IRAN SUPREME LEADER REVERSES POSITION, ORDERS ELECTION INVESTIGATION - MOUSAVI SET TO APPEAR AT BANNED RALLY
15 June 2009
BY JENNY BOOTH
Iran’s Supreme Leader has ordered an investigation into the disputed re-election of President Ahmadinejad, reversing his earlier decree that the result was fair.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s intervention came as Iran braced itself for a third day of street protests by reformists, who claim that official voting figures giving Mr Ahmadinejad 63 per cent in last Friday’s election were rigged, and a “charade”.
Ayatollah Khamenei, who has the final say on all strategic matters, had described the result as fair and urged the country to unite behind Mr Ahmadinejad.
Today it emerged, however, that he had met the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi last night and ordered the powerful Guardians Council to examine his allegations of vote-rigging.
“Naturally in this election, complaints should be followed through legal channels,” Ayatollah Khamenei told Mr Mousavi, according to Iranian state television. “It is necessary you follow the issue calmly.”
A clampdown on the protests escalated today when the authorities attempted to ban a nationwide march by Mousavi supporters.
Mr Mousavi’s campaign website said that he will appear at the rally today despite the ban, and issue a plea for calm. The Interior Ministry warned that if Mr Mousavi did go ahead with his rally despite the ban, “the consequences of such behaviour will be directed at Mousavi”, according to the IRNA state news agency.
Mr Mousavi has also threatened to embarrass the authorities by holding a sit-in protest at the mausoleum of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the deeply revered founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, daring them to risk clashes at the hallowed site.
Police arrested 170 activists at the weekend, including the brother of former president Mohammad Khatami and a number of reformist leaders.
There have been unconfirmed reports of unrest breaking out in other cities across Iran. Opposition activists said that a student protester was killed early today during clashes in Shiraz, in southern Iran. If confirmed it would be the first fatality since the demonstrations began.
Dozens more protesters were arrested overnight, as police and militia stormed the campus at Tehran’s biggest university after about 3,000 students at dormitories of Tehran University began a demonstration, chanting “Death to the dictator”.
Clashes developed as students threw rocks and petrol bombs at the police, who fought back with teargas and plastic bullets, according to Akbar, a 25-year-old student who witnessed the fighting.
He said that he saw students set a truck and other vehicles on fire and hurl stones and bricks at the police. In response, hardline militia volunteers loyal to the Revolutionary Guard stormed the dormitories, ransacking student rooms and smashing computers and furniture with axes and sticks.
Before leaving at about 4am, the police took away memory cards and computer software material, Akbar said, adding that dozens of students were arrested.
Tehran University was the site of intense but short-lived clashes during student-led protests in 1999, and is one of the nerve centres of the pro-reform movement.
Iran’s powerful 12-member Guardians Council said today it would rule on the candidates’ complaints within 10 days. The chances that they will overturn the result are thought to be remote.
Mr Ahmadinejad addressed a vast crowd of supporters at a victory rally in Tehran yesterday and defended the results of the election, which has highlighted deep divisions in Iran after three decades of Islamic rule.
“Elections in Iran are the cleanest,” he said. “Today, we should appreciate the great triumph of the people of Iran against the united front of all the world arrogance (the West) and the psychological war launched by the enemy.”
He added that the election was like a football match and the loser should just “let it go”. But another remark by Mr Ahmadinejad during a news conference has raised fears that Mr Mousavi may face punishment for questioning the result. “He ran a red light, and he got a traffic ticket,” the president said.
The authorities have so far handled the unrest with comparative restraint, despite the use of teargas, rubber bullets and beatings by baton-wielding militiamen. But with most of the foreign journalists allowed into Iran to report on the election due to leave today, there are fears that the crackdown may intensify.
The authorities have warned that they would crush any “velvet revolution” in Iran.
A crowd of about 200 relatives of the arrested reformists yesterday protested outside Tehran’s main revolutionary court. “You can beat us as much as you can, but take us to our children,” shouted a woman as a policeman beat a man in attempting to disperse the crowd.
Riot police fired into the air to break up a demonstration, while about 200 Mousavi supporters shouting “Death to the dictator” threw stones at police who fired back with teargas.
On Saturday, Tehran witnessed widespread clashes between baton-wielding police and stone-throwing protesters in violence on a scale not seen since 1999 when student demonstrations led to a week of deadly nationwide unrest.
The results, and the subsequent disturbances, have caused international concern.
Joe Biden, the US Vice-President, said yesterday that there was “an awful lot of doubt” about the vote, but nevertheless reiterated Washington’s willingness to engage in talks after three decades of severed ties.
Today the European Union urged Iran to show restraint in responding to the protests.
“I do hope that the security forces will refrain from showing violence,” said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU External Relations Commissioner.
Amnesty International called for the Iranian authorities to investigate immediately the crackdown on demonstrators.
“The shocking scenes of violence meted out by the security forces need to be urgently investigated and those responsible for human rights violations must be brought to justice,” it said.
Some Iranian analysts have warned that the disputed nature of Mr Ahmadinejad’s victory could weaken Iran from within and isolate it further from the outside world. Mr Ahmadinejad’s first term set Iran on a collision course with the international community over its nuclear programme, his anti-Israeli tirades and use of morality police to impose stern restrictions on society.
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