B.RAMAN
"Be prepared for martyrdom"
That is the message Mir Housain Mousavi, the leader of the Iranian protesters, has tweeted to his followers after the heavy use of force by the Basij militia and the Revolutionary Guards on peaceful protesters in Tehran on the afternoon of June 20. Latest Tweets from Iran claim there have been many casualties and that the hospitals are finding it difficult to cope with them. Some of the latest Tweets are given below:
Sodium metabisulfite Na2S2O5 mixed with water (5% solution) cures CS tear gas. Wash eyes with solution
Hospital source - Tehran hospitals report hundreds of casualties.
Advice - Tear Gas - cover mouth/nose - remove gased clothes immedietly - wash face and inside mouth/eyes/nose with water fast.
Unconfirmed - The Army will not follow orders to kill the people -
People of Iran - be ready to take people from the streets tonight and give protection -
Tehran is burning with the blood of our Martyrs - The streets are full of dead -
Mousavi speaking to supporters in the street NOW -
Mousavi - declares results of 10th Presidential Election null and void -
Today is the day of rekoning - the day of GHIAMAAT - Allah Akbar -
Helicopters pouring acid on people from the sky -
Mousavi - Confirmed - I have prepared for martyrdom -
Tonight to the streets - for freedom - ( 20-6-09)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
Saturday, June 20, 2009
IRANIAN PROTESTERS DEFIANT--- CONFUSING TWEETS ABOUT MOUSAVI
B.RAMAN
Despite the heavy use of force by the Basij militia and the Revolutionary Guards to disperse a procession of protesters in Teheran on the afternoon of June 20,2009, the protesters, who have been forced to disperse into small groups, continue to be defiant. They are now calling their protest as a fight against Fascism and have called upon the people to join the fight to liberate the country from the control of theFascists. It is not clear whether Mir Housain Mousavi, whose defeat by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Presidential elections on June 12, triggered off the mass protests, is participating in the demonstrations or has gone underground. Some Tweets say he is with the protesters; others allege he has been "silenced". It is not clear what is meant by that.
2. Some of the latest Tweets from Iran are given below. The time of origin is not clear:
Tonight to the streets - for freedom.
Today the world can see why we want our freedom from fascists.
Dawn is upon us - Allah Akbar - Let us pray together today.
The world must not watch us - you must all join us wherever you are.
Confirmed - Mousavi - SATURDAY is a big day for fighting fascists.
Confirmed - Mousavi - SATURDAY 4pm Enghelab Sq - HISTORY will be watching us.
People of the world - Today Saturday 20 June 2009 - Iran will again make HISTORY.
Khatami - It is the time of Twilight - but I LOVE THE DAWN - Sea of Green.
EU condemns threats of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Shirin Ebadi - Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate - condemns harsh treatment of protesters in Iran.
Iranian scholars and uni Professors write joint letter to Secretary General of UN condemning violation of Iran Human Rights.
Karoubi - Recognize the will of the nation and void the 10th Presidential Elections to return order to the country.
Karoubi - As a former political prisoner who was tortured I know that insulting a nation will turn them into a raging fire.
Advice - remove sim and use mobile to film ANY violence or attak against Sea of Green.
Advice - your location can be identified from mobile signal - delete all sms after sending in case u are arrested.
58 scholars & lawyers condemn the recent killings & arrests in Iran as illegal.
Of course Mousavi has been silenced - but he has not yet been arrested - today everybody was silenced!
Confirmed - sms text messaging is working again in Iran after 1 week of disconnection.
Mir Hossein Mousavi is safe and well - preparing for tomorrow - Sea of Green.
Tehran is alive with the Sea of Green.
Confirmed - IRIB.ir - HACKED - Dos Dos Dos Dos.
Please join Mousavi, Khatami and Karoubi Sat 4pm Enghelab Sq. to Azadi Sq. Tehran for a crucial green protest.
Mousavi - confirmed - show support for Sea of Green from balcony starting 9pm to midnight tonight .
Mousavi - Confirmed - calls for ALL the nation to stand on balconys TONIGHT and show support with 'Allah Akbar'.
Confirmed - 2 student activist arrested - Alirezah Khshbakht & Zahra Toheedi .
Mehdi Karoubi letter to National Security Council.
