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Cairo
17 June 2009
Defeated popular-reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi is calling for his supporters to remain peaceful during demonstrations to show solidarity with those who were killed in violence during the past several days.
Mousavi and his supporters accuse the government of rigging the June 12 election to declare hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner. Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is calling, on his Web site, for his supporters to remain peaceful during demonstrations against disputed election results and violence against his followers.
Information exchanged on social websites
Followers of the defeated presidential candidate have been exchanging information about demonstrations and the presence of police in certain locations, on both the Facebook Web site and Twitter, despite government attempts to block those sites.
Iran's most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guards, is demanding Iranian Web sites or bloggers remove any postings that "sow tension" or face legal action.
Students attacked
Iran's government-controlled Basij militia also reportedly attacked students, overnight, in a number of cities. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has called for an investigation into attacks by Interior Ministry forces on student dormitories in Tehran, according Iran's official Press TV.
Images posted on the Internet showed baton-wielding masked men dressed in black and carrying flashlights, apparently raiding a student dormitory, under the cover of darkness, breaking windows and attacking screaming students.
"We will not be cowed," wrote one student, on Mousavi's Facebook support site, "We want to be free like the rest of the world."
Mousavi supporters arrested
The government crackdown against Mousavi supporters continued late Tuesday with arrests of student organizers, according to news reports.
Images and video of protesters clogging the streets of Tehran were also posted on Mousavi's Web site, showing young people covered in blood.
One teenage boy screamed in pain after being shot in the arm, amid a volley of gunfire. Other students can be seen running for cover. Spots of blood also cover the ground.
Another video shows a Tehran square jammed Tuesday with Mousavi demonstrators shouting and screaming as a blood-stained protester is carried away.
Election results contested
Mousavi and his supporters accuse the government of rigging the June 12 election to declare President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.
Earlier Tuesday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Mr. Mousavi should pursue his demands through the country's electoral system and Iranians must unite behind their Islamic government.
The Iranian government is clamping down on foreign media coverage of demonstrations by imposing severe restrictions. Journalists have been told to obtain permission before covering stories and not to report on unauthorized demonstrations.
Iranian government TV continues to broadcast images of what it is calling "random acts of violence," by "unruly mobs." President Ahmedinejad, who was proclaimed winner of Friday's poll with 63 percent of the vote, was shown on government TV attending an international conference in Moscow.
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