Clashes on second day of Iran protests

Clashes erupted for a second straight night in Tehran, with anti-riot police and hard-line vigilantes beating up teenage demonstrators who had taken to the streets to denounce supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Dozens of hard-line vigilantes on motorbikes chased down around 300 mostly teenage protesters yesterday, beating them with sticks in the streets outside a Tehran University dormitory in the city’s Amirabad district. Several people were seen being carried away with head injuries.

The protesters, chanting, “Death to Khamenei”, threw stones at anti-riot police, who tossed them back.

In Iran, criticism of Khamenei is punished by jail. Hard-liners say Khamenei’s powers are unlimited and cannot be questioned.

Around 200 students in the dormitory compound threw stones and Molotov cocktails at anti-riot police after they joined the vigilantes attacking the protesters.

The clashes followed the arrests of about 80 protesters after a small student gathering on Tuesday night against privatising universities turned into the largest demonstration against Iran’s political leadership in six months.

Following the protest, which lasted into the early hours of yesterday, security officials warned that further demonstrations against the political leadership would not be tolerated.

“These people have been provoked by extremists inside the country and elements outside the country to chant illegal slogans,” state-run television quoted intelligence minister Ali Yunesi as saying yesterday.

He was apparently referring to satellite channels owned by Iranian opposition groups in exile which have encouraged Iranians to rise up against the ruling clerics. Although satellite dishes are officially banned, many Iranians still use them.

Yunesi warned that the government will not tolerate new “illegal activities” in the name of students.

The protests included the strongest slogans ever chanted against the political leadership, including Khamenei.

“The clerical regime is nearing its end!” “Vigilantes commit crimes, the leader supports them,” the demonstrators chanted.

In a rare twist, demonstrators also called for the resignation of Mohammad Khatami, the popularly elected reformist president, accusing him of not introducing enough reforms.

An Intelligence Ministry official, speaking to The Associated Press, said the arrests were for chanting slogans against the ruling political leadership and for participating in unauthorised demonstrations.

The identities of the detainees have not been clearly established, the official said, but most of them did not appear to be students. They are now undergoing investigation, he said.

The mass arrests send the message that authorities will not put up with any backlash ahead of the fourth anniversary of an attack on a Tehran University dormitory.

Students are also preparing to commemorate July 9, 1999, when hard-line vigilantes and security forces attacked students protesting media restrictions, killing at least one student and touching off the worst street battles since the 1979 revolution that ousted the US-backed shah.