Tag: demonstrations

7:52 p.m. Now that it is early Friday morning in Iran, an Iranian blogger writes on Twitter of a new way of registering protest opposition supporters say they plan for this afternoon:

   

at one PM people all over Iran will be airing green balloons and make the sky GREEN!

Let’s not waste energy on trying to launch balloons simultaneously with those in Iran (Iran is 3.5 hours ahead of GMT, 8.5 hours ahead of ET).  Let’s just blow up those balloons in solidarity.  Let’s see some green balloons on your car, at your home, at your work, on the street.  It’s easy.  It’s solidarity.

This “defiance” is particularly appropriate today.  Reuters is reporting that Ahmad Khatami has called for the execution of “rioters”:

A hardline Iranian cleric on Friday called for the execution of “rioters” in the latest sign of the authorities’ determination to stamp out opposition to the June 12 presidential election. …snip

“I want the judiciary to … punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson,” Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University….snip

Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading “rioters” as being “mohareb” or one who wages war against God.

“They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely,” he said. Under Iran’s Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution.

Last time I checked flying a green balloon was not being a “leading rioter.”  But definitions in Iran are extremely flexible.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Events in Iran yesterday show exactly what lack of accountability looks and feels like. It’s not a pretty picture.  And it hurts. CNN provides this small vignette:

On Wednesday afternoon, security forces used overwhelming force to crack down on protesters who had flocked to Baharestan Square near the parliament building in Tehran, according to more than a half-dozen witnesses.

Police charged at the gathering — clubbing demonstrators with batons, beating women and old men, and firing weapons into the air to disperse them, witnesses said.

“They were waiting for us,” one witness said. “They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap.” …

“They emptied buses that were taking people there and let the private cars go on … and then, all of a sudden, some 500 people with clubs of wood, they came out of the Hedayat Mosque, and they poured into the streets and they started beating everyone,” she said.

Government-run Press TV gave a starkly different account, saying about 200 protesters had gathered in front of the parliament and 50 others in a nearby square. All were dispersed by a heavy police presence, it said.

This is what happens when there is no accountability.  The Government gives a “starkly different account.”  Deadly force dictates the events.  Demonstrators are clubbed.  Women and old men are beaten.  Government approved goons launch surprise attacks.  Government approved media say nothing happened.  Repeat as necessary.

There is no official reckoning of events, there is no real investigation, there is no trial, there is nothing but official minimization and silence.  Crickets.  Silence until the next demonstration appears, then they do it again.  Intense and brutal violence, followed by official silence.  Repeat as necessary.

My heart goes out to the demonstrators in Iran.  Because their Government shuns accountability, they are, each of them, in mortal danger.  Their Government believes that it is appropriate to use deadly force to shore up a stolen election.  It believes that violence will end civil unrest.  And if the present level of violence proves to be insufficient to bring compliance, even greater violence is threatened.  No other course is contemplated.

Of course, lack of accountability is nourished by lack of reporting, by officially imposed silence.  It’s important to the Iranian government to make sure that the whole world isn’t watching (except on Twitter).  It’s important to Governments that are not accountable to thwart all inquiries about their activities, to impose secrecy, to resist disclosure, to disrupt investigations, to shield past misdeeds, to hide the truth.

The New York Times reports the difficulties in knowing what is happening in Iran and a different version of the same Wednesday afternoon brutality:

The government also stepped up its efforts to block independent news coverage of events all across the country. The government has banned foreign news media members from leaving their offices, suspended all press credentials for foreign correspondents, arrested a freelance writer for The Washington Times, continued to hold a reporter for Newsweek and forced other foreign journalists to leave the country.

That made it difficult to ascertain exactly what happened when several hundred protesters tried to gather outside the Parliament building Wednesday afternoon. Witnesses said they were met by a huge force of riot police officers and Basij vigilantes, some on motorcycles and some in pickup trucks, armed with sticks and chains. Witnesses said people were trapped and beaten as they tried to flee down side streets.

“It was not possible to wait and see what happened,” said one witness who asked for anonymity out of fear of arrest. “At one point we saw several riot police in black clothes walk towards a group of people who looked like passers-by. Suddenly they pulled out their batons and began hitting them without warning.”

The authorities said they were moving to impose order and secure the rule of law. “I was insisting and will insist on implementation of the law,” Ayatollah Khamenei said on national television. “That means we will not go one step beyond the law. Neither the system nor the people will yield to pressure at any price.”

That is what lack of accountability looks like.  This is what it feels like.  First it’s the crime, the brutality, the torture, the violence.  Then it’s the lie, “We will not go one step beyond the law.”  That echoes previous official posturing in Washington, “The United States does not torture.”  That’s what lack of accountability looks like.   The Government can and does say anything it wants to about its activities.  It lies when it wants to.  And nobody dares to lift the curtain to see whether it’s true.  That’s what lack of accountability is.

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles

The New York Times story is chilling in its understatement and lack of descriptions:

Hundreds of protesters clashed with waves of riot police and paramilitary militia in Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said, as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted the authorities would not yield to pressure from opponents demanding a new election following allegations of electoral fraud.

It was impossible to confirm first-hand the extent of the new violence in the capital because of draconian new press restrictions on coverage of the post-election mayhem. But the witnesses reached by telephone said the confrontation, outside the national Parliament building, was bloody, with police using live ammunition.