Confirmed - Shahab Talebani has been arrested . (20-6-09)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
Despite the heavy use of force by the Basij militia and the Revolutionary Guards to disperse a procession of protesters in Teheran on the afternoon of June 20,2009, the protesters, who have been forced to disperse into small groups, continue to be defiant. They are now calling their protest as a fight against Fascism and have called upon the people to join the fight to liberate the country from the control of theFascists. It is not clear whether Mir Housain Mousavi, whose defeat by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Presidential elections on June 12, triggered off the mass protests, is participating in the demonstrations or has gone underground. Some Tweets say he is with the protesters; others allege he has been "silenced". It is not clear what is meant by that.
2. Some of the latest Tweets from Iran are given below. The time of origin is not clear:
Tonight to the streets - for freedom.
Today the world can see why we want our freedom from fascists.
Dawn is upon us - Allah Akbar - Let us pray together today.
The world must not watch us - you must all join us wherever you are.
Confirmed - Mousavi - SATURDAY is a big day for fighting fascists.
Confirmed - Mousavi - SATURDAY 4pm Enghelab Sq - HISTORY will be watching us.
People of the world - Today Saturday 20 June 2009 - Iran will again make HISTORY.
Khatami - It is the time of Twilight - but I LOVE THE DAWN - Sea of Green.
EU condemns threats of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Shirin Ebadi - Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate - condemns harsh treatment of protesters in Iran.
Iranian scholars and uni Professors write joint letter to Secretary General of UN condemning violation of Iran Human Rights.
Karoubi - Recognize the will of the nation and void the 10th Presidential Elections to return order to the country.
Karoubi - As a former political prisoner who was tortured I know that insulting a nation will turn them into a raging fire.
Advice - remove sim and use mobile to film ANY violence or attak against Sea of Green.
Advice - your location can be identified from mobile signal - delete all sms after sending in case u are arrested.
58 scholars & lawyers condemn the recent killings & arrests in Iran as illegal.
Of course Mousavi has been silenced - but he has not yet been arrested - today everybody was silenced!
Confirmed - sms text messaging is working again in Iran after 1 week of disconnection.
Mir Hossein Mousavi is safe and well - preparing for tomorrow - Sea of Green.
Tehran is alive with the Sea of Green.
Confirmed - IRIB.ir - HACKED - Dos Dos Dos Dos.
Please join Mousavi, Khatami and Karoubi Sat 4pm Enghelab Sq. to Azadi Sq. Tehran for a crucial green protest.
Mousavi - confirmed - show support for Sea of Green from balcony starting 9pm to midnight tonight .
Mousavi - Confirmed - calls for ALL the nation to stand on balconys TONIGHT and show support with 'Allah Akbar'.
Confirmed - 2 student activist arrested - Alirezah Khshbakht & Zahra Toheedi .
Mehdi Karoubi letter to National Security Council.
Confirmed - Shahab Talebani has been arrested . (20-6-09)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
WILL IRANIAN DISSIDENTS DEFY AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI?
B.RAMAN
In an address to a Friday congregation at the Tehran University on June 19,2009, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, again changed his position on the legality of the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the President of Iran at the elections held on June 12,2009.
2. After having endorsed the re-election in the initial days of the protest against it, he then gave the impression of taking a neutral stance by suggesting that as laid down in the Constitution, the matter should be left to the Guardian Council to decide as per the procedures laid down by the law.
3. As this did not have any impact on the anti-Ahmadinejad demonstrations all over the country, he has reiterated his original endorsement of the validity of the re-election without waiting for the report of the Guardian Council, which is enquiring into over 600 complaints received against the election and is to examine the defeated candidates on June 20, 2009. He has thus sought to pre-empt any adverse ruling by the Guardian Council. Khamenei also expressed his support to the foreign policy and the pro-poor economic policies followed by Ahmadinejad.
4.He has rejected indirectly, but definitively the demands of the protesters for the annulment of the election results and for a fresh poll and expressed his strong support for the continuance of Ahmadinejad as the President. He has warned against the continuance of the street protests, which, according to him, could be manipulated by outsiders and could lead to violence.
5. His speech was an indication of his belief that any seeming neutral stand of his could aggravate the situation and that the time had come to remove any impression of softness which might encourage more demonstrations. It was also a green signal to the Basij militia and the security agencies to start dealing with the protests more firmly even at the risk of some adverse external reactions. His message was clear: Thus far and no further.
