Saturday afternoon, April 29, hundreds of residents in the village of Ajirlou in the northwestern Province of Ardebil, staged a rally, chanting "death to Khamenei," "death to Khatami."

The protesters marched toward the city of Pars-Abad, 2 km away. The anti-government demonstration which initially involved high school students, turned into a large march, as many people joined the protesters along the way.

Saturday night, the State Security Forces attacked the homes of villagers in Ajirlou and arrested more than 40 students. Ten university students were also arrested in Pars-Abad. No information is available on their fate.

Meanwhile, this morning, people in the Masur region of Khorramabad (western Iran) blocked the main Tehran-Ahwaz highway. Hundreds of people then began to march. The State Security Forces moved to stop the protesters who broke the windshields of seven government vehicles with stones and sticks. Several demonstrators were injured in the clashes.

This morning, workers at Alaeddin factory in Tehran blocked Tehran-Karaj highway to protest the non-payment of their wages. The protest lasted until noon. At the present, the State Security Forces' anti-riot units have surrounded the workers.
 

Court Charges Pro-Khatami "Reformists", Reuters, April 30

TEHRAN - A Revolutionary Court charged six reformists on Sunday with endangering Iran's internal security by taking part in a conference in Berlin earlier this month.

State television said the court, meeting behind closed doors, ruled that the six, including three journalists and a student leader, were charged with "acting against the internal security of Iran by taking part in the Berlin conference."

The conference on Iran's reforms was disrupted repeatedly by exiles opposed to Iran's Islamic system, prompting the conservative establishment to label participants as traitors to Islam and the revolution.

The wave of interrogations follows the closure last week of 16 pro-reform publications in the biggest offensive to date against Mohammad Khatami.
 

Khatami's Culture Minister under Attack, Agence France Presse, May 3

TEHRAN - Iran's embattled Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani came under renewed attack Wednesday as a conservative MP charged he misused government money to subsidize the pro-reform press.

Last week the conservative courts shut down 17 publications, 16 of which were pro-reform papers and journals backing Khatami, in a sweeping crackdown.
 

Ousted Tehran Police Chief Says Police Acted Within The Law!, Agence France Presse, April 29

TEHRAN - Tehran's former police chief on Saturday defended police strong-arm tactics during an attack on student protestors last July, insisting that the police were acting within the limits of the law.

"Entering the university was not illegal, and we had to restore order," said Farhad Nazari during his ninth appearance before a Tehran military court.

"From a legal point of view, the dorms are like a hotel, the police may enter (at any time) to carry out enquiry," he said.

Nazari again rejected the charge that he violated an order from the Minister of Interior, Musavi Lari, that the police should refrain from entering the university or using tear gas.

[According to a May 1 report by the Associated Press, several mortars hit the headquarters of the national police in Tehran. Mujahedeen spokesman Farid Soleimani said the attack was carried out "in solidarity with student protests nationwide."]
 

News Bites

The Los Angeles Times, May 2: The State Department [in the report, titled "Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1999] singled out the government in Tehran as the "most active state sponsor" of terrorism despite the recent election of moderates in Iran.

It said the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps provide "training, financial and political support" to groups seeking to disrupt the Middle East peace process. The report said Iranian support increased in 1999.

Reuters, May 3: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) advocacy group Wednesday named its annual "Ten Worst Enemies of the Press." Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was no. 2 on the list.

"These enemies of the press use methods that range from outright torture and murder to more subtle techniques aimed at keeping uncomfortable truths from being told," CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said in a statement. 

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