iran unfiltered

[This is a weekly series that shares an interesting piece of programming on Iran.  Please feel free to share any suggestions for videos by using the contact form in the sidebar.]

This week's feature is on the lighter side: a segment on "The Colbert Report" about Iran's 13 Aban protests which includes a short chat with Karim Sadjadpour.

Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi held a meeting in Karroubi's home Friday to discuss the 13 Aban protests.  The simple fact that the two met and continue to maintain their unified front is more significant than anything that was said at the session, which consisted of them sharing their respective 13 Aban experiences and criticizing the hardline camp's behaviour (use of violence, attacks through the media, etc.).  Here are translations of a few of the more interesting nuggets of the conversation:

Karroubi:

"I fought the Pahlavi regime for at least 15 years.  I saw protests, I saw marches, I endured prison...At that time [as there are now] there were protests in Tehran and at the university.  Students shouted slogans; the police would come and break up the protests.  There were not the confrontations [that the government instigates now]."

[describing his appearance at the 13 Aban protests]  "I saw something strange in front of my feet.  I saw that I was suffocating.  My entire face, beard and eyebrows were burning.  During the revolution, I suffered from teargas at least 20 times.  This was not teargas."

"I remember during the Pahlavi regime when we went to an office or were waiting in line, if a woman entered the person in charge would help her first.  Or in the buses which were coed, men would stand up so women could sit.  But now in the Islamic Republic women are treated so harshly that there are numerous reports of women being beaten with batons.  I really do not understand where such orders to treat mistreat people like this are issued."

Mousavi:

"When that morning [of 13 Aban] I headed from home toward the Academy of Arts, I saw so many forces massed in front of Tehran University that it looked like a military build-up.  I said to myself that if not even one person comes out [into the streets] today, this has shown the power of the Green movement."  

"The Green Way condemns repression and will not itself resort to violence.  The people know that our weapon is our peaceful and prudent [as opposed to 'radical', presumably] slogans.  Even if we suffer harm on this path.  We want enforcement of the Constitution.  We want the release of political prisoners.  We want guarantees of fair elections.  We want the safeguarding of press and media freedoms and freedom of opinion and expression." 

['Letters from Tehran' is a new series on Iran Unfiltered.  In his period dispatches, our new Tehran correspondent will provide an important perspective and share his eyewitness account of important events unfolding on the ground in Iran.]

13 Aban

"The day itself started off quite calmly as far as I was concerned, I went to work early in the morning and there was nothing major going on. The mobile phones were working normally, the internet was up and running and the weather was superbly crisp and clean following the heavy rain the day before. There was, however, this tension in the air, as everyone was anxiously waiting to see what would happen, while I guess at the same time being a bit concerned that maybe nothing would happen and noone would show up on the streets. The day, however, developed differently than it started."

Read the rest after the jump.

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Mehdi Karroubi has released his second video message for direct online distribution, in which he begins with some thoughts on last week's 13 Aban protests and proceeds to criticize what he sees as the Iranian regime's contradictory policy toward the US.

Two key points from the message.  First, he takes special care to distance himself from "radical" or "deviant" slogans (presumably those calling for a different system of government) chanted at the protests, thus clearly indicating - not for the first time - his continuing allegiance to the Islamic Republic.  Second, his criticism of the government's US policy is not very coherent: it shows a desire to depict himself on the people's side with regard to foreign policy (while placing the government in the opposite corner) without really knowing how to go about supporting the argument.

Full translation of the statement (from Mir Hossein Mousavi's Facebook page), after the jump.

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The website of Mehdi Karroubi's National Trust Party reports that on Friday senior opposition cleric Hossein-Ali Montazeri placed a phone call to Karroubi to express his regret at the violence used by government forces against Karroubi and Green protesters during the 13 Aban demonstrations.  Montazeri is quoted as telling Karroubi:

I am surprised - what kind of policy is this that even during a 13 Aban rally they treat people like this?  It's not clear ever since the election where these people want to take the country.

The main point of this story is not so much the content of Montazeri's message, but rather the fact that he's made direct contact with Karroubi.  More and more Montazeri appears inclined to be actively involved in the opposition movement.

Tehran's police chief has announced that in total 109 people were detained as a result of the 13 Aban protests - of those, 62 remain in jail. 

These numbers include several foreign journalists who were detained for "unauthorized reporting" on the protests.  Four of them, including an Iranian national working for Agence France-Press, have been released; it's not clear whether any others are still in custody. 

In the absence of independent foreign media in Iran and the partiality of the state-controlled domestic press, it was impossible to get an accurate estimate of the number of people participating in the 13 Aban protests Wednesday (as well as in the simultaneous pro-government rally).  This vacuum creates an opening for either camp to exaggerate its own numbers while downplaying those of the other side, but hardline Friday prayer leader Ahmad Khatami (no relation to former president Mohammad Khatami) seems to have gotten a little carried away in his sermon Friday when he said:

"People have marched in hundreds of thousands to show their support and loyalty to the government...the demonstrators gathered in hundreds to chant opposition slogans."

