Following the 2009 Iranian presidential election, protests against alleged electoral fraud and in support of opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi are as of 21 June 2009 (2009 -06-21) underway in Tehran and other major cities in Iran and around the world.[3] In response, other groups have rallied in Tehran to support the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[4] The ongoing protests have been given several titles including the Green Revolution due to presidential candidate Mousavi's campaign color, the Freedom Square Revolution due to the protests' original location in Tehran, and the Persian Awakening has also been used by some Iranian commentators and protesters.
Some analysts called the controversial election results a coup[5][6][7] (or "?????? ?? ?????" in Persian—the Anno Persarum 1388 Khordad 22nd Coup d'etat). All three opposition candidates have claimed that the votes were manipulated and the election was rigged, and candidates Mohsen Rezaee and Mousavi have lodged official complaints. Mousavi announced that he "won't surrender to this manipulation" before lodging an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June.[4]
The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the unprecedented voter turnout and coinciding religious holidays as a "divine assessment", and urged the nation to unite,[8] and later ordered an investigation into the claims of vote fraud.[9][10] Mousavi is not optimistic about his appeal, saying that many of the group's members "during the election were not impartial".[11] Ahmadinejad called the election "completely free" and the outcome "a great victory" for Iran, dismissing the protests as little more than "passions after a soccer match".[12]
Police and a paramilitary group called the Basij have violently suppressed the protests, firing into crowds and using batons, pepper spray, and other weapons. There have been twenty confirmed deaths during the protests.[13] Iranian authorities have closed universities in Tehran, blocked web sites, cell phone transmissions and text messaging,[14] and banned rallies.[9]
Background
The election of the president of Iran in 2009 was preceded by an independent survey by the US-based Terror Free Tomorrow organization.[15] Their opinion poll, conducted from May 11–20, 2009 (thus only during the first week of the 30 days election campaigns) predicted the high participation and showed similar ratios for the candidates to the later official result, with over a quarter yet undecided.[16] The many Iranian surveys show a wide range of differing results. As an opinion in the New York Times points out, this is due to the high fluctuation among voters during the campaign season.[17]
The election for presidency took place on June 12, 2009. Unlike the election in 2005, there was a high participation. The official results were rejected by all three opposition candidates, who claimed that the votes were manipulated and the election was rigged. The last presidential election had already been controversial, but this time it escalated. Candidates Mohsen Rezaee and Mousavi have lodged official complaints. Mousavi announced that he "won't surrender to this manipulation" before lodging an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June.[4]
The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the unprecedented voter turnout and coinciding religious holidays as a "divine assessment", and urged the nation to unite,[8] and later ordered an investigation into the claims of vote fraud.[10] Referring to Mousavi's appeal letter about the irregularities, Khamenei said that "the Guardian Council has been emphasized to carry out investigation into this letter carefully," and probe allegations of electoral fraud.[10] Mousavi is not optimistic about his appeal, saying that many of the group's members "during the election were not impartial".[11]
Ahmadinejad called the election "completely free" and the outcome "a great victory" for Iran, dismissing the protests as little more than "passions after a soccer match".[12]
According to a scientific analysis by Professor Walter R. Mebane, Jr., from Department of Statistics of University of Michigan, considering data from the first stage of the 2005 presidential election produces results that "give moderately strong support for a diagnosis that the 2009 election was affected by significant fraud."[18]
Timeline
June 13
Clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results from early Saturday morning onward. The protests were initially mostly peaceful but became increasingly violent. Angry crowds in Tehran broke into shops, tore down signs and smashed windows.[3] The worst civil unrest in Iran for over a decade 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.
