Current News & Articles
Riots in north of Iran after vote cancellations
AFP - World News (via Iranmania)
Mar 14, 2004

TEHRAN -- Riots erupted in Fereydoon Kenar, northern Iran , after the partial cancellation of votes from the recent parliamentary elections, with protesters plundering the local cleric's house, the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper reported Sunday.

Police fired in the air to disperse Saturday's demonstration and some injuries were reported during the protests over the annulment of votes that could have tipped the result against the sitting conservative member of parliament, the paper said.

People set tyres on fire and blocked a bridge in the center of Fereydoon Kenar, and attacked buildings and public places, the hardline conservative daily added.

According to the newspaper, some "corrupt people" attacked the house of Fereydoon Kenar's Friday prayer leader and plundered it.

The annulled votes were cast in two ballot boxes where people from Babolsar, Band Pay and Fereydoon Kenar voted, Jomhuri Eslami said, adding that they could have favoured reformist candidate Hojatolah Roohi over incumbent conservative MP Meghdad Najafi.

The clashes occurred while the final results of the February 20 elections in this constituency were still to be announced, although religious conservatives have been confirmed as the overall winners of the controversial polls.

Critics said the reformists' control of parliament was broken as a result of the wholesale disqualification of their candidates by a conservative election watchdog, the Guardians Council.

The polling was marred by sporadic violence, with at least seven people killed in southern Iran after violent clashes followed the announcement of results.

No confirmation of the Jomhuri Eslami report was obtainable from independent or parliamentary sources.

© Copyright 2003 SMCCDI: daneshjoo.org

From SMCCDI: daneshjoo.org

SMCCDI News
Deadly calshes rock N. Iran for the 2nd consecutive day
SMCCDI (information Service)
Mar 14, 2004

Deadly clashes rocked, on Sunday and for the 2nd consecutive day, the northern city of Fereydoon-Kenar located by the Caspian sea in the Mazandaran province. Several more protesters have been killed, raising the death toll to more than 8,  and hundreds of other wounded and arrested.

The regime's heliported special forces sent from Esfahan and Tehran have opened fire and for the first time used of shot guns in order to break the popular demos leaded by the city's maverick women who came into the streets in support of their fathers, brothers and husbands. Several of them were seen laying on the ground and beaten up after the regime forces opened the charge.

Noise of sporadic shooting were heard all night along and several members of the Pasdaran elite force and the Bassij have been shot to death or captured in ambushes made by the residents. Several security patrol cars have been destroyed by Molotov cocktails thrown from roofs.

More official buildings, including the the home of the supreme leader's representative, have been set ablaze as young masked protesters retaliated to the regime forces extreme brutality and use of lethal force. Banks, Security HQ and several official buildings have been heavily damaged.

The situation is very tense and the regime forces have blocked all accesses to the city in order to avoid the spread of riots to the neighboring cities, such as, Babolsar, Babol and especially Amol where sporadic clashes have happened in the last days.

© Copyright 2003 SMCCDI: daneshjoo.org

From SMCCDI: daneshjoo.org

SMCCDI News
Armed struggle in N. Iran
SMCCDI (information Service)
Mar 14, 2004

Armed struggle has rocked, for the last two days, the northern city of Fereydoon-Kenar where tens of masked freedom fighters have joined local residents retaliating against regime forces brutality and deadly shootings. Hospitals have been filled in with several killed and tens of injured and several in critical condition.  Casualties include protesters and security forces.  A fierce popular resistance appears to be taking shape

Along with daily and nightly demos, regime forces are being ambushed inside the city, especially with the fall of night.  The situation is worst for isolated regime forces in the regional roads where many young Mazandaranis have taken arms by remembering the smashed rebellions of the early 80's and the epic of the Sarbedaran group that took over the city of Amol for many days.  Amol is also located near Fereydoon-Kenar.

Several official buildings of Fereydoon-Kenar and facilities housing the regimes security forces have been razed or damaged.  Some of the facilities attacked include the local Pasdaran camp, Bassidj forces and facilities, regular law enforcement forces facilities, several mosques used by the regime to control of the city, homes of several officials including the representative of the supreme leaders, the state's representative, banks, and various other facilities representing the Islamic state have been set ablaze, or damaged.

Many young freedom fighters and local residents are hoping to extend the protest actions and resistance against the regime forces until Tuesday night when millions of Iranians will go into the streets to transform their banned cultural heritage "Tchahar Shanbe Soori" (Fire Fest) into a nightmare for the dogmatic Islamic clerics.  Tchahar Shanbe Soori will place unprecedented pressure on the regime forces and will show their inability to control the situation when protest actions are widely spread to all Iranian cities.

