Tehran fears protests, bans media

Published in “Die Zeit” on December 6 2009
Source (German) http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2009-12/studentag-iran
By Martin Gehlen

Standstill on internet and mobile phone networks, no press: The regime is anticipating new protests on Monday. The protesters expect to be violently confronted by the police.

The internet in Iran was already slowed down last weekend. On Monday, according to information of the state telecommunication company, the mobile network will be cut as well. All remaining foreign media were informed via SMS that their licences will be suspended from Monday through Wednesday.

The regime does not want to have any witnesses in case there will again be protests throughout the country against the disputed president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the “Student Day” on Monday. The Revolutionary Guards have learned their lesson from the 30th anniversary of the occupation of the American embassy on November 4. Tens of thousands of green supporters then had been protesting in the streets. Hundreds of mobile phone videoclips afterwards had been spread on the internet, showing not only repulsive scenes of Guards clubbing peaceful protesters, but also enraged people calling the Supreme Spiritual Leader Ali Khamenei a murderer.

Annually on the “Students’ Day”, the universities commemorate three fellow students who were shot by the Shah’s secret police in 1953, only a few months after the coup against Mohammad Mossadegh, the first president of Iran who was democratically elected. Several opposition websites invited people to gather around the Tehran University on Monday. The former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi have not yet confirmed to be attending the events.

“Street protests on 7. December will not have the safeguarding and the protection that demonstrations on occasion of an official anniversary have. We both expect a very violent crack down”, both warned on the website Mowjcamp. Before that, Iran’s head of the police Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam had announced they would fiercely confront any kind of illegal gathering. In the past days, 15 women were arrested who were members of the group of the “Mourning Mothers”.

According to information provided by the “International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran” in New York, family members and friends of victims killed in the protests following the presidential elections in June gather in Tehran’s Laleh Park once a week. The “Mourning Mothers” demand that the perpetrators be finally put on trial and punished. One of the members is the mother of Neda Agha-Soltan, the student who bled to death in the middle of the street after being shot, and whose face has become an icon of the Iranian opposition.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sharply attacked the USA and Great Britain in the nuclear conflict, and called them “enemies of Iran”. According to him, Americans, Zionists, and other oppressive forces already in the past 30 years tried to isolate Iran, but failed. “They will fail again this time”, said the Supreme Religious Leader in view of possible stricter UN sanctions. The Iranian nuclear program has strictly peaceful goals, he said.

The tensions between Iran and the West had been increasing again during the past two weeks, after Tehran had canceled the compromise that had been negotiated with the Atomic Energy Agency IAEO in Vienna, and instead announced to be pursuing a drastic expansion of its nuclear enrichment.

Thus, Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Saturday that Tehran requires 20 sites to enrich enough uranium to meet its future energy needs through nuclear power. However, Western nuclear experts are doubtful that Iran has or is able to gain from its two mines enough uranium reserves to even start a single standard reactor and regularly provide it with fuel rods.

As opposition is preparing for new protests, Iran imposes working ban on journalists

Published on German public news broadcast “Tagesschau” on December 6, 2009
Source (German): http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/irandemo100.html

Iran has imposed a three-day work ban for foreign media in Tehran. Correspondents may not leave their offices. This is to prevent reports on possible new protests on the “Student Day” on Monday. The responsible department of the Ministry of Culture via SMS informed journalists, cameramen and photographers who work for the foreign press about the ban.

According to information of inhabitants of Tehran, internet access has also been restricted. Internet is the major means of communication for the opposition. Dissident websites are currently under increased observation by the government, e-mail access in the capital is blocked, it says.

Opposition prepares for new demonstrations
On Monday is the anniversary of the slaying of three students in 1953 under the regime of the Shah. Several internet sites had reported that the opposition has been preparing new demonstrations against the re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be held this weekend. Rallies will be staged around the universities of the country. Police and Revolutionary Guards warned that they will be fiercely confronting any “illegal” demonstration.

Reformist Iranian ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani deplored the current an atmosphere of intolerance in his country. Currently, “constructive criticism” is not accepted, he said during a meeting with students in the city of Mashhad. At the same time, he asked the opposition to act “within the framework of the law” during the protests.

The opposition accuses the Iranian leadership of having rigged the elections. The protests against the re-election of Ahmadinejad in June have plunged Iran into the heaviest domestic crisis since the Islamic Republic was founded 30 years ago. Militias and Revolutionary Guards cracked down on the protests. Dozens of people died, more than 4000 dissidents were arrested. Eight people have been sentenced to death.