http://www.radiofarda.com/transcripts/topstory/2004/03/20040303_2030_0237_0628_EN.asp
Wednesday,
March 03, 2004
Riots Erupt in Baneh After Police Kill A Man
•After
police shot and killed a man by the name of Ali Faraji, riots erupted in the
Kurdistan province city of
Revolutionary
Guards Clash with Young Revelers Uptown
•The
revolutionary guards and special police units beat, dispersed or arrested young
men and women who had turned out in black outfits to join the mourners in the
Ashura Shiite festival, but subverted the event into an anti-regime
demonstrations. The clashes began shortly after 7 PM last night when young men
in jeans and black tee-shirts, accompanied by groups of girls in black, started
walking down the Mirdamad streets carrying candles mounted on rocks, which they
later used in clashes with the security forces. (Mahbubeh Shad)
Khaf
Calms Down after Two Days of Sunni-Shiite Clashes
•The Khorasan province's city of Khaf was calm today after two days of clashes between extremist Sunni and Shiite groups, according to Mashhad-based journalist Mohammad-Sadeq Javadi-Hesar, who tells Radio Farda that 98 percent of the border town's residents are Sunnis, but the town becomes a gathering place of the Shiite mourners who descend on it from surrounding villages for the Shiite self-flagellation festival. Clashes, which involved burning government offices and breaking bank windows, began two days ago as the villagers were returning home in the afternoon, he adds. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)
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Tens arrested following sporadic clashes in
SMCCDI
(Information Service)
Mar 2, 2004
Tens
of young Tehrani and Esfahani residents were arrested, yesterday evening,
following the brutal attacks of the Islamic regime's militiamen and plainclothes
agents who intervened in order to stop the hundreds of protesters to
transform, once again, the Shi-a religious mourning of Ashura into another show
of rejection of the Islamic religion and the theocratic regime.
Clubs
and chains were used against demonstrators gathered in the Madar, Shahrak Gharb,
Tehran Pars and Narmak areas of the Capital and the N. Chahr Bagh of
While
most official mourning places such as mosques were emptier than any year, the
noise of fire crackers and celebration was covering the usual noise of mourning
ritual.
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2nd night of Fire Cracker "mourning" leads to more arrests
SMCCDI
(Information Service)
Mar 2, 2004
For
the 2nd consecutive night, tens of young Tehrani residents have
been arrested following the brutal attacks of the Islamic regime's
militiamen and plainclothes agents who have intervened, at this time (22:00 IR
local time) in order to stop hundreds of protesters to transform, once
again, the Shi-a religious mourning of Ashura into another show of rejection of
the Islamic religion and the theocratic regime.
Clubs
and chains are used against demonstrators gathered in the Madar and Tehran
Pars areas of the Capital.
While
most official mourning places such as mosques have been emptier than any
year, the noise of fire crackers and celebration is covering the usual
noise of mourning ritual.
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Mass protests rock Iranian cities instead of religious mourning
SMCCDI
(Information Service)
Mar 2, 2004
Thousands
of Iranians sized, this evening and for the 2nd consecutive night, the religious
ritual of Ashura in order to come into the streets and to show their rejection
of the theocratic regime.
Slogans
qualifying the regime as tyrannical and despotic were mixed to the noise of fire
crackers and gave again a total different aspect than a religious mourning which
the regime has based on it one of its ideological bases. Many slogans accused
the regime to be the real mastermind behind the today's deadly explosions of
Karbala and Baghdad as many Iranians still remember the scandal over the bombing
of the 8th Imam of the Shi-a, in Mashad, which was in reality carried by agents
of the Islamic regime instead of opponents who were executed few years ago for
such charge.
Sporadic
clashes leading to injuries and arrests, among the demonstrators and also the
regime forces, rocked several areas of the Capital and also several provincial
cities, such as Esfahan and
Several
security patrol were damaged by the incendiary devices thrown by the crowd
angered by the persistent repression and back warded ideology.
Most
perimeters to Madar, Mirdamad, Zarab Khaneh Shahrak Gharb, Tehran Pars, Narmak,
Vanak, Eslam Shahr, Dolat, Tajrish and Vali- e-Asr (former Vali-Ahd) were closed
in the Capital due to the wide scale demos and sporadic clashes. The same
security measure were instated by the regime's local forces in the cities of
Esfahan,
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Violent clashes rock several provincial cities
SMCCDI
(Information Service)
Mar 2, 2004
Several
provincial cities, such as Esfahan,
Deaths
have been reported from Baneh and Khaf following the brutal intervention of the
regime's security forces and several have been injured in other cities.
The
brutal attacks of the regime's agents have lead in several cities, such as,
Baneh and Khaf in the destruction of several security patrols and heavy damages
to public buildings by angry residents seeking revenge and justice.
Tens
of residents have been arrested in provincial cities and the situation is very
tense in most of them.
It's
to note that these cities are located at each corner of
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Clashes Reported in
BBC -
Monitoring Services
Mar 2, 2004
Jahanbakhsh Khanjani, speaking to Mehr's political affairs reporter, said that,
thanks to the sagacity of Khorasan Governorate-General's Security Council, the
street clashes in Khaf have currently ended and the situation is calm in the
town.
He said: Yesterday evening, an accident between a small van belonging to groups
of mourners for Aba-Abdallah-al-Husayn [Imam Husayn, the third Shi'i Imam] and
two motorcyclists who were Sunnis led to clashes between the two sides. Then, a
group of Sunnis congregated on the route of the [Shi'i] mourners [marking the
anniversary of Imam Husayn's martyrdom] and clashed with them. The situation
was calmed thanks to the sagacity of the province's Security Council and the
concentration of Husayn's mourners in the town's prayer centre.
He added: This morning, with the provocation of rogue, adventurers, who mainly
seek their own objectives in incidents of this kind, fan the flames of disputes
and engage in hooliganism, the situation became disturbed in the town again and
one or two public places were damaged.
According to him, these people belonged to both the Shi'i and Sunni sects.
The Interior Ministry spokesman also declared: One or two people were slightly
injured in the clashes.
According to Mehr's reporter, special law enforcement units in various parts of
Khaf now have the situation under control and, in some streets, bits of rocks
and burnt tyres have been left behind from the past hours' clashes.
In the course of the clashes, several government buildings and vehicles were
also attacked by the rioters.
Text of report by Iranian Mehr news agency
Source: Mehr news agency,
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