Thousands defy Iran protest crackdown

Thousands of protesters streamed down streets in Tehran, chanting “death to the dictator” and defying security forces who fired tear gas and charged with batons, witnesses said.

Yesterday’s first opposition foray into the streets in nearly two weeks aimed to revive mass demonstrations that were crushed in Iran’s post-election turmoil.

Iranian authorities had promised tough action to prevent the marches, which supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been planning for days through the internet.

Heavy police forces deployed at key points in the city ahead of the marches, and Tehran’s governor vowed to “smash” anyone who heeded the demonstration calls.

In some places, police struck hard. Security forces chased after protesters, beating them with clubs on Valiasr Street, Tehran’s biggest north-south avenue, witnesses said.

Women in headscarves and young men dashed away, rubbing their eyes in pain as police fired tear gas, in footage aired on state-run Press TV.

But the clampdown was not total. At Tehran University, a line of police blocked a crowd from reaching the gates of the campus, but then did not move to disperse them as the protesters chanted “Mir Hossein” and “death to the dictator” and waved their hands in the air. The crowd grew to nearly 1,000 people, the witnesses said.

“Police, protect us,” some of the demonstrators chanted, asking the forces not to move against them.

The protesters appeared to reach several thousand, but their full numbers were difficult to determine, since marches took place in several parts of the city at once and mingled with passers-by. There was no immediate word on arrests or injuries.

It did not compare to the hundreds of thousands who joined the marches that erupted after the June 12 presidential election, protesting what the opposition said were fraudulent results. But it was a show of determination despite a crackdown that has cowed protesters, who have not held a significant rally for the past 11 days.

Many of the marchers were young men and women, some wearing green surgical masks, the colour of Mr Mousavi’s movement, but older people joined them in some places. Vehicles caught in traffic honked their horns in support of the marchers, witnesses said.

Soon after the confrontations began, mobile phone service was cut off in central Tehran, a step that was also taken during the height of the post-election protests to cut off communications. Mobile phone messaging has been off for the past three days, apparently to disrupt attempts at planning.

The calls for a new march have been circulating for days on social networking websites and pro-opposition websites.

Demonstrators had dispersed by nightfall. But after sunset, shouts of “death to the dictator” could be heard from rooftops around the city – a half-hour nightly ritual by Mousavi supporters that has continued despite the previous crackdown.

Mr Mousavi and his pro-reform supporters say he won the election, which official results showed as a landslide victory for incumbent hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.