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Senior Opposition Leader Criticizes Government Crackdown on Protests in Iran

   VOA News 28 December 2009
   Iranian opposition protestor

Photo: AP

   This  photo,  taken  by  an  individual not employed by the Associated
   Press  and  obtained by the AP outside Iran shows an Iranian protestor
   holding a green cloth, the symbolic color of Iranian opposition, as he
   flashes  the  victory  sign, during anti-government protest in Tehran,
   Iran, 27 Dec 2009

   A  senior  Iranian  opposition  leader  has  criticized  a  government
   crackdown on nationwide opposition protests that killed at least eight
   people Sunday.
   Reformist  Iranian  cleric  Mahdi  Karroubi  issued a statement Monday
   asking  how  Iran's  clerical establishment could order the killing of
   its own people on the holy day of Ashura.
   Iran's  state-run  Press  TV  says  eight people were killed Sunday in
   anti-government  protests  that coincided with the climax of Ashura, a
   solemn  Shi'ite  festival.   It gave no further details.  Some sources
   say the death toll was higher.
   Opposition  groups  say police shot dead four protesters in Tehran and
   killed another four in the northwestern city of Tabriz.
   They  also reported clashes in other major cities as tens of thousands
   of opposition activists rallied in defiance of government warnings not
   to  use Ashura as an excuse to hold protests.  Sunday's unrest was the
   worst in Iran for half a year.
   Opposition  Web  sites say Iranian authorities also detained prominent
   opposition activist Ebrahim Yazdi at his home Monday.  Yazdi served as
   Iranian  foreign  minister in the first government to take power after
   Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
   There  was  no independent confirmation of the arrest or the violence.
   Iran's government has barred foreign media from covering the protests.
   The  Web site of Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says his
   nephew  Ali  Mousavi  was  shot during Sunday's protests in Tehran and
   later  died  at  a  hospital.   It  says  Mr. Mousavi and other family
   members rushed to the hospital after the shooting.
   Witnesses  say  Iranian protesters fought back against security forces
   Sunday in several locations, throwing stones, beating up policemen and
   setting their vehicles on fire.
   U.S.  National  Security  Council Spokesman Mike Hammer said the White
   House  strongly  condemns  what  it  calls  "the  violent  and  unjust
   suppression" of Iranian civilians.
   The  French  Foreign  Ministry  issued  a  statement condemning Iran's
   crackdown  on  what it described as "simple protesters."  It urged the
   Iranian government to find a political solution to the unrest.
   The  violence  was  the  most  serious in Iran since the weeks after a
   disputed  presidential  election  in  June.  Iranian reformists accuse
   conservative  President  Ahmadinejad  of rigging the election to win a
   second term, a charge the government denies.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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