Election Protests Lead to Hundreds of Murders by Iran

Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009,^[1][2] with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election with 62% of the votes cast,^[3] and that Mir-Hossein Mousavi had received 34% of the votes cast.^[4][5] The European Union, ^[6]United Kingdom^[7] and several western countries expressed concern over alleged irregularities during the vote, ^[6] and many analysts and journalists from the United States, Europe and other western based media voiced doubts about the authenticity of the results.^{[8][9][10][11]} Meanwhile many OIC member states, as well as Russia, China, India, and Brazil, have congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory.

Mousavi issued a statement saying, "I'm warning that I won't surrender to this charade," and urged his supporters to fight the decision, without committing acts of violence.^[9]Protests, in favour of Mousavi and against the alleged fraud, broke out in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, labeling his victory as a "divine assessment".^[12] Mousavi lodged an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June.^[13] On 15 June, Khamenei announced there would be an investigation into vote-rigging claims, which would take seven to ten days.^[14] On 16 June, the Guardian Council announced it will recount the votes. However, Mousavi stated that 14 million unused ballots were missing, giving a chance to manipulate the results.^[15] On 29 June, Iran's electoral board completed the partial recount, and concluded that Ahmadinejad won the election, amidst protest from the opposition.^[16]

The President of Iran is the highest official elected by direct popular vote, but does not control foreign policy or the armed forces. Candidates have to be vetted by the Guardian Council, a twelve member body consisting of six clerics (selected by Iran's Supreme Leader) and six lawyers (proposed by the head of Iran's judicial system and voted in by the Parliament).^[17]

The inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was held on 5 August in Tehran amid protests held outside the Parliament.^[18]

[edit] Pre-election violence

On 1 June, a campaign office of Ahmadinejad's primary opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was torched. The office was located in the city of Qum, in northwest Iran. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. At the same time, it was reported that an assassination had been attempted against former president Mohammad Khatami by means of a bomb placed on an aircraft he was to board.^[87]

[edit] Blocking of communications

Mobile phone communications were interrupted in Tehran on election day and the BBC has stated that "heavy electronic jamming" was being used to halt their broadcasts.^[88] On 23 May 2009, the Iranian government temporarily blocked access to Facebook across the country. Gulfnews.com reported that this move was a response to the use of Facebook by candidates running against Ahmadinejad.^[89] PC World reported that Mousavi's Facebook page had more than 6,600 supporters.^[90] Access was restored by 26 May 2009.^[91]

[edit] Alleged vote rigging or coup attempt

In an interview taken after third partial results were announced, Mohsen Makhmalbaf said he was told that there was to be a coup on Saturday.^[92]Makhmalbaf also claimed to be Mousavi's official speaker, which was refuted by Mousavi's official site Ghalamnews. Makhmalbaf then claimed that Ghalamnews is hacked, which was refuted this time by Ghalamnews, Kaleme, and officials at Mousavi's campaign headquarter, which repeated that only these two sites and his campaign headquarter are reliable sources for Mousavi's position and people should not consider any other source as reliable. ^[93]

The New York Times quoted an employee of the Interior Ministry claiming that "the government had been preparing its fraud for weeks, purging anyone of doubtful loyalty and importing pliable staff members from around the country."^[44]The New Yorker stated that "dissident employees of the Interior Ministry... have reportedly issued an open letter" saying that the election was stolen.^[41]The Guardian has also mentioned "reports of a leaked interior ministry figures allegedly suggesting Mousavi had won", although the article questioned the credibility of the report.^[14]

The Guardian reported on 17 June 2009 that an Iranian news website identified at least 30 polling sites with turnout over 100% and 200 sites with turnout over 95%.^[94] On 21 June 2009, a spokesman from the Guardian Council (an organ of the Iranian government) stated that the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters in no more than 50 cities, something the Council argued was a normal phenomenon which had taken place in previous elections as people are not obliged to vote where registered (when they have been born).^[95][96]

