Monday, February 15, 2010

22 Bahman Witness Reports

From a letter Iran News Agency received:

It could be stated confidently that more people showed up on February 11th 2010 than June 25th 2009 (silent protest attended by millions). However, by employing systematic repression, the crowd was dispersed and deactivated.

Police forces played a very important role in cracking down on protesters. As soon as a group of 100 would gather at a place and chant slogans, the agents disguised to mesh with people in the middle of the crowd attacked people with pepper spray. As a result, people were forced to disperse. Many people were seen coughing.

Meanwhile, leaders of the protests were arrested or their cell phones were taken away (in most cases, in order to not provoke people, they would take only their cell phones and let the person go. However, the mobile phones can help track the owner, and without doubt, we will be witnessing large numbers of arrests).

The agents of the regime would not allow any crowd of more than 500 people to form. If large crowds were gathered, they were dispersed within five minutes.

The agents used traffic-control cameras to survey and film people.

Account on February 11th from a young protester:

From 8:00am-2:00pm on February 11th, I was at Second Square in Arya Shahr. Around 9:30am, I heard chants of “Death to Dictator” coming from the hospital near the Square. My mother and I joined them. However, special forces dispersed the chanting crowd. We all went to the other side of the street and continued chanting slogans. The same routine was repeated several times as they dispersed us to one side. We would go to the other side to continue with the protest.

My mom approached a Basiji and talked to him, which resulted in a young man who was arrested for chanting slogans being freed. No matter how much Intelligence agents were filming the protesters, the people would not leave. It seemed that the forces were more scared of the people than the other way around.

I kept on staring at the forces. I was told not to do so. They would not let anyone stop even for a moment. My friends from Kashan and Arak had come to Tehran. A bus that arrived in Tehran was filled with young men and women who had come to take part in the protests. In Arya Shahr they arrested four young women. One of the young women was arrested for wearing a green overcoat. I heard that when Karoubi arrived to join the demonstrators, the agents beat up a guy who fell and could not get back up.

Translation by: Siavosh J.
Persian2English.com

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