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by Marc Carnegie TEHRAN (AFP) - The uneasy peace in Iran's western city of Khoramabad was shattered overnight as rioters again clashed with security forces, leaving eight people wounded, according to press reports Wednesday.
Pro-reform students accused vigilantes and conservative-led army troops of orchestrating the violence, which has been raging since last Thursday, in a bid to discredit the reform program of President Mohammad Khatami. The Kayhan newspaper said eight people were wounded and 20 arrested Tuesday night in the latest upsurge of unrest, which so far has left one person dead and dozens injured. Rioters hurled Molotov cocktails in the streets until order was finally restored by elite police units and anti-riot forces, the newspaper said. Local officials contacted by AFP refused to comment on the report, which added that a judicial committee arrived in the city early Wednesday to investigate the bloody series of events. The troubles began when two leading critics of the clerical regime were blocked from entering the city to address the nationwide conference of the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU), the largest pro-Khatami student group. The incident set off days of violence that students say included savage beatings at the hands of hardline vigilantes and members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards corps, a pillar of the nation's Islamic regime. "Attackers hit defenseless students with clubs and rocks. Some of the women were physically accosted and some students were robbed," OCU spokesman Akbar Atri told AFP on Wednesday. "There is no moral explanation for this inhumane action," he said. An OCU official said Tuesday that some 60 students had been hospitalized after being beaten by Guards troops and volunteer Islamic militiamen. Atri also blamed conservative-run state television for helping to incite the violence after it broadcast comments by Khoramabad's weekly prayer leader saying the OCU was unwelcome in the city. But prominent conservative businessman Habibollah Asgarowladi, cited by the official IRNA news agency, said the OCU was at fault for inviting anti-Islamic speakers to address its conference. Conservatives have frequently charged that Khatami's program of social and political reforms, launched after his 1997 election, are anti-Islamic and a danger to the nation. His supporters counter that conservatives incite violence and create social crises to undermine the reform movement, which posted big wins in the municipal and parliamentary elections of the last two years. Khatami has already announced he will run for a second term next year and the Khoramabad violence has overshadowed Government Week, during which the administration was to highlight its achievements since taking office. Khatami's deputy interior minister for foreign affairs, Mostafa Tajzadeh, said Wednesday that the unrest had clearly been staged to create an "atmosphere of horror, violence and hopelessness." But he cautioned against laying the blame on any group until the Supreme National Security Council, which is chaired by the president, delivers its final report on the matter. He said the Iranian people would respond to the incidents "with their vast presence in next year's elections," IRNA reported. "This is not a fight between the right-wing and the left," the OCU's Atri said. "This is a battle between tradition and the modern, a conflict between the rule of the people and those who want to stand in its way." |
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