On June 18, Iranian film makers Marjane Satrapi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf appeared before Green Party members in the European Parliament to present a document allegedly received from a member of the Iranian electoral commission claiming that that the liberal candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi had actually won the election, and that the conservative incumbent Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had received only 12% of the vote.^[97][98][99]

Aftermath [edit] Protests

Clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results from early morning on Saturday onward. Initially, the protests were largely peaceful. However, as time passed, they became increasingly violent. Some protesters began to get violent after the results of the election were announced. Angry crowds in Tehran broke into shops, tore down signs, and smashed windows.^[106] Civil unrest took place as protesters set fire to tires outside the Interior Ministry building and others formed a human chain of around 300 people to close off a major Tehran street.^[22]

The demonstrations grew bigger and more heated than the 1999 student protests.^[12]Al Jazeera English described the 13 June situation as the "biggest unrest since the 1979 revolution." It also reported that protests seemed spontaneous without any formal organization.^[107] Two hundred people protested outside Iran's embassy in London on 13 June.^[108]Ynet has stated that "tens of thousands" protested on 13 June.^[109] Demonstrators are chanting phrases such as "Down with the dictator", "Death to the dictator", and "Give us our votes back".^[9][109] Mousavi has urged for calm and asked that his supporters refrain from acts of violence.^[9]

Ynet reported on 14 June that two people had died in the rioting so far.^[109] That day, protests had been organized in front of the Iranian embassies in Turkey, ^[19]Dubai, ^[19]Paris, ^[110]Berlin, ^[110]London, ^[111]Rome, ^[112]Sydney, ^[113]Vienna^[110] and The Hague.^[114] In response to the reformist protests, tens of thousands of people rallied in Tehran on 14 June to support the victory of Ahmadinejad.^[13]

On 15 June, Mousavi^[115] rallied, with anywhere from hundreds of thousands^[45] to three million,^[116] of his supporters in Tehran, despite being warned by state officials that any such rally would be illegal. The demonstration, the largest in the Islamic Republic of Iran's 30-year history, was Mousavi's first public appearance after the election. Protests focused around Azadi Tower, around which lines of people stretched for more than nine kilometers met. Gunshots were reported to have been fired at the rally, where Mousavi had spoke to his supporters saying, "The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person."^[19][45] All three opposition candidates appeared.^[116]

Competing rallies for Mousavi and for Ahmadinejad took place on 16 June. The pro-Ahmadinejad protesters, chanting the phrases "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!", outnumbered their opponents, but they did not match the numbers of opponents who had protested the day before. Reports from the state media and elsewhere stated on 16 June that seven people have died in all of the protests so far.^[15][117] However, Times Online quoted a Rasoul Akram Hospital nurse that day who asserted that 28 people have suffered from "bullet wounds" and eight have died so far.^[118] Over half a million reformist Iranians marched silently from from Haft-e-Tir Squre to Vali Asr Square on 17 June. The National Iranian American Council stated that day that 32 people had died protesting so far.^[45]

[edit] Government actions

[edit] Arrests

On the weekend of 13 and 14 June, in a series of raids across Tehran, the government arrested over 170 people, according to police officials.^[119] Among them were prominent reformist politicians, including MIRO founder Behzad Nabavi, IIPF leader Mohsen Mirdamadi, and former president Mohammad Khatami's brother Mohammad-Reza Khatami, who was later released.^{[6][120][121]} Also arrested were Mostafa Tajzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, whom the IRNA said were involved in orchestrating protests on 13 June.^[121] Anonymous sources said that the police stormed the headquarters of the IIPF and arrested a number of people.^[12][122] Iranian journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin claimed that presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi was put under house arrest, although officials denied this.^[123] An estimated 200 people were detained after clashes with students at Tehran university, although many were later released.^[124]

