At any opposition demonstration in Iran they materialise from nowhere. For opposition supporters, they have become notorious. (See BBC video).

(Jon Leyne | BBC News | 13 August 2009) – The government’s Basij militia have become President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief enforcers, as he tries to consolidate power in the wake of his disputed re-election.Sometimes they tear into demonstrations in fleets of motorcycles, wielding clubs, and sometimes firearms.

Sometimes they are in plain clothes, mingling amongst the crowd until it is time to strike.

One notorious tactic is for them to wield tiny knives or razor blades to use against protestors from behind their backs.

Many are recruited at the age of 12 or younger. In their long training they are steeped in the ideology of the Islamic republic – indoctrinated, some would say.

Amir Farshad Ebrahimi was just such a young Basiji. He has long since left the militia and fled the country.

He describes the training as “brainwashing.”

“I can genuinely say that it’s a form of brainwashing,” he told me.

“It takes place every night or weekly in the mosques they attend, so much so that they really believe that the protesters and opposition supporters on the streets are standing against the Prophet’s teachings and Islam, they are mohareb (enemies of God) and their blood can be spilt, they should be killed.”

He said that Basijis have been performing ritual ablutions, as if before going to the mosque, before going out to quell recent protests.

It is clear the Basij have been preparing to deal with this sort of internal unrest for many years, quite different from their role as frontline soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war.

And it’s a role which Mr Ebrahimi says many of them have taken to with enthusiasm.

“There is no need at all to tell them what to do – when they hand them a baton or gun and tell them to go, it’s clear what they have to do.

“It’s like setting a wolf loose amongst a flock of sheep,” he said.

But there are also some Basijis who are having doubts, according to Mr Ebrahimi.

He says he has received 10 to 20 calls or emails from his former colleagues asking what they should be doing.

‘Complicated situation’

“Some of them have become disillusioned,” he said.

“I can’t tell you how many. But I am sure that many are not happy about what is happening right now.

“But others are standing firm, supporting their revolution, taking up arms and oppressing people. They don’t even have any mercy for the injured.

“They even torture detainees in prison. It’s a very complicated situation.”

That analysis is supported by Alireza Nourizadeh, an expert on the Basij, and director of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London.

“These Basijis are also part of the nation and gradually you don’t expect them to stay loyal to the authorities when they see that people in the streets are their neighbours and their children,” he said.

“I heard that many, many of the Basijis, especially their commanders, when they go home they have problems with their children and their wives, and they ask ‘why do you kill people?’ “

Fierce ideology

By all accounts the Basijis are a mix of ideologues, some just in it for the power or the money, and some who relish the violence.

But the corps is underpinned by many true believers.

Some interviewed recently spoke about their belief that they were working for the improvement of humanity: “We want to change the world, to save the world and all its people from tyranny and submit only to God.”

That ideology is a strength for the militia, but also a potential weakness.

As the conflict with the opposition drags on, as it seems set to do, the self doubts must surely creep in.

A crucial factor in the success of the Islamic revolution in 1979 was the defection of the armed forces from the shah.

Those who rule the Islamic Republic have worked hard to build up their own loyal cadre, made up of both the Basij and the regular forces of the Revolutionary Guards, to avoid any repeat of that collapse.

But in the ferment into which the country has been driven, even the loyalty of these ultra-loyalists may be open to question.

Nature, Scale of Abuses Indicate Coordinated Efforts Ordered at Highest Levels

(Human Rights Watch | 14 August 2009) - The Iranian government should investigate the nation’s top security officials to determine whether attacks on demonstrators and detainees following the disputed June 12, 2009 election were ordered and coordinated at the highest levels, Human Rights Watch said today.Human Rights Watch said that its research indicates a pattern and degree of coordination in the repeated serious abuses against largely peaceful protesters and detainees that suggests that the abuse was ordered at top levels. Those investigated should include Esameel Ahmadi Moghaddam, chief of Iran’s national police, and Hossein Taeb, leader of the Basiji paramilitary, both hierarchical organizations that operate from the top down.

“The number and scale of the abuses by both the police and Basij make it pretty clear that they must have been following orders,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Investigation into the abuse needs to go right to the top to find out who gave the orders.”

Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch in the weeks following the presidential election indicate that Basij paramilitaries and the police were responsible for regular and widespread abuses across Tehran, at least (Human Rights Watch was not able to interview witnesses outside Tehran). In episode after episode, the police and Basiji detained dozens of people, assaulting them during the arrests, and then beating them in detention.

In just one example, on the night of June 14, police and plainclothes Basiji forces, attacked Tehran University dormitories, assaulting students and damaging the buildings. According to an official in the office of the Supreme Leader, more than 100 people were wounded. The parliamentary fact-finding committee, speaking to reporters on June 19, said, “Some of the attackers were official uniformed police officers and some of them were plainclothes forces who were not part of the police force, but who were acting in complete unison with the police.” Several students who live in the dormitories told Human Rights Watch that the police did not intervene on their behalf when plainclothes forces attacked them.

The Basij and police arrested a number of students at the dormitory that night and transferred them to a detention area on the fourth floor of the Ministry of Interior, where, the students have said, the Basij and police physically and verbally abused them. The parliamentary fact-finding committee confirmed the existence of this detention center, and said that the police had refused to provide information necessary to investigate allegations of abuse.

Human Rights Watch also documented other instances in the post-election period in which Basij paramilitaries, in apparent coordination with police, beat and detained peaceful protesters in various areas of Tehran.

A released detainee whom plainclothes security forces arrested on June 16 in Tehran’s Baharestan Square told Human Rights Watch that his captors took him to a Basij base near the location of his arrest, where 18 other detainees were being held in a 20- square-meter basement:

“As soon as I arrived, three plainclothes Basij beat me so badly that I was bleeding from my face and knees. During the time I was there, they severely beat all new detainees and cursed us with profanities. I was there for more than 72 hours. Then they drove me and other detainees to a police station. They handed us over to the police, and we were held there for a few more days before being released.”

Other witnesses told Human Rights Watch that Basij and police also acted together during nighttime raids aimed at silencing protesters who were chanting from the rooftops of their residences.

One location in which Moghaddam, the police chief, appears to have direct responsibility is the Kahrizak detention center, near Tehran, where Iranian authorities have acknowledged that abuses and at least one death took place. On July 27, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered Kahrizak closed following the death in detention of Mohsen Roohalamini, the son of a prominent government official.

Security forces had detained Roohalamini on July 9 and informed his family of his death on July 23. Authorities later said that the Kahrizak director had been dismissed and that three guards would be prosecuted for prisoner abuse. Authorities have not said when or where Roohalamini died, or under what circumstances.

Iran’s Judiciary authorities had ordered the Kahrizak detention facilities closed two years ago, citing “nonconformance to standards,” but it remained open until the end of July.

Moghaddam said in a public ceremony on August 9 that any detainee deaths at Kahrizak were from an unspecified “viral illness.” He also acknowledged that junior police officers at Kahrizak had severely beaten detainees, but claimed that senior police officials had no role in any abuse. “I intend to take responsibility, but from the very beginning I had said that students should not be held at Kahrizak and should not be detained with criminals,” he said. “Nevertheless they were sent to Kahrizak by the order of the Judiciary. The reason was lack of detention space elsewhere, and I don’t think that was proper.”

Statements by members of parliament suggest, though, that senior police officers should be held accountable for the abuses at Kahrizak. On August 9, Hamid-Reza Katouzian, a member from Tehran who served on the governmental fact-finding committee mandated to review post-election abuses, told reporters that, “The chief of police is responsible for Kahrizak and he must be held accountable.” Katouzian added that Moghaddam “receives daily reports” about conditions there. According to the daily Etemad, Kazem Jalali, another member of the parliamentary committee, said that police authorities have not responded to the committee’s requests for information.

“Closing one detention center and blaming abuses on a few low-ranking officials is hardly enough to ensure accountability for the widespread abuses since the election,” Stork said. “The government should investigate high-ranking officials as well, and punish any found to have ordered abuses.”

Background

The Basiji (Nirooye Moghavemate Basij, the Resistance Mobilization Force) is a volunteer paramilitary force of men and women, “a large people’s militia,” created by Ayatollah Khomeini in November 1979 to advance the aims of the Islamic Revolution. They engage in a wide range of activities, but their core duties are to help maintain law and order, repress dissent, and enforce their conservative interpretation of Islamic codes of dress and behavior. There are numerous documented examples of how, during times of protests, they frequently beat and intimidate protesters. The Basiji have been unofficially operating as a shadow police force, setting up checkpoints at night to catch drunk drivers and otherwise act as morality police.

The Basij forces are a two-tiered system made up of a semi-decentralized network of volunteers and paid commanders, who issue orders to the volunteers. The Basijis have branches throughout Iran, including in many social institutions such as schools, universities, state-owned factories, mosques, and government offices. The vast majority of Basij bases have access to arms.

Although the volunteers may occasionally act as individuals, they receive instructions from commanders for events such as protests. The commanders, in turn, take orders from the chief of Basij. Taeb was named to that position in October 2007 by General Mohammad-Ali Jafari.

Iran has a national police force. Police stations report to district chiefs, and district chiefs report to the provincial chiefs, who in turn report to Moghaddam. Tehran has 22 police districts.

(International Campaign for Human Rights | 30 July 2009) – Thousands of people gathered to commemorate the fortieth day of Neda Agha Soltan’s killing and to mourn all other recent deaths at Behesht Zahra Cemetery today. The peaceful gathering was attacked violently by Special Guards and plain-clothes Basij agents, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said. Security forces also prevented Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi from participating in the memorial services. Neda’s mother, Hajer Rostami Motlagh, who had previously announced her intention to go to her daughter’s grave for the memorial service, announced last night that for unspecified reasons she and her family had cancelled their plan to go to Behesht Zahra.

The Campaign has learned that Neda’s mother, who goes to the site of her shooting every Thursday to light a candle in memorial, did not go there either today. Instead, she went to a park near her house and lit candles in her memory (see pictures).

During the past few weeks, families of the dead who are receiving their bodies, some many weeks after the killings without any explanation, have attempted to arrange memorial services. Many had planned to join Neda’s fortieth day anniversary to combine these memorial services. Moussavi and Karrubi had applied for a permit to hold funeral services, without any chanting or speeches, but the Interior Ministry refused to issue a permit. The two reformist politicians had announced they would participate in Neda’s memorial service at Behest Zahra.

According to eyewitness accounts reported to the Campaign, security and police forces surrounded and occupied the grounds of Behesht Zahra in large numbers hours before the participants arrived there. Using threats and force, the government forces attempted to turn back the crowds converging on Behesht Zahra.

At 2 p.m. Tehran time, security forces detained Jaafar Panahi, a well-known filmmaker, his wife and daughter, and three older women who were accompanying them. As the crowds increased, thousands of people managed to arrive at section 257 of Behesht Zahra, where Neda and other recently killed protestors are buried. Around 7 p.m. Basij and plain-clothes agents violently attacked the mourners, using tear gas and beating the crowds with batons.

“It is not acceptable to kill people’s children, and then without accountability, use every possible means to pressure the victims’ families into silence and even deprive them of holding a simple funeral service for their loved ones,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.

“The participation of large crowds in Behesht Zahra showed that the families and general public are insistent on exercising their very basic and fundamental rights. The authorities, instead of expanding on their criminal actions by relying on more violence, should hear the call of the people for accountability,” he added.

Noting the extensive human rights violations and criminal acts by government and government-supported forces, the Campaign continues to call on the United Nations to send a special committee of human rights experts headed by the Secretary General to Iran to demand an immediate end to violence and investigate the fate of hundreds of disappeared, detained, and killed people during recent events.

Dear All,

I send you a special window to let you know that this Friday will be an eventful day in Iran. Ayatollah Rafsanjani, the second most powerful politician in Iran, and a person viewed as supporting Mr. Mousavi, will lead the Friday prayer in Tehran and deliver the sermon. The reformists are asking their supporters to come out in large numbers. At the same time, there is an air of uncertainty about whether Mr. Mousavi himself will attend the event and whether Mr. Rafsanjani will make a decisive move against the system.

The general mood of the protesters in Iran is that of defiance. The fact that the official media does not acknowledge the crisis and acts as if everything is in perfect order leaves people frustrated and angry. Women continue to be most visible on the streets.

New Statement Released by Mr. Reza’i

Mr. Reza’i, one of the four candidates for presidency who is ideologically closest to Mr. Ahmadinejad, issued a new statement today asking the government to acknowledge the people’s grievances concerning the election and to attend to their complaints. More important than the response that he will get is the fact that he is not convinced at all that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s government will be able to move forward under the current circumstances.

Attacking a Person filming the Events

NIAC blog posted this  video taken on July  9 when a person filming the protests is attacked by the riot police and  miraculously saves the brief video clip:

Anonymous E-mailer

Anonymous e-mailer returning from a demonstration (most probably July 9) described the police as anxious, frustrated and worn out, and the people as “not in an aggressive mode and in control of their behavior.” The e-mailer estimated the demonstrators about 10,000.  People living in neighborhoods which have substantial “revolutionary guard” residents report loud Allaho Akbar chants at night which indicates clear support among that group.

The Allaho Akbar Nightly Chants Loud on July 9 and on July 12

This  video posted on the night of the demonstrations on July  9 shows that the nightly chants were particularly loud:

A video from the July 12 chants. For the first time, people seem to be using megaphones to get their voices heard more clearly:

Sajjadpour and Parsi’s Excellent Analysis of the July 9 Events on the Newshour

Sohrab A’araabi

Many predict that when dust of current clashes in Iran settles, the number of the casualties among the street protesters will turn out to be much higher than what is thought to be now (which is in the twenties).

One such figure is Sohraab A’araabi, a 19-year old man killed apparently on the same day as Nedaa Aghaa-Soltaan, and in a similar manner.

He was scheduled to take the university entrance exams in a few days’ time.  His mother is a member of Mothers for Peace.  He was buried yesterday in plot number 257 at Behesht-e Zahraa cemetery, Tehran, about 20 meters from Nedaa’s
grave-site.

Last night, in the Ekbaataan, Sohrab’s Neighborhood in Tehran,  in addition to the roof-top shouts of “Allah-o Akbar” and “Death to the Dictator,” there was, “Our Sohraab is not dead, it is the Velaayat [the rule of the [Islamic] jurisprudent] which is dead.”

For more pictures and videos of Sohrab, please visit:

Gooya News Archives (1)

Gooya News Archives (2)

Iran: The Story of Sohran A’araabi

Report of the funeral (in Farsi) on Roozonline on July 14, 2009.

Good Night,
F.

Marchers shouted slogans Thursday and made victory signs in Tehran, where protests were called to commemorate 1999 clashes between students and the police. For more photos, click on image. (Photo: European Pressphoto Agency)

By Michael Slackman, published in the New York Times on July 9, 2009

CAIRO — Thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran on Thursday, clapping, chanting, almost mocking the authorities as they once again turned out in large numbers in defiance of the government’s threat to crush their protests with violence.

As tear gas canisters cracked and hissed in the middle of crowds, and baton-wielding police officers chased protesters up and down sidewalks, young people, some bloodied, ran for cover, but there was an almost festive feeling on the streets of Tehran, witnesses reported in e-mail exchanges.

A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kargar Street, paused for a moment and said, “I am not scared, because we are in this together.”

The protesters set trash afire in the street, and shopkeepers locked their gates, then let demonstrators in to escape the wrath of the police. Hotels also served as havens, letting in protesters and locking out the authorities.

It has been almost four weeks since the polls closed and the government announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election in a landslide.

And there have been almost four weeks of defiance, in the face of the government’s repeated, uncompromising and violent efforts to restore the status quo. The government did succeed in keeping people off the streets in the previous 11 days, leaving many to simmer on their own as political insiders and clerical heavyweights slugged it out behind the scenes.

But there was an opening to take to the streets again on Thursday in a collective show of defiance, and many protesters seized it, even though the principal opposition leaders stayed away. Mir Hussein Moussavi, who claims he won the election; another candidate, Mehdi Karroubi; and former President Mohammad Khatami have agreed to pursue their complaints through the legal system and to protest only when a permit is issued.

But the mood of the street never calmed. One witness said that had it not been for the overwhelming show of force, it appeared, tens of thousands would have turned out.

The day was supercharged from the start, with a protest called for 4 p.m. to honor the students who 10 years earlier were bloodied and jailed during a violent confrontation with the police.

Under a hot summer sun, police officers in riot gear patrolled the streets in roving bands of about 50. Then the crowds started to form, men, women and children packing the sidewalks. Traffic stopped and drivers honked or stepped from their cars in solidarity. The people chanted, “Down with the dictator,” “God is great” and “Mouss-a-vi” as they walked along Revolution Street.

“Tell the world what is happening here,” one 26-year-old engineering student said. “This is our revolution. We will not give up.”

Asked what he wanted, he said, “We want democracy.”

One witness gave this account: “The crowds are too huge to contain. Riot police running up and down Fatemi Street, beating people, barely got out of the way. The crowds just get out of their way and come back.”

Scenes like that were reported all over the city, though the main skirmishes seemed to have occurred near Tehran University and at Enghelab Square. The police shot tear gas into Laleh Park. As night fell, the scene grew more severe. The air filled with acrid smoke and soot, and police officers and Basij militia members ran along the streets.

A man in a business suit pulled out a collapsible baton and beat a person who had a camera until the baton broke. A middle-age woman ran through the crowd, her coat covered with blood stains. Protesters hurled rocks at security officers. Two men held a huge arrangement of yellow and purple flowers on green leaves, in commemoration of those killed last month and in 1999, a witness said.

But still, no matter who stopped to talk, witnesses said, there was a sense of mission and unity that seemed almost validated by the brutal government response. A 55-year-old woman on the streets in support of the marchers said: “This is Iran. We are all together.”

The security forces did not fire on protesters, witnesses said, and it was unclear how many people were injured or arrested.

Until now, the government has relied on three main tactics to try to put the turbulence of the presidential race behind it: detentions; the violent suppression of street protests; and a shifting of blame for the unrest to “meddling” foreign nations, primarily Britain and the United States, but also Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has sanctified the election, and the powerful Guardian Council has certified the results. But the opposition has continued to insist that there were widespread irregularities, rendering the vote and the results invalid. It has refused to concede, which has served to keep the conflict from fading.

Cellphone messaging was disconnected Thursday for a third consecutive day, apparently to prevent communication among protesters. The government also closed universities and declared an official holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, ostensibly because Tehran has been shrouded in a cloud of heavy dust and pollution.

But neither the announced holiday nor the murky air seemed to thin the crowds.

Many people thrust their hands into the air, making the V-sign for victory. The crowds remained mostly peaceful, a witness said, even as they watched, and sometimes tried to stop, police officers and militia members beating unarmed men and women. Many women were on the street, as they have been throughout the crisis.

A crowd chanted, “Please stop,” and chased two Basij members away.

The streets burned with garbage fires. Tear gas settled all around. And on one street, thousands of people pushed on, proclaiming their solidarity and defiance.

“We don’t want war,” said one 27-year-old man in a black shirt. “We just want freedoms.”

Reporting was contributed by Nazila Fathi from Toronto, and independent observers from Tehran.

Related:

Photo Slideshow of protests by the New York Times.

The Lede, New York Times Newsblog, capturing and narrating the events of July 9, 2009.

]]> http://www.peacewithiran.com/iran-protesters-take-to-streets-despite-threats/feed/ 0 http://www.peacewithiran.com/hundreds-protest-in-iran-defying-crackdown-vow/ http://www.peacewithiran.com/hundreds-protest-in-iran-defying-crackdown-vow/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:59:55 +0000 admin2 http://www.peacewithiran.com/?p=462 Hundreds protest in Iran, defying crackdown vow

By NASSER KARIMI – July 9, 2009 (3:45 AM EDT)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hundreds of young men and women chanted “death to the dictator” and fled baton-wielding police in the capital Thursday as opposition activists sought to revive street protests despite authorities’ vows to “smash” any new marches.

For days, supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been calling for new protests in Tehran and other cities on Thursday, their first significant attempt to get back on the streets since security forces crushed massive demonstrations nearly two weeks ago in Iran’s postelection turmoil.

Tehran governor Morteza Tamaddon warned that any new march Thursday would meet the same fate.

“If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to calls by counterrevolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people,” he said, according to the state news agency IRNA in a report late Wednesday.

Thursday afternoon, a stepped-up number of uniformed policemen along with plainclothes Basiji militiamen stood at intersections all along Revolution Street and at nearby near Tehran University, some of the sites where protests were called.

Still, a group of around 300 young people gathered in front of Tehran University and began to chant, “Death to the dictator,” witnesses said. Many of them wore green surgical masks, the color of Mousavi’s movement.

Police charged at them, swinging batons, but the protesters fled, then regrouped at another corner and resumed chanting, the witnesses said. Police chased them repeatedly as the protesters continued to regroup, the witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution.

Within an hour, the number of protesters grew to about 700 and marched toward the gates of Tehran University, the witnesses said. A line of policemen blocked their path, but they did nothing to disperse the gathering as the protesters stood and continued to chant, the witnesses said.

At another location, on Valiasr Street, around 200 protesters gathered, and police fired tear gas to disperse them, but the demonstrators sought to regroup elsewhere, the witnesses said.

It was the first such protests in 11 days, since the crackdown — though it did not compare to the hundreds of thousands who joined the marches that erupted after the June 12 presidential election, protesting what the opposition said were fraudulent results.

The calls for a new march have been circulating for days on social networking Web sites and pro-opposition Web sites. Opposition supporters planned the marches to coincide with the anniversary Thursday of a 1999 attack by Basij on a Tehran University dorm to stop protests in which one student was killed.

Mousavi and his pro-reform supporters say he won the election, which official results showed as a landslide victory for incumbent hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the results valid after a partial recount and warned that unrest would not be tolerated.

In the crackdown since the election, at least 20 protesters and 7 Basijis were killed.

Police have said 1,000 people were arrested and that most have since been released. But the state-run English language news network Press TV quoted prosecutor-general Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi saying Wednesday that 2,500 people were arrested and that 500 of them could face trial. The remainder, he said, have been released.

Among those still being held are top figures in the country’s reform movement, including a former vice president and former Cabinet members. Arrests have continued over the past week, with police rounding up dozens of activists, journalists and bloggers.

Ahead of Thursday’s planned march, authorities appeared to have taken a number of other steps to prevent participation. SMS mobile phone messaging was down Thursday for a third straight day — a step believed to be aimed at thwarting protesters’ communications. A similar cutoff took place from the election until a week ago, amid the height of the protests.

The government also closed down universities and called a government holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, citing a heavy dust and pollution cloud that has blanketed Tehran and other parts of the country this week. Many saw the move as aimed at keeping students away from campuses where protests could be organized. Thursday is a weekend day in Iran, and many people used the surprise long holiday to travel to other cities where weather was better.

Iranian authorities have depicted the postelection turmoil as instigated by enemy nations aiming to thwart Ahmadinejad’s re-election, and officials say some of those detained confessed to fomenting the unrest. Opposition supporters say the confessions were forced under duress.

Families of detainees gather outside Evin Prison on July 6, 2009 (Part 1 of 2)

From Babylon & Beyond, A Los Angeles Times Newsblog – All 33-year-old Ali-Reza wanted to do was stop pro-government Basiji militiamen from beating up a man lying on the ground. Instead the engineer said he wound up in the clutches of the capital’s security archipelago, where he was himself beaten for days.

The east Tehran resident’s story is among the tales of abuse and detention surfacing from Iran’s weeks-long crackdown against dissidents and protestors in the wake of the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a vote marred by allegations of massive vote-rigging.

Ali-Reza said he was near Tehran’s Fatemi Square on June 13, a day of riots and unrest just after the election, when he spotted the plainclothes Basiji fighters beating a man “in a very bad way,” he said.

“Do not beat him!” he protested to the Basijis.

But instead of laying off, the militiamen came after him. “They started to follow me,” he said. “I ran and changed my direction, but in a dead-end street they caught me.”

He said they began pummeling him. “The started to beat and beat and beat me, with their batons, feet and cables.”
They stuffed him into a van with other young men and women and took them to a holding cell near Horr Square, where they were all beaten for more than two hours, he said.

“You voted for Mousavi,” one of the Basijis told them, according to Ali-Reza. “Beating you is our right. We can even kill you.”

The Basiji called each other by honorifics, like Haji or Seyed, never by their real names.

Families of detainees gather outside Evin Prison on July 6, 2009 (Part 2 of 2)

For two days the captives were held in the facility, fed only bread and sugar.

But Ali-Reza said his treatment improved after he was handed over to the regular police. At one point a Basiji interrogator was about to break the fingers of a 24-year-old man, but the police stopped him, Ali-Reza said.

After days at the police detention facility, he and others were moved into Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison, where they were no longer subject to as much abuse, but crammed into horribly overcrowded conditions.

“Our place for sleeping was nothing,” Ali-Reza said. “There were too many people forced to sleep in one place and the toilet was very dirty.”

During interrogations he and others were presented with pictures and video footage showing them at demonstrations and asked to answer questions about their political views and lives.

After 10 days, Ali-Reza was freed. His family had to put up the deed to their house as collateral, and in a month he’s scheduled to appear before a judge at a branch of the Revolutionary Court.

The ordeal has made him more angry and contemptuous of Iranian authorities. He remembers watching as young men lay bleeding and injured on the ground and no one came to help them.

“Now I know whom I hate,” he said. “Now I know how they are wild, are not human. They do not believe in anything. They just close their eyes and beat you until they kill you.”

By MICHELLE MAY in Tehran/Dubai | Tehran Bureau | 24 June 2009

[TEHRAN BUREAU] The day after the Supreme Leader delivered his Friday prayer at Tehran University the streets of Tehran felt eerily quiet. Although friends translated his prayer to me, I went to a net café to read western analysis of what the Ayatollah said. I tried to access CNN online, but the government had slowed down the internet to keep Iranians feeling isolated that week.

As I waited for the news to load a young man named Ali offered to help me. I expressed my annoyance to him over the slowed internet speed, and the fact that Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and the BBC had all been blocked. “Our government is very bad,” he said. I nodded my head slightly.

Just then CNN’s page miraculously loaded. The word “bloodshed” stuck out in the headline next to a photo of the white-bearded Supreme Leader. It wasn’t reassuring.

Ali helped me hail a taxi to Valiasr Square to meet a friend for coffee. The taxi quickly moved through streets that were normally clogged with gridlock traffic. As we approached my destination two motorbikes pulled up on both sides of the taxi, waving for us to pull over. There were Basiji men.

An unfamiliar feeling of terror came over me the moment I recognized one of the men as Ali from the net café. The other three had all the classic Basiji traits: dark beards, husky builds, walkie-talkies, shirts buttoned up to the top, but un-tucked at the bottom for better access to pistols stored in the waist of their trousers.

Ali motioned for me to get out of the car. “No, no, no!” I cried, shaking my head, tears pouring down my face, my mouth going dry, my throat feeling as if it were going to close. Two other motorbikes with Basij came up behind us, along with another car. There were at least 10 of them and one of me. My mind started to race: Who do they possibly think I am, and what have I done for them to make such a production over me?

I attempted to make a scene. I plead with them to leave me alone, hoping that by attracting a crowd they would leave. It didn’t work. They took me by the arms and shoved me into their car. Ali took my Irish passport, questioning me about each and every stamp in it. He riffled through my bag, demanded to know where my mobile phone was. He didn’t believe that I didn’t have one. He continued to examine every object in my bag, looking at pens as potential spy devices. He accused me of being a “terrorist,” a “spy.” He questioned whether or not I had been in Iran a month prior to that to “make trouble in the election process.”

“Why have you been to Iran so many times?!” he shouted at me. I ignored his questions demanding to know where they were taking me. He didn’t answer. We drove around Tehran, attempting to enter a few anonymous-looking barracks on the edge of the city in search of their “boss.” I felt doomed. The idea of going into a barracks scared me. I thought the time had come to jump out of the car and make a getaway. Would they shoot me? Would they let me run?

As soon as I put my hand on the handle, the power locks were quickly employed.

I tried to calm myself. I switched tactics. I told them the truth. I told them how much I loved Iran. I explained how horrible it was that my love affair with Iran was coming to such an abrupt end. I tried to negotiate. I begged Ali to take me to a regular police station, as opposed to a basij barracks.

Hundreds of officers and riot police were gathering at police stations all across the city that day as they were clamping down on protesters, with the Supreme Leader’s blessing. As luck would have it, we drove by a station. I pounded on the window and made eye contact with a soldier.

Ali asked the driver to stop the car and agreed to leave me in the care of a regular uniformed police officer — a teddy bear compared to Basij. As we sat in the car another half hour Ali continued to question me about my job, my religion, my marital status and my political views. I begged him not to hurt me. He appeared insulted by my request.

“Trust me,” he said.

Inside the police station I was questioned by a female officer wearing  a full black chador.  She was young and appeared more fascinated by me than suspicious. “CNN?” “BBC?” she asked. With hand motions I replied, “Reading, not writing.” I think she understood. She brought me to the Chief of Police, who made a production over some of the Farsi numbers in my passport.  Finally he said the only phrase he could muster in English: “It’s okay. No problem.”

I began to hyperventilate. Then fainted.

Two women in chadors rushed over to take care of me. They fed me sugar water.

Two male officers then lead me to a police truck. I was in a daze as we drove across the city, eventually driving through a gate that looked palatial, especially in comparison to the other places I had been that day. It was the office of the division of police that dealt with foreigners. Again I was questioned, but this time they brought a tray of chocolates and a juice box.

The man who interviewed me spoke perfect English. “What happened?” he asked, apparently puzzled by the police report. I told him of the dramatic Basij abduction. His boss came in and apologized for Basij’s behavior. “We treat all foreigners with great respect, Ms. Michelle May.”

With that I broke down and began to sob. I was relieved the ordeal was over, relieved that I was free. The chief of police also came into the office we were in. He asked the man questioning me to translate: “He said tell her to please stop crying because her tears are killing my soul.”

The man questioning me said it was best to leave the country as soon as possible due to “sensitivities.” I imagined he was embarrassed by what was happening.

I left the next day as he advised, not relaxing until the plane actually lifted off the ground. As it did, I felt overwhelmed by the sense that I was one of the lucky ones allowed to leave. Like many others on the plane I also started to cry out of sadness and immense guilt about the ones we left behind.

Copyright © 2009 Tehran Bureau