Anonymous sources said that the police stormed the headquarters of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and arrested a number of people.[8][19] Two hundred people protested outside Iran's embassy in London on June 13.[20] Ynet has stated that "tens of thousands" protested on June 13.[21] Demonstrators chanted phrases such as "Down with the dictator", "Death to the dictator", and "Give us our votes back".[21][22] Mousavi has urged for calm and asked that his supporters refrain from acts of violence.[22] Protests led by Iranian-Americans were also held outside the Iranian representative office in New York City.[23]
On June 13, modern Middle Eastern and South Asian historian Juan Cole commented that "public demonstrations against the result don't appear to be that big... reformers have always backed down in Iran when challenged by hardliners, in part because no one wants to relive the horrible Great Terror of the 1980s after the revolution, when faction-fighting produced blood in the streets."[24] Independent journalist Michael Totten stated that day that "Tehran almost looks like a war zone already", and he compared Ahmadinejad to Baghdad Bob.[25]
June 14
By June 14 the protests had grown considerably and had become more violent. Burning buses and trash cans and parked cars blocked streets and highways in Tehran and routes leading into the city. Protesters attacked shops, government offices, police stations, police vehicles, gas stations and banks.[26] Large protests, which escalated into riots, had also broken out at Tehran University, Amirkabir University, and Shahid Beheshti University, where students started burning and destroying various buildings and items around the campuses. Valiasr Street was packed with protesters and young students attacking policemen and IRGC officials. The police had installed a barricade around Mehrabad Airport and Imam Khomeini International Airport fearing that the protesters were planning to attack them and had also blocked all streets leading to the Interior Ministry, where protesters were burning tires outside of the building and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.[3]
In an attempt to prevent the spread of information, many internet sites have been blocked, especially social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, foreign broadcasting websites, and reformist websites as well. Text and SMS, and international calls from Tehran were blocked, and by late Sunday, the cell phone services had been shut down.
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.[8] Also several BBC cameramen were beaten and arrested by IRGC officials and had their tapes confiscated.[26][27]
By the middle of the day, the protests had spread to Ahwaz, Shiraz, Gorgan, Tabriz, Rasht, Babol, and Mashhad where they have been increasing in size. On June 14, large scale protests had broken out in Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan. Protests are reported in Zahedan, Qazvin, Sari, Karaj, Tabriz, Shahsavar, Orumieh, Bandar Abbas, Arak, Birjend.[28] Since riot police are largely limited to Tehran, the IRGC and the Basij have been dispatched to quell protests in other cities.
Al Jazeera English described the situation as the "biggest unrest since the 1979 revolution." It also reported that protests seemed spontaneous without any formal organization.[29]
According to Ynetnews, by June 14, two people had died in the rioting.[21]
On June 14, protests were organized outside the United Nations in New York City;[30] in front of the Iranian embassies in Paris,[31] Berlin,[32] London, and Iranian consulate in Sydney;[33] and in a public square in Toronto.[34] Protests also occurred in Kuala Lumpur,[35] Los Angeles,[36] San Diego,[37] San Francisco [38] and Dubai.[39] Other protests had been organized in front of the Iranian embassies in Turkey, Paris,[40] Berlin,[40] London,[41] Rome,[42] Vienna,[40] and The Hague.[43]
On the night between the June 14 and 15, 15 students were severely injured by beating or killed when police and basij brutally attacked Tehran University dormitories. Many of the students were not expecting the unprovoked attack and were not involved in any civil disturbance at the time.[44] On June 14, 120 faculty members of Sharif University of Technology resigned in protest of the alleged electoral fraud and began a protest against Ahmadinejad's re-election as President.[45]
Iranian authorities arrested more than 100 prominent anti-government figures during the unrest,[46] including Abdolfattah Soltani, Abdolreza Tajik, Saeed Hajjarian, and former Vice President of Iran Mohammad Ali Abtahi.[47]
