have found their
way and this is the result of sacrifices and the struggle of men, women
and especially the students who have withstood imprisonment, torture and
violence, but who never gave up", the statement said.
"The expansion of demonstrations
and strikes is the only way and must continue every day and night until
July 9. The presence of people in Tehran and other cities will get the
world's attention and will put an end to this regime. The people are already
voicing this jubilant notion amongst themselves that the regime is finished",
the statement concluded, adding: "Do not forget the referendum and demonstrations.
Victory is near".
