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2003-06-11 Iran
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Iranian protests
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Iranians demanding change staged their biggest protest in months Wednesday, chanting slogans against powerful Muslim fascists clerics they accuse of limiting freedoms and the reformist wimps government for failing to rein them in. Some 3,000 protesters, many of them heeding a call from U.S.-based Iranian exile satellite television very good, gathered near the Tehran University in support of a smaller, student protest against proposed privatizations in higher education. Residents said the chants at the demonstration damning the country's clerical leaders were the most on target extreme yet heard. Uniformed and plainclothes police not yet ready to change sides with batons broke up the protest. "About 80 of the rioters were arrested last night. These people, instigated by local radicals and foreign agents,
couldnt have foreign agents stir up demos, now could we?
chanted illegal slogans,"
and what slogans are illegal in Iran?
the ISNA student news agency quoted gestapo Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi as saying. Several motorcycles were torched and windows of some shops and a state bank were smashed as protesters dispersed. "I would not be surprised if we see more of such protests in the future because the ground is ready," one eager parliamentarian who declined to be named told Reuters. "Our society now is like a room full of gas ready to ignite with a small spark."
The protest followed increasingly tough rhetoric aimed at Tehran from Washington which accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons and sponsoring terrorism. U.S. hawks have called for actions aimed at destabilizing Tehran's clerical rulers. But diplomats cautioned that Iran's student movement was fractured and disorganized and said the protests could quickly fizzle out. "The usual response from the authorities is to crack down hard and that's normally enough to send all but the most die-hard protesters home," an Asian diplomat said.
Question is whether its different now, as they grow frustrated with Khatami, and see whats happening in Iraq.
Many in Iran have lost faith in moderate President Mohammad Khatami and his lack of progress in reforming the 24-year-old Islamic Republic in the face of strong opposition from conservatives in powerful positions.
Not surprising
"The slogans people chanted showed they don't believe in the system at all and they are challenging the whole system, including Khatami," the parliamentary deputy said.
Very significant
"I heard the students had gathered from television," said 46-year-old housewife Parvin. "I came here to send a message to (Secretary of State) Colin Powell that we want change."
You listening, Colin?
Powell told CNN Sunday that Washington was working to persuade Iranians to force change from within to make Iran what he called a less troublesome member of the world community.
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi rejected the remarks. "Powell should know U.S. interference would boost resolve and solidarity among Iranians," newspapers Wednesday quoted Kharrazi as saying.
Thats why he's so happy Powell is making them - not.
The United States, which cut ties with Tehran after the 1979 revolution, has branded Iran part of an "axis of evil." High unemployment and frustration with Iran's strict Islamic laws have fed discontent among the overwhelmingly youthful population, around 70 percent of which is under 30 and has little memory of life before the revolution. Analysts say the reformers have been further weakened by a resurgent hard-line faction which is determined not to loosen its grip on power now that U.S. troops are now on both the eastern and western borders of Iran, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Khatami has to either break with the mullahs, or get out of the way.
Despite the reformers' overwhelming victories in presidential and parliamentary polls since Khatami came to office in 1997, most of their efforts to institute change have been blocked by conservatives appointed as political watchdogs.
Making the elections meaningless.
Dozens of pro-reform intellectuals, journalists and student leaders have been jailed as part of a conservative crackdown that followed the 1999 student protests.
Not the sign of a confident regime, if you ask me. 
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Posted by liberalhawk 2003-06-11 10:37 am||
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Posted by Watcher 6/11/2003 9:38:12 PM||
6/11/2003 9:38:12 PM||
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Posted by Watcher 2003-06-11 21:38:12||
2003-06-11 21:38:12||
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