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Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Tosali, who was 12, was at the demonstrations which took place last Thursday at Behesht Zahra cemetery, and got separated from his father. At some point, he was clubbed in the head by a police baton, and died from his injuries. Ali is believed to be the first child to die as a result of the unrest.
Government authorities refused to return his body to his family for four days.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
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Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Columnist Trudy Rubin, has posted a very interesting read about the state of the Iranian government. From the essay:
The elderly Montazeri is a longtime critic of Iran's current leadership, but in the past has been put under house arrest and muzzled. The fact that he can now issue such stunning critiques reflects an Iranian regime uncertain how to proceed.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
A couple of very good reports going over today's events. The first is from Britain's Channel 4 News, filed by Lindsey Hilsum.
The second one is a BBC report, combining amateur footage with film from someone in country with professional equipment, click to see it here.
I can't help but wonder what Friday will bring in Iran, especially after Thursday showed unrest all over the country, and not only in Tehran. Since the first week after the election, there really has not been sustained opposition activity in the streets of Iran, only on special dates and anniversaries.
Was the 40th day since Neda was murdered just a single important day, or was it the start of something sustained, and ultimately bigger?
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Very clean video from today's protests at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery:
As a point of reference, the location of the cemetery:
View Larger Map
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that "thousands, maybe tens of thousands of mourners, many of them black-clad young women carrying roses, overwhelmed security forces today at Tehran’s largest cemetery.”
Uniformed security forces initially clashed violently today with some of the mourners, supporters and leaders of the opposition, who were there to protest and grieve for those killed in recent unrest. Unsuccessful presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi attempted to attend the graveside ceremony marking the religiously significant 40th day since the death of Agha-Soltan and others killed in the fighting.
"Oh, Hossein! Mir-Hossein," the mourners chanted in support of him.
According to one witness, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, Mousavi stepped out of his car only to be surrounded by police, who forced him back into his vehicle and out of the cemetery. At first, mourners were confronted by security forces, who struck some with batons and made arrests in an attempt to bar them from gathering at Tehran’s Behesht Zahra cemetery, the country’s largest. The tree-lined streets leading to the graves of Agha-Soltan and others were blocked by riot police, the witness said.
The witness said protesters identified and violently confronted several plainclothes Basiji militiamen. “Police, police, support us,” the crowd chanted. “God is great!” But as people poured out of the nearby subway station and taxis along the highway, security forces retreated. One witness said police released detainees and began cooperating with the mourners, directing them to Section 257 of the cemetery, where Agha-Soltan and others were buried.Definitely an encouraging sign, if the police have lost their enthusiasm for defending this illegal regime, anything is possible.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Video appears to show protesters at Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery in Tehran.
It looks like a pretty substantial crowd to me.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Today, the BBC published an interview with the mother of murdered Iranian woman, Neda Agha-Soltan.
The audio is here, and an English transcript is available here.
She's waiting for her daughter's killer to be brought to justice.I have had no contact with Mr Mousavi. But Mr Karroubi… came to our house on Monday night. It’s important for me that he visited us. He was very supportive and I found that comforting. Our conversation was published in Etemad, which is Mr Karroubi’s own newspaper. He said she was innocent… she was a martyr. And he said her killer must be found. [...]
Yes. I went to visit the mothers of Sohrab Arabi and Ashkan Sohrab… they were two teenagers who were killed. And then both the mothers also came to my house too. [...]
Emotionally we are all broken. What can we say to each other? Our loved ones were too young to die… what can three mothers in the same situation say to each other? All we can do is just sit there and cry.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Jim Sciutto of ABC News, reports via Twitter, that the mother of Neda Agha-Soltan was asked by the government not to attend today's memorial for her daughter:
Neda's mother pressured not to attend: 'for reasons I can't say, I cannot attend the ceremony of my own daughter' #iranelection #neda
And this:
Crowds chanting ‘death to the dictator’, others saying ‘Neda isn’t dead, the regime is’
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Updating the earlier Reuter's report about mourners being arrested at the cemetery where Neda Agha-Soltan is buried, opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi was there, too, and was forced to leave.
Iranian police forced opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi to leave a Tehran cemetery where hundreds of mourners had gathered to commemorate victims of the unrest that erupted after the June presidential election. “Police forced Mousavi to return to his car and leave the cemetery. Police are also warning mourners to leave the place or face the consequences,” a witness told Reuters.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Reuters is reporting that police in Iran have arrested mourners who had gathered at a cemetery in Tehran to honor some of the protesters who have dies since the election in June.
