KHAMENEH'I TELLS STUDENTS TO STOP THEIR PROTEST MOVEMENT
By an IPS Correspondent
TEHRAN, 22 Nov. (IPS) Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic
Republic, and with him some senior tenors of the conservatives and commanders of
the Basij and pressure group thugs on Friday warned Iranian students to stop
their protest movement or face reaction from his "popular forces".
Analysts immediately said the speeches by Mr. Khameneh'i and other Friday preachers condemning the students who protest the death arrest passed by the leader-controlled Judiciary on Dr. Hashem Aqajari shows that the ruling conservatives have decided to "advise" the students to stop their movement or they would call in the Basij volunteers and the thugs known as Ansar Hezbollah to "crush them".
Addressing the nation from Tehran University and in his position as the official Friday Preacher of the Capital, Mr. Khameneh'i accused the students to be either playing in the hands of the enemies or to oppose the Islamic Republic at will.
"Whoever compare the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic with a dictatorship ignoring human rights and freedoms is against this system and could not be tolerated", he said in a rather lengthy speech which analysts said despite the threats and warnings it contained, it was also conciliatory and cautious.
Eyewitnesses told Iran Press Service said that all the time the ayatollah was at the University, helicopters were hovering over the place, all the streets leading to the university were closed to circulation while buses were unloading basijis, revolutionary guards, soldiers, schoolboys and lower rank state employees at the campus.
Before Ayatollah Khameneh'i, revolutionary guard general Mohammad Hejazi, the commander of the Basij said eight millions volunteers were ready to execute the orders of the leader and crush any rebellion against the Islamic Republic, "as they had done three years ago", a reference to the July 1999 students uprising which ended in blood, with hundreds of students arrested, tens wounded and at least one killed.
Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, the Friday Preacher of the city of Qom, went further, accused openly the students to be acting on orders from the Americans who "floods them with money" and asked "what is the relation between an order delivered by a court in the city of Hamadan against an atheist with the students?"
At about the same time, and not very far from the University, thousands of intellectuals, writers, journalists, scholars, lawmakers, political activists, artists, dissidents and ordinary people from all walk were taking part at ceremonies marking the fourth anniversary of the savage murder of Dariush Foroohar and his wife, Parvaneh, as well as three writers and human rights activists, Majid Sharif, Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Ja’far Pooyandeh, at the hands of high-ranking officers of the Intelligence Ministry on 24 November 1998.
The ceremonies, held at Safi Ali Shah mosque, were called by Parastoo and Arash Foroohar, the children of the slain leaders of the Iranian People’s Party (IPP).
Speaking on the name of all the victims of the State’s terrorism, announced their decision to appeal to international human rights organisations, including the United Nations Human Rights Commission to continue investigations into the murders, "taking into account that the authorities have rejected our express demand for justice, particularly identification of all those who ordered the assassinations", Ms. Parastoo explained.
However, the ceremonies were disrupted at the end when tens of plain-clothes thugs attacked the participants with clubs, knives and bicycle chains, wounding slightly some of them.
"The people need unity and efforts by all to develop the country, notably through research at universities and the struggle against corruption and discrimination, for justice and for work for all", the lamed and unpopular leader said, labelling the protesters as "tools and pawns" at the hands of the enemies.
He repeated his old and tiresome diatribes against the United States, claiming that the present "international wave" of anti-Americanism is the fruit of the unabated struggle of the Islamic revolution of Iran against the United States.
"The enemy tries to divide (the Iranian) officials by coining terms as reformist and conservative and unfortunately, some simple minded people inside the country repeat these terms and by doing so, they fall in the hands of the enemy", Mr. Khameneh'i pointed out in a veiled criticism to dissidents.
He also made a passionate plea in favour of the "proud" Palestinian people fighting the "fully armed and cruel Israelis" and called on all Muslim nations to continue providing the Palestinian struggle with whatever they need.
"This action will lead nowhere, as the one held three years ago led nowhere, but the wrath of popular forces that crushed the insurgents" Ayatollah Khameneh’i added in the sermon, carried live by Radio and Television he directly controls.
But the students immediately rejected the leader’s accusations, observing that their protest movement against the death sentence was "instantaneous, without any attach to any domestic group, tendency or political organisations, let alone foreign powers".
"If there had been any provocation, it was done by the authorities. For instance, who were the thugs who were bussed to the Sharif University on Monday, provoking the first clashes?" asked Mr. Sa’id Razavi Faqih, a student’s leader, referring to the 300 basijis who entered the Technical University and opposed protesting students by chanting slogans in favour of Ayatollah Khameneh'i and calling for the execution of Mr. Aqajari, the reformist academic charged with blasphemy and insulting the clergy.
Other student’s leaders expressed "regret" that Mr. Khameneh'i and the ruling conservatives in general could not see the national dimensions of the protest movement and its popularity among the people and respond in an intelligent way, "but certainly not by threats and accusations", one student said, assuring that the movement would continue until the whole of the verdict is annulled and the judiciary, which is controlled by the leader, publicly apologise to both Mr. Aqajari and the university.
Fearful of possible violent crackdowns, to be followed by the proclamation of emergency situation, reformist leaders have advised the students to go slow in their movement and stop some of their slogans, particularly that of referendum, a demand formulated many students.
"The problem with Mr. Khameneh'i is that he never get any lesson fro events. He continue using a though, threatening language against dissidents while knowing well that he would back off. Also, and above all, he does not realise that international situation is not that of July 1999, that the world would let him to crush the protest movements" commented Mr. Ahmad Salamatian, a Paris-based political analyst, for the Persian service of the BBC. ENDS KHAMENEH'I WARN STUDENTS 221102