Also on June 14, tens of thousands of people rallied in central Tehran to celebrate the re-election of Ahmadinejad.[48] The crowd consisted of local Tehran residents as well as bussed in regime diehards from the provinces.[citation needed] A photo of the rally that appears in a screenshot of the Iranian newspaper Kayhan[2] was photoshopped in order to add volume to the crowd.[49]
June 15
On June 15, Mousavi made his first post-election appearance with a varied number of people presented as either more than 3,000,000[50][51] or millions of his supporters in a rally in Tehran, despite being warned by state officials that any such rally would be illegal.[52][53] This formed a five mile (9 km) long crowd.[54] Shots were fired from a compound used by Basij pro-government militia, allegedly killing seven demonstrators. The shots were fired after the crowd allegedly attacked the militia's compound. Iranian authorities have arrested one man over the shooting.[13][55] Besides this incident, the protest appeared peaceful. The pro-government Basij militiamen largely stayed on the sidelines after having been stunned by the magnitude of the protesting crowd.[56]
Several rallies of smaller scale took place in other Iranian cities.[57]
The protesters gathered at Freedom Square in Tehran, chanted "Death to the dictator", in a strong rebuke against the election outcome, while also chanting "Mousavi! Mousavi!" in support of the former prime minister and using slogans dating to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. People have chanted "God is Great" ("Allahu Akbar") from their rooftops, and youths have driven around the city with green ribbons in support of Mousavi. A protest was planned for June 16.[56]
Protests across the world continued on June 15 in Montreal at Place des Art.[58] In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia police fired tear gas to break up a protest at the city's United Nations building.[59] A couple hundred Chicago Iranian-Americans protested on June 16 to support for the Iranians living in Iran. Hundreds of Iranian expatriates were joined by Danes in a demonstration supporting Mousavi's backers in Copenhagen.[60]
June 16
On June 16, thousands of people began massing the streets of Tehran again, in what is believed to be a protest "even bigger" than Monday's.[61][62] Due to the difficulties faced by foreign reporters, no international old media centers have yet declared a sophisticated report on the rallies. However, footage showing violence in the crowds appeared on various Internet networks almost immediately after it took place. There is a report of special police keeping Basijs and demonstrators separated.[63] Neil MacFarquhar of The New York Times said on June 16, "The question mark remains how long Iran’s rulers will tolerate the demonstrations, and indeed how long the protesters will stay in the streets until what many analysts expect will be a Tiananmen moment."[64]
Over 120 Tehran University professors who had resigned in protest of violence against students joined the protests after security forces violently raided university dormitories.[65]
The Guardian Council said on the 16th that it was prepared to order only a partial recount, and it ruled out an annulment of the vote.[62] The concession was rejected by the main opposition candidate, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, demanding that a new election be held.[62]
June 17
The Iranian national football team played against South Korea's team in Seoul. Some members of the Iranian team wore green armbands in the first half of the match but were forced to remove their pro-Mousavi emblems in the second half. In the second half of the match against South Korea, only Mehdi Mahdavikia wore the symbol in support of Mousavi.[66]
Another demonstration was held in Tehran on June 17 centering around the 7 Tir Square. Estimates of the number of participants ranged between 70,000 and 500,000.[67]
June 18
Candle-bearing protesters massed in central Tehran on Thursday near Toopkhaneh square, even as the Iranian government made its first move toward some form of dialogue to defuse the outrage over last week’s disputed presidential election, with an invitation from the country’s powerful Guardian Council to the three major challengers to meet to discuss their grievances.[68] Mousavi has called for the protest to commemorate those who were killed on Monday's protests.[67] Varying reports have placed the crowd size between "tens of thousands"[69] to "more than 100,000."[70] A second, and simultaneous protest, also took place near the UN headquarters consisting of several hundred protesters.
Reports have begun surfacing of discreet efforts by reformists to identify Basij and police members who have conducted violence against protesters. Consequently, the Basij have begun to wear balaclavas to prevent their identification.[citation needed] A counter rally was held by hard line students protesting former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's role in the pro-Mousavi protests.[70]
June 19
No protests have been publicly declared for Friday June 19,[71] but Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei spoke about the previous protests during his scheduled television appearance.[71] According to him, "media belonging to Zionists, evil media," were trying to divide the state and Western powers are casting doubts on the election. But "there are 40 million votes for the revolution, not just 24 million for the chosen president," he said, confirming the official result for President Ahmadinejad and claiming that this "was a competition among people who believe in the state."[72]
He announced not to be willing to give in to "illegal pressures," saying that "street challenge is not acceptable", and instructed the protesters to pursue their complaints through legal channels while questioning "How can 11 million votes be replaced or changed?” The blame was put on the opposition leaders "responsible for bloodshed and chaos" if they do not stop the demonstrations.[72] The sermon is interpreted by AFP as giving "green light" to the security forces to use violence to quell the protests.[73]
Part of the speech was devoted to rebutting accusations of corruption against former President Rafsanjani,[72] who was accused of corruption by President Ahmadinejad and had brought this before the Supreme Leader. Rafsanjani is a politically influential figure and the leader of the Assembly of Experts that appoints the Supreme Leader.[74] His open backup of the the pro-Mousavi demonstrations is not liked by all demonstrating Iranians[74] leading to a counter rally the day before by hard line students protesting his role in the movement.[70]
Hours after Khamenei's speech, defeated candidate Mehdi Karoubi called for election results to be cancelled.”[75]
Mousavi spokesman Mohsen Makhmalbaf said "Mousavi's headquarters was wrecked by plainclothes police officers" with many staffers arrested, and Mousavi himself ordered by the Revolutionary Guard to stay silent. Makhmalbaf said his job was "to urge people to take to the streets because Mousavi could not do so directly".[76]
Both houses of the US Congress condemned violence against demonstrators by the Iranian government.[77]
June 20
State-run television reported that at least 10 were killed and 100 injured on Saturday, as thousands of protesters swept into the streets of Tehran. The protests were held in open defiance of warnings issued Friday by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the country's Security Council. Those authorities had said that protest organizers—specifically Moussavi—would be held accountable if the protests led to bloodshed. According to state-run television, on late Saturday authorities arrested the daughter and four other relatives of ex-President Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Assembly of Experts and the Expediency Council, as well as a vocal critic of Ahmadinejad.[78]
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said numerous protesters who had been beaten and injured by security forces were arrested and detained when they sought medical treatment in hospitals. It said fear of arrest had reportedly driven injured protesters, some in serious condition, to seek care at foreign embassies.[79] A young Iranian woman, identified as Neda Soltani,[80] was shot by the Basij and died in front of recording cameras on Karekar Avenue in Tehran.[81] Highly graphic amateur videos of the killing rapidly spread virally across the internet to many websites, including Facebook and YouTube.[82]
On Saturday night, the Iranian state-run news agency IRINN said an attacker had been killed earlier in the day outside Tehran at the entrance to the mausoleum that holds the body of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The agency said the man "carrying the bomb" was killed, and there were no other casualties. Press TV was reporting that the bomber was the sole fatality, and that three other people were wounded at the shrine to Khomeini.[79]
In a statement posted on the website of his Kalemeh newspaper, Mousavi repeated his demand for the elections results to be annulled and hit out at a speech by Khamenei. "If this huge volume of cheating and changing the votes ... which has hurt people's trust, is presented as the very evidence of the lack of cheating, then it will butcher the republican aspect of the system and the idea that Islam is incompatible with a republic will be proven," he said.[83] An ally of Mousavi reported through Facebook that the opposition leader had told his supporters that he was ready for martyrdom[84] and had called for a general strike.[85]
Reports surfaced late Saturday of raids by the Basiji militia in wealthy Tehran neighborhoods.[79]
State television quoted a council spokesman as saying that the Guardian Council had expressed its readiness to "randomly" recount up to 10 per cent of the ballots.[83] The state television also broadcasted a speech by the Speaker of the Parliament (Majlis), Ali Larijani, declaring that "a majority of people are of the opinion that the actual election results are different than what was officially announced." According to Khabar online[86] Larijani also pointed out that "The opinion of this majority should be respected and a line should be drawn between them and rioters and miscreants".[87]
Worldwide solidarity protests took place in New York, Los Angeles, at the gates of the White House,[88] outside of Paris and in Brussels.[89] US-based human rights group Human Rights Watch and US President Barack Obama both issued statements urging the Iranian government to end violence against protesters.[79][90]
June 21
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki rebuked Britain, France and Germany for raising questions about reports of voting irregularities. Mottaki charged France with taking "treacherous and unjust approaches," and accused Britain of flying intelligence agents into Iran before the election to interfere with the vote. The election, he insisted, was a "very transparent competition." British Foreign Secretary David Miliband categorically denied the charge against his country, adding: "This can only damage Iran's standing in the eyes of the world."[78]
Government reaction
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.[91] 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.[92][93][94] Also arrested were Mostafa Tajzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, whom the IRNA said were involved in orchestrating protests on 13 June.[93] Anonymous sources said that the police stormed the headquarters of the IIPF and arrested a number of people.[8][19] Iranian journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin claimed that presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi was put under house arrest, although officials denied this.[95] An estimated 200 people were detained after clashes with students at Tehran university, although many were later released.[96]
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".[97] A judiciary spokesman said they had not been arrested but that they were summoned, "warned not to increase tension," and later released.[98] Intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei linked some arrests to terrorism supported from outside Iran, stating that "more than 20 explosive consignments were discovered".[99] Others, he said, were "counter-revolutionary groups" who had "penetrated election headquarters" of the election candidates.[99]
On 16 June, Reuters reported that former vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi and former presidential advisor Saeed Hajjarian had been arrested.[100] Human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, who had been demanding a recount of all votes, was also arrested on the the Tuesday according to Shirin Ebadi, who said that security officials had posed as clients.[101] Over 100 students were arrested after security forces fired tear gas at protesters at Shiraz university on the same day.[96] 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.[96]
On 17 June, former foreign minister and Secretary-General of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Ebrahim Yazdi, was arrested while undergoing tests at the Tehran hospital.[96] In Tabriz, other Freedom Movement activists and eight members of the IIPF were arrested, with reports of at least 100 civic figures' arrests.[96] The total number of arrests across Iran since the election was reported as 500.[96]
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".[96]
In Esfahan Province, prosecutor-general Mohammadreza Habibi warned that dissidents could face the death penalty under Islamic law.[102] He also accused the protesters of being a "few elements controlled by foreigners", who were "disrupting security by inciting individuals to destroy and to commit arson" and urged them to stop their "criminal activities". It was not clear if his warning applied only to Isfahan or to the country as a whole. [103]
Militia violence
Several Basij members have been filmed breaking into houses and shooting into crowds.[104][105][106][107][108] A number of hospital staff protested after people have been transported to the hospitals dead or in critical condition because of gunshots. One person has been brought to the hospital after he was killed by a sniper shot to the head.[109]
The IRG and the Basij also attacked Universities and students' dorms at night, destroying property and killing students.[110][111][112]
The Los Angeles Times reported that militiamen from the hard-line Iran-based Ansar-e Hezbollah group "warned that they would be patrolling the streets to maintain law and order."[113]
A female journalist, writing for Der Spiegel, witnessed Arabic-speaking Gardisten (IRG) using chains as weapons against a fleeing crowd of demonstrants. There is a minority of Iranian Arabs living in the south of the country. However, in the same June 16, 2009 article Der Spiegel reported that Voice of America had a report that the Iranian government recruited up to 5,000 fighters (sizeable compared to estimates of their numbers) from the Lebanese Hezbollah militia to clash with protesters.[114]
Two Iranian protesters interviewed by a reporter from the The Jerusalem Post on June 16, 2009 said that "Palestinian forces" were helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests.[115]
Censorship
News media
According to the Telegraph, on 14 June "Iran's regime was doing its utmost to choke off the flow of news from its capital."[116] 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".[117] 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.[118] NBC News offices in Tehran were raided, with cameras and other equipment confiscated. 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".[27][94] A BBC corporate official has referred to the network's conflict with the regime as 'electronic warfare'.[119]
On June 16, the Ministry of Culture issued a directive banning all foreign media from leaving their offices.[120] This directive stipulated that international news outlets could still talk about rallies in their live reports, however they were not allowed to leave their hotel rooms and offices to witness the protests. Iranian government-run television was not affected by the restrictions.[121] On June 20, the Ministry of Culture intensified the restrictions by banning international media from reporting on the demonstrations altogether unless they received permission from Iranian authorities.[122]
BBC correspondent John Simpson was arrested, his material confiscated, and then released.[123] 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.[8] ABC News reporter Jim Sciutto has also 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.[citation needed]
Ahmadinejad responded to civil liberties concerns by stating Iranians enjoyed "absolute freedom" of speech. "Don't worry about freedom in Iran ... Newspapers come and go and reappear. Don't worry about it."[124]
Internet
On Saturday following the elections, Mir Hossein Mousavi's supporters started DDoS attacks against president[125] Ahmadinejad's site and exchanged attack tools through sites such as Facebook and Twitter.[126] After the attacks, the government stopped internet access.[126] On 13 June as the election results were being announced, Iran shut down all Internet access for about 45 minutes, then restarted it apparently with lower bandwidth; this may have been in order to set up filters to block sites like YouTube that could be used for political purposes.[127] When thousands of opposition supporters clashed with the police on 13 June, 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.[29] Specifically, all websites affiliated with the BBC were shut off,[22] as well as those affiliated with The Guardian.[citation needed] Associated Press labeled the actions "ominous measures apparently seeking to undercut liberal voices".[8]
The restrictions were likely intended to prevent Mousavi's supporters from organizing large-scale protests.[98] The protesters have used phone calls, e-mail, and word of mouth to get around the measures.[101] In response to the crackdown, anti-regime activists have repeatedly taken down Ahmadinejad's and Khamenei's websites.
