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TEHRAN, Iran Thousands of anti-government demonstrators were attacked with batons and tear gas by security forces Thursday as they tried to gather around Tehran University for the first protests in about two weeks, defying warnings from the authorities that they would crush any demonstrations.
The protests were called to commemorate an attack on students at the university in 1999. The demonstrators are using such anniversaries and special occasions to rally people in public. Demonstrators and Web sites said the next possible date is the upcoming inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which is expected next month.
At the same time, the authorities also showed their determination to prevent such protests.
An eyewitness said army conscripts carrying plastic shields and batons filled the area in front of Tehran University. Two middle-aged women reportedly walked up to the security forces, asking them mockingly whether it was already 5 p.m., the proposed start time of the demonstration. “Oh, still 20 minutes left,” one woman told them. “That means that you have still time to leave,” she added, laughing.
But the mood quickly changed when plainclothes security personnel started shoving people into unmarked vans with blacked-out windows.
“A girl started screaming, and three men started beating her very hard with batons as she was lying on the ground, swearing at them, calling them dirtbags,” an eyewitness said. When groups of people started shouting at the men, a young bearded official in civilian clothes ran toward the crowds, pulled out a revolver and started shooting in the air. “Everybody ran away into the nearby alleys,” the eyewitness said.
At Ferdowsi Square in central Tehran, teenage members of the pro-government basij militia stood shoulder to shoulder in a huge circle, wearing oversize black helmets and camouflage vests and carrying wooden handles of shovels and axes.
The security forces managed to prevent large crowds from gathering, by constantly using tear gas, wielding batons and firing shots in the air.
Many protesters shouted slogans in favor of Mir Hossein Mousavi, an opposition leader who has been calling for an annulment of the disputed June 12 election in which Ahmadinejad was declared the landslide winner.
As darkness fell, more special riot police belonging to the Revolutionary Guard Corps, nicknamed “robocops” because of their black protective gear, flooded the streets. There were reports of people setting trash cans on fire in several neighborhoods.
Mousavi did not call for protests Thursday. But the capital had been abuzz with calls for a huge demonstration around Enghelab Square. On Web sites, in e-mails and in fliers, there were calls to meet up along nine routes leading to the square for what seemed to be spontaneous gatherings. The government has accused foreign governments, media and groups of organizing the protests and has claimed that people dressed up as members of the basij are beating protesters.
The Iranian government has complained that in the aftermath of the election, several Farsi-language satellite broadcasting stations have been summoning people to protest, including the U.S.-funded Voice of America Persian News Network and a similar operation run by the BBC.