"Hundreds have gathered around Neda Agha-Soltan's grave to mourn her death and other victims' death ... police arrested some of them ... dozens of riot police also arrived and are trying to disperse the crowd," a witness told Reuters.
This 40th day promises to be busy...
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Thursday will mark 40 days since Neda Agha-Soltan was murdered by Basij thugs working for the Khameini/Ahmadinejad government. 40 days. No one has been charged, no one has been made to pay for the brutal death of an innocent Iranian citizen at the hands of the government. Let us hope Thursday 30 July is an eventful day in Iran.Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Reuters is reporting that protesters in Tehran's Haft-e Tir square clashed with police today.
Iranian riot police clashed with hundreds of pro-reform protesters in central Tehran on Tuesday and detained dozens of demonstrators, a witness said, in the latest unrest over last month’s disputed election. The witness said demonstrators were chanting slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the government, including: “Ahmadinejad — resign, resign” and “Death to dictators.”
Police beating protesters who had gathered in Tehran’s Haft-e Tir square in defiance of a ban on such demonstrations following the June 12 election, which the opposition says was rigged in favor of Ahmadinejad, the witness said. “Riot police are taking dozens of protesters into their cars and they are taking them away,” the witness said.
“There are hundreds of riot police and plainclothes (security forces), beating people who gathered to support (opposition leader Mirhossein) Mousavi,” the witness said.
Iranian blogger, Omid Habibinia, Tweeted today that thousands marched to the spot where Neda Agha-Soltan was murdered on June 20th:
Bassij attacked a group of women gather[e]d where Neda shot dead one month ago.
Gonna be a busy one today.
Labels: election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
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Thursday, July 09, 2009
Mehdi (not his real name) is a 39-year-old Basij commander and a former classmate of one of our Observers from Tehran (who prefers not to be mentioned). Mehdi led a mission in the city centre, close to the Tehran military base, on June 20, one of the most violent days of the clashes.
“I did shoot at people myself. I am a military man I have to obey my orders. The crowd was attacking us like crazy people; throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. We had to protect ourselves; to show we were serious, and we did warn them, shouting several times, before opening fire. But they continued to attack. I don’t remember who I shot, I just tried to shoot at the people’s feet.
Later, we moved back and went behind the vans in middle of the street and I ordered my unit to shoot into the ground in the hope of scaring the crowds from coming closer.
I hoped it would never come to shooting them. That night, I had a nightmare in which the protesters threw me on a fire. It’s come back several times, and I can see the faces of the people I was ordered to shoot. I’ve asked a very spiritual mullah to pray for me.
I did it for Islam but it wasn’t easy to kill people. We have to remember who they are though - they’re deceitful people who are against the Islamic Revolution. You can’t expect us to stay calm when they want to overthrow our regime.”
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Alan Cowell and Michael Slackman of The New York Times are reporting that according to witnesses, protesters "began massing in the streets of Tehran on Thursday evening, as an initially festive demonstration quickly turned grim, witnesses said.
The report also says that prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, was taken into custody around 4pm yesterday.Tear gas was fired into Lelah Park, they said, and a woman whose coat was covered in blood ran from Revolution Square, one of the main gathering spots during the initial weeks of protests over the June 12 election. She said that police officers were beating protesters.
It was the first protest in 11 days, and was called to commemorate the 10th anniversary of violent confrontations at Tehran University when protesting students were beaten and jailed. Iranian authorities had announced earlier that the demonstration was illegal and would be met with a “crushing response.”
But at the end of the work day, hundreds of protesters began packing the streets of one area of Tehran, chanting, clapping and sitting in jammed traffic as drivers honked their horns, witnesses said. Families brought their children. Many held a hand in the air in the defiant V for victory.
The security forces quickly moved in.
Thursday’s demonstration came against a backdrop of rising anxiety and continued arrests. According to Press TV, a reformist member of Parliament, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, said the government’s approach — holding prisoners incommunicado — had left families of the accused frightened. And the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a group based in New York, said the government was continuing to make arrests.
“The Iranian government is trampling over every rule of due process,” Hadi Ghaemi, the group’s spokesman, said in a statement. “Not only are hundreds of detainees in incommunicado detention, in solitary confinement and possibly under torture, but their lawyers are rapidly being added to their ranks.”
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Today, the Guardian reported that it had “an account by a doctor working in Tehran who says the death toll from the protests following Iran’s disputed election is much higher than the official figure of 20.”