Uprising in Iran , Hardliner Candidate Resigns

March 14, 2004

MND NEWSWIRE

According to sketchy reports, an uprising has occurred in the northern Iranian city of Fereydunkenar .

Demonstrations are reported to have begun on March 13, in the small town in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran .

The demonstrators attacked and were able to liberate a building used by the Islamic Republic's security forces.

By midday, the uprising had begun to spread to the city of Babolsar , where demonstrators were confronted by Mazandaran's provincial security forces. At this hour, the town of Fereydunkenar appears divided between the rebels and the security forces.

Eyewitnesses have reported that approximately 5000 people were demonstrating when regime forces opened fire on the crowd. At least 5 people have been killed and scores injured with bullet wounds.

In the wake of the attack, the crowd briefly gained control of a police station and released previously arrested demonstrators. Reports also indicate that the home and office of a local Mullah had been torched.

The erruption occurred as a result of three suspicious confiscated ballot boxes that led to the hardline victory in the recent elections. Ironically the hardliner candidate had announced that he did not need the people's vote to get elected. The candidate, Moghdad Najaf Nejhad, has reportedly resigned in the wake of the uprising.

Unrest and Clashes Continue in N. Iran

March 15, 2004

MND NEWSWIRE/SMCCDI

Unrest and violent clashes continued, today and for the 3rd consecutive day, in Fereydoon-Kenar and spreaded to the neighboring cities of Babolsar, Khezer-Shahr and Babol.

Thousands of residents came into the streets especially in Fereydoon-Kenar and resisted to the brutal assaults of the regime forces. Several more demonstrators have been wounded in the today's clashes after the regime heliported special forces opened the charge.

Barricades have been formed and tires set ablaze by the residents who are defended by armed masked young freedom fighters.

All night long, noise of sporadic shootings where heard in the city and a man hunt was organized by the regime forces trying to arrest those involved in the organization of the popular resistance.

Sporadic demos took place in Babolsar, Khezer-Shahr and Babol where the crowd came into the streets by shouting slogans against the regime and its leaders. Road blocks have been instated by the regime forces in order to keep the demonstrators separate .

The situation of the region is very tense and the security measures have been increased in the cities of Amol, Now-Shahr and Chaloos.

This report part of a content-sharing agreement between MND News Services and The Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI).

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Dozens injured in Iran election result dispute

TEHRAN, Mar 15 (Reuters) Three days of unrest sparked by the revision of results in February's parliamentary elections have left dozens of people injured in a town on Iran's Caspian coast, local media reported today.
The Etemad daily newspaper said 68 people had been hurt, six seriously, during clashes with police.
Protests began in the town of Fereydounkenar on Friday after the hardline Guardian Council, an oversight body with sweeping powers, annulled the votes cast in three ballot boxes, handing victory to the incumbent conservative member of parliament.
Protesters set fire to cars and attacked buildings including the home of the town's Friday Prayer leader, the ISNA students' news agency said.
Anti-riot police fired plastic bullets to disperse the protesters, ISNA said.
''The protesters are not anti-regime. They think their rights have been violated and are asking the Guardian Council why that has happened,'' Mohammad-Ali Panjeh-Fouladgaran, the provincial governor, told.
The February 20 parliament vote sparked controversy in Iran after the Guardian Council barred more than 2,000 mostly reformist candidates from standing.
Reformist allies of President Mohammad Khatami branded the election unfair and many reformists boycotted the vote.
Conservative candidates, who accuse reformists of trying to turn the Islamic Republic into a secular state, won a comfortable majority of seats in the ballot, reversing their electoral loss to reformists in 2000.
Isolated protests over the election have sparked violent confrontations in several Iranian cities. Eight people died in two separate clashes in southern Iran shortly after the vote.

From SMCCDI: daneshjoo.org

Current News & Articles
Unrests and Violence Continue in Several Iranian Cities
Iran Press Service - Report Section
Mar 15, 2004

TEHRAN - Violence and unrest continued in the small Caspian Sea resort town of Fereydoon Kenar for the third strait day with the local population fighting against Law Enforcement Forces and Basij volunteers backed by plainclothes men of Islamic vigilantes.

The unrest began on Saturday after angry voters protested to the leader-controlled Council of the Guardians that had invalidated the Parliament seat won by Mr. Meqdad Najaf Nezhad, a reformist candidate from the city in favour of Mr. Hojatollah Roohi, a pro-conservative runner in the rival constituency of neighbouring Babolsar.

As soon as the Guardians annulled the results obtained at three polling stations giving Mr. Najaf Nezhad the lead, people took to the streets, shouting slogans against the regime and some of its most senior leaders, set fire on the house of the Friday Preacher and buses and ransacked some government buildings, eyewitnesses reported.Eyewitness reports suggest that as many as 5 people, including one Police officer have so far lost their lives and 100 to 200 were wounded in clashes with the security forces, with some of the injured refusing hospital care in order to avoid identification by the authorities.

"People blocked the entrance to Fereydoon-Kenar as security forces prepared to assault the town and suppress the demonstrations", one local journalist reported on condition of anonymity.

According to some unconfirmed reports, the Guardians wanted to revise their decision by proclaiming Mr. Najaf Nezhad as the winner, but people from Babolsar, backing their own candidate, namely Mr. Roohi, opposed them, refusing a suggestion from local dignitaries to take a new vote.

T"he protesters are not anti-regime. They think their rights have been violated and are asking the Guardian Council why that has happened", Mr. Mohammad-Ali Panjeh-Fouladgaran, the provincial governor, told the semi-official Iranian students news agency ISNA.
The last Iranian Legislative elections sparked controversy after the Guardians barred more than 2.000 candidates, most of them reformists and including one hundred lawmakers from running in the race held on 20 February.

As the unrest continued unabated in Fereydoon Kenar, Kurdish deputies at the outgoing Majles wrote a letter to the lamed President Mohammad Khatami protesting to the violence used by Revolutionary Guards and local basij forces against people celebrating the approval of a new interim Constitution for Iraq by the country’s Provisory Government."It was a very natural celebration by Iranian Kurds expressing solidarity with their Iraqi brothers", the letter said, referring to the interim Constitution that guarantees the Iraqi Kurds federal powers.

Inhabitants at Kurdish-dominated cities of Bookan, Mahabad, Baneh, Piranshahr and Paveh, all situated near the Iraqi borders were celebrating the new Iraqi Constitution when security forces and Revolutionary Guards attacked them, Kurdish lawmakers reported.According to local sources, at least 34 people were rounded up after demonstrators, angry of being attacked, set fire on police stations and Guards garrisons.

© Copyright 2003 SMCCDI: daneshjoo.org

http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/a-b/a-b-misc/azarmehr031504.htm

The Uprising in Northern Iran Presages The End of The Islamic Republic
March 15, 2004

by Potkin Azarmehr

The recent events in Fereydoon Kenar are a reflection of the anger felt by the Iranian people and their readiness to overthrow the 25 year old rule of clerics in Iran .

The Islamic authorities in Fereydoon-Kenat, North Iran , declared the results of three polling stations null and void. Such blatant cheating in favour of Meghdad Najaf-Nejad, made the people spontaneously gather on the town's main bridge around 8:00 am on Saturday and shout slogans against the unashamed cheatings.

As the crowds grew and the slogans became more radical, the Law Enforcement Forces(LEF) started opening fire at the protesters with pellet guns. Far from pushing the crowd back, the shooting by LEF made the people angrier and they retaliated. As the crowd became more confident they targeted the Friday Sermon preacher Bakooyi, who was the driving force behind the election frauds in town.

The crowd moved towards Bakooyi's ostentatious residence intent on killing the preacher. At this point they were shouting: "We will make his (Bakooyi) blood flow here, We will make his palace, his grave" "mA injA ro khoon mikonim, ghasresho ghabresh mikonim" and "All the criminals here are in the LEF" har chi injA jAnieh, nirooye entezAmieh".

Bakooyi was lucky not to be in his residence at the time, but one of his cars was completely destroyed and his lavish residence was also damaged.

The Islamic authorities who were unable to control the crowd with the local LEF, brought in the special guards from Tehran , Isfahan , Amol and Babol. Five are reported killed (Three men and two women) and several hundred are wounded so far.

The hardline daily Jomhoori-Eslami, reported the incidence by saying "a throng of thugs marched towards the house of Friday Sermon Preacher of Fereydoon-Kanar but they were pushed back by the LEF. Some have been wounded"

The selected winner of Fereydoon-Kenar 'elections', Meghdad Najaf-Nejad, however either having realised the level of hatred felt by the people or scared of continuing in his position has resigned.

The people of Fereydoon-Kenar have won the first round of battle for free and fair elections in Iran . With the ongoing teachers strike, youth riots during the Shiite mourning periods, and riots in other parts of Iran , the Islamic Republic is looking more unstable day by day.

Potkin Azarmehr