Smarting under a humiliating defeat in the municipal elections following so soon after a resounding boycott of the elections to the Assembly of Experts last year, the faction around the supreme religious ruler, Seyed Ali Khamenei’ went on the offensive [see Eagle Eye iran bulletin no 21-22 Spring Summer 1999]. Next Spring’s election for the Majles could not be allowed to go the same way.

In July Majles passed a tough new press law by 125 of the 215 deputies. Journalist are compelled to reveal their sources. "Opposition" journalist and editors are barred from any kind of press activity. The law gave revolutionary courts the right to intervene in complaints against the media. "Newspapers do not have the right and freedom to plot against the system" warned Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi spokeswoman for Iran’s dictator "giving unlimited freedom to the newspapers will lead to dictatorship".

Immediately Salam – a paper close to Khatami – was closed, ironically for publishing a top secret letter to the Majles advising them to tighten the press laws. The letter has been written by former deputy minister of information (intelligence) Said Emami (Eslami) who had been arrested as part of a "rogue" team which allegedly masterminded the wave of murders in Teheran last winter. Salam’s proprietor Kho’iniha, a senior cleric, a close associate of the deceased leader Khomeini and a key operative in the occupation of the American embassy in 1981 and former Prosecutor General, was sentenced by court to five years disqualification from publishing and the lash. The jury included a number of mullahs who had made the original complaint against Salam.

Emami meanwhile committed "suicide" in prison by swallowing a delapidation fluid, which had in olden times had contained arsenic. Intriguingly the government had banned the use of arsenic for years, wrote lawyer Shirin Abadi. Suddenly Emami was billed as a Machiavellian foreign agent who had infiltrated the ministry to mastermind an elaborate plot over many years. The aim was to discredit the Islamic regime by murdering opponents. A ban was put on publishing his picture. The pro-Khatami press wanted to know how such a high ranking official was able to conduct all these murders inside and outside Iran without his superiors’ permission or even knowledge. The name of ex-intelligence minister Fallahian, himself indited by a Berlin court for masterminding the murder of Kurdish leaders in Berlin, came popping up. Others hinted at fatwas for killings from "senior clerics". Some brave souls, whiel not naming names, pointed the finger at the religious ruler Seyed Ali Khamenei’ who heads the entire security apparatus. A fatwa by him sanctioning murder was leaked out and published abroad [iran bulletin ibid].

Despite the accusations of being an agent his funeral was attended by a large number of senior clerics, all close to the ministry of information. Rumors circulated that Said Emami was not really dead. When his passport photo was published abroad, the regime retaliated by releasing a photo of him in the USA with long hair – there you see, it implied, what better evidence that he is a foreign agent. It seemed that the file on the chain of murders was being hastily brought to a close before the dirt hit the fan and the lines to the person of Khamenei’ opened up.

It was in this electric atmosphere that Salam was closed down. Students organisations formed over the last two years called for a sit-in in Teheran and other universities. That night of July 8 Ansar-e Hizbollahi thugs, supported by security forces under the overall command of Hedayatollh Lotfian, attacked the dormitories. It was savage. At least nine students were killed. Some thrown out of their second and third floor windows. The dormitories were ransacked and the buildings burnt. In the north-western city of Tabriz the troops fired on students killing at least five. Hundreds were arrested. Teheran university chancellor resigned in protest. So did minister of higher education Mostafa Mo’in, amnesic of his own role in the bloody "cultural revolution" of April 1981, a stepping stone to the chancellorship of Shiraz University. This time it was the children of the revolution who were being slaughtered. According to the Islamic Revolution paper the attack on Teheran University was ordered by Hejazi, chief of security at Khamenei’s office to Mohsen Ansari who was in charge of the security forces and was subsequently appointed (August) as the head of security for Greater Teheran.

Tabriz university's Islamic students council told Khordad paper that at least 15 people were shot, including three women. At least five died. It said what began as a campus sit-in turned into a scene of bloodshed after police helped Islamic vigilantes attack other demonstrators outside the gates of the school. "...we were surrounded and couldn't leave the campus," and some 80 people had already been injured by stones, clubs and knives when security forces began opening fire into the crowd. As people began fleeing the gunshots into the campus, armed gangs stormed the gates and opened fire again. Islamic militants then locked themselves in a school building, ripped the clothes off students and beat them for hours, the council said. Other vigilantes went to a local hospital and abducted those who had been wounded by gunfire. In Ahwaz 25 year old Ezzat Ebrahim-Nejad died in the attack on the campus.

Angered at this unprovoked attack student demonstrators hit the streets of the capital and other major cities during the next few days. The international media suddenly noticed Iran. The slogans became progressively more radical and, for the first time in front of cameras, directly addressed Khamenei’. Some sounded for an end to the Islamic regime. "Iran for the Iranians". "Down with dictatorship". "Khamenei, have some shame – pack up and release your crown" they shouted, a direct echo of the revolutionary slogan with Khamenei replacing the "Shah". A the regime put it: people stepped over the "Red Line". They demanded the resignation of the security chief Hedayatollah Lotfian. This was intolerable to all the factions.

The students drew support across the city. A large contingent gathered from the poor southern suburbs before the railway station. Another gathered outside the old Majles building - a traditional place of protest. Cars were burnt, large shops and banks attacked. It was all too familiar to those with memories of 1979. Except that most of those demonstrating had barely been born then.

The ruling elite rallied together. Twenty-four senior Revolutionary Guard commanders, in a secret letter leaked to the ultra-right press, warned that Khatami's democratic reforms were leading Iran to "anarchy" and their "patience was running out" and unless something is done they could not "hold back". Khatami went on television and condemned the demonstrators as "deviants" and came out uneqivocally in support of Khamenei’. In case people thought this was a panic response, he reiterated his support and condemnation later that month in the western city of Hamedan. Addressing a packed stadium he called the street riots "a declaration of war" against himself and his political reforms. "National security cannot be toyed around with lightly and nonchalantly. We must consider security as the foundation stone for development, progress, construction, freedom and independence" he said.

In the days that followed, vigilantes armed with clubs, meat cleavers and chains zipped through the streets of Tehran on motorbikes - an Ansar-e Hezbollah trademark - attacking demonstrators. The Council of Student Protesters (CSP) reported that over 1,500 were arrested. The regime refused to reveal either their names or their whereabouts. Rahbarpour, head of Tehran's revolutionary courts, confirmed the figure though he claimed to have released 750. Many were killed and injured. Bodies were immediately whisked away and not handed to relatives. Many of the injured were later abducted from Tehran hospitals by the secret police. Ex-political prisoners were recalled, interrogated and many kept behind bars. The CSP said in a statement that "Some people have been arrested merely for being students. After being interrogated for hours, they were beaten and forced to sign confessions blindfolded". The group published the names its own members and students belonging to other university organisations who were missing and believed to be held by security forces. Later a list of 150 missing students was published abroad.

Salam editor Abdi and Sobh-e Emruz’s Kazem Shokri were among dozens of journalists arrested. The Ansar-e Hezbollah, issued a call to arms to protect the Islamic system. The group called for the movement to be given arms and "revolutionary" powers to finish off "liberals" who question the supreme rule of the clergy. "The recent events show that it is completely necessary to strengthen the Basij (Islamic militia) and the Hezbollah. This is a strategic necessity for the system," the group declared in its monthly organ. "A plan to arm the Hezbollah has been under consideration by the Supreme National Security Council for more than 10 years. Under current conditions, it is necessary to implement this plan." The Ansar-e Hezbollah - or Supporters of the Party of God - also demanded special powers to enter homes, businesses and offices in pursuit of counter-revolutionary forces. "We are now facing the best opportunity to relieve our revolutionary people of those evil elements who are better dead than alive. We must not miss this opportunity," the unsigned essay said.

Other influential spokesmen for the ultra-right took to the podium. Habibollah Askar Ouladi, head of the powerful ultra-conservative Society of Islamic Alliance, warned those who had stepped over the "red line" on July 27 by. He thanked the armed forces for suppressing the demonstrations and demanding them to deal with those who are involved in "sedition" "decisively" and applauded the use of state violence. Three days later the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vowed to take action against newspapers that insult the elite corps amid a mounting crackdown on the nation's moderate press. Brigadier General Rahim Safavi said the political turmoil created by last month's bloody riots in Tehran was a bid to weaken the IRCG and hinted at even stricter controls on newspapers. "If any newspaper insults or disseminates false information aimed at weakening the IRGC, the Corps will take legal action against it" quoted the English-language Iran News.

On August 2 the outgoing judiciary chief, Mohammed Yazdi presented legislature which made a political crime any "non-violent acts against the sovereignty of the Islamic republic, the political system or the political and social rights of the people." The official IRNA news agency gave examples of such crimes: "the exchange of any kind of information with foreign embassies (and) foreign media...which may jeopardise the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran." The liberal press was despondent: "An interview with any foreign media is a crime,'" read a banner headline.

On August 14 in an unmistakable move to intimidate 50,000 basiji toops conducted a three-day military exercise in Teheran. Three days before General Naghadi, commander of the defence of the security forces, himself under investigation for torturing in safe houses a number of Teheran mayors a year ago, had addressed the Basij in Ghazvin where he openly threatened to unleash a blood bath. "They [the liberal press] tell us that the use of violence and repression is bad …if the conspiracy of this corrupt group persists we will put these [leaders] to the bullet first".

