"Green Cyber Demonstration": World Solidarity with the Iranian Protestors

INTERNATIONAL CYBER-DEMONSTRATION IN SUPPORT OF THE IRANIAN PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT



One aim: unite the world’s citizens of all origins, nationalities and horizons who believe in democracy and Human Rights, and who wish to express their support for the pro-democracy movement in Iran.



This initiative is completely independent, non-political and non-religious.



How to participate

- Join our group on facebook, flickr, add us on twitter & myspace

- make our logo your profile image on these social websites

- write a message of support as your headline & on our page(s)

- inform & send links to your friends & contacts

- write about this event in your blogs & websites, feature our image & add a link to us

- contribute to our webpage with comments, slogans, photos/videos/songs etc.


Facebook group: WWIran Facebook group
On twitter: WWIran Twitter
Myspace page: WWIran Myspace
Downloadable images on flickr: WWIran Flickr profile
Flickr group: WWIran Flickr group
YouTube Channel: WWIran YouTube

How you can make a difference

The pro-democracy protestors in Iran are isolated and vulnerable. A strong turn-out here is a means for us to support them in their battle & remind governments & official international bodies around the world to act in the best interest of these freedom-fighters.Iran has ratified both the Declaration of Human Rights (signed 1948) and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (signed 1968). Let us show the world that human dignity and Human Rights are values that transcend frontiers, and that our leaders should use as much energy in defending Human Rights as they do the nuclear issue.



“A dictatorship is more dangerous than a nuclear weapon.”



Context

As a result of the fraudulent Iranian presidential elections of the 12th of June 2009, millions of people took to the streets of Iran to protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; demanding a new and democratic election. These brave protestors, comprising all generations, demonstrated pacifically but faced harsh repression from government forces resulting in beatings, deaths, arrests, torture, forced confessions and mock show-trials. Despite this repression, the protest movement has continued to grow and is known as the ‘Green Movement’ (read below: ‘Why Green?’). In spite of this repression, the pro-democracy protestors in Iran have continued their mobilisation; taking to the streets, infiltrating official marches and finding new means to express themselves such as via the internet - despite the huge risks, including for their lives (two young men arrested before the elections, Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were executed on the 28th January 2010, with more feared).



Why Green?

Green is the symbolic colour under which the pro-democracy protestors march in Iran - it is traditionally the colour of hope. Although the colour of the presidential candidate Mussavi in June’s fraudulent elections, the protestors have since made this colour their own and are commonly called the ‘Green Movement’, which has grown to become a spontaneous independent citizen’s movement demanding democracy for Iran. Green is now the colour of all those who march for democracy in Iran.

Friday 26 February 2010

Newly released shocking video which proves the violence used by the Iranian police.


The following text is translated from an article written by Armin Arefi in French:

Shocking video which proves the violence used by Iranian police.

This is an exclusive video which the BBC Persian Service has obtained. This is the first and only video to date of the attacks upon the Tehran University dorms by the Iranian authorities which date from the 14th of June 2009; two days after the contested presidential elections.

Sunday 14th June 2009 at 9:00pm; the students of the Tehran University (the most prestigious and politicised in Iran), decided to gather in protest against the announced re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which they considered tainted by mass fraud.
At around 11:30pm; the state security forces which had encircled the university campus, decided to storm the dorms. These forces comprised those of the Special Police (wearing ‘Robocop’ style uniforms), as well as Basij militia men dressed in civilian clothing. One of the assailants filmed the scene with a hand held camera. Warning, this is violent footage:



Iranian law prohibits security forces from entering the Tehran University dorms unless the University rector gives permission to do so. Several days later, Tehran University’s rector Farhab Rahbar denied any implication in this attack. According to the camera-man’s own statements recorded on the video (at 3min29 into the footage), it was the Tehran police Chief Rasool Azizolah Rajabzadeh, who gave the order to attack. Rajabzadeh has just recently taken his retirement, after only six months at his post.

Clashes brake-out between the two camps and bonfires are lit. Students posted on the roofs of the dorms throw stones onto the security forces below (1min15) while shouting “Resign! Resign!” (They mean the Ahmadinejad government). The security forces also throw stones and tear-gas at the students (1min24).

