Iranian Student Uprising

Feb 7, 2004

ONE of Iran's largest student movements has called on Iranians to seize the open window of opportunity created by recent US support to stage protests in Iranian cities tonight (Wednesday),
The eve of the 26th anniversary of the 1979 revolution. The call to protest comes after the Iranian government said that it would turn the anniversary of the revolution on the 10th February into a show of “popular support for the regime” and a “heavy slap to the face of America”. The Student Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) has been using an email campaign and satellite broadcasts into Iran from the US to urge Iranians to shut off all lights in their homes and businesses and gather in the streets from 9pm tonight . The broadcasts are also urging protestors to dye their right index finger with blue ink to symbolise the right of self determination. Employee's of the state electric company ‘Tavanir' are being asked to aid the protestors by disrupting the Country's electricity supply and hospitals and airports have been warned to activate their emergency electrical generators from 9pm until 2am local time tonight. The SMCCDI say that they are reaching around 15 million Iranians with their broadcasts from the National Iranian TV (NITV) station based in the San Fernando Valley on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets after broadcasts from the station in September last year. The Iranian regime has been so concerned by the NITV station that it established technology in their Cuban embassy in 2003 which disrupted the satellite transmission. The jamming was only ended after the US State Department exerted pressure on the Cuban authorities to take action. Al Santoli of the Washington-based American Foreign Policy Council says that the foreign broadcasts and internet campaigns are playing a similar role to the programmes beamed into Eastern Europe just before the end of the Cold War. “The protests are being driven by young people who have enough exposure to the outside world to know that they can change their political system. The revolutions in Belgrade and Kiev have shown how it can be done and their methods are strikingly similar.” Aryo'b Pirouznia Co-ordinator of the SMCCDI said: “This will not be a revolution but will mark a continued increase in civil disobedience actions around the country which will strike a serious blow to the regime”. The last major protests took place in June 2003 when thousands of people took to the streets for six days to protest against the theocratic regime of the Ayatollah Khameni who blamed the US TV channels for the disturbances. Check out www.daneshjoo.org
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