The rendezvous was set at 4pm, about an hour’s drive south of the capital Tehran, at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery.
Mir Hussein Mousavi had summoned his supporters to honor those killed by the regime’s thugs during the various mass demonstrations that followed the rigged June12 presidential elections, including Neda Agha Soltan…
She was killed by a single bullet exactly forty days ago last Thursday. Shiite tradition thus demanded that she be honored at a mourning ceremony.
The cemetery is hallowed ground for historical reasons as well.
Many of those who were killed during the 1979 Revolution are also buried there.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini himself, the father of the Revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran is buried in a mausoleum just next door…
By 4pm, several thousand mourners had congregated at the site…
Interestingly enough, there are reports that the police (the traditional force, and not the paramilitaries such as the Basijis, and the Revolutionary Guards) actually cooperated with the mourners, one participant told tehranbureau :
waiting to enter the cementery compound in the traffic, one of my companions pulled down the window and half jokingly asked the police officer what was going on. He smiled back and said, “nothing, just go towards row 257.” For those not familiar with Behesht Zahra, it’s an enormous cementery with wide avenues and squares. Knowing it would take us a while to find our destination, the police officer decided to help by telling us in which row we could find Neda’s grave.
Wearing black, and holding red roses the mourners chanted Neda is alive! Ahmadinejad is dead! and suras of the Koran.
Mousavi and his wife tried to approach Neda’s grave but were surrounded by hundreds of paramilitaries, and, prevented from getting out of their car, were forced to leave.
The crowd then chanted Yaa Hossein, Mir Hossein, thus identifying their leader with the Prophet’s grandson, the most adored religious figure in the Shiite world.
When another reformist, also a candidate in last June’s election, Mahdi Karroubi, tried to give a speech at the mourning ceremony, the paramilitaries charged, beating members of his party as well as anyone else they could, and he was also compelled to flee the scene.
Two Iranian filmmakers, Jafar Panahi and Mahnaz Mohammadi, were arrested as they tried to lay flowers on Neda’s grave.
The regime had warned that all troublemakers would be harshly dealt with: we are not joking — we will confront those who want to fight against the clerical establishment, Abdullah Araghi, the Tehran leader of the Revolutionary guards, declared the night before.
Thousands simply ignored his admonitions, and demonstrated nevertheless, as they have done whenever possible, since last June…
Many of the mourners then headed for Tehran, and joined the thousands who had been unable to reach the cemetery due to the roadblocks set up by the security forces so as to hinder the movements of the mourners.
Several demonstrations (one eye witness spoke of at least seven) then simultaneously took place, in various sections of Tehran.
The main rallying point was the Grand mosala mosque, but a robust police presence there prevented demonstrators from gathering.
They thus headed to Vanak and Valiarsr Squares instead.
Though the paramilitaries reacted with their customary brutality, the demonstrators were undeterred and refused to be intimidated. As one demonstrator reported shortly after:
this appeared to be the most successful protests since the crackdown began. It was more akin to a riot… The forces were decidedly not in control of the situation. The protests were too widespread and numerous, up and down Valiasr…Although their effort to disperse protesters was ineffective compared to previous episodes, the Guards and Basij forces were unusually savage today — I saw many women beaten without reservation and glass shattering on cars with small children inside…Yet people were more bold than I’d ever seen them. As I write this at 9:00 pm from a location in Abbas Abad district, the shouts of “Death to Khamenei!” and chaotic honks are drifting in loud and clear from the window. It is dark, night has fallen – and protests are still continuing strong. Never have they lasted this late except on the first few days following the election.
This is a positive sign, one that clearly demonstrates the protest movement has not lost momentum, and is ready to defy the regime whenever the opportunity arises.
Many were encouraged by the significant turnout, and the resilience of the demonstrators: you see they never thought this many people would turn out in the heat like this. They can’t stop it now, one woman present at the cemetery said.
Demonstrations also took place in other Iranian cities, such as Mashhad and Rasht.
The regime had made some concessions, in order to appease those who had criticized its handling of the post-election riots, including some within the ruling conservative faction, and in particular, its detainee policy. Several of those arrested died in detention, after having been abused and tortured.
140 prisoners were released Tuesday, including the human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr.
The Supreme Leader himself, Ali Khamenei, ordered the closing of the Kahrizak facility, one notorious for its abuse of prisoners.
Darius Ghanbari, an opposition parliamentarian, described it as basically a big warehouse. Citizenship rights are not respected there. Interrogators routinely beat up prisoners. It has none of the necessary standards for a detention center. There are not even toilets. Diseases are rampant.
Many opponents of the regime were not impressed by Khamenei’s belated response.
Grand Ayotollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, an opponent of the Supreme Leader, retorted harshly: was the shah able to resist the protests by jailing, torturing, extracting confessions and lying?, comparing the Supreme Leader with the autocratic and loathed former leader overthrown in the 1979 Revolution, and explicitly predicting that the policy of repression would ultimately fail, as it did thirty years ago.
