Iran

[Chick]

Some news from Iran, not much and not edited.

Greetings from rather revolutionary Iran Charles! Hope you are well and enjoying the summer. Im working on my final film in Iran at the moment; criss crossing between a historical time in Iran (which is the first uprise like this, after the revolution), news, mouth to mouth, my family and my rather naive subject (tea and coffee)... The interenet, satelite and mobile phones are hardly working here. Today all foreign journalists were sent home. Yesterday 24 students in three different cities were attacked in their dorms and shot to death. I saw a 8 year old beaten down. Anybody on the way is handled, the riot police have the right to kill! The situation is quite inspiring still; as since the results of the elections on Saturday, people have been demonstrating non stop. Monday at least 3 million people walked through Tehran peacefully, they were meant to retry the demonstration yesterday at the Vali-Asr square at 5pm. As soon as the Ahmadinejd troops found out about the plan, announced that their supporters are expected to be at the same square at 4pm!!! Im not sure how the collision ended, but know that the whole mass gathered were portrayed as the supporters of Ahmadinejad..... You might have got the same impression in media in the UK...The slogans carry from home to home through out the nigh... People carry on doing all they can, toghether, even if it is repeating and passing on slogans, shouting from their roofs etc... ...

Well, I will tell you all about it later. Take care and thank you for remembering me!

[mockney piers]

Cool. Keep us posted, thanks.

[AllforNun]

Greeting chick, we are with you all the way , our supporters have been massing on the Nunhead side of the RYE but are being held back by overly zealous admin, slander about the quality of meat in Rye lane and general liberal brutality. We do have an outpost on Barry Road but due to the increased crime in that particular area the mass liberal body for self righteous house price inflation will be removing the location from all known maps and throwing an internal cordon, both physical and twitter proof....we still fight on though....they can use guns, tanks and organic propostosity, but we will not be cowed, or sent to folk festivals on mass to be gassed by wafted orange ass wind !

[Huguenot]

That's the challenge with the pampered netizens of Nunhead, they think revolution is hilarious fun.

Chick, don't be disappointed, and please keep us in touch!

[macroban]

The "Opposition" look to be nasty pieces of work too.

[mockney piers]

Yay. The old calling cry for those who stood by and watched hundreds of thousands die in Bosnia. "they're all as bad as each other innit". Tsk.

Let's see security forces using live rounds and paramilitaries murdering students in their bedrooms in order to maintain repressive regime through possibly stolen election, and people campaigning for free elections supporting a statesman who wants greater freedom. There may well be violent or radical elements in the latter group but it's not institutionalised.

Yeah, they're all scum.

[matthew123]

That is a very sad state of events Chick, I hope that somehow peace will soon be restored.

---

Mockney - To criticise the tactics of the opposition does not mean condoning the actions of the ruling elite.

We could sit back, or maybe we could launch a few rockets into Tehran, arm the opposition, or simply invade from nearby Iraq... I wonder what route all that would take... starts digging underground bunker.

Yes we want to see a peaceful transition of power toward western ideals rather than swinging towards North Korea, but I'm not sure what the West can do about it as diplomacy didn't seem to have much affect when it came to their supposed Nuclear threat (or did it?).

It seems atrocities have happened since the dawn of mankind, institutionalised or not it's the same result, there is no magic switch from night to day, it takes time and a lot of blood may be shed (like it was in the Western world) if Iran is to reach the freedom we have in this country.

What would you suggest Mockney, the West does (if anything)?

[mockney piers]

I'm not proposing we do anything matthew, I think we've intefered quite enough in that country in the past. In fact we should be conspicuous about our neutrality in this as even tacit support or sympathy for the reformers will be counterproductive.

I do support Iranians right to live in a healthy democracy, and for all the terrible events done by the Islamic conservatives post revolution, Iran has slowly moved towards a path of genuine democracy even if it is limited, god knows ours took a long time to evolve into something even approaching what it is today and many would argue that it is still designed to concentrate power in the hands of the ruling elite, but I digress.

If this election has been fraudulent then this is a really bad step backwards, and the paramilitaries supporting ahmedinajad using violence, intimidation and murder are wholly awful and should be condemned. Macrobans statement was flippant, ignorant and implicitly supporting the actions of the security services and militias by suggesting a moral equivalence.

But I think you can stave off from building your Andersen shelter just yet, I'll be sure to give you 45 minutes warning at the appropriate juncture. ;)

[Nero]

FYI, not all foreign journos have been expelled. The BBC has the resident correspondent there and a few 'fly ins' as well. The reporters and producers sent for the election had only a few days on their visas in teh first place, so had to leave when they expired. BBC Persian is worth a watch via bbcpersian.com - even if you don't understand Farsi.

[AllforNun]

revolution is hilarious fun,

far more fun than, religious police, political police, moral police, nimbyism, womblism, communism, capitalism, and f ing liberalism.......oh and adminism !

Of course under all these regimes nobody get bombed, maimed, tortured, incarcerated, murdered, abused, no no of course not

[matthew123]

Wasn't sure whether to paste this BBC headline onto the Expenses thread.. "Ayatolah Khamenei says most evil opponent is the British government"

[Michael Palaeologus]

The Ayattolah has been reading the Telegraph lately.

I have it in the best authority that Waitrose are to open a branch in Tehran - but that it wont be what it seems...