Iranian Alert -- DAY 30 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST [Riots erupt]

Today is July 9th. The day Iranians have been waiting for. The next 24-72 hours may be the most important in Iran's history.

It is noon there, at the time of this post, and already we are hearing of people in the streets. The regime's security forces are out in force. This is very encouraging as most of the demonstrations thus far have been at night to take advantage of the cover of dark.

We have heard of riots in the Pars region of the city of Tehran. We have yet to hear of strikes. We are receiving phone calls from Iran but they are few. The regime is cutting off the calls to the United States as soon as they find them.

We are continuing to hear of the regime’s jamming of the broadcasts in much of Iran and Europe. But apparently the signals do get through from time to time.

The people of Iran have chosen July 4th because four years ago, the regime brutally attacked peaceful student demonstrators while in their dorms. The result was the loss of life and liberty of hundreds of students, many of which are still unaccounted for.

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a country. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary.

Thousands defy demo ban

By World News
Jul 9, 2003, 4:12pm

TEHRAN - Tens of thousands of Iranians converged on an area around Tehran University in their cars late Wednesday to mark the fourth anniversary of bloody pro-democracy student riots, defying a huge deployment of riot police and hardline vigilantes.

Despite a blanket ban on any gatherings, masses of vehicles were seen jammed around Enghelab (revolution) square and the tense city-centre campus.

The facility itself was closed by authorities in what had been part of a determined bid to prevent any display of public anger against the clerical regime.

Hundreds of anti-riot police, decked out in combat fatigues and protective gear, lined the streets, while members of the hardline Basij and Ansar Hezbollah militias -- the fiercest defenders of the nearly 25-year-old Islamic regime -- whizzed around on motorcycles.

The bumper-to-bumper jam in the normally quiet nocturnal streets was accompanied by a deafening cacophony of car horns as, in a repeat of anti-regime protests last month, residents displayed their frustration.

"Is your horn not working?" one motorist was overheard asking another driver sitting silently in his car. Each time cars packed with men and women of all ages set off their horns, youths were seen clapping and cheering in delight.

"Stop the honking! I'm warning you that I don't have much patience!" one visibly unnerved pro-regime militiaman was heard screaming at the mass of chugging cars, but with little effect.

When traffic passed near counter-demonstrations by the puritanical Basij militia, the horns were briefly silenced as motorists feared damage to their cars.

Those who dared to sound their horns were quickly surrounded and harassed.

The bizarre logjam came despite concerted efforts by Iranian authorities to prevent any further expressions of anger -- in any form -- over the country's seemingly intractable political deadlock between entrenched hardliners and elected reformist MPs loyal to embattled President Mohammad Khatami.

In what appeared to be a police bid to prevent serious clashes, some scuffles broke out between uniformed officers and plainclothes but armed Islamist vigilantes trying to approach an area where a traffic jam of protesters' cars was backed up.

No other clashes were spotted during an extensive tour of the area between 10 pm (1730 GMT) and midnight (19:30 GMT), although several young people were seen being detained by police.

Armoured trucks featuring metal plows and water cannons were also on hand around Enghelab square.

The sound of what could have been either firecrackers or exploding tear-gas shells was also heard on a few occasions, although hundreds of people were also seen milling around on pavements with few problems.

Wednesday was the fourth anniversary of massive street clashes between pro-democracy students and police, during which at least one demonstrator was shot dead and hundreds of others arrested or injured.

Some of the students detained in the July 1999 unrest are still in jail.

The anniversary protest also comes hot on the heels of last month's 10 days of anti-regime demonstrations, marked by more clashes and the chanting of virulent slogans targeting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- from whom hardliners take their cue -- but also President Khatami.

The accompanying crackdown saw 4,000 people arrested, the hardline judiciary said.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1032.shtml

Thousands more protest in main US and European cities

By SMCCDI (Information Service)
Jul 9, 2003, 4:43pm

Thousands more of members of Iranian Diaspora gathered, today, in order to protest against the illegitimate rule of the Islamic republic regime and to ask for its change into a Secular regime.

Thousands of Iranians living in main US gathered in cities, such as, Washington DC, New York, Austin, Chicago, Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle and San Francisco; An thousands of others, living in Europe gathered in cities, such as, Paris, Hamburg, Stockholm, London, Den Hague, Oslo, Brussels and Barcelona.

