Strumming Along
Eia Lamhlin intently plays the stamenphone Saturday afternoon as a group of people stop to listen to his unique music during the Oregon Country Fair.
Catharine KendaU/Vmerald
Iranian government up in arms with student protests
By Anwar Faruqi
The Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—
Riot police backed by helicopters
broke up a demonstration of 1,000
people in Tehran on Monday, as
hard-liners in the Iranian govern
ment lost patience on the fifth day
of pro-democracy protests.
Police fired tear gas and shots in
the air and arrested several pro
testers at Tehran University, wit
nesses said in phone interviews.
Demonstrators in Tehran set fire
to a police vehicle and hurled
stones at policemen, while heli
copters hovered overhead to direct
the police response, the official Is
lamic Republic News Agency said,
adding there were no injuries.
The crackdown followed gov
ernment warnings Sunday that
unauthorized demonstrations
would no longer be tolerated. The
protests, which began Thursday,
have shown the widening gulf be
tween Iran’s reformists, who sup
port President Mohammad Khata
mi, and the hard-liners in
government who oppose him.
The crux of the power struggle
is over the limited powers of the
elected president. The country’s
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, is not elected, but he
controls the armed forces, the po
lice, the judiciary, the Intelligence
Ministry and the media.
The protests swelled into the
biggest seen in Tehran since the
1979 Islamic revolution after police
stormed a university hostel Friday
in response to a small protest the
night before over the banning of a
liberal newspaper. The attack was
apparently carried out with the
backing of government hard-liners.
One person was killed and 20
injured in the assault.
Demonstrations have been in
support of Khatami, who has striv
en to increase political and social
freedom since taking office in 1997.
The United States urged Iran on
Monday to protect peaceful
demonstrators.
State Department spokesman
James Foley also said hie United
States remains committed to a dia
logue with Iran but that the Islam
ic republic’s government is not yet
ready for talks.
“We are also concerned by re
ports that hard-line vigilante
groups have been involved in vio
lent attacks on students with the
apparent complicity of elements
of the police force,” Foley said.
Khatami urged the students Mon
day to “respect the law... and avoid
violence,” Tehran radio reported.
Khamenei, a hard-liner who came
under harsh condemnation by pro
testers, took a conciliatory line to
wards the students, quoted by IRNA
as calling them “my children.”
He condemned the hostel raid as
“a bitter and unacceptable incident”
that “pained his heart” and
promised those responsible for it
would be punished, IRNA reported.
“We must be tolerant and pa
tient. Even if somebody insults
me, I forgive that insult,” he was
quoted as saying.
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