|
Iran Hardliners Attack Students, Several People Injured
TEHRAN (AFP) - Clashes between pro-reform Iranian students marking the annual Students Day on December 6th and hardliners in the western Hamedan province left several people injured, press reports said Thursday.
According to the Hambastigi daily, "pressure groups" attacked students in the Bu Ali Sina University in Hamedan where Ali Afshari, the head of Iran's largest pro-reform student group, the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU), was scheduled to speak.
The clashes, which lasted some two hours according to the daily, left several people injured, including the director-general of the provincial governor's political office.
It said Afshari too was attacked, but gave no further details.
Students across Iran hold gatherings each year on December 6th which marks the anniversary of deadly riots in 1953 between the Shah's police and students opposing a scheduled visit by then U.S. vice president Richard Nixon. Several students were killed in the clashes.
In Tehran, moderate President Mohammad Khatami addressed some 7,000 students who used the opportunity to voice their anger with the regime's conservative leaders.
But Khatami, who affirmed that Iran was determined to "follow the path of democracy and a people's government," also told students that he lacked "sufficient power" to do his job in a second admission in less than three weeks.
During the past two years, student rallies have been on the rise, with students increasingly expressing their unhappiness with the massive crackdown on the press by the conservative-led courts here and the jailing of numerous prominent journalists.
In July 1999, violent clashes between students and police erupted after hardliners attacked a Tehran student dormitory where students had staged a protest gathering against the closure of the reformist Salam daily.
Several days of riots ensued, leaving at least three students dead and dozens wounded.
The clashes were among the worst in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
|