Statements by Iranian figures
Government figures
- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei initially urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, labeling a victory by him as a "divine assessment."[8] On June 15, however, Iran's supreme leader ordered an investigation into the claims of vote fraud.[128] Referring to Mousavi's appeal letter about the irregularities, Khamenei said that "the Guardian Council has been emphasized to carry out investigation into this letter carefully," and probe allegations of Ahmadinejad cheating.[129] On 19 June he condemned the conduct of the Western World during the elections, claiming that the United Kingdom is the most "evil".[130]
- Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said that he had not received any "written complaint" about election fraud or irregularities. He also remarked that the vote proceeded in a way that "ruled out the possibility of cheating."[131]
- Chairman of the Assembly of Experts Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was reported to have called a meeting of the Assembly, as they have the constitutional power to elect and dismiss the Supreme Leader.[132]
- Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani condemned the attack by police and militia at Tehran University, saying that the "interior minister is responsible in this regard."[133] After the showdown on June 20, he implied that the election authority sided with one candidate.[134]
Candidates
- Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a live address on state run television on 13 June, called the election "completely free" and the outcome "a great victory" for Iran. He also said, "[t]oday, the people of Iran have inspired other nations and disappointed their ill-wishers... propaganda facilities outside Iran and sometimes inside Iran were totally mobilized against our people." Ahmadinejad praised the country’s youth as well, but made no direct mention of the protests.[29] He later dismissed the protests, comparing them to "the passions after a football match."[94]
- Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the main opposition candidate, issued a statement saying, "I'm warning that I won't surrender to this manipulation." Mousavi lodged an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June.[4] He is not optimistic about his appeal, saying that many of the group's members "during the election were not impartial".[11]
- Reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, another opposition candidate, echoed Mr. Moussavi’s demand for the election to be canceled. He said, "I am announcing again that the elections should not be allowed and the results have no legitimacy or social standing... Therefore, I do not consider Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of the republic."[92] He later declared in a speech to his supporters in Khoramabad that "this phase [Election dispute] will not subside until we [Reformist leaders] suggest so".[135]
- Conservative candidate Mohsen Rezai, on 17 June, gave an ultimatum to Interior Ministry to release details of the results by that day, otherwise he would call for re-election. He said "The unprecedented delay has raised doubts about the possibility of manipulation in the results."[136]
Clerics
- The Combatant Clergy Association, a moderate clerical body headed by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, issued a statement posted on reformist web sites saying the election was rigged and calling for it to be canceled, warning that "if this process becomes the norm, the republican aspect of the regime will be damaged and people will lose confidence in the system."[92]
- In a letter published on his website, reformist cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri stated that government used elections "in the worst way possible. Declaring results that no one in their right mind can believe, and despite all the evidence of crafted results, and to counter people protestations, in front of the eyes of the same nation who carried the weight of a revolution and 8 years of war, in front of the eyes of local and foreign reporters, attacked the children of the people with astonishing violence. And now they are attempting a purge, arresting intellectuals, political opponents and scientists."[137]
Exiled groups
- People's Mujahedin of Iran leader Maryam Rajavi said "The religious dictatorship and all its suppressive institutions must be done away with so that the Iranian people can hold free UN-supervised elections." [3]
- The Tudeh Party of Iran declared that "the Supreme Leader and the coup d’état perpetrators under his leadership must be defeated vigilantly and by relying on the power of the masses." [4]
- The Worker-Communist Party of Iran call for "the overthrow of the Islamic regime". It launched a six-points minimal program[138] and call women to remove their veils.[139] It's satelite TV, New Channel, broadcast in Iran.[140]
- Reza Cyrus Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was ousted in 1979, said: "I would love to help them [the protesters] reach complete, real freedom under a secular democratic system where there's a true separation of religion from government."[141]
Other
- Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a former Iranian parliamentary speaker and father in law of Khameni's son, called on Moussavi to concede defeat, saying that then "everyone will benefit".[142]
- Former Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi has said, "[w]e don't have any doubt. And as far as we are concerned, it is not legitimate. There were many, many irregularities." He also described the process as a "coup".[143] On 17 June, he was arrested and transferred to prison.[119]
- Reformist politician Ata'ollah Mohajerani blasted the election as "The End of the Islamic Republic".[119]
- Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, denounced the outcome. He also compared the government's post-election activities to those of the Chinese government during the Tiananmen Square protests.[8]
- About eight players in the Iran national football team playing in their World Cup qualifier wore green wristbands in support for Mousavi [119][144] for the first half of their game. During the break, they were ordered to remove them, seven of the eight complied. They were subsequently suspended.
- Popular classical musician Mohammad Reza Shajarian demanded that Iranian government television and radio never play his music again after Ahmadinejad called Mousavi supporters "brushwood and thorns". Shajarian remarked, "my voice is like brushwood and thorns".[119]
- A group of Iranian "artists and writers in exile" published an open letter in support of the protests.[145]
Since June 12, the Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf has been serving as the official spokesman of Mir-Hossein Moussavi's campaign abroad.[146]
International response
- On 15 June, EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg issued a joint statement expressing concern about the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators in Tehran. "This is a situation that the Iranian authorities must investigate," their statement said.[147]
- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on 16 June: "There must be no violence in response to peaceful protests... the relationship they [the Iranian authorities] will have and the respect they will have from the rest of the world will depend on how they respond to what are legitimate grievances that are being expressed and have to be answered."[148] C.f. 2009 G-20 London summit protests
- French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner called the government response to the protests "brutal".[149] On 16 June, President Nicolas Sarkozy said the unrest was a direct result of Ahmadinejad's failings in his first term.[150] "The extent of the fraud is proportional to the violent reaction," Sarkozy added.[150]
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that "the German government is very concerned about the current situation." She also criticised the use of "completely unacceptable force against protesters," the "wave of arrests" during the demonstrations and the fact that foreign media were being hampered from reporting on the developments.[147][151]
- On 16 June, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen summoned an Iranian diplomat to protest Tehran's crackdown on protesters and to call for the immediate release of detainees. He also protested against interference with foreign journalists and the arrest of a Dutch television crew, and demanded an explanation from the Iranian authorities for the intimidation and seizure of footage of Dutch journalists.[152]
- The Polish Foreign Ministry announced: "[The ministry] calls on the government in Tehran to avoid actions which could result in bloodshed, and also expects the government to take responsibility for finding a peaceful solution to the crisis, according to its obligations within the international community."[153]
- On 16 June, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Parliament: "We are very gravely concerned about the very serious breaches of human rights we have seen."[154]
- Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said: "The security force's brutal treatment of peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable." Canada also summoned Iran's top diplomat to explain the reported beating and detention of a freelance Canadian journalist in Tehran.[155]
- Vice President of the United States Joe Biden said, "[i]t sure looks like the way they're suppressing speech, the way they're suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated, that there's some real doubt [about the true election results]".[124] On 15 June, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly declared that the US was "deeply troubled by the reports of violent arrests and possible voting irregularities."[156] President Obama echoed the statement later that day.[119] The President has been criticized for not showing more support for the demonstrators.[157] The New York Times reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had hoped Obama would lend more vocal support to the demonstrators,[158] although the State Department insists that Clinton and Obama are in agreement.[159] On the other hand, several commentators such as United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chairman John Kerry[160] (Democrat) and ranking Republican Richard Lugar,[161] or former Nixon Secretary of State and McCain advisor Henry Kissinger,[162] support Obama's muted response, arguing that any hint of United States intervention would only hurt the protesters by helping Ahmadinejad to portray them as US puppets. On June 19, the United States House of Representatives voted 405-to-1 in support of a resolution supporting "all Iranians who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties and the rule of law" and condemning "ongoing violence against demonstrators."[163] On June 20, the White House released a statement by way of President Obama on the events in Iran stating, "We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."[164]
- Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said on 16 June: "We are extremely concerned about the confusion in Iran. We are carefully monitoring the situation... We hear about shootings. We hope that the situation will come to an end as soon as possible."[148]
- On 16 June, Foreign Minister of New Zealand Murray McCully said: "The New Zealand government is concerned at the reports coming out of Iran of mounting violence, and calls on all involved to help restore calm... New Zealand shares the view of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and several European Union leaders, that the election process needs to be carefully explained."[165]
- Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said: "There is much unrest in Iran around the results, and there are allegations of electoral fraud. This is alarming".[166]
- On 18 June, the Foreign Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt stated in a public pronouncement concerning the violence: "It is obvious that this is totally unacceptable". "It is now of utter importance that the authorities respect the complaints which have been directed at the election and the counting of votes; and handle those in a correct and transparent manner".[167]
- Bermudan Premier Ewart Brown expressed outrage over the Iranian government's violent acts against its people, saying "The free world must stand on the side of democracy and human rights. The Iranian government has crossed the line."
Use of social networking
The Internet and, specifically, social networking has been instrumental to organizing many of the protests in Iran.[168] Online sites have been uploading amateur pictures and video, and Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have been places for protesters to gather and exchange information.[168] Twitter has also been used to organize protests.[169][170]
Through social networking sites Mir Hossein Mousavi's supporters exchanged scripts for launching distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) against Ahmadinejad's website.[126][170] British citizens were reported to support the DDoS attacks against president Ahmadinejad by providing software for launching them.[171] The DDoS attacks have slowed down connections throughout Iran and those who have been DDoSing websites have been asked to call off their attacks to help the Green party communicate.[citation needed]
Twitter in particular has been a key central gathering site during the protests.[172] The U.S. State Department urged the company to postpone a scheduled network upgrade that would have briefly put the service offline.[173][174] Twitter delayed the network upgrade from midnight American time/morning Iran time to afternoon American time/midnight Iran time "because events in Iran were tied directly to the growing significance of Twitter as an important communication and information network".[175][176]
Some foreign activists, including Anonymous, have engaged in DDoS attacks against Iranian ISPs, but their actions have been criticised as cutting off Internet access for protesters within Iranian borders.[citation needed] Many anti-Ahmedinejad activists have attacked the websites of Ahmedinejad and the government, rendering them inaccessible. The government's official website (ahmedinejad.ir) has at various times been rendered inaccessible.[177]
Aside from social networking sites being used by protesters to gather and exchange information, individuals around the world used these sites to gain news and information on the events in Iran. Due to strict foreign media censorship by the Iranian government, social networking sites became the primary source of information, videos, and testimonials of the protests occurring in Iran. Major news outlets, such as CNN[178] and BBC News,[179] gained much of their information from utilizing and sorting through tweets by Twitter users and videos uploaded to YouTube. However, The Economist magazine stated that the Twitter thread IranElection was so deluged with messages of support from Americans and Britons that it "rendered the site almost useless as a source of information—something that Iran’s government had tried and failed to do." The Economist asserted that the most comprehensive sources of information in English by far were created by bloggers who pulled out useful information from the mass of information, of whom it singles out Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post, Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic and Robert Mackey of the New York Times.[180]
See also
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External links
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