Defying government warnings, the witnesses said that hundreds, if not thousands of protesters, had attempted to gather in front of the parliament on Baharestan Square. They were met with riot police and paramilitary militia, who struck at them with truncheons, tear gas, and guns. One witness said he saw a 19-year-old woman shot in the neck.

Truncheons, tear gas, and bullets. Riot police and paramilitary militia.  And, of course, suppression of the press.  Not only will the Iranian government not yield, it’s evident that it intends to end all demonstrations with deadly force, which it naively hopes will not be widely reported. And, of course, it plan on massive incarceration:

A New York-based human rights group, International Campaign for Human Rights, listed the names Wednesday of 240 of the 645 people the Iranian state media has reported detained in the crackdown. The total number of detained, the organization said, citing human rights activists in Iran, may be as high as 2,000.

Among them are people arrested in a Monday night raid of a campaign office for Mr. Moussavi in Tehran, Press TV, state television’s English-language satellite broadcaster, reported Wednesday… snip

The detained, most of whom are being held incommunicado, also include students picked up at their dormitories, dozens of street demonstrators, and “targeted, politically motivated arrests of intellectuals, civil society leaders, political campaigners, journalists, and human rights campaigners,” said Aaron Rhodes, a consultant with the organization in Vienna.

There are no surprises in Tehran today.  Today is Sunday.  The New York Times informs us of what we already know to be the case:

A day after police and militia forces used guns, truncheons, tear gas and water cannons to beat back thousands of demonstrators, a tense quiet set over this city Sunday as the standoff between the government and thousands of protestors hardened into a test of wills that has spilled blood and claimed lives.

It was unclear how the confrontation would play out now that the government has abandoned its restraint and large numbers of protestors have demonstrated their willingness to risk injury and even death as they continue to dispute the results of Iran’s presidential election nine days ago.

Iranian state television reported that 13 people were killed in the clashes Saturday.

State television also reported that the government had arrested five members of the family of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president who heads two influential councils in Iran, a move that escalates the government’s crackdown against the reform movement.

There are no surprises. Guns. Truncheons. Tear gas.  Water Cannons.  Burning motorcycles.  Injured bystanders.  Arrests. Home invasions. Brutality. Murder.  That “the government has abandoned its restraint” is a record breaking understatement.  The violence, of course, was to be expected.  After all, didn’t Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threaten violence during Friday prayers:

“Street challenge is not acceptable,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “This is challenging democracy after the elections.” He said opposition leaders would be “held responsible for chaos” if they did not end the protests.

There are no surprises.  The Times, and just about everyone else, fears the very worst:

There was no sign on the streets early Sunday of the heavy security forces from the night before, but there were reports that protestors planned to demonstrate again later in the day, beginning at about 5 p.m., giving both sides time to regroup, or reconsider.

Since the crisis broke open with massive streets protests – posing the greatest challenge to the Islamic theocracy since the 1979 revolution – the government has declared its refusal to compromise, instead turning loose its security forces and militia to crush opposition voices. The government has pressed its policy of repression and intimidation the last several days, arresting reformers, intellectuals and others who promoted reform ideas or challenged the leadership’s version of events.

But now as the numbers of dead and injured begin to mount, it is unclear how, even if the protests can be stopped, the leadership can patch over the deep divisions in the Iranian society and rebuild legitimacy with Iranians who believe the election was rigged.

There are no surprises. Things, I suppose, will now grow even worse.  The repression will become fiercer, even less restrained, even more purposeful and frightening.  More people will be killed and injured and arrested.

President Obama’s statement on Saturday was strong, and he fortunately kept the matter at arm’s length:

Saying that “each and every innocent life” lost would be mourned, he added: “Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

“Martin Luther King once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people’s belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.”

Sadly, he’s right.  All we can do outside of Iran is bear witness as the struggle unfolds. And while we bear witness, we can continue to lift our voices as individuals (and not as a government) in solidarity with the demonstrators.  And offer our thoughts and prayers* for a peaceful resolution.  And find other, creative ways to support the struggle in Iran for democracy and freedom.

The Iranian Democracy movement is absolutely worthy of our personal (as opposed to governmental) support.  Support and solidarity at this point require, indeed permit only the simplest of things.  There are only simple things we can and should do:

Things like changing our location and time zone on Twitter to Tehran and GMT +3.5 hours.  Things like making our avatar green.  Things like reading the posts of those who are there.  Things like posting and distributing their videos on youtube.  Things like writing blogs and asking others to link arms with them in solidarity.  Things like talking about what ideas we might have that could be of help to them.

These are things that might be completely ineffective to help Iranians achieve democracy, to get a new, fair election, to overturn the sham outcome of their last election, to prevent governmental violence and repression.  I realize that.  But that’s not what’s important.  That’s not what’s important now.

What’s important, I think, is our continuing solidarity with this struggle, our saying, however we can say it, “Brothers and Sisters, we’re with you.  We want you to succeed.  We want you to be safe, and free.  We want you to obtain the change you seek.”

I am full of admiration for the courage of the Iranian movement.  I applaud and support these people.  Please join me in solidarity with them.  Sign the available petitions.  Take the numerous, available, small steps.  It’ll make you feel great.  And it’s the right thing to do.

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles