HEAVY CLASHES BETWEEN POLICE AND FOOTBALL FUNS ALL OVER IRAN
TEHRAN- 25 Oct. (IPS) As expected, hundreds of thousands of young and ordinary Iranians of both sexe clashed Thursday night with heavily armed Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) and Basij volunteers after Iran defeated the United Arab Emirate on a 1 to nil score counting for the runner up to the World Cup 2002.
Eyewitnesses told Iran Press Service that the crowd, pouring out of the Azadi stadium, would chant nationalist songs while carrying the Iranian traditional three colours flag.
"Demonstrators, carrying slogans against the Islamic Republic and the leader of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, showered LEF, Basij and the conservative-controlled Ansar Hezbollah thugs with a hail of stone", reported one eyewitness from one of the Capital’s main square.
Similar demonstrations and street fighting took place in other major cities, including Esfahan, Abadan, ShahinShahr, Kerman, Mash-had, Babol and Zahedan, the Los Angeles-based Students Co-ordinating Committee Movement for Democracy in Iran (SCCMDI) said, confirmed by other sources in Tehran.
Tehran and other cities erupted in violence last Sunday after the Iranian national soccer team, considered as one of the best in its category, surprisingly lost to the much weaker Persian Gulf Island of Bahrain 3 to 1.
The humiliating defeat sparked rumours that afraid of large-scale popular demonstrations would get out of control, the Iranian players had been coerced by the clerical authorities to lose to the Bahrainis.
Officials admitted Thursday the arrest of more than 2000 people in the three consecutive nights that youngsters clashed with LEF and plainclothes men.
They said detainees under 18 had been sent to special centre to be tried by judges for children and those above 18 placed in ordinary prison waiting decision by Islamic revolution courts.
One journalist on the spot confirmed that demonstrators had set fire to several buses and police cars and attacked public buildings and banks.
"Visibly afraid at the great number of demonstrators, LEF and Basij immediately called for help from the Revolutionary guards", the journalist said, adding that young boys and girls were dancing in the streets, teasing and provoking the orthodox basiji forces.
Authorities said to disperse the crowd and restore calm; the Police and other security forces used tear gas and made many arrests.
The official news agency IRNA said a number of "hooligans" and "trouble-makers" attacked LEF, destroyed public telephone boots, damaged traffic lights and smashed police cars.
It said a number of people have been arrested for public disturbance and un-Islamic behaviour.
Analysts and sociologists, analysing the growing unrests expressed after each soccer game, said the demonstrations, the pitched-battles opposed by young Iranians to the LEF and other regime’s forces is the expression of more than twenty years of constant political repression, individual humiliation and social and political restrictions.
The return match in Abu Dhabi takes place on October 31 while the two matches against the Republic of Ireland are scheduled for November 10 in Dublin with the return in either the UAE or Iran on November 15. ENDS FOOTBALL UNRESTS 251001