On August 16 Mesbah Yazdi, member of the Council of Guardians addressed the Friday prayers on the essential necessity to use state violence. It is no good dealing with "those who disrupt peace" with kindness. Such concepts as freedom and democracy are brought from outside, he said, and urged that people themselves should use the most violent ways to confront those causing disorder. Islam and the Qur’an have clear punishments for the mohareb (someone who fights against God): hanging, decapitation or being shot [sic], cutting off the arms and legs, and banishment from the country, he warned. Even the destruction of a city with all her inhabitants may be permitted.

Repeatedly spokesmen of the Khamenei’ faction drew a distinction between "self" and "non-self": those who believe in the supreme religious ruler and those who don’t. A number of senior clerics linked to the judiciary demanded the supreme penalty for those involved in the recent killings and disturbances.

In Teheran, Isfahan, and Tabriz arrests of student activists and leaders of opposition parties, especially the Iran Nation Party continued through the final weeks of July and the first weeks of August. Ex-political prisoners were recalled. M any were detained. The familiar spectacle of detainees paraded in front of television cameras to "confess" to being in league with foreign forces was enacted. Keyhan newspaper, close to security ministry announced on August 15 that death sentences had been passed on an unspecified number of student demonstrators but for "humanitarian reasons" refused to give their names!

In early August, the head of the press court, appointed by judiciary chief Ayatollah Yazdi, served notice that he was prepared to prosecute any journalist charged with insulting Islamic or revolutionary values. This marked a change in policy as in the past, prosecutions for newspaper articles were generally aimed at the publication's managing director and not at individual journalists. Mortezavi told a news conference that four articles of the press law - covering military secrets, national security, or insults against the Islamic system or the supreme clerical leader - exposed individual correspondents to fines or even jail sentences.

All factions were united in blaming the disturbances to outsiders, though some in preseidential camp also blames agent provocateurs sent by the ultra-conservatives in order to discredit the student movement. Mohsen Rezai’ secretary of the expediency council blamed global arrogance for "creating unrest" inside the country. He linked these to last year's serial murders as examples of the plots hatched by the enemies to foment unrest in the country.

The drawing together of the various factions under threat meant that some reshuffle at the top was inevitable. Some of these, like the removal of Mohamad Yazdi as head of judiciary and Mohsen Rafiqdust head of the multi-billion dollar Destitute Foundation was already agreed before the recent demonstrations. Now the most openly anti-Khatami member of the Council of Guardians – Ayatollah Kha’zali was taken off, and Assadollah Badamchian and Reza Zavverei’, of the powerful Society of Islamic Alliance were removed from influential posts at the judiciary. A new judiciary head was appointed. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi is a member of both the Assembly of Experts, which has the power to appoint or sack the country's supreme leader, and the Expediency Council, a top advisory body to Khamenei’. The liberal press was jubilant that the judiciary may now act above factional interests because Shahrudi had not been identified directly with any of the factions,

However a few days after his appointment a leader in Resalat, which speaks for the ultra-conservative faction, wrote that "the first task facing the new judicial cabinet to execute justice is the trial of the ASHRAR, disrupters [ASHUB TALABAN], moharebs and corrupters who lined up to overthrow [the regime] in the recent disturbances. We hope that once God’s commandments are being imposed on the corrupters some will not cry out that the new cabinet of the judicial apparatus is acting in a factional manner".

Meanwhile outgoing justice minister Yazdi was appointed to the Council of Guardians and Dorri Najafabadi, former minister of intelligence who resigned under intense popular pressure after the wave of killings earlier in the year, was appointed as secretary to the Assembly of Experts and more recently as head of the civil service court. It became obvious that these hated figures were merely being removed from their highly visible roles. They continue to occupy influential positions.

Thus despite the apparent entente between the factions their vision of the Islamic state belongs to two worlds. The factional conflicts will inevitably surface. By late August both factions began to question the report of the commission of enquiry set up to investigate the attacks on the university – from two different angles. The Teheran City Council – entirely in the hands of the presidental faction - questioned the university chancellor and his deputy in charge of student affairs. The latter reminded how a student, Ramin Karimi was hurled out of the third floor window by the Hezbollah and his wounded body down below was set upon by other thugs. The Council also objected to the revolutionary court under Rahbarpour setting up parallel investigations, arresting and interrogating students.

The Anjoman-e Isargaran Enghelab-e Eslami (society of scarificers for the Islamic Revolution - a pro-Khamenei’ association) attacked president Khatami’s obsession with political reform. They demanded that the administration focuses on the economic problems of the country, a sentiment echoed by Rafsanjani, head of the Council of Expediency in a speech to this association.