If it's easy to ignore Khatami's creativity in this instance, it's equally hard to deny that the lack of accurate numbers has been, and will continue to be, problematic in attempts to assess the strength of the Green movement; not much is more basic to understanding a movement than knowing how many people actively support it.       

As covered in this earlier post, Ayatollah Montazeri released a significant statement Tuesday on the eve of the 13 Aban protests.  

Here is the full translation of the statement (courtesy of Khordaad88 via Enduring America).

Here is the second part of the Green Wave of Freedom's report (again, I've adapted the below from the New York Times Company's translation via the NIAC blog):

Brutal Attacks on Protests and Green Movement Leaders by Anti-riot, Plainclothes and Basiji Forces

Today’s demonstrations all across Iran were the scene of the widespread presence of Greens protesting the coup d’etat of Khordad 1388. The scene of the protests in most of the cities across Iran today was the scene of complete aggression. An aggression without guise and naked in which the main actors were plainclothes civilian forces using clubs, Basij forces using weapons and riot control police, and people without any refuge, whose only crime was wanting to participate in demonstrations, were the innocent sacrifices of these forces. Green Freedom Wave’s reporters in Tehran and across Iran inform us about bullets being fired in the air and the irregular usage of pepper spray and tear gas, by the riot control police, in order to disperse crowds of people. And in addition to this, as we reported before, Mehdi Karroubi and two of his bodyguards were subject to brutal attacks by uniformed Basij forces and were targeted by bullets. The condition of one of his bodyguards is serious and they have transferred him to a hospital. Likewise repressive forces opposite the Iranian Academy of Arts did not allow Mir Hossein Mousavi’s entourage to move towards the demonstrations. And they began attacks and beatings and creating fear amongst the people by spreading tear gas in the area.

The rest after the jump.

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The website Green Wave of Freedom (Mowje Sabze Azadi, aka Mowj Camp) is currently the most prominent opposition news source operating within Iran.  Here is its report on yesterday's events; below is my adapted translation from a New York Times Company translation (via the NIAC blog).

13 Aban 1388 Forever Carved in the Pages of History as "Green Students Day"

Today once again the Green Wave of the people of Iran roared on the occasion of a day honoring students. Based on the latest reports from the earliest hours of today’s protests, Green-wearing protesters have flooded the streets in Tehran and the provinces to once again renew their commitment to the ideals of the martyrs of the Green movement and the political prisoners.

Once again, the Coup d'etat supporters have proven that in order to quench the widespread wave of Green protesters, they are willing to use any weapon/tactic. At the intersection of Haft Tir Square and Tehran University and likewise on Vali Asr Street (the main avenue in Tehran), police/riot control forces fired bullets in the crowd, and multiple times eyewitnesses heard the sound of their bullets firing during the demonstrations. (It is not clear if bullets were fired at the protesters or just into the air.)

The rest after the jump.

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The last video of today's protests that I'm posting is an appropriate bookend as it anticipates the next big Green protest: the people are chanting "[You] helpless dictator, the game will continue" and "Basiji, get ready...16 Azar is coming."

16 Azar (December 7) is Students' Day in Iran.  Only 33 days left - let the countdown begin.

Surprisingly, Press TV, the Iranian government's English language mouthpiece is reporting on the protests. 

"Thousands of supporters of defeated presidential candidates, Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, have held a rally in the Iranian capital as the country commemorated the 30th anniversary of the US Embassy takeover."

As is to be expected, Press TV makes no mention of the brutality of the security forces against the protesters.

Strangely, even though Press TV acknowledges that thousands of opposition protesters were out, it doesn't discuss them again until the end of the article, at which point it reduces them to "small groups."

"According to Fars news agency, meanwhile, small groups of anti-government protesters spread across central streets of Tehran. They, however, were dispersed by police."

Meanwhile, the always-reprehensible Kayhan pretends that the opposition protests didn't occur.  It claims that this year's anti-U.S. protests were massive.  In a bit of delightful rhetorical flourish, the article likens the protests to a slap in the face of the U.S., bringing America to tears. (I couldn't make this stuff up, folks.)

According to Kayhan, despite massive planning by internal and external forces to disturb the event,   "America's green movement in Iran is now completely dead."

[By: KS]

Karroubi/Mousavi update:

As reported earlier, Mehdi Karroubi took part in today's protests:

His participation was cut short as he was walking toward 7-Tir Square in Tehran, however, when he was attacked by security forces and directly targeted with tear gas, according to an interview with his son, forcing him to leave the scene; he then continued to join protesters in other areas of the city.  Karroubi's son also reports that Karroubi was ominously warned before today by the country's Security Council of the possibility of a suicide attack against him.

Mousavi, meanwhile, was not able to join the protests because he has been under house arrest since the morning, his home surrounded by government forces on motorcycles.  

More scenes of sickening government brutality:

A video of Iranian protesters courageously ripping down a picture of Ayatollah Khamenei:

One can only hope that it's a precursor to scenes like this:

Or this:

  or this:

[By: ks]