Police fire bullets to break up Tehran rally
Britain, accused by Iran of fomenting post-election unrest, said it was evacuating the families of diplomats and other officials based in Iran.
Witnesses said helicopters hovered overhead as about 200 protesters gathered at Haft-e-Tir Square. But hundreds of anti-riot police quickly put an end to the demonstration and prevented any gathering, even small groups, at the scene.
At the subway station at Haft-e-Tir, the witnesses said police did not allow anyone to stand still, asking them to keep on walking and separating people who were walking together. The witnesses asked not to be identified for fear of government reprisals.
Just before the clashes, an Iranian woman who lives in Tehran said there was a heavy police and security presence in another square in central Tehran. She asked not to be identified because she was worried about government reprisals.
“There is a massive, massive, massive police presence,” she said by telephone. “Their presence was really intimidating.”
Iran says at least 17 protesters have been killed in a week of unrest so far after the electoral council declared hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winner of the June 12 election. His main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, charged the election was a fraud and insists he is the true winner. His followers have been staging near-daily rallies, at least one of them drawing a massive crowd of hundreds of thousands.
Severe restrictions on reporters have made it almost impossible to independently verify any reports on demonstrations, clashes and casualties. Iran has ordered reporters for foreign news agencies to stay in their offices, barring them from any reporting on the streets.
The country’s highest electoral authority, the Guardian Council, acknowledged yesterday that there were voting irregularities in 50 electoral districts, the most serious official admission so far of problems in the election.
But the council insisted the problems do not affect the outcome of the vote.
Earlier yesterday, the elite Revolutionary Guard issued its sternest warning so far in the post-election crisis. It warned protesters to “be prepared for a resolution and revolutionary confrontation with the Guards, Basij and other security forces and disciplinary forces” if they continue their rallies.
The Basij, a plainclothes militia under the command of the Revolutionary Guard, have been used to quell street protests that erupted after the election result was announced.
The Guard statement ordered demonstrators to “end the sabotage and rioting activities” and said their resistance is a “conspiracy” against Iran. On Sunday, acting joint chief of the armed forces Gen Gholam Ali Rashid issued a thinly veiled warning to Mousavi, saying “we are determined to confront plots by enemies aimed at creating a rift in the nation”.
Mousavi vowed to keep up the protests, in defiance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran. In a sermon to tens of thousands on Friday, Khamenei said demonstrators must stop their street protests or face the consequences and he firmly backed Ahmadinejad’s victory.
“The country belongs to you,” Mousavi’s latest statement said. “Protesting lies and fraud is your right.”
Mousavi’s website called yesterday for supporters to turn on their car lights in the late afternoon as a sign of protest.
His latest statements posted on his website also warned supporters of danger ahead, and said he would stand by the protesters “at all times”. But he said he would “never allow anybody’s life to be endangered because of my actions” and called for pursuing fraud claims through an independent board.
The former prime minister, also called the Basij and military “our brothers” and “protectors of our revolution and regime”. He may be trying to constrain his followers’ demands before they pose a mortal threat to Iran’s system of limited democracy constrained by Shi’ite clerics, who have ultimate authority.
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