TIMES ONLINE: The surge of revolt threatened to become a tidal wave. So the Islamic republic responded with ‘a coup against the coup[’]
Iran seldom admits the international media. It makes an exception at election times because it wants the world to see the Islamic republic's glorious democracy in action. Thus some 400 foreign journalists and television crews were given ten-day visas to cover Friday's presidential election, and for a week we really did see a vibrant and impressive democratic process.
Admittedly the four candidates were handpicked by the regime, but they ranged from the liberal to ultra-conservative, offered starkly contrasting visions for the future and engaged in remarkably outspoken TV debates. The people responded. Armies of supporters took over the streets, festooned every square with posters and banners and, on election day itself, flocked to the polling stations in numbers that shamed most Western democracies.
The charade ended abruptly on Friday night. Scarcely had polling ended than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cronies in the Interior Ministry and Elections Commission declared him the winner. They gave him not a razor-thin victory, which might just have been credible - the President did have legions of diehard supporters among the pious and rural poor. They gave him nearly two thirds of the vote, a figure that defied belief and raised two unmistakable fingers to the Iranian people and the world. They claimed that the main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, lost heavily even in his own village. The number of votes allegedly cast for Mr Ahmadinejad, 24.5 million, was probably chosen so that he could claim to have more support than any president in the republic's 30-year history. The previous high was just over 20 million, cast for the reformist Mohammad Khatami in 1997.
The crackdown began instantly. Mobile phone and text messaging systems were taken down so the opposition could not organise. Opposition websites and international news services were blocked. Baton-wielding security forces flooded on to the streets. Overnight the festive atmosphere turned to fear, exuberance to terror, as the regime showed how evil it is.
All weekend protests were ruthlessly suppressed. Demonstrators were beaten. Foreign journalists, including a reporter and photographer from The Times, were detained. Leading reformists were arrested. Iran's “Prague Spring”, its “Velvet Revolution”, was crushed with Soviet-style ruthlessness by a regime practised in silencing dissent. Mr Ahmadinejad, the self-styled man of the people and champion of the oppressed, unleashed the full force of the state machinery on his own population. Meanwhile, congratulations poured in from... well, Syria and Venezuela.
Why the volte-face? Why did the regime open the door a crack, only to slam it shut so violently? Almost certainly because it was appalled by what it saw on the other side. >>> Martin Fletcher | Monday, June 15, 2009