The Basij militia then attempt to enter the dorms in a rare scene of urban warfare, without success (1min44).

2:30am; the Basij are joined by the Police Special Forces (2min08), still not succeeding in entering the dorms. At this point we notice a man wearing a large light shirt who calls for reinforcements from “children Basij” (2min18).

After many attempts, the security forces manage to break into the dorms section of the university; they are armed with batons (3min17).

The groups of security forces, who have managed to enter the dorms themselves, pull out the students dragging them on the ground (3min44). One of these students receives kicks from a Basij dressed in civil cloths and who orders him to get up (3min48) – though this student no longer appears to present any real threat. In response to this outbreak of extreme violence, even the camera man calls on the Basij to “stop hitting!” (3min51). Students are heard imploring their aggressors; “stop hitting sir!” (3min56)

The assailants then reach the university dorms library building (4min05), from which students are savagely dragged along the ground (4min09), they are beaten and insulted by the Police Special Forces. “Take a picture of him and kill him!” shouts one of the Police while signalling a young man lying on the ground (4min30).

At this point there are half a dozen bodies piled upon each other on the ground surrounded by the Police Special Forces (4min50), who continue to beat and insult their victims:

“Group of f***ers, you wanted to beat us?!?” and “group of faggots, is this what you’re used to?!?” (5min01)

As a mark of how violent the attack by the Special Forces is, members of the Basij militia ask them to stop the violence (5min06):

“Don’t hit him, that’s enough! Stop hitting! Everyone, stop hitting now! Gentlemen, on the soul of Imam Hossein….”
Up till now, the Basij militia (a paramilitary force comprised of young volunteers from the slum quarters who are paid well), especially those in civil dress; were considered to be the most violent section of the security forces and have been blamed as those primarily responsible for the deaths of the opposition protestors, which was not the case for the police. Now a quite different image has been presented to us.

Each new student who has been arrested is thrown onto this pile of bodies (5min34), while the cameraman attempts one again to intercede shouting “don’t hit him!” (6min13)

Then, four police men round upon a student wearing a white shirt (6min17), who quickly collapses from the blows; they continue beating him on the ground (6min20).  

There are now a dozen bodies piled-up as though animals (6min40), as blood is dripping from the head of one of them (6min45). The students attempt to protect their heads from the violent beatings, when one of the attackers orders them to:

“Put down your hands now! I’m talking to you!” and “Raise your head! Look at me. Look at me damn it!” (7min29)

The man, of whom we only hear a low voice, takes photos of their distressed faces with his camera (7min35), in order that they be more easily identifiable in the future.

The student political body ‘Tahkim vahdat’ announced the deaths of 5 students on that night, the names of whom The Guardian newspaper listed in an article [read the article here: Iran: 12 students reported killed in crackdown after violent clashes]. The names cited are Fatemeh Barati (a woman), Kasra Sharafi, Mobina Ehterami (another woman), Kambiz Shoaee and Mohsen Imani; the article states that they were buried the following day in a Tehran cemetery without their families having been informed. According to the student website ‘Autnews’, the students had found refuge in the lavatories after the police had stormed the dorms, the rooms of which had been ransacked and the beds set on fire.

The Iranian government denied these reports, talking only of 100 to 120 wounded people. The Supreme Guide Ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, as per usual blamed the “enemies” of the Islamic Republic, that is to say foreigners. Before taking to his retirement, the chief of Tehran’s police, Rossool Azizolah Rajab Zadeh, defended his department’s work on that fatefull night.

Eight months later a parliamentary commission had been created to enquire on these events; up till today no conclusion has been made.

The day following these events, with the Iranian authorities assured that they had managed to create an atmosphere of terror among those at the University of Tehran (the bastion of the contestation in Iran), and in an attempt to dissuade people from protesting; millions on Iranians of all sectors of society and age, went onto the streets in silence in order to demand a fair election.

Watch the full length recordings (in higher quality and without the Persian commentary from BBC Persia) in the following two videos:



Credits:   Footage: BBC Persia. Article: Armin Arefi: La vidéo choc qui accable la police iranienne

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