From Anonymous: (Fresh Report) The Street Protests Mount

[babylonsister]

The street protests mount

A fresh report from the Iranian capital. The government uses machetes on the public, the public fights back.

Editor's note: For reasons of personal safety, the author chooses to remain anonymous.

By Anonymous


An Iranian man with a stick gestures towards a man during protests in central Tehran June 14, 2009.


June 15, 2009 | Now, three days after the election, a pattern is emerging. There is unstructured protest on the streets beginning in the late afternoon. Then, at night, it escalates.

In my own apartment complex on Monday morning we were woken up to screams and shouts. Kids from the building and elsewhere had been engaging in political rock fights in the adjoining street and had run into the complex (a typical urban apartment "tower" found in almost all of the developing world). Families went out to the fire escape to look down to see what had happened. It turned out that special police had rushed into the complex, followed by "basijis" or paramilitary forces, basically thugs on motorbikes with helmets and batons. It also turned out that they had electric rods and, to the shock of many, machetes. Several people were wounded and taken away and much of the first floor and entrance of the complex was destroyed.

After two hours there was a dramatic standoff. The gate was locked, and the elders of the complex engaged held a heated discussion with representatives of the basiji forces. "If you're chasing after someone," asked the elders, "why have you come into our homes and beaten women and children? Why have you broken all of our glass and busted the windshields on the cars in the underground parking?" The basijis left. The elders had done their best to mediate, to speak rationally to resolve the problem. That is unlikely to last as the situation in Tehran becomes more and more about force.

On buses and in taxes you hear voices saying, with resignation, "What's the point? They're all the same. Why fight it?" But then every night and even during the day clashes are occurring. This week will be critical. If the conflict can be sustained, if the pressure can be sustained ---Tehran is coming to a standstill -- then it is possible that the situation will enter a new phase.

Either way, have no doubt, the IRI, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is over. A leading cleric has already announced that we are no longer ruled by the Islamic "Republic" (jomhuri e Islami) but the Islamic government (hookoomat e Islami). Whether now or in a few months or years, the game is over.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/15/tehran_two/

[Why Syzygy]

1. Machetes!!

:yoiks:

I hope they don't give up. Sad to read the defeatist statement. When I consider the world leaders calling for reconsideration of the vote, I have to believe that the coup of George Bush and the terror it wrought are still fresh in their minds.