Miffed that the concessions were derided by the opponents of the regime and that the demonstrations on Thursday clearly evinced that the protest movement was as vigorous as ever, the regime changed tack.
A trial of more than 100 reformists (the authorities had previously mentioned that only 20 would be prosecuted) arrested in the post-election turmoil opened on Saturday.
Among the accused, and brought to court in prison garb, were former president Khatami’s vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi; former deputy foreign minister Moshen Aminzadeh, and Moshen Mirdamadi, leader of Khatami’s party, the Islamic Iran Participation front.
The charges?
Organizing mass protests against the regime ; colluding with foreign powers; undermining national security and attempting to overthrow the clerical regime through a Velvet Revolution!
It comes as no surprise that the defendants, while in detention , confessed to the crimes enumerated previously…
Mr. Abtahi declared in court I believe the reformists had prepared for two or three years for this election, in order to limit the powers of the supreme leader. I want to tell all friends that there was no fraud in the election, it was just a lie to build the protests around.
Needless to say, Khatami’s party rejected these ludicrous charges:
after 50 days of isolating and pressuring the detainees ... such a weak indictment has been prepared ... It is a politically motivated and illegal indictment...
As far as it was concerned, the trial was a laughable show that even a cooked chicken would laugh at.
The former president accused the regime of organizing a show trial, and staging a diversion so that the real crimes committed against the people by the regime would be overlooked. Furthermore, he added, basic constitutional guarantees were flouted:
what was done yesterday is against the constitution, regular laws and rights of the citizens. The most important problem with the trial procedure is that it was not held in an open session. The lawyers and the defendants were not informed of the contents of the cases ahead of the trial.
Such a parody of justice can only further embolden the regime’s opponents…
Ahmadinejad’s inauguration is to take place Wednesday August 5th .
The regime is running out of time, its credibility in tatters.
The show trial hastily organized is only further undermining its authority, and its reputation, at home and abroad.
The regime’s erratic behavior these last few days-concessions one day, and show trials the next-suggests it is at a loss at what to do, and has lost its bearings.
Its repressive policies have failed to cow the Iranian people, and, as it has no other strategy, it now finds itself on the defensive, and its figurehead, Ahmadinejad, appears weaker and more ineffectual with each passing day…
In all likelihood, the streets of Tehran will once again be overrun on Wednesday…
How long will the regime find the stamina to cling to power?
(the photograph of the ceremony at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery July 30th, is by AP)
Mir Hussein Mousavi had summoned his supporters to honor those killed by the regime’s thugs during the various mass demonstrations that followed the rigged June12 presidential elections, including Neda Agha Soltan…
She was killed by a single bullet exactly forty days ago last Thursday. Shiite tradition thus demanded that she be honored at a mourning ceremony.
The cemetery is hallowed ground for historical reasons as well.
Many of those who were killed during the 1979 Revolution are also buried there.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini himself, the father of the Revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran is buried in a mausoleum just next door…
By 4pm, several thousand mourners had congregated at the site…
Interestingly enough, there are reports that the police (the traditional force, and not the paramilitaries such as the Basijis, and the Revolutionary Guards) actually cooperated with the mourners, one participant told tehranbureau :
waiting to enter the cementery compound in the traffic, one of my companions pulled down the window and half jokingly asked the police officer what was going on. He smiled back and said, “nothing, just go towards row 257.” For those not familiar with Behesht Zahra, it’s an enormous cementery with wide avenues and squares. Knowing it would take us a while to find our destination, the police officer decided to help by telling us in which row we could find Neda’s grave.
Wearing black, and holding red roses the mourners chanted Neda is alive! Ahmadinejad is dead! and suras of the Koran.
Mousavi and his wife tried to approach Neda’s grave but were surrounded by hundreds of paramilitaries, and, prevented from getting out of their car, were forced to leave.
The crowd then chanted Yaa Hossein, Mir Hossein, thus identifying their leader with the Prophet’s grandson, the most adored religious figure in the Shiite world.
When another reformist, also a candidate in last June’s election, Mahdi Karroubi, tried to give a speech at the mourning ceremony, the paramilitaries charged, beating members of his party as well as anyone else they could, and he was also compelled to flee the scene.
Two Iranian filmmakers, Jafar Panahi and Mahnaz Mohammadi, were arrested as they tried to lay flowers on Neda’s grave.
The regime had warned that all troublemakers would be harshly dealt with: we are not joking — we will confront those who want to fight against the clerical establishment, Abdullah Araghi, the Tehran leader of the Revolutionary guards, declared the night before.
Thousands simply ignored his admonitions, and demonstrated nevertheless, as they have done whenever possible, since last June…
Many of the mourners then headed for Tehran, and joined the thousands who had been unable to reach the cemetery due to the roadblocks set up by the security forces so as to hinder the movements of the mourners.