6. The clear-cut stand taken by the Ayatollah in support of Ahmadinejad and in endorsement of the validity of his re-election creates a dilemma for Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated reformist candidate, and his supporters who have been demonstrating in their thousands.Till now, they have been projecting their protests as directed against Ahmadinejad and against what they allege to be his rigged victory. They have taken care not to give the impression of their protests being also against the Ayatollah and the Islamic system.
7. The continuance of the protest movement after ignoring the intervention of the Ayatollah could bring them into an undesired confrontation with him and the Islamic system. The Islamic revolutionaries, who came out into the streets in their thousands in 1978-79,were protesting against the arbitrary rule of the Shah of Iran, who was viewed by them as a stooge of the US. By continuing with their demonstrations in spite of the appeal for restraint from the Ayatollah, the present protesters would be unwittingly projecting themselves as opponents of someone (Ahmadinejad), who is widely viewed as standing in the way of a re-imposition of the US hegemony in the region and over Iran.
8. How to keep the protests focussed against the rigged elections without making it appear as directed against the post-1979 Islamic rule in Iran?That is the dilemma facing Mousavi and the protesters. Mousavi was himself a product of the Islamic revolution and had held office as Prime Minister in the initial difficult years of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. He was in the forefront of the war effort which frustrated the efforts of Saddam Hussein's Army to have the Islamic Government overthrown, with the tacit backing of the US . How can he now be seen as weakening the foundation of the Islamic system, which could play into the hands of the Americans?
9. The answers to these questions will decide the future course of the protest movement. The immediate reaction of the protesters after the address of the Ayatollah was not to relent in their protest movement and to keep it going till they have achieved their objective of a fresh election.
10.For the present, Mousavi and his supporters are going ahead with their plans for two demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday despite the refusal of permission by the Government, which is planning to suppress them. They have also appealed to the international community to demonstrate in their support on Sunday. If the Government with the help of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia succeeds in suppressing the demonstrations without many casualties----the situation could take an unpredictable turn---more violence or a collapse of the movement.
11. The Revolutionary Guards and the Basij seem to be confident that once they get the green signal for action from the Ayatollah, they should be able to put down the protest movement. Some more Tweets which have come out of Iran after the Ayatollah's speech are given below. An examination of these Tweets would indicate that the protesters are concerned that the Ayatollah's public intervention in support of Ahmadinejad has made the situation very complex calling for a careful handling of it.
Mousavi - confirmed - show support for Sea of Green from balcony starting 9pm to midnight tonight -
Mousavi - Confirmed - calls for ALL the nation to stand on balconys TONIGHT and show support with 'Allah Akbar'.
Ebrahim Yazdi has been released by Gov due to poor health.
Shahab Talebani has been arrested today.
Unconfirmed reports - Revolutionary Guard has been mobilised to secure Tehran.
The situation in Iran is now CRITICAL - the nation is heartbroken - suppression is imminent.
The Gov has refused to issue a permit for Sea of Green march at 4pm on Saturday in Tehran.
Confirmed - Mousavi calls on people of the world to march on SUNDAY in support of Sea of Green.
Confirmed - Saturday Sea of Green rally - Enghelab Sq - 4pm - Mousavi, Karoubi and Khatami will attend -
Now is dawn - we must go - location not safe - thank u for supporting Sea of Green.
NEVER log on to any proxy posted on twitter - u will be traced .
Advice - travel in groups - always tell someone where u are going - dont go out unless needed .
Political situ in Iran is v/complex - for every decision there are reasons - some we cannot mention here. (20-6-09)
(The writer is Additional Secretary(retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
In an address to a Friday congregation at the Tehran University on June 19,2009, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, again changed his position on the legality of the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the President of Iran at the elections held on June 12,2009.
2. After having endorsed the re-election in the initial days of the protest against it, he then gave the impression of taking a neutral stance by suggesting that as laid down in the Constitution, the matter should be left to the Guardian Council to decide as per the procedures laid down by the law.
3. As this did not have any impact on the anti-Ahmadinejad demonstrations all over the country, he has reiterated his original endorsement of the validity of the re-election without waiting for the report of the Guardian Council, which is enquiring into over 600 complaints received against the election and is to examine the defeated candidates on June 20, 2009. He has thus sought to pre-empt any adverse ruling by the Guardian Council. Khamenei also expressed his support to the foreign policy and the pro-poor economic policies followed by Ahmadinejad.
