26-09-22, 05:31
|
#17
|
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 47,646
Thanks: 27,646
Thanked 14,458 Times in 10,262 Posts
|
re: IRAN PRISON FIRE- Shots & Sirens at Notorious Detention Centre
Protests Spread in Iran as President Raisi Vows to Crack Down
Demonstrations that began with death of Mahsa Amini while detained by morality police pose biggest threat to regime in 13 years
BBC 25 Sep 2022
Crowds clash with police in Tehran on 21 September.
Iran’s president has vowed to “deal decisively” with protests that are gathering momentum across much of the country one week after the death of a woman in custody who had been detained by the morality police.
Demonstrations have spread to most of Iran’s 31 provinces and almost all urban centres, pitting anti-government demonstrators against regime forces, including the military, and posing the most serious test to the hardline state’s authority in more than 13 years.
President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday blamed conspirators for inciting unrest and pledged to crack down on “those who oppose the country’s security and tranquility”.
Up to 35 people have been killed during clashes with security forces, according to Iran. Iranian officials say five security personnel have also died, trying to quell outrage surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini, 22. But activists say the death toll is at least 50 and likely to be even higher.
An enforcer of fundamentalist views throughout his career, Raisi has been regarded as an unlikely figure to quell Iran’s restive streets, or to cede to demands for more civil freedoms.
His defiance is likely to increase the likelihood of a further escalation in towns and cities where demonstrators have been increasingly taking the fight to security forces in scenes rarely seen in Iran.
The demonstrations have evoked images of an anti-government protest in 2009, known as the green revolution, that followed contentious presidential elections and marked the last time citizens faced off against security forces on a large scale.
“The main difference between the current protest compared to the green movement in 2009 is that now people are fighting back; they are not afraid of the brutal regime,” said Sima Sabet, an Iranian journalist and presenter on the Iran International TV station.
“Demonstrators are now burning ambulances because the government is using ambulances to move their security forces not to rescue people. The protesters are now using different tactics; they move between all cities and make it hard for security forces to control all locations.”
Firuzeh Mahmoudi, executive director of human rights NGO United for Iran, said the recent unrest followed months of Iranians being prepared to hold smaller protests on an array of issues: “The uprising in 2009 in some ways was more expansive in certain cities,” she said. “We had millions of people protesting in certain cities during the biggest day of that protest. It was the biggest thing since the [1979] revolution. They did not see it coming and were very surprised.
|
|
|