Thousands of fully-equipped agents belonging to the special anti-riot units of the State Security Forces (SSF) have been stationed in these districts since this morning. Brig. Gen. Kioomarsi, the SSF Deputy Commander in Greater Tehran area, had announced yesterday that the regime's suppressive forces would be deployed in large numbers and threatened young people that the SSF would use closed-circuit television cameras to identify would-be protesters. He said many plainclothes policemen would also be in the area. Kioomarsi said cameras would be banned and would be seized by SSF agents.
The mullahs' regime takes such draconian measures out of fears that antigovernment protests by young people after sports events would be repeated. On September 24, widespread clashes erupted between anti-riot forces and young protesters after a football match in Azadi Stadium. The clashes spread to western neighborhoods of Tehran, leaving behind dozens of injured. Similar incidents occurred in the southern city of Shiraz at the end of a football match in November.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 27, 2000
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