Tehran governor: New protests will be smashed

[July 09, 2009]  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- The governor of Tehran province warned that security forces will "smash" any attempt at protests amid calls Thursday for the first significant opposition marches since a major crackdown more than a week ago.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have called for new demonstrations at several locations in Tehran and other cities. The calls are a bid to revive street action after police, Revolutionary Guards and Basij militiamen crushed the dramatic mass protests that erupted over Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election.

At the planned time for gatherings, there was so far no sign of demonstrations in Tehran. Groups of uniformed policemen stood at intersections and plainclothes Basiji militiamen were seen all along Revolution Street and nearby Tehran University, some of the sites where protests were called.

There has not been a major protest in 11 days since the crackdown. Tehran governor Morteza Tamaddon warned that any new march would meet the same fate.

"If some individuals plan to have anti-security move through listening to a call by counter-revolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA in a report late Wednesday.

"Enemies are angry about the calm after the postelection plots and are trying to damage the peace through foreign, counter-revolutionary and notorious networks," Tamaddon said, adding that public awareness would defuse all "plots" and government would "strongly" provide security.

The calls for protest have been circulating for days on social networking Web sites and other pro-opposition Web sites. Opposition supporters planned the marches to coincide with the anniversary Thursday of a 1999 attack by Basij on a Tehran University dorm to stop protests in which one student was killed.

Mousavi and his pro-reform supporters say he won the election and that official results showing a landslide victory for incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are fraudulent.

Hundreds of thousands marched in the streets for days following the election, demanding a new vote. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the results valid after a partial recount and warned that unrest would not be tolerated.

In the crackdown that followed, at least 20 protesters and 7 Basijis were killed.

Police have said 1,000 people were arrested in the crackdown and that most have since been released. But the state-run English language news network Press TV quoted prosecutor-general Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi saying Wednesday that 2,500 people were arrested and that 500 of them could face trial. The remainder, he said, have been released.

Among those still being held are top figures in the country's reform movement, including a former vice president and former Cabinet members. Arrests have continued over the past week, with police rounding up dozens of activists, journalists and bloggers.

Ahead of Thursday's planned march, authorities appeared to have taken a number of other steps to prevent participation. SMS mobile phone messaging was down Thursday for a third straight day -- a step believed to be aimed at thwarting protesters' communications. A similar cutoff took place from the election until a week ago, amid the height of the protests.

The government also closed down universities and called a government holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, citing a heavy dust and pollution cloud that has blanketed Tehran and other parts of the country this week. Many saw the move as aimed at keeping students away from campuses where protests could be organized. Thursday is a weekend day in Iran, and many people used the surprise long holiday to travel to other cities where weather was better.

Iranian authorities have depicted the post-election turmoil as instigated by enemy nations aiming to thwart Ahmadinejad's re-election, and officials say some of those detained confessed to fomenting the unrest. Opposition supporters say the confessions were forced under duress.

[Associated Press; By NASSER KARIMI]

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