Iran student protests spread to other cities

Financial Times (London) | 6-16-03 | NAJMEH BOZORGMEHR

[tallhappy]

Copyright 2003 The Financial Times Limited  
Financial Times (London)
June 16, 2003, Monday London Edition 1
SECTION: MIDDLE EAST; Pg. 6

LENGTH: 427 words

HEADLINE: Iran student protests spread to other cities

BYLINE: By NAJMEH BOZORGMEHR

DATELINE: TEHRAN

BODY:
Anti-regime protests in Tehran, led by students, have spread to other cities, while Iran's Islamic establishment has slammed US support for the demonstrators as interference in the country's internal affairs.

The protests continued early yesterday morning in Tehran for the fifth successive day, though on a smaller scale than previously. Few clashes were reported amid a heavy presence of police and Islamic vigilantes.

Domestic media yesterday reported gatherings by thousands of students and other people in the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Ahvaz in support of the Tehran protests.

The US, which has branded Iran a member of the "axis of evil", has applauded Iranians' protests and called on the regime to release those arrested.

"This is the beginning of people expressing themselves toward a free Iran which I think is positive," President George W. Bush said yesterday.

The White House had released a statement on Saturday saying it viewed "with great concern the use of violence against Iranian students peacefully expressing their political views".

Iran's reformists and conservatives have closed ranks in reply. The Foreign Ministry yesterday slammed the US for "flagrant interference in Iran's internal affairs". Mehdi Karroubi, the pro-reform parliamentary speaker, called the US's reaction "shameful" and said Iranian officials would be "united against the enemy" despite their differences of opinion on domestic issues.

Observers think the protests will continue sporadically and might gain momentum as the anniversary approaches on July 9 of student protests in 1999 which were brutally suppressed.

A few hundred Islamic vigilantes, wielding clubs, knives and chains, attacked a dormitory of Allameh Tabatabaei university on Saturday morning, beating up hundreds of students and injuring 100 of them, with one stabbed in the heart and 50 taken to hospital.

Saeed Asgar, the vigilantes' leader who is thought to have the strong backing of hardliners, was arrested late on Saturday, along with some of his collaborators, in an apparent bid to calm the students.

Police yesterday said 109 people had been arrested since the latest wave of protests began, none of them students. Though some students were thought to have been picked up, the authorities generally release them immediately, to avoid exacerbating tensions.

"Generally speaking, the police's policy is not to deal with students harshly. However, pressure groups act more brutally than before," a student leader, Abdullah Momeni, said. www.ft.com/mideast

LOAD-DATE: June 15, 2003

[tallhappy]

Free Republic's coverage of this far outshines the mianstream media.

LA Times, Washington Post, New York Times all have little or no coverage.

This is from Fincancial Times of London. They're coverage is usually a bit wider and broader than our US big papers.

[tallhappy]

Here's the link.

[The Great RJ]

As I remember the downfall of the Shah started the same way. I bet the former Shah's son Reza Palavi has his bags packed and is waiting for a call to go back to Tehran.