Iran: Revolutionary Guards clash with people, public protests spread

A large group of young Iranians who totally ignored official mourning ceremonies on the anniversary of Khomeini's death and went to the northern Tehran district of Darband for mountain climbing on the morning of Friday, June 5, were attacked by a mob of pro-government club-wielders backed by the Revolutionary Guards, according to reports from Iran. The mullahs' shock troops beat up the young men and women and broke the equipment they were carrying, such as cassette-players. Local people came out in support of the youth and they resisted the attackers, finally fending them off.

The incident coincided with official ceremonies on Khomeini's death anniversary. Despite a huge government campaign to mobilize people to take part in the gathering held at Khomeini's grave in south Tehran, this year's ceremony met with an unprecedented boycott and the number of participants did not reach even a tenth of last year's. All the leaders of the regime, including Khamenei, Khatami and Rafsanjani took part in the event, but the majority of the participants were armed forces personnel and government employees force to attend the meeting, which was held under extraordinary security measures. Prior to the meeting, the organizing committee had announced through the official media that "more than two million people from all over the country will attend the meeting in Tehran."

Hundreds of residents in the West Azerbaijan town on Sardasht rioted on May 25 and fought pitch battles with the Revolutionary Guards in a protest that began over government agents' confiscation of goods owned by some of the petty traders in the town. The crowd pelted the Guards with stones and the Revolutionary Guards responded by opening fire on the unarmed demonstrators, many of them women and children. Several people were wounded.

The clerical regime brought in reinforcements from the Ministry of Intelligence and anti-riot units, but it took them five hours to disperse the crowd and the riot ended by 6 p.m.

To terrorize the people after a spate of anti-government protests in the south-western city of Ahwaz, the mullahs' repressive agents hanged a man in public on Saturday, May 30 at the city's Naderi Intersection. The man, Karim Hashemi, was 34. His body was left dangling from the gallows for hours to frighten the people.

People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
June 7, 1998

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