Iranian police guard against any demonstrations during bonfire night; no reports of clashes

Tehran police guard against festival demos

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian riot police and militiamen fanned out around Tehran on Tuesday in a major show of force during a national festival that authorities feared could re-ignite anti-government protests.

Tehran police chief Gen. Hossein Sajedinia told the ISNA news agency his forces were deployed to prevent “any event in the city” in an apparent reference to demonstrations during traditional celebrations of bonfires and fireworks before the Iranian New Year.

Since the disputed presidential election in June, opposition protesters have used national holidays as opportunities to hold protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There were no confirmed reports of significant clashes on Tuesday.

After sunset, people filled the streets in Tehran and across Iran for Chahar-Shanbe Suri, a ceremony held ahead of the Persian New Year, Nowruz. The festival dates back to the time when Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in ancient Persia before the advent of Islam and is frowned upon by conservatives who say the feast contradicts Muslim traditions.

Sajedinia said motorbikes, a common form of transportation in Tehran’s congested streets, would be banned that night, apparently to try to hamper the movement of any protesters. Stores were also ordered to close early.

But Tehran streets were jammed with cars and people lit traditional fires — symbolizing the cleansing of the soul — and set off fire crackers and noisy homemade fireworks.

Neither of the main opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, who both ran against the president, have called for demonstrations Tuesday, but many opposition Web sites have suggested using the occasion to stage protest gatherings.

Opposition Web site Norooznews reported that Mousavi told a group of activists the opposition movement, known as the Green Movement, would continue in the coming Iranian year.

“We have to call the next year the year of patience and resistance until the aims of the Green Movement are achieved,” he said.

Another pro-reform leader, former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, issued a statement expressing hope for Iran after the “difficult year.”

Abtahi was released in November on $700,000 bail after his lawyer said he had been sentenced to six years in prison in a mass trial of opposition figures accused of fomenting the postelection unrest.

Iranian authorities have granted temporary release from prison for others charged by the hard-line judiciary, including Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, a social scientist and urban planner. Tajbakhsh was the only American detained in the postelection crackdown.