The Associated Press Monday, December 11, 2006 Click here to find out more! TEHRAN, Iran
Iranian students staged a rare demonstration against President Mahmamoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, lighting a firecracker and burning his photograph in the audience as he delivered a speech at their university, the state news agency said.
Ahmadinejad responded calmly when the students at Amir Kabir Technical University started chanting, "Death to the dictator," the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
"We have resisted dictatorship for many years — from before the 1979 Islamic Revolution," Ahmadinejad said, according to the agency. "Nobody can bring back a dictatorship even in the name of freedom."
The disturbances began when a group of students started chanting during the speech in a hall at the university. Then they held up a picture of the president, upside down, and set it alight, the agency reported. Finally, the students set off a firecracker.
Ahmadinejad supporters in the audience began to chant in response, silencing the protesters. Ahmadinejad then continued with his speech. There was no report of the authorities arresting any of the protesters.
Anti-government protests have been extremely rare since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 elections — even in universities, which were once a stronghold of the pro-reform movement. Reformists were largely shut down in the year before Ahmadinejad's election.
The president has not always tolerated criticism. A few months ago his government banned a newspaper that had satirized him.
Ahmadinejad's son used to study at Amir Kabir university.
<http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/61EFAC7F-4C0E-4949-9D50-8CF00FC667C8.htm> Iran students heckle Ahmadinejad
A number of student demonstrations against Ahmadinejad have taken place in recent days
Iranian students disrupted a speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, at a prestigious Tehran university, setting fire to his picture and heckling him.
The Fars news agency, which is close to Ahmadinejad, said on Monday: "Some students chanted radical slogans and inflamed the atmosphere of the meeting" at the Amir Kabir University.
"A small number of students shouted 'death to the dictator' and smashed cameras of state television but they were confronted by a bigger group of students in the hall chanting: 'We support Ahmadinejad'," it said.
Ahmadinejad responded by calling the rebellious students an "oppressive" minority.
This is the first time in two years that such protests have taken place on this scale at Iranian universities.
"A small number of people who claim there is oppression are creating oppression and do not let the majority hear [my] words," he said.
According to the student news agency ISNA, Ahmadinejad responded to the students' chants of "students can die but they do not accept degradation" by criticising the US.
"Today, the worst type of dictatorship in the world is the American dictatorship which has been clothed in human rights," he said. "Our students are free and they fight and die but do not accept the foreigners' missions or bend to them."
'Honour to burn'
"It is my honour to burn for the sake of the nation's ideals and defend the system," Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling protesters who set fire to his picture, according to ISNA.
"Americans must know that even if Ahmadinejad's body is burnt a thousand times for this purpose, Ahmadinejad will not retreat even a centimetre from these ideals."
The Iranian president's speech was also interrupted by firecrackers, ISNA said.
A group of Amir Kabir's top students had earlier expressed objections to the government's economic and political agenda as well as confrontation with student activists and ridding universities of independent lecturers.
"Today, the worst type of dictatorship in the world is the American dictatorship which has been clothed in human rights"
"Bankrupting the country's industry, inflation, distribution of poverty, defacement of the country's international image and playing with the nation's fate in diplomatic issues," were among the points brought up in a statement.
"University is alive and criticises the government," it added, according to ISNA.
The incident came after hundreds of Iranian students protested at Amir Kabir on Sunday to denounce a crackdown on a reformist-led university association, according to the ISNA news agency.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 students also demonstrated at Tehran University on Wednesday to mark students' day, chanting slogans such as "for freedom and against despotism", said ISNA.
PDATED ON: MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2006 16:21 MECCA TIME, 13:21 GMT
Source: Agencies
<http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1840142006> Iranian voters divided on Tehran council vote By Parisa Hafezi Mon 11 Dec 2006
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Like the vast majority of people in Iran's bustling capital, Hossein did not bother to vote in the last city council election almost four years ago. He won't be making the same mistake this time.
Abstention in the 2003 polls helped deliver the key to Tehran's mayoral office to former Revolutionary Guardsman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Within two years, to the chagrin of reformers and Western governments alike, the hardliner had used the post as springboard to the national presidency.
"I want to vote because I want reformists to return to power," said the English teacher from wealthy northern Tehran.
Iran's third local council elections take place on Friday with all eyes fixed on the battle for control of Tehran Council.
Amid the pre-election confusion of shifting alliances and mud-slinging one thing is certain, analysts say: turnout will easily surpass the 12 percent of eligible voters in the city of 12 million people who went to the ballot boxes in February 2003.
At that time disenchantment with the pro-reform movement led by then President Mohammad Khatami was nearing an all-time high. Promises to deliver lower inflation, more jobs and greater social and political freedoms had evaporated in the face of implacable opposition from powerful hardliners.
At the city level reformist control of the Tehran council, won convincingly in Iran's first local elections in 1999, had failed to improve the capital's pressing traffic and pollution problems and the council had dissolved into bitter infighting.
When the elections came, reformist voters stayed at home handing victory to a newly formed but disciplined conservative group, Abadgaran, which promised more efficient management.
"I stopped voting because I was angry at Khatami and his failure to reform this country," said Hossein.
"But now I understand I was wrong."
Abadgaran swept reformists out of the council and appointed Ahmadinejad as mayor.
The conservative victory in Tehran was replicated across the country and marked the beginning of the end for the reformists.
One year later conservatives triumphed in parliamentary elections, followed in 2005 by Ahmadinejad's presidential win.
Hoping to capitalise on voter alarm at soaring prices for basic goods, reformists have formed a common list of candidates for Tehran's 15 seats and are focussing on everyday issues, like public services, rather than social and political freedoms.
"I believe the election could bring a change in the political situation," said Shahabeddin Tabatabai, youngest member of the reformist coalition, which includes some of Khatami's former ministers and a popular taekwondo champion.
FOCUS ON MAYOR
Conservatives, in contrast, have been riven by disputes over who should be Tehran mayor, meaning their vote could be split among at least two rival factions.
Closest to Ahmadinejad is a new faction calling itself the "Good Scent of Service". It includes a sister of the president.
Colourful posters endorsing the various coalitions have been strung across streets and plastered onto shop windows. "Let's join hands and rebuild Tehran," read one banner.
Ahmadinejad's allies are determined to evict former police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf from his post as Tehran mayor. Qalibaf was a presidential rival to Ahmadinejad in 2005.
Political analysts say he enjoys the support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate say on all matters in Iran, but that Ahmadinejad views him as suspect politically and as a potential future rival for the presidency.
"He wants Qalibaf out," said one analyst, who declined to be named. "This race is all about who the next mayor will be."
Reformists and more moderate conservatives, some of whom have defected from the Ahmadinejad camp, say they will back the incumbent mayor, who is popular with Tehran residents, if they win control of the council.
But disenchantment with reformists remains high, while Ahmadinejad's popularity has, if anything, increased since the June 2005 presidential vote.
"I am not going to vote for reformists. They had their chance," said dentist Maryam, 45. "I will not vote at all."
Mohammad Khakbaz, who works in a supermarket, said he would vote for Ahmadinejad's supporters.
An elderly woman customer agreed: "He is a brave man. I will vote for his supporters," Zahra, 65, said.
Mehrdad Bazrpash, head of the pro-Ahmadinejad coalition, described the vote as a choice between "wealth oriented" and "people oriented" approaches.
Reliable opinion polls are not available but political analysts say that despite the efforts to form candidate lists the most likely outcome is a divided council and protracted row over who should be mayor.
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>