Hard-line Basiji volunteer islamists attacked Students sleeping several days ago.
Posted on 06/19/2003 5:10:54 PM PDT by freedom44
TEHRAN 19 June (IPS) Iranian conservatives-controlled Basij volunteers vowed Thursday to crackdown the students protest movement, scoffing an earlier declaration by the lamed President Mohammad Khatami pledging that his government “would not tolerate” the vigilante groups assail the students and the people who, since more than a week, are demonstrating against the regime and all the clerical leaders.
But at the same time, he also defended police for confronting rioters. In a statement, the Basij militia of Tehran said the protests against clerical rule had been provoked by the "Great Satan", which was using what Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i had described and denounced as its "mercenaries", to challenge Iran's Islamic leaders, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"We pledge to defend the sacred Islamic regime, its achievements and our beloved leader as we would our own lives, and will never cease this sacred battle even for a moment", the statement said.
The Basij, fiercely loyal to Mr. Khameneh’i and trained and equipped by the Revolutionary Guards, were at the forefront of the brutal repression of the protest movement with the Ansar Hezbollah thugs.
Students, backed by thousands of residents of the Capital, continued with their demonstrations and slogans calling on the leaders to step down. “Este’fa (Resignation), Referendum”, demonstrators chanted in Tehran Pars, a working class suburb east of Tehran and in Karaj, a predominantly middle class town situated on the opposite side, with police trying to keep the vigilante attacking the protesters.
"It's like martial law. You're scared to go anywhere at night in case they stop you and search you", the British news agency Reuters quoted one man as he edged his car nervously through the traffic-clogged streets under the watchful gaze of the bearded militants.
An eyewitness told Iran Press Service that the Islamic Basij and thugs, wielding batons, knives and chains are now attacking cars that blare their horns and clog the streets in order to create a “car shield” to protect demonstrators.
Other major cities like Mash-had, Shiraz, Tabriz and Esfahan were reported “tense” on Thursday, after protesters clashed with the vigilante.
With the authorities keeping an uneasy silence, students sources said more than a thousands have been arrested and three hundreds wounded since the start of the movement last Tuesday.
Breaking his silence, President Khatami said he was proud those protesting against Islamic rule had only numbered a few hundred, while eyewitnesses confirms that crowd numbering at the thousands take every night to the streets near students dormitories, protecting them from assaults by the plainclothes thugs.
According to Mr. Khatami, who was elected twice as president thanks mostly to the votes of millions of young Iranians who now calls for his resignation also lashed out at American official’s support for the student-led protests, saying it “only serves to unite his country against the United States”.
"The incorrect position adopted by the Americans, irrespective of the fact that it was an act of interference in Iran's internal affairs, fortunately caused greater national solidarity", the powerless president told reporters after meeting with the Afghan and Tajik presidents, signing a trilateral agreement for the construction of a transit route connecting Tajikistan to the Persian Gulf, via the land locked, war ravaged Afghanistan.
US President George W. Bush on Wednesday paid tribute to "those courageous souls who speak out for freedom in Iran" and urged Tehran to treat protesters with "the utmost of respect".
"They need to know America stands squarely by their side", he said in Washington, “I’m confident that if I call upon my countrymen to protest against foreign interference, an overwhelming majority of Tehran residents will support my call", he said, oblivion of the demonstrators who call every night for his resignation and chanting death to Khameneh'i.
Last Thursday, Mr. Khameneh’i said that Washington was behind riots and wowed that the faithful would deal mercilessly with the students.
”Death to Khameneh’i“, the students responded.
Bump! Prayers for the protester's safety and the freedom of Iran!
Thanks for the post.
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