Show of force works in Iran

Opinion: June 22, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Yasaman Baji

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

TEHRAN

Unlike last year, when the disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad set off massive demonstrations across the country, opponents this year chose to avert major confrontations with the authorities and limited their presence on the streets.

The leaders of the opposition Green Movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, called off the demonstration planned for June 12 after the Interior Ministry refused permission for a silent, peaceful march.

Mousavi’s unofficial website, Kaleme, said the reformist parties made the decision because of reports that the security forces would use violence against protestors.

Still, some protesters still took to the streets, chanting slogans and honking car horns.

Calls of “Allahu akbar” (God is great) — a feature of last year’s protests — could be heard all across the capital on the evening of the 12th.

Security forces

To discourage potential demonstrators, security forces and the military had been deployed in advance to major Tehran squares like Sadatabad, Haft-e Tir, Parkway and Vanak.

Tehran University was blocked off and obscured from view by a row of buses parked along the edges of the campus. The eastern and western entrances to the university compound were sealed off, preventing students from joining others in the streets.

Although there were fewer confrontations between police and demonstrators than last year, there were still numerous arrests throughout the capital, and police vans were full of blindfolded and handcuffed detainees.

Tehran’s deputy chief of police, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Radan, said there were only a few arrests, although unofficial reports put the number of people detained at 900.

Many more avoided direct confrontation with police but still managed to make their opposition to the current regime know, often with will more than a glance or a mumbled political slogan.

Yasaman Baji is a reporter in Tehran who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.