All of them asked for "Referundum" for the choice of a Secular regime and the end of any foreign support of the regime.

It's to note that already several big demonstrations took place in cities, such as, Rome (Italy), Los Angeles, dallas and Houston in the US where huge crowd had the same demands and aspirations.

For the first time ever, most US and European channels covered, partially, these gatherings. Even the French famous FR3 Channel covered the SMCCDI Demo and broadcasted in tonight's news part of an interview made with a SMCCDI female member who called for the Support of the Iranian "Nation".

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1040.shtml

Iranian student protests signal rising government dissent

By MATTHEW GUTMAN

Shrugging off death threats by government paramilitary forces, tens thousands of Iranian students took to the streets Wednesday night, burning at least three government banks, calling for the country's democratization and the death to its extremist leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini.

The demonstrations, banned by the Mullarchy, came on the 4th anniversary of 1999 pro-reform protests which triggered a violent regime crackdown, the death of one student and the arrest of thousands.

Opposition group leaders hailed Wednesday's demonstrations the culmination of month-long anti-government activities as a deadly blow to the repressive regime, saying it edges Iran ever closer to a democratic revolution.

Following and eerily quiet day in Iran, three-sided street battles erupted between pro-reform youth, regime-backed para-military forces, and police outside Tehran University.

As many as 100,000 also gathered around one of Tehran's main city squares Wednesday night chanting pro-democracy slogans and calling for the death of Khameini, an opposition source said.

The protests also coincide with mounting international pressure on Iran to reveal its secret nuclear reactors, suspected to be developing a nuclear bomb.

On a visit to Iran Wednesday International Atomic Energy Agency's chief Muhammed ElBaradei, failed to secure Iran's agreement to immediately conduct more rigorous inspections of its suspected nuclear program.

The Iranian regime, at present, consents only to pre-arranged visits to sites it chooses to declare.

But Tehran, facing mounting pressure from the U.S. and Britain, has said it would only consider signing the protocol if other Non-Proliferation Treaty signatories met their obligations relating to the transfer of civil nuclear technology.

"This is a very big step forward in the road to the democratization in Iran," Safa Haeri, editor of the leading opposition newspaper, the Iranian Press Service, told the Jerusalem Post from Paris.

Beyond the demonstrations themselves, Haeir regarded the student's capture of the world media' attention "a watershed event." According to Haeri the demonstrations and the a student letter campaign calling Iran a "political Apartheid state," might compel the U.S. to slap an embargo on Iran for violating basic human rights.

Earlier in the day three student leaders were promptly arrested after they criticized the government in a news conference held to declare that they canceled the day's demonstrations.

Government supported militants have been attacking students, primarily invading student dormitories and beating students in their sleep, for over a month. The attacks are aimed at discouraging students from their almost nightly demonstrations calling for an end to the repressive regime of Khameini.

With crackdowns coming with increasing fury, students have fought back, for the first time calling for Khameini's death, a crime punishable in Iran with a hefty prison term or even disappearance, at the hands of the paramilitary forces.

In an effort to forestall the demonstrations the government deployed the para-military Ansar Hezbollah and the Basij volunteers notorious for their pro-Ayatolla fanaticism and their penchant for spilling blood.

The Mullahs told reformist parliament deputies to reign in demonstrators or they "would be mercilessly crushed," according to a Iranian opposition source.

The para-military groups were not armed with batons but with firearms, said the source.

In an open letter sent to U.N. General-Secretary Kofi Anan Iranian student leaders claimed that "a political apartheid has taken all hopes from the Iranian people, because it is denying us self rule and the right of choice, the right to be master of our own destiny, because it has lowered our expectations to the lowest limits possible and also because we are worried to see the experience of our neighbors be repeated here."

In what experts called a remarkable show of mushrooming anti-government sentiment the signatories represented student associations of thirty universities.

Part of the impetus for the continued pressure on the government originates with U.S., France, and Britain-based opposition groups openly supporting student revolt.

Pentagon sources have for months been calling and prophesying a student revolt that could, if only eventually, topple the hard-line regime.

One Israel-based Farsi broadcaster, Menashe Amir, predicted that an Iranian national uprising is a matter of time. He cited Iranians' anger at poverty, drug addiction and support for international terror.

