Huge crowds gathered in central Tehran on Thursday to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran as opposition Web sites carried reports of shots and tear gas being fired at protesters and attacks on opposition leaders. The reports could not be confirmed independently because the Iranian authorities imposed severe restrictions on news coverage since last June’s flawed presidential elections.
The anniversary of the 1979 revolution has become a test of strength between the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and an opposition movement that took root after last June’s flawed elections, creating the biggest political challenge since the fall of Shah Reza Mohammed Pahlavi. In an effort to disrupt communications and head off huge opposition demonstrations, the authorities on Wednesday drastically slowed Internet service in Iran and shut down text messaging services. One official said that Gmail, the Google e-mail service, would be blocked. But news reports indicated that the crackdown on communications had not kept protesters off the streets.
An Iranian opposition Web site said security forces fired shots and tear gas at supporters of an opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as they mounted a counter-rally in central Tehran. Thousands of pro-government demonstrators were reported marching toward Azadi Square in central Tehran. “Security forces opened fired at protesters and fired tear gas in central Tehran,” Reuters quoted the Green Voice Web site as saying, citing witnesses.
Another opposition Web site said that security forces attacked an, opposition leader, Mehdi Karoubi, when he attended a rally marking the anniversary, Reuters said. “Karoubi was attacked by security forces in central Tehran... they shattered his car’s windows ... Karoubi was not seriously injured,” the Web site Jaras reported. Jaras also said security forces attacked former President Mohammad Khatami and arrested his brother and his brother’s wife, who is a granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni. Other news reports from Tehran on Thursday said tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators had taken to the streets to mark the revolution in 1979 that toppled the shah ushered in the theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini. State television showed the government supporters carrying banners as they marched toward Azadi Square to hear a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The Associated Press reported.
The television showed big crowds in the square waving Iranian flags and pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini and his successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Such anniversaries are traditional days of celebration. But since an uprising began in June after the disputed presidential election, protesters have used the cover of such public events to take to the streets. And soon after 10 p.m. Wednesday in Tehran, forbidden cries of “God is great” could be heard echoing from the city’s rooftops, a sign that opposition protests, the first since December 27, would go ahead despite the government’s efforts to thwart them.
The authorities have warned that they intend to confront protesters harshly. Witnesses quoted by The A.P. said the police deployed hundreds of officers in central Tehran to block protests. At least eight people were killed by the security forces in protests in December, and two men linked to the opposition were hanged this month.
The opposition movement has relied heavily on the Internet, using text messaging, e-mail and videos to spread information about the demonstrations and the crackdown by the government. It was not immediately clear if Gmail would be blocked permanently, but users inside Iran said that because of the extremely slow speed of Internet service, they had been unable to open Gmail or the Yahoo e-mail service for the last week.
Google confirmed “a sharp drop in traffic” that could not be attributed to equipment failure on its end. “Whenever we encounter blocks in our services we try to resolve them as quickly as possible,” a spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, said, “because we strongly believe that people everywhere should have the ability to communicate freely online. Sadly, sometimes it is not within our control.” Some communications experts believe that the authorities’ efforts to block Gmail could be related to Google encryption, which prevents the government from reading e-mail. Yahoo and Hotmail have not been similarly affected, one monitor said. Whatever its motivation, the government described its e-mail disruptions as well intentioned. Saeed Mahdyun, a telecommunications official, told the semiofficial ILNA news agency that Gmail would be blocked to encourage users to switch to local e-mail services.
The government announced last week that it was starting a national e-mail service to replace foreign ones, as a way to build “trust” with the people. But the opposition says most people use Gmail and Yahoo precisely because they are suspicious of local e-mail services, which they strongly suspect are monitored by the government. Communications experts doubted the effectiveness of the government’s campaign. “Asking the entire country to switch their e-mail service is a tall order, even by Iranian standards,” wrote Robert Faris, research director at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, in an e-mail message. Continuing a crackdown that has produced dozens of arrests in recent weeks, the authorities also arrested at least six members of the Bahai faith in Tehran on Wednesday, the Committee of Human Rights Reporters reported.
The government has outlawed the Bahai faith since the 1979 revolution. A group of seven Bahai leaders were put on trial on Jan. 12 on charges of threatening national security.
Source: New York Times
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