An email from one of Radio Farda's contacts in Tehran:
I talked to a few students in Tehran (Monday morning Tehran time). They confirmed that the attack on their dormitory was brutal, destructive, and the authorities may have taken as many as 100 students with them. In Tehran, one faculty told me, the security forces had thrown some student off a building. There was an attack on a University dormitory in Isfahan as well. A similar episode happened in Shiraz a few nights ago. In last night's attack, according to an ‘Amir Kabir Newsletter' (I can send it to any journalist who can read Persian), security forces and others in civilian clothes were brutal: 5 students are reported in critical condition, and three were killed (including a female student). [...]
In my exchanges with them, I can't help but be affected by their words. A question that I have heard several times is this simple one: Do the Americans know what is happening here? They don't complaint, but they want to know if the silence is politics or indifference or… One said, I hope the diplomats in Europe don't sell us cheap.
One comment made by a couple of them, and this is directed at people inside and outside Iran, is tough to take: ‘it seems that we are all alone.' The Amir Kabir Newsletter says as much: as the security forces in civilian clothes attacked students in the dormitory, even as some of them were asleep, the university guards and authorities did not come to their defense and, as they faced these savages, students were left all alone.
Full email after the jump.I talked to a few students in Tehran (Monday morning Tehran time). They confirmed that the attack on their dormitory was brutal, destructive, and the authorities may have taken as many as 100 students with them. In Tehran, one faculty told me, the security forces had thrown some student off a building. There was an attack on a University dormitory in Isfahan as well. A similar episode happened in Shiraz a few nights ago. In last night's attack, according to an ‘Amir Kabir Newsletter' (I can send it to any journalist who can read Persian), security forces and others in civilian clothes were brutal: 5 students are reported in critical condition, and three were killed (including a female student).
Mr. Mousavi's request for holding a rally in Enghelab Square was denied. One of his spokespersons has said they will try to go to Imam Khomeini's mausoleum if they are denied the right to meet there. If they are not allowed there either, they will have a ‘sit in' (motehasen) in Jamaran, former residence of Ayatollah Khomeini in Northern Tehran. However, at about 130 PM Tehran time (330 AM central time) I received news that it has been cancelled and that Mr. Mousavi will make an announcement about it shortly (http://kalemeh.ir/vdcb.sb9urhbz9iupr.html). I suspect they are trying desperately to make sure it does not turn bloody.
Mr. Karoubi, in a second statement, has aksed that students remain present in the scene but peaceful (just as Mr. Mousavi has). They are aiming for civil disobedience. This is especially so since everyone believes the security forces have received ‘hagh-e teer' (permission to fire with live ammunitions). I have received several emails about this one. At about 5 AM (Eastern Time) I was told that Zahra Rahnevard, in a meeting in Tehran University, has said the gathering is cancelled. I am told that security forces are swarming around University of Tehran, heavily armed. The previously announced route (from Enghelab to Azadi Square) has been closed to traffic.
Mr. Mousavi's audio message confirmed he is under house arrest (‘tahte nezarat'). I have heard from some of the students following his campaign closely that they have announced a general strike for Tuesday.
There is great deal of confusion and a lot of rumors flying around. These students have relied heavily in the past on SMS and other communication devices. In their absence, they are having a hard time coordinating and mobilizing effectively. However, I must add, they are amazing and brilliant in the way they are using emails (with much frustrations for slow connections), e-chats, and good old telephones in getting organized (their own word is ‘sazeman-dehi'). Theirs is truly a ‘grassroots' as of now - self-organizing / self-generating in complex ways (‘khod joosh'). And they are smart with theirs words and their chants in the streets in that they are reclaiming the revolution's claim to freedom, independence and justice and even its leader: ‘Khomeini kojaee, Mousavi tanha mondeh' (‘Khomeini, where are you, Mousavi is all alone').