The Jerusalem-based station broadcasts Iranian-language talk shows on short-wave frequencies that can be heard in Iran. Iranians from all sectors of that country's society call in regularly, the station says.

Israel Radio estimates tens of millions of Iranians listen to its Farsi broadcasts, particularly during times of unrest.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1057723800470

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THE STUDENTS ARE THE GREAT VICTORS OF 9 JULY

TEHRAN 9 July (IPS) Sporadic, but at times violent clashes opposed Wednesday evening some demonstrators with Islamic vigilantes and Basij militias in central Tehran, the vicinity of Tehran University, several suburbs of the capital as well as in major cities, according to eyewitnesses and reports from Iranian students organisations.

The clashes started at the end of a rather tense day, with students having decided to drop their plans for commemorating the fourth anniversary of the first major students rebellion against the Islamic Republic on 9 July 1999, an uprising that was suppressed violently by the Revolutionary Guards backed by the Basij volunteers, pressure groups known as Ansar Hezbollah and special anti-riot units belonging to the Intelligence Ministry, acting on orders from Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the regime and approved by President Mohammad Khatami, leading to one dead, hundreds wounded and thousands arrested.

To prevent any demonstrations and meetings, the authorities had declared a virtual state of emergency in Tehran and other big cities, with thousands of armed Islamist vigilantes and plainclothesmen roaming the streets, cordoning off all road leading to universities and dormitories, that were closed anyway.

A witness said police had fired tear gas at groups of youths near the campus and also fought fistfights with plainclothes Islamic militiamen to prevent them from engaging in further running battles with youths.

In other places, fire-fighting engines dispersed demonstrators with water canons while the pressure groups used tear gas, the Iranian Renaissance Movement "Noza’i", the Students Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran and "Iran va Jahan" (Iran and the World) internet website reported, confirmed by major news agencies, radio and television stations.

Other reports speaks of banks and some administrative offices and building attacked by mobs and set on fire, including a bank in Eslamshahr, a huge shantytown 30 kilometres West of Tehran.

"The atmosphere is very tense, the smell of tear gas is thick in the air. Police have clashed with youths, the youths have fought with Basijis (militiamen) and I saw police fighting Basijis trying to get closer to the university", a witness told the British news agency Reuters.

The clashes erupted after plainclothes thugs, controlled by the ruling conservatives, attacked a press conference by some leaders of the Office for Consolidating Unity (OCU) explaining why they had decided to call off their plans for commemorating the massacre of 9 July 1999 as well as a decision to organise a sit in at the doors of the United Nations office in Tehran, arresting three students, namely Mr. Reza Ameri, Arash Hashemi and Ali Moqtaderi.

During the two weeks of students-people demonstrations against the present regime and its senior rulers, the authorities had arrested more than 4.000 demonstrators and abducted hundreds of students, taken to undisclosed prisons operated by he leader’s Intelligence Organisation.

Mr. Ali Keshtgar, a Paris-based political activist and Editor of the monthly "Mihan" (Homeland) said the recent students protest movement has helped both the students and Iranian people to better foster and coordinate their actions, aimed at bringing fundamental change in Iran.

"If the students used to write letters to Khameneh'i or to Khatami, urging them to bow to the people’s demands for freedom and democracy, now they write directly to the United Nations. If until now, the students were hoping that the system if reformable from within by way of implementing the reforms championed by Mr. Khatami, now they have reached the final conclusion that this is a hopeless case and calls on the people to use civil disobedience as a tool and way to democracy and secularism", he observed, talking to the Persian service of Radio France International (RFI).

However, and as the demonstrations continue, with some protesters shouting the ritual slogans of "death to Khameneh'i" and "down with Islamic Republic", political analysts said the day marked a "three way" victories for the regime, for the students and also for the Iranian opposition at large.

"The clerical rulers showed that they are still on control and can use dissuasive methods, including threats to shoot at bay and kill mercilessly. The Iranian opposition, mostly abroad, made an unprecedented show of force and unity by organising hundreds of demonstrations all over the world in support of the students and the Iranian people", commented a prominent scholar in Tehran.

"But the real victors of the day are the students, as with their continuous demonstrations and protests for freedom and democracy, have attracted the international opinion and sympathy and mobilised the world’s leading media to their cause and demands", he added, asking his name not be published. ENDS STUDENTS UNRESTS 9703

http://www.iran-press-service.com/

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