TEHRAN: Iranian riot police armed with batons and belts clashed with mourners staging a defiant graveside commemoration on Thursday for protesters killed in post-election violence, witnesses said.
It was the first major violence between security forces and demonstrators in three weeks in Iran, where tensions are still running high over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad s disputed re-election last month.
Shouting death to the dictator and government of the coup: resign, resign some of the estimated 2,000-strong crowd hurled stones at hundreds of police at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery south of Tehran, the witnesses said.
Police forced Iran s main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to leave the graveyard just minutes after his arrival and were also surrounding prominent reformist Mehdi Karroubi, witnesses said.
Today is a mourning day. Loyal Iranians are the mourners today, shouted the crowds.
Iranians were marking the 40th day since the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman who came to symbolise the public uprising over Ahmadinejad s June 12 victory which the opposition charges was rigged.
A graphic Internet video of Neda bleeding to death on a Tehran street on June 20 was seen around the world and triggered an outcry over the sometimes brutal Iranian crackdown on demonstrators.
Crowds gathered around Neda s grave which was decorated with candles and flowers as police used sticks, batons and belts and arrested several mourners, including prominent film director Jafar Panahi and his family, a witness said.
Mousavi and Karroubi, who have waged a defiant protest campaign since losing to Ahmadinejad, had decided to visit the cemetery after the authorities banned another memorial ceremony at a major religious venue in Tehran.
Mousavi… was immediately surrounded by anti-riot police who led him to his car, a witness said as people chanted Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!
Karroubi protested at the heavy-handed action by police for what was planned as peaceful commemoration of the martyrs with graveside readings from the Koran, saying: I don t understand this policy to deploy and surround (the cemetery) with security personnel.
Mousavi, a prime minister in the post-revolution years who was Ahmadinejad s main challenger, has consistently refused to acknowledge his rival s victory, saying it was a shameful fraud.
Hundreds of thousands of people poured on to the streets of Tehran after the election result and in the ensuing violence about 30 people were killed, scores wounded and several thousand arrested, Iranian officials say.
Despite the crackdown, the opposition has maintained its campaign to push for a new election and the crisis has driven deep rifts between the Islamic republic s ruling elite.
Ahmadinejad has also come under fire even from his own hardline supporters over a series of controversial political decisions and he has been warned to obey supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or face the consequences.
Karroubi s deputy Rasool Montajebnia suggested that Mousavi, former parliament speaker Karroubi and reformist former president Mohammad Khatami form a joint council to advance the opposition movement.
If they individually carry out actions, it cannot become a comprehensive movement and address people s demands, he was quoted as saying by Karroubi s reformist newspaper Etemad Melli.
In recent days, the authorities have made gestures towards the opposition, including releasing about 140 protesters and promising to free more of the some 250 still behind bars.
But Khatami said just releasing the protesters was not enough.
Blood has been spilled and several families are damaged psychologically. Illegal and un-Islamic acts have been committed against the people… crimes have been committed. Lives have been lost, he said on his Baran foundation website.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said it was imperative for Iran to release political prisoners, adding that their detention showed the political situation inside of Iran has not yet resolved itself.
Twenty people accused of rioting are to go on trial from Saturday on charges including attacks on government and military offices, arson, vandalism and contact with enemies including exiled opposition group the People s Mujahedeen.
