'Renewed Trouble Hits Iran Capital'
July 09, 2003
BBC News
Jim Muir
Disturbances are reported to be taking place in Tehran, as protesters marked the anniversary of a raid on a student dormitory.
The Iranian authorities had taken stringent measures to try to head off trouble on the anniversary following 10 days of late-night protests against the Islamic regime last month.
The raid in 1999 by police and right-wing vigilantes triggered several days of violent street riots.
As darkness fell on Wednesday, large numbers of people began congregating in streets and parks close to Tehran University in the centre of the city.
The campus itself had earlier been closed down - one of many measures taken by the authorities to try to head off possible trouble on the anniversary of the riots.
Tear gas
Hundreds of security forces and riot police also flooded the area.
There were reports that clashes later broke out, with tear gas being fired to disperse protesters.
One report said right-wing vigilantes were also present, but the official security forces clashed with them and tried to keep them away from the demonstrators.
In the disturbances last month, vigilantes attacked protesters with clubs, chains and knives, causing many injuries and provoking bitter protests from student leaders and some reformist politicians.
Neither the student organisations nor the reformist movement are supporting these street protests, which have been dismissed by regime hardliners as hooliganism and American-inspired agitation.
Many student leaders were also detained in advance of the anniversary.
Three of them were marched off with pistols to their heads by bearded gunmen after giving a news conference on Wednesday morning.
But many other people have still taken to the streets.
Some of them may be hard-core opponents of the regime, others frustrated reformists.
But on such occasions, large numbers of those who turn out are simply curious to know what is going on.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3054355.stmRead this for those thinking the mullahs of Iran are warm hearted guys the liberal media seems to want them to be... I have been told the same would probably happen to me if I went there now...
Ottawa Still Waiting for Information on Canadian Arrested in Iran
July 09, 2003
The Canadian Press
myTELUS
OTTAWA -- Canadian officials were still waiting for information Wednesday about a Quebec woman arrested in Iran and allegedly beaten into a coma after snapping pictures of a prison.
Reynald Doiron, a Foreign Affairs spokesman, said Canada sent a diplomatic note Tuesday asking the Iranian government to clarify the matter, but no reply had been received as of Wednesday afternoon. Family and friends of Zahra Kazemi, 54, said she is a freelance photographer who was arrested June 23, branded a spy and beaten into unconsciousness by police interrogators.
Friends who visited her in hospital Tuesday said she was unconscious with severe cuts and bruises on her face and head.
Kazemi was born in Iran but emigrated to Quebec. She has a son in Montreal.
An official at the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa said he had no information about Kazemi other than what he had read in media reports.
"We just know that she has not been there as a Canadian reporter with a visa from us," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.
"She might have been there by her Iranian passport and Iranian citizenship."
He said he did not know when the Iranian government would respond to Canada's request for information.
http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=canada_home&articleID=1361195