WORLD / Middle East
Students disrupt president's speech
(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-12 08:48
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian students staged a rare demonstration Monday
against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, lighting a firecracker and burning
his photograph as he delivered a speech at their university, the state
news agency reported.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a press conference in
Tehran, November 2006. Six major powers resumed talks on how to coerce
Iran into halting its nuclear fuel work as Moscow welcomed changes to a
European resolution mandating UN sanctions against Tehran.[AFP]
The hard-line leader responded calmly when a small group of students in a
crowded hall at Amir Kabir Technical University started chanting "Death
to the dictator!" the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
"We have resisted dictatorship for many years - from before the 1979
Islamic Revolution," Ahmadinejad said, according to the agency. "Nobody
can bring back a dictatorship even in the name of freedom."
Anti-government protests have been extremely rare since Ahmadinejad was
elected in 2005 - even in universities which were once a stronghold of
the pro-reform movement. Reformists had already been deeply demoralized
before his victory, pushed out of power by hard-liners in Iran's
cleric-led government.
The disturbances began when a group of students started chanting during
the speech. One held up a poster that read: "Fascist president, the
Polytechnic is not a place for you."
They held an Ahmadinejad picture up and set it alight, then a student set
off a firecracker.
Ahmadinejad supporters in the audience began to chant in response,
silencing the protesters. The president then continued his speech.
No arrests were reported.
Ahmadinejad has moved to squeeze out liberal and secular university
professors and has threatened an outright purge. He named a cleric to
head Tehran University for the first time, and dozens of liberal
professors were sent into retirement in the past year, though many still
remain in their positions.
Last week, hundreds of opposition students in University of Tehran staged
a short demonstration, demanding more freedoms.
Iran's reform movement peaked in the late 1990s after pro-reform
President Mohammad Khatami was elected and his supporters swept
parliament. But hard-liners who control the judiciary, security forces
and powerful unelected bodies in the government stymied attempts to ease
social and political restrictions.
Numerous pro-reform newspapers were shut down, and since Ahmadinejad's
election those that remain have been muted in their criticism, fearing
closure. A few months ago the government banned a newspaper that had
satirized Ahmadinejad in a cartoon.
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