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Return to regular viewTehran students battle authorities
Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times
Friday, June 13, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2003/06/13/MN265020.DTL
Tehran -- A third night of student protests outside Tehran University's dormitories exploded early today into the surrounding middle-class neighborhoods, with gangs of students fighting running street battles against vigilantes armed with sticks and chains.
At one major intersection, demonstrators hurled bricks at trucks of riot police who were rushing to lift barricades and douse fires protesters had ignited in the streets.
The protestors chanted "Death to Khamenei" a slogan that can bring a jail term in this country where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme religious leader, goes unquestioned.
"I've been lashed, jailed for having a satellite dish," said a student, underscoring the simmering social frustrations behind the riots. "It's time to stand up for what we want."
The protests are erupting as a nervous government is trying to forge a policy toward the United States in the face of renewed pressure from Washington. The fact that they are being fueled by calls to pour into the streets from opposition-run Persian-language television stations in the United States adds to the unease.
Earlier Thursday, Khamenei accused the United States of trying to foment disorder and warned protesters that the government would be merciless against those acting in the interests of foreign powers.
"Leaders do not have the right to have any pity whatsoever for the mercenaries of the enemy," Khamanei said.
The public ignored the admonishment, participating in the largest street demonstrations to erupt in this capital in four years. Joining the students were some older government workers and even traditional women dressed in the sweeping black cloaks favored in poorer neighborhoods.
Given the difficulty of moving about a city beset by traffic jams and violent clashes, it was impossible to get an accurate count. But with the demonstrations stretched at least 3 miles from the dormitories where the first quiet protests began on Tuesday, the demonstrators appeared to be in the thousands -- far more than turned out the two previous nights.
The protests were unexpectedly sparked Tuesday by a government proposal to consider privatizing the universities, which sent several hundred students out onto the main thoroughfare outside their campus.
A few cell phone calls by protestors to a Los Angeles television station prompted the broadcaster to call on all Iranians to pour into the streets. Hundreds got into their cars and went down to see the demonstration, joining the students in chanting anti-regime statements.