Acting Police Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan stated via the state press service on the 14th that "in the interrogation of related rebels, we intend to find the link between the plotters and foreign media".^[125] A judiciary spokesman said they had not been arrested but that they were summoned, "warned not to increase tension," and later released.^[126] Intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei linked some arrests to terrorism supported from outside Iran, stating that "more than 20 explosive consignments were discovered".^[127] Others, he said, were "counter-revolutionary groups" who had "penetrated election headquarters" of the election candidates.^[127]

On 16 June, Reuters reported that former vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi and former presidential advisor Saeed Hajjarian had been arrested.^[128] Human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, who had been demanding a recount of all votes, was also arrested on the Tuesday according to Shirin Ebadi, who said that security officials had posed as clients.^[129] Over 100 students were arrested after security forces fired tear gas at protesters at Shiraz university on the same day.^[124]Reporters Without Borders reported that 5 of 11 arrested journalists were still detention as of 16 June, and that a further 10 journalists were unaccounted for and may have been arrested.^[124]

On 17 June, former foreign minister and secretary-general of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Ebrahim Yazdi, was arrested while undergoing tests at Pars hospital in Tehran.^[124][130] He was held overnight in Evin Prison before being released and returning to hospital, where according to Human Rights Watch he remained under guard.^[131][132] In Tabriz, other Freedom Movement activists and eight members of the IIPF were arrested, with reports of at least 100 civic figures' arrests.^[124] The total number of arrests across Iran since the election was reported as 500.^[124]

Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for the international campaign for human rights in Iran, stated that "Iranian intelligence and security forces are using the public protests to engage in what appears to be a major purge of reform-oriented individuals whose situations in detention could be life-threatening".^[124] In Isfahan Province, prosecutor-general Mohammadreza Habibi warned that dissidents could face execution under Islamic law.^[133]

[edit] Censorship

According to the Telegraph, on 14 June "Iran's regime was doing its utmost to choke off the flow of news from its capital."^[134] Reporters from the Italian public television broadcaster RAI stated that one of its interpreters was beaten with clubs by riot police and the officers then confiscated the cameraman's tapes.^[12] The Al Arabiya's offices in Tehran were closed on June 14 for a week by Iranian authorities, who gave no explanation for the decision.^[135] Meanwhile, the director of BBC World Service accused the Iranian Government of jamming its broadcasts to the country. Peter Horrocks said audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe had been affected by an electronic block on satellites used to broadcast the BBC Persian Television signal to Iran, adding: "It seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election".^[6][136]

Al Jazeera English has leveled allegations of direct media censorship by the Iranian government, stating that "some of the newspapers have been given notices to change their editorials or their main headlines".^[3] BBC correspondent John Simpson was arrested, his material confiscated, and then released.^[137]NBC News offices in Tehran were raided, with cameras and other equipment confiscated. ABC News reporter Jim Sciutto also has had material taken. People from the German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD have been harassed as well, with men carrying batons and knives reportedly storming the ARD's Tehran office. A BBC corporate official has referred to the network's conflict with the regime as 'electronic warfare'.^[45]

On 13 June 2009, when thousands of opposition supporters clashed with the police, Facebook was filtered again. Some news websites were also blocked by the Iranian authorities. Mobile phone services including text messaging also stopped or became very difficult to use.^[107] Specifically, all websites affiliated with the BBC were shut off,^[9] as were ones with The Guardian.^[22]Associated Press labeled the actions "ominous measures apparently seeking to undercut liberal voices".^[12] The restrictions were likely intended to prevent Mousavi's supporters from organizing large-scale protests.^[126] The protesters used phone calls, e-mails and word of mouth to get around the measures.^[19]

Ahmadinejad has responded to concerns by saying, "[d]on't worry about freedom in Iran... Newspapers come and go and reappear. Don't worry about it."^[138] In response to the crackdown, anti-regime activists have repeatedly taken down Ahmadinejad's and Khamenei's websites. According to CNN, the United States State Department has worked with Twitter to expand the website's access in Iran.^[45]

International reactions

[edit] See also

• 2009 Iranian election protests
• 2009 Iran poll protests trial

[edit] References (158 references)