Several demonstrations (one eye witness spoke of at least seven) then simultaneously took place, in various sections of Tehran.
The main rallying point was the Grand mosala mosque, but a robust police presence there prevented demonstrators from gathering.
They thus headed to Vanak and Valiarsr Squares instead.
Though the paramilitaries reacted with their customary brutality, the demonstrators were undeterred and refused to be intimidated. As one demonstrator reported shortly after:
this appeared to be the most successful protests since the crackdown began. It was more akin to a riot… The forces were decidedly not in control of the situation. The protests were too widespread and numerous, up and down Valiasr…Although their effort to disperse protesters was ineffective compared to previous episodes, the Guards and Basij forces were unusually savage today — I saw many women beaten without reservation and glass shattering on cars with small children inside…Yet people were more bold than I’d ever seen them. As I write this at 9:00 pm from a location in Abbas Abad district, the shouts of “Death to Khamenei!” and chaotic honks are drifting in loud and clear from the window. It is dark, night has fallen – and protests are still continuing strong. Never have they lasted this late except on the first few days following the election.
This is a positive sign, one that clearly demonstrates the protest movement has not lost momentum, and is ready to defy the regime whenever the opportunity arises.
Many were encouraged by the significant turnout, and the resilience of the demonstrators: you see they never thought this many people would turn out in the heat like this. They can’t stop it now, one woman present at the cemetery said.
Demonstrations also took place in other Iranian cities, such as Mashhad and Rasht.
The regime had made some concessions, in order to appease those who had criticized its handling of the post-election riots, including some within the ruling conservative faction, and in particular, its detainee policy. Several of those arrested died in detention, after having been abused and tortured.
140 prisoners were released Tuesday, including the human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr.
The Supreme Leader himself, Ali Khamenei, ordered the closing of the Kahrizak facility, one notorious for its abuse of prisoners.
Darius Ghanbari, an opposition parliamentarian, described it as basically a big warehouse. Citizenship rights are not respected there. Interrogators routinely beat up prisoners. It has none of the necessary standards for a detention center. There are not even toilets. Diseases are rampant.
Many opponents of the regime were not impressed by Khamenei’s belated response.
Grand Ayotollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, an opponent of the Supreme Leader, retorted harshly: was the shah able to resist the protests by jailing, torturing, extracting confessions and lying?, comparing the Supreme Leader with the autocratic and loathed former leader overthrown in the 1979 Revolution, and explicitly predicting that the policy of repression would ultimately fail, as it did thirty years ago.
Miffed that the concessions were derided by the opponents of the regime and that the demonstrations on Thursday clearly evinced that the protest movement was as vigorous as ever, the regime changed tack.
A trial of more than 100 reformists (the authorities had previously mentioned that only 20 would be prosecuted) arrested in the post-election turmoil opened on Saturday.
Among the accused, and brought to court in prison garb, were former president Khatami’s vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi; former deputy foreign minister Moshen Aminzadeh, and Moshen Mirdamadi, leader of Khatami’s party, the Islamic Iran Participation front.
The charges?
Organizing mass protests against the regime ; colluding with foreign powers; undermining national security and attempting to overthrow the clerical regime through a Velvet Revolution!
It comes as no surprise that the defendants, while in detention , confessed to the crimes enumerated previously…
Mr. Abtahi declared in court I believe the reformists had prepared for two or three years for this election, in order to limit the powers of the supreme leader. I want to tell all friends that there was no fraud in the election, it was just a lie to build the protests around.
Needless to say, Khatami’s party rejected these ludicrous charges:
after 50 days of isolating and pressuring the detainees ... such a weak indictment has been prepared ... It is a politically motivated and illegal indictment...
As far as it was concerned, the trial was a laughable show that even a cooked chicken would laugh at.
The former president accused the regime of organizing a show trial, and staging a diversion so that the real crimes committed against the people by the regime would be overlooked. Furthermore, he added, basic constitutional guarantees were flouted:
what was done yesterday is against the constitution, regular laws and rights of the citizens. The most important problem with the trial procedure is that it was not held in an open session. The lawyers and the defendants were not informed of the contents of the cases ahead of the trial.
Such a parody of justice can only further embolden the regime’s opponents…
Ahmadinejad’s inauguration is to take place Wednesday August 5th .
The regime is running out of time, its credibility in tatters.
The show trial hastily organized is only further undermining its authority, and its reputation, at home and abroad.
The regime’s erratic behavior these last few days-concessions one day, and show trials the next-suggests it is at a loss at what to do, and has lost its bearings.
Its repressive policies have failed to cow the Iranian people, and, as it has no other strategy, it now finds itself on the defensive, and its figurehead, Ahmadinejad, appears weaker and more ineffectual with each passing day…
In all likelihood, the streets of Tehran will once again be overrun on Wednesday…
How long will the regime find the stamina to cling to power?
(the photograph of the ceremony at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery July 30th, is by AP)
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