Iran MPs blame security forces, clerics for unrest

TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Iran's security forces, judicial officials and hardline clerics colluded last August in the bloody suppression of a nationwide student congress, a special parliamentary report said on Monday.

Members of parliament said units of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia, egged on by clerics and protected by the judiciary, had defied officials in the western city of Khorramabad and attacked the big reformist student movement, the Office to Consolidate Unity.

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One policeman was killed and scores of people were injured in the ensuing violence, in a case that highlights President Mohammad Khatami's inability to protect the most ardent supporters of his moderate social and political programme.

"From August 24-27, the Revolutionary Guards and Basij participated in criminal acts, using (state) resources," said the report, read aloud by Reza Yousefian, a deputy from the southern city of Shiraz.

But the report by the pro-reform parliament, the third state body to issue a finding on Khