Thursday, July 30, 2009

Iranians Mourn the Dead and Clash With Security Forces

Things in Iran appear to be heating up again. From The Huffington Post:

Iranian police fired tear gas and beat anti-government protesters with batons to disperse thousands attending a graveside memorial Thursday for victims of post-election violence, witnesses and state television said.

Police barred opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from joining the crowd around the grave of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman was shot to death at a June 20 to protest the disputed presidential election. The 27-year-old music student's dying moments on the pavement were filmed and circulated widely on the Web, and her name became a rallying cry for the opposition.


It is being reported that demonstrators were shouting "Neda is alive, Ahmadinejad is dead" and the LA Times is reporting that the demonstrators ended up overwhelming the security forces in the cemetery:

Thousands and possibly tens of thousands of mourners, many of them black-clad young women carrying roses, overwhelmed security forces today at Tehran's largest cemetery to gather around the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose videotaped shooting at a June 20 demonstration stunned the world.

[...]

Among those arrested was award-winning director Jafar Panahi, whose movies "The Circle" and "Crimson Gold" have garnered international acclaim, along with his wife and daughter, a source close to the family told Agence France-Presse.

But as people poured out of the nearby subway station and taxis along the highway, security forces retreated. One witness said police released detainees and began cooperating with the mourners, directing them to Section 257 of the cemetery, where Agha-Soltan and others were buried.


Here is some video said to have been shot today in Iran:



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