Here is some of what the unnamed physician wrote:
There is a lot more in this report, I encourage you to read it and pass it along.I have been working in a public hospital in Tehran over the last few weeks. The authorities are covering up the number of dead protesters and their causes of death. The official statistic is 20 dead – that’s wrong. In our hospital alone there were 38 riot deaths in the first week. Most died from gunshot wounds.
A colleague told me that in his hospital there were a further 36 gunshot casualties and 10 deaths. Four public hospitals admitted wounded protesters during the riots, but it is hard to know the total figures of dead. Other hospitals were prevented from helping. Basiji militiamen attacked doormen in one hospital for letting in wounded protesters. In the hospitals that were allowed to function, the basijis replaced the hospital admissions staff and took the IDs of wounded patients.
Medical staff are under huge pressure to cover up the injuries they treated. I know one doctor who killed themself.
If the patients died of gunshot wounds the basiji confiscated their bodies and told the families they had been “transferred” for organ donation. They removed the bullets and returned the bodies with a different postmortem report. By the second week the basiji were better organised and took the bodies directly from the streets. There were many dead the hospitals never saw.
As for the injuries, they speak for themselves. There were multiple points of gunshot impact – proving the authorities were shooting liberally. Their victims were indiscriminate.
Two pregnant women were shot – one through the spleen, she survived and the other died. For the latter, the authorities say a photograph of her circulating the internet had been taken in another country, but that's not correct. She was wounded, treated and died in Tehran. They shot her three times. One bullet penetrated the foetus's spine.
Many of my friends and my cousin even (who was wounded) saw snipers up on the rooftops during the protests. They said these snipers were targeting people through their rifle lenses. The injuries we witnessed in hospital testify to this. One 32-year-old patient had gunshot impact entering the sub-umbilical region with an exit wound on the thigh, which proves the bullet came from above.
From what I have seen and heard, this medical cover-up has been happening all over the country. But unofficially, medical staff report dead in Isfahan, in Shiraz, in many places. Like here, the authorities are making sure the hospitals don't reveal the numbers.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
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Thursday, July 02, 2009
Ahead of the G8 summit to be held next week in Italy, German Prime Minister Angela Merkel pointed out similarities between the brutality of East Germany's state police, the Stasi, and the current brutality in Iran:
“I know from the time of the GDR (East Germany) how important it was that people around the world made sure that the people stuck in (Stasi prisons) Bautzen and Hohenschoenhausen … were not forgotten,” Merkel told parliament.
“Iran must know, particularly in the age of modern communications, that we will do everything in our power to ensure that these people (arrested in Iran during the recent turmoil) are not forgotten about,” she said.
Meanwhile, making certain that they don't get out of practice, Iran hanged 12 people for drug trafficking and murder since Tuesday, six of them in Tehran's Evin prison, and the others in a facility in Qom.
"Certainly," you say, "Iran can't be as bad as the East Germans?" Lara Setrakian of ABC News in Dubai, sent this via Twitter today:
Tehrani source close to those detained says some have been beaten heavily and waterboarded with hot water #iranelection
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
With absolutely no one believing that BBC reporter Jon Leyne had Neda murdered for the purposes of making a documentary, Iranian intelligence is now holding seven people whom they claim are members of anti-government groups, including the People's Mujahadeen (Mujahedeen Khalq), who are charged with fomenting unrest in Iran since the election.
The state-run Press TV referred to an intelligence report from the province of Qazvin,
“The seven detainees caused insecurity and created chaos during the unrest in Tehran and Qazvin by provoking thugs to violence.”
Mujahadeen Khalq is the militant arm of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an exile group that opposes Iran’s government.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Not a typo:
Video of Iranian security forces smashing cars for some reason. I especially enjoy the jackass in the white shirt who is taking advantage of the situation by joining in and throwing rocks.
I thought throwing rocks in the streets of Tehran was an offense punishable by imprisonment, or death. But it again appears that in Iran, some are more equal than others.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
Dammit, when I first read the report, I thought Moghadam was dissenting from the government stance on Neda's murder. But all he's doing is trying to make stick the government's ridiculous charge about foreign journalists having had her killed.
Just when you think it can't get any uglier...
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Iranian journalist living in Switzerland, Omid Habibinia, sent this via Twitter today:
More than 2000 ppl gathered infront of Islamic R Court in Uromieh asking about their detained relatives. #iranelection
The Revolution in Iran website is also compiling a daily list of “martyrs of the new Iranian revolution" murdered since the election.
Labels: brutality, election, free speech, Iran, Neda, vote