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Posted on 07/10/2003 1:01:04 AM PDT by kattracks
Tens of thousands of Iranians converged on an area around Tehran University in their cars 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.
Earlier Wednesday, three Iranian student leaders from the pro-reform Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU) were arrested by plainclothes men just minutes after holding a press conference to blast authorities for not allowing them to commemorate the July 1999 clashes.
At the conference, they said a planned sit-in in front of UN offices had been postponed.
The activists, Reza Ameri-Nassab, Ali Moghtaderi and Arash Hashemi, also complained before their arrest that reform efforts by the embattled president had failed.
Student activists have voiced increasing anger at Iran's clerical leaders in recent months, with patience also running out among strong Khatami supporters -- many of whom complain the mild-mannered president has failed to carry through his mandate to bring "Islamic democracy" to the country.
On Tuesday, the OCU wrote to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to denounce what it said was a "dark chapter" in Iran's history and a "political and social apartheid" that it argued merited investigation by the United Nations.
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