NO COMMEMORATION ON 9 JULY
TEHRAN 23 June (IPS) The Islamic Government said on Monday that it would not allow any protests meeting to be held in the future outside universities.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, the official
spokesman for the government said, in answer to questions concerning the
anniversary of the student’s anti-regime revolt f 9 July 1999, "no
further demonstrations would be allowed outside universities’ campuses".
"The Interior Ministry is opposed to any gathering outside university campuses and no permit has been issued by the government for holding special commemoration meetings on 9 July", Mr. Ramezanzadeh stated, adding that however, the government "will not interfere in any gathering held inside universities".
The question was referring to the students protest movement that started as a peaceful demonstration at the dormitories against the closure of the daily "Salam", the pioneer of the independent and reformist newspapers and publications that mushroomed afterward -- and were all shut down on orders from the leader of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i – but turned into the first major anti-regime demonstrations that lasted six months, before being crushed by the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij militia and plainclothes men of the thugs controlled by the conservatives.
Ramezanzadeh said the government and many students were still "dissatisfied" since the masterminds of the July 9, 1999 disaster have not been properly dealt with".
"We expect that those behind recent events and the culprits involved in the 9 July 1999 crimes, irrespective of their factional affiliation, are confronted," he added, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
Press has said plain-clothes vigilantes had recently attacked a university dormitory in Tarasht, west of Tehran, and violently beaten up students, in addition to destroying their personal belonging.
"For an event similar to what happened in Tarasht dormitory, no description other than crime can suffice", Ramezanzadeh said, adding the crimes seemed to be "organised".
Meanwhile, as the protest movement is slowing down in Tehran, it continued on a sporadic way in most major cities, with Police putting the number of arrested people in the past ten days of daily anti-regime, anti-clerical demonstrations at 470 people, including an unspecified number of Islamic vigilantes, students and independent sources put the number of the detainees at more than 1.400 people, with some 500 wounded and two students killed.
For its part, Judge Sa’id Razavi said only seven per cent of he arrested people are students and the rest are "thugs" and rejected as "anti-regime propaganda by the enemies" that an unspecified numbers of students and ordinary people have abducted, taken to undisclosed prisons.
"Some of these detentions have been made by Police and the Intelligence Ministry on the order of the Judiciary and legal proceedings are under way", the spokesman said, as the student's associations of several universities protested Monday to the arrests operated by the Islamic vigilante and the Bsij militia.
According to the Students news agency ISNA, in Esfahan, an unidentified group last night attacked the Hezbollah and Basij militias, wounding a dozen of them and destroying their powerful motorcycle, provided to them by the conservatives.
Asked about leading Religious-Nationalists figures being arrested, Mr. Ramezanzadeh said he has no information about arrests outside this framework".
But Judiciary sources confirmed that Mr. Hoda Saber, close to the National Front, Alijani and Mr. Taqi Rahmani, influent activist members of the Nationalist-Religious group, are under arrest.
According to Mr. Mohsen Armin, a Member of the Majles and the Islamic Republic’s Mojahedeen Organisation (IRMO) said the fact that the government, the Law Enforcement Forces and the Intelligence Ministry are not aware of the number of arrests and detentions, "it confirms the existence of a government inside the official government".
The Eastern USA Office of the Iran Democratic Front announced on Monday the detention of its leader, Mr. Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, on order by the pro-government Intelligence Ministry and the revolutionary courts.
"He was asked by telephone to go to court and now his whereabouts are unknown. Tabarzadi's arrests is no surprise to us, since from 19 July.1999 that coincides with the brutal attack on Tehran University by Islamic Thugs, He has been arrested on the anniversary of the attack every year.
"Dr.Farzad Hamidi , spokesman and many members of Iran Democratic Front such as Rasolzadegan, Khonsari, Jaberi, Darab have been arrested or kidnapped in recent days", the Front said in a statement.
President Mohammad Khatami has pledged that the Iranian government would not tolerate vigilante groups, but he has defended police for confronting rioters.
Iranian officials have also hit out at US leaders for cheering the troubles as well as western media, which they have said, were hyping up the protests.
Informed sources outside Iran say, basing on information they receive from Tehran, that the conservatives, with Ayatollah Khameneh'i at their head, in order to create fear in the society, are pressing the authorities for the public executing of some of the arrested students. ENDS STUDENTS UNRESTS 23603