IRAN: Video apparently shows security officers attacking students on campus

Explosive video footage, apparently leaked to the international media, purportedly shows Iranian security officials and plainclothes Basiji militiamen pummeling students at dormitories of Tehran University in the early morning of June 15, just days after Iran's contested presidential elections. The source of the video is not yet known.

Reports at the time of the June unrest at campuses said at least five students were killed in the dormitory violence, which failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of Iranians from pouring into the streets of the capital later that day in the first of four mass demonstrations that shook the nation. Blogs, such as Enduring America, have been studiously dissecting the footage for clues and pondering reasons for the leak.

First broadcast on BBC's Persian-language satellite news channel, the footage shows silhouettes of men armed with clubs and dressed in body armor walking determinedly through the night, beating the limp bodies of students apparently dragged from their rooms.

Occasionally, a voice can be heard saying, "Don't hit them! Don't hit them!" But if it's not clear if the person is admonishing the forces not to beat the students or sarcastically egging them on.

The reputation of Iran's security forces already had been damaged by the prison scandal at Kahrizak and the vast deployment of of often brutal law enforcement agents throughout the capital during recent protests.  

The emergence of the video footage appears to have put Iranian officials into damage-control mode in defending the tactics of law enforcement. An article in the hardline Fars News Agency (in Persian) insists the security forces were only defending themselves after they came under attack by students throwing Molotov cocktails.

"Today, police are powerful, popular, courageous and reasonable," Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the top military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told police commanders, according to the official news website of the Revolutionary Guard (in Persian). "Everywhere in the world, even in Europe and America, police strongly confront rioters. No government tolerates insecurity, arson and vandalizing of public properties."

Police chief Gen. Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam told the Iranian Students News Agency that law enforcement would try to shore up its reputation following the violence of recent months.

"All detention centers, interrogation rooms and reformatories have been ordered to install surveillance cameras and monitoring equipment," he said. "Police inspectors will regularly visit the detention centers. Police are also setting up a committee to protect civil rights in detention centers."

They also defended extreme security measures in the capital during the recent celebrations marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, claiming security forces had arrested "100 would-be bombers and assassins" in Iran in the weeks preceding the holiday.

"Even when a European city hosts a summit, the city is militarized," said Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani, commander of the Tehran Revolutionary Guards, according to the Iranian Labor News Agency. "How can we turn a blind eye to people's security?"

-- Los Angeles Times

Video: Footage that was said to be taken during an attack on the Tehran University dormitory last June. Credit: YouTube

Comments

[Publicola]

The following brief study might answer a lot of questions
(here just a few questions to be answered:
why do the security forces appear relatively disorganized?
why are rules, normally painstakingly observed by security organs, not observed?
Why do some/quite a few of the perpetrators (members of the security unit)
appear not to be as physically fit and present as it is to be expected from trained security forces?
why has this video been published at all? etc. etc.)

»Ansar-i Hizbullah / Followers of the Party of God

Ansar-i hizbullah, the followers of the party of God, (also known as Ansar-i Hezbollah or Ansar-e Hezbollah), is a semi-official, paramilitary organization in Iran which carries out attacks on those whom it perceives to be violating the precepts of Islam, such as women wearing makeup, reformist protestors, and unmarried couples.

This clandestine organization took its formal name in 1992. However, its origins date back to the street gangs of the urban poor, called "Hezbollah" (Party of God), organized by various forces in the Islamic Republic regime during the revolution of 1979. Most of the members of Ansar-i Hizbullah either belong to the Basij militia or are veterans of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) who believed that they must continue fighting for the integrity of Islam. They realize their vision through physical intimidation of those whom they view as the enemies of Ayatollah Khameini and Islam. They are known to break up demonstrations against the government, assault people in western dress, and raid shops that sell forbidden items. They have also been accused by some of politically-based assassinations.

Ansar-i Hizbullah became more prominent after it attacked student dormitories at Tehran University in July of 1999. This attack was in response to a peaceful student protest on July 8th concerning further restrictions on the press. In concert with police, members of Ansar-i Hizbullah chased and beat the students back to their dorms. At the end of the morning, two students were dead and twenty were hospitalized. When the newspapers reported these attacks, protests lasting five days spread to 13-18 other cities in Iran.

The Iranian government has chosen to tacitly support groups like Ansar-i Hizbullah because they both aim to maintain the conservative status quo in Iran. Senior conservative clerics use gangs like Ansar-i Hizbullah as a way to consolidate their power and harass and/or eliminate their enemies. Therefore, Ansar-i Hizbullah enjoys a semi-official status; while they are not officially a part of the government, they complement the Iranian government's existing intelligence and security apparatus. Many senior clerics have been associated with Ansar-i Hizbullah and are thought to finance it. Additional evidence of its favorable status lies in the fact that during its 1999 attack on Tehran University, its members used 1000cc-engine motorcycles, which only security service members are allowed to possess.

Thus, the Iranian government is behaving in a manner similar to Maoist China when it channeled youthful nationalists into Red Guard gangs which would assault the government's purported enemies. Like these Red Guards, Ansar-i Hizbullah wishes to make the revolution permanent by assaulting those who advance an agenda of change.

The Iranian government, confronted with internal calls for reform, enacted a compromise by not performing a massive military crackdown on the dissidents, but rather letting militant groups like Ansar-i Hizbullah prevent the movement from spreading further.

While paramilitary groups like Ansar-i Hizbullah are currently useful in extending the government's control over its citizens, they also pose a threat to the government. First, the Iranian government must keep these groups on a tight leash or they may become powerful enough to challenge the government for political power. Second, if the government ever decides to institute any reforms, groups like Ansar-i Hizbullah may violently oppose any such actions and create instability and unrest.

Ansar-i Hizbullah has succeeded in quieting many of its political opponents through its intimidating tactics. Nonetheless, its recent violent acts may be a portent that they, along with their conservative backers, are losing power in Iran - Ansar-i Hizbullah would not be committing these acts of violence if there were no signs of modernization to confront.«

Source:
Website of GlobalSecurity.org – page last modified 26th April, 2005

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/iran/ansar.htm

[Publicola]

correction (apologies):

"words of hatred extensively used against other political, social or ethnic groups OR countries"

[Publicola]

The abyss-deep, absolutely groundless and unfounded irrational hatred,
which is and has been purposefully and irresponsibly sown by and from the upper echelons of Iranian ruling circles willfully and intentiontally for some considerable time (to be exact – for four decades),
is engendering the worst imaginable consequences,
which will not be able to vanish and fade out of (any) society that easily and within a short-term foreseeable future.

Anybody familiar with history knows that
words of hatred

extensively used against other political, social or ethnic groups of countries – thus permeating the whole of society -

might or rather will indeed some time (later) transform themselves into corresponding action,

as for instance these brutishly brutalized non-human activities of the Iranian "security" organs prove.