STUDENTS SAY THEY WOULD ORGANISE REFERENDUM
By an IPS Correspondent
TEHRAN 28 Nov. (IPS) As Iranian students challenged Thursday the ruling
conservatives by announcing they would organise a referendum on the future of
the nation, a prominent politician warned of a "last minute pact"
between the conservatives and the official reformists against the students.
Student leaders with the Office for Consolidating Unity (OCU) said their decision to hold a referendum among the students was in response to the authorities that accused the students of being "tuned with the United States".
Observers said that the decision was in defiance of the warnings and accusations the students had been subject in the past week by senior conservatives clerics, including Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic Republic.
In their two weeks-long protests against the death verdict handed over to Mr. Hashem Aqjari, the University professor accused of blasphemy by the Judiciary, the students also had calls for the release of all political prisoners, an end to the ban on newspapers as well as holding national referendum to allow the Iranians to freedly choose their desired regime.
"The only peaceful way to end the present crisis was to go to the polls, ask the people within weeks to determine the level of legitimacy and acceptance of those claimants in power", the Tehran branch of the OCU, the largest Iranian students pro-reform organisation, said in a statement.
The statement came shortly after the Islamic Revolution Court had ordered on Tuesday the detention of at least eight students leaders, charging them with activities against the security of the state.
However, all the detained, except four of them were released less than 24 hours after their arrest, but told they should appear in court on Saturday to face their charges.
Students said their call for a campus vote, accompanied by strident criticism of the conservative leadership, was intended to show they would not be intimidated by the Judiciary, which is under the direct control of the leader.
Mr. Mohsen Sazegara, a journalist and political analyst in Tehran said Thursday that in his opinion, the students would push until they reach their goals, which includes referendum, freedom of political prisoners and democracy.
The decision to hold a symbolic referendum also came after Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami and the leader of the largest Iranian political party, warned that the conservatives are preparing a coup to "put a definite end to the reform movement".
"Mr. Mohammad Reza Khatami is wrong, because the situation in Iran do not allow any militaristic adventurism, like proclaiming emergency state and the forces Mr. Khamenehi and his associates in the conservative camp do not have the necessary power to stand to the will of the people", observed Mr. Qasem Sho’leh Sa’di, a former member of the Majles and a prominent lawyer and university professor.
Speaking on the telephone from Tehran with the Persian service of Radio France Internationale, Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di said both the students and the new Iranian civil movement known as the third force, have separated from the official reformists in order to go their own way, "making their own demands, which are far more different and advanced from what the reformists would have asked for".
"The new force, which also represents the students movement, will not satisfy with a revision in the Aqajari’s death sentence, but want the freedom of all political prisoners, the right to criticise openly the policies of the regime, the full respect of human rights and above all the holding of a referendum", he added, concluding that "as a result, the official reformists would join with the ruling conservatives against this new alliance.
Political analysts said considering the fact that the students in general have taken their distances with President Khatami and the reformists, accusing them of being weak and ineffectual, their call for a referendum may not be welcomed by the present reform camp.
In a speech on Tuesday night, Mr Khatami called on the conservatives to join forces with the reformists and do not oppose the two bills he has submitted for approval to the reformists-dominated Majles and aimed at curtailing some of the powers of the Council of Guardians while increasing those of the president.
Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di observed that the President is "also wrong", for, he said, not only the conservatives "by nature", cannot accept reforms, "for the simple reason that this would mean for them to lose the absolute a power and privileges they enjoy, the reform movement he talk about is dead. So why should the conservatives give in to his demands and join something which is irrelevant?"
However, observers are certain" that any attempt to organise a referendum, even if confined to campuses, would provoke the anger of the conservatives, particularly after a recent poll showed that they are extremely unpopular. ENDS STUDENTS REFERENDUM 281102