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TEHRAN, July 8 (Islam Online & AFP) - Iranian security forces arrested a number of student demonstrators Saturday when they intervened to disperse a peaceful rally on the campus of Tehran University, itself called to commemorate the first anniversary of violent clashes between protesting students and police. Police claim that the demonstration turned violent when vigilantes from within the ranks of students started attacking police lines. Some eye-witnesses said about 20 students were handcuffed and hauled off by plainclothes police as they tried to disperse a crowd of several hundred peaceful student demonstrators who were holding a rally they called "reforms with a smile." Student leaders had said that they did not want the anniversary to be an occasion for revolt and vengeance. The students were to hand out flowers to people in what organizers described as a "peaceful gesture." The Christian Science Monitor quotes student leader Ibrahim Sheikh saying, "We will confront fists with flowers." Ibrahim added, "We are soldiers against violence. We have our pens and our voices only, and with violence would lose to those people with knives who are more powerful." Students had desired to keep the protest peaceful and continued to do so after it turned violent. Some students departed the scene and spread throughout Tehran distributing flowers. Responding to a call by the leading reformist student group, the Office of Unity and Consolidation, students arrived on campus aboard buses early Saturday, showering people with flowers, while numerous groups of young people and students began chanting slogans in favor of the country's political prisoners. "Political prisoners must be released," they chanted in a clear allusion to the recent arrests of several intellectuals and journalists. "Long live liberty, long live the press," they shouted, carrying flowers and copies of reformist newspapers in their hands. Many of them demanded the release of former interior minister Abdollah Nouri, as well as Mohsen Kadivar, both popular reformists currently serving prison sentences on charges of "anti-Islamic propaganda." Others made a comparison between former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. "Hashemi, you Pinochet, Iran will not turn into Chile," the protestors chanted. Heavy police reinforcements had been dispatched to the scene beforehand, and officers, visibly disturbed by the slogans, used bullhorns to call for the rally to disperse. Order was quickly restored after the police moved in and soon the only traces of the demonstration were flowers lying strewn on the ground as Tehran's usual heavy traffic pounded heedlessly past. Mehdi Karubi, speaker of Iran's new pro-reform parliament, had asked the students on July 2 to avoid a repeat of last year's violence, calling the Tehran University incident "a bitter experience." The violence on that occasion broke out when security forces moved in to quell a demonstration against the closure of the reformist newspaper, Salam. The ensuing protests, the worst since the 1979 Islamic revolution, left three dead and many injured, according to an official toll. Karubi criticized "those who make false accusations against the student movement" and warned "the students must take care that such incidents are not used by the enemies of the revolution." On May 30, death sentences against four student leaders involved in last year's unrest were commuted to 15 years in prison. In another conciliatory gesture, a military court announced last week that it would hand down a verdict next Tuesday in the case of 20 police officers who were tried for their role in assaulting the university dormitory, which led to the rioting. But student witnesses in the trial have expressed disappointment with the direction the trial is headed and are stating that instead of being treated as victims, suspicion and charges are now being levied against them. Former Tehran police chief, Brigadier General Farhad Nazari and 19 other officers were court-martialed for insubordination and abuse of authority. Nazari has repeatedly justified the police intervention, insisting that the students were holding police officers "hostage." Another of the students' demands was answered by the recent arrest of Farhad Arjomandi, former head of a Tehran riot squad. The reformist-dominated Iranian parliament was presented last month with a bill banning police and soldiers from university campuses. Iranian students represent a growing feeling within the generation for change and reform and back Khatami's efforts in easing harsh restrictions within the country. Iran's youth represent 60% of the country's population. |
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