4.He has rejected indirectly, but definitively the demands of the protesters for the annulment of the election results and for a fresh poll and expressed his strong support for the continuance of Ahmadinejad as the President. He has warned against the continuance of the street protests, which, according to him, could be manipulated by outsiders and could lead to violence.
5. His speech was an indication of his belief that any seeming neutral stand of his could aggravate the situation and that the time had come to remove any impression of softness which might encourage more demonstrations. It was also a green signal to the Basij militia and the security agencies to start dealing with the protests more firmly even at the risk of some adverse external reactions. His message was clear: Thus far and no further.
6. The clear-cut stand taken by the Ayatollah in support of Ahmadinejad and in endorsement of the validity of his re-election creates a dilemma for Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated reformist candidate, and his supporters who have been demonstrating in their thousands.Till now, they have been projecting their protests as directed against Ahmadinejad and against what they allege to be his rigged victory. They have taken care not to give the impression of their protests being also against the Ayatollah and the Islamic system.
7. The continuance of the protest movement after ignoring the intervention of the Ayatollah could bring them into an undesired confrontation with him and the Islamic system. The Islamic revolutionaries, who came out into the streets in their thousands in 1978-79,were protesting against the arbitrary rule of the Shah of Iran, who was viewed by them as a stooge of the US. By continuing with their demonstrations in spite of the appeal for restraint from the Ayatollah, the present protesters would be unwittingly projecting themselves as opponents of someone (Ahmadinejad), who is widely viewed as standing in the way of a re-imposition of the US hegemony in the region and over Iran.
8. How to keep the protests focussed against the rigged elections without making it appear as directed against the post-1979 Islamic rule in Iran?That is the dilemma facing Mousavi and the protesters. Mousavi was himself a product of the Islamic revolution and had held office as Prime Minister in the initial difficult years of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. He was in the forefront of the war effort which frustrated the efforts of Saddam Hussein's Army to have the Islamic Government overthrown, with the tacit backing of the US . How can he now be seen as weakening the foundation of the Islamic system, which could play into the hands of the Americans?
9. The answers to these questions will decide the future course of the protest movement. The immediate reaction of the protesters after the address of the Ayatollah was not to relent in their protest movement and to keep it going till they have achieved their objective of a fresh election.
10.For the present, Mousavi and his supporters are going ahead with their plans for two demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday despite the refusal of permission by the Government, which is planning to suppress them. They have also appealed to the international community to demonstrate in their support on Sunday. If the Government with the help of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia succeeds in suppressing the demonstrations without many casualties----the situation could take an unpredictable turn---more violence or a collapse of the movement.
11. The Revolutionary Guards and the Basij seem to be confident that once they get the green signal for action from the Ayatollah, they should be able to put down the protest movement. Some more Tweets which have come out of Iran after the Ayatollah's speech are given below. An examination of these Tweets would indicate that the protesters are concerned that the Ayatollah's public intervention in support of Ahmadinejad has made the situation very complex calling for a careful handling of it.
Mousavi - confirmed - show support for Sea of Green from balcony starting 9pm to midnight tonight -
Mousavi - Confirmed - calls for ALL the nation to stand on balconys TONIGHT and show support with 'Allah Akbar'.
Ebrahim Yazdi has been released by Gov due to poor health.
Shahab Talebani has been arrested today.
Unconfirmed reports - Revolutionary Guard has been mobilised to secure Tehran.
The situation in Iran is now CRITICAL - the nation is heartbroken - suppression is imminent.
The Gov has refused to issue a permit for Sea of Green march at 4pm on Saturday in Tehran.
Confirmed - Mousavi calls on people of the world to march on SUNDAY in support of Sea of Green.
Confirmed - Saturday Sea of Green rally - Enghelab Sq - 4pm - Mousavi, Karoubi and Khatami will attend -
Now is dawn - we must go - location not safe - thank u for supporting Sea of Green.
NEVER log on to any proxy posted on twitter - u will be traced .
Advice - travel in groups - always tell someone where u are going - dont go out unless needed .
Political situ in Iran is v/complex - for every decision there are reasons - some we cannot mention here. (20-6-09)
(The writer is Additional Secretary(retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
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