Iran opposition leader vows to stand by protesters
The Associated Press, Jakarta | Mon, 06/22/2009 12:01 PM
Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has vowed he will stand by the protesters whose week of defiance has deeply shaken the country, but says he won't allow their lives to be put in peril and says the security forces that bloodied them are their comrades.
The statements by Mousavi, posted on Web sites of his allies during the weekend, underline the by dangers and strategic dilemma facing the throngs who rose up last week to protest disputed election results that showed his hardline opponent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, overwhelmingly winning a second term.
The landslide official results provoked an extraordinary outburst of huge street demonstrations - and a brutal response from police and the feared militia called the Basij. At least 10 protesters were killed on Saturday and the official death toll from the week of demonstrations stands at 17.
But searing images posted online - including gruesome video purporting to show the fatal shooting of a teenage girl - hinted the true toll may be higher. Journalists for foreign media have been put under tight restrictions and assessing the extent of the protests and violence is difficult.
Tehran's streets were mostly quiet on Sunday, but cries of "God is great" and "Death to the dictator" echoed again from rooftops after dark, a sign of seething anger at the government crackdown.
The government intensified a crackdown on independent media - expelling a BBC correspondent, suspending the Dubai-based network Al-Arabiya and detaining at least two local journalists for U.S. magazines.
English-language state television said an exile group known as the People's Mujahedeen had a hand in the street violence and broadcast what it said were confessions of British-controlled agents in an indication that the government was ready to crack down even harder.
That leaves the opposition scrambling for a way to maintain the momentum of the protests that have riveted while not bringing new bloodshed.
Mousavi warned supporters of danger ahead, and said he would stand by the protesters "at all times." But in the Web site letters, he said he would "never allow anybody's life to be endangered because of my acions" and called for pursuing fraud claims through an independent board.
The former prime minister, a longtime loyalist of the Islamic government, also called the Basij and military "our brothers" and "protectors of our revolution and regime." He may be trying to constrain his followers' demands befor they pose a mortal threat to Iran's system of limited democracy constrained by Shiite clerics, who have ultimate authority.
His chances of success within the system would be far higher if he has backers among those clerics.
In the clearest sign yet of a splintering among the ayatollahs, state media anounced the arrests Sunday of relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani including his daughter Faezeh, a 46-year-old reformist politician vilified by hard-liners for her open support of Mousavi.
Rafsanjani's relatives, who state media said were held for their own protection, were released after a fe hours.
Rafsanjani heads the cleric-run Assembly of Experts, which can remove the supreme leader, the country's most powerful figure. He also chairs the Expediency Council, a body that arbitrates disputes between parliament and the unelected Guardian Council.
Rafsanjani and his family have been accusedof corruption by Ahmadinejad. And the 75-year-old ayatollah was conspicuously absent Friday from an address by the country's supreme leader calling for national unity and siding with the president.
That fueled speculation that Rafsanjani, who has made no public comment since the election, may be working beind the scenes and favoring Mousavi.
Ahmadinejad appeared to be courting his own clerical support. State television showed him meeting with mullahs at the presidential palace and telling them the election had demonstrated popular love for the regime.
He criticized British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ad President Barack Obama, who on Saturday urged Iranian authorities to halt "all violent and unjust actions against its own people."
"With that behavior you will not be among Iran's friends," Ahmadinejad said, in a potentially ominous sign for Obama's recent efforts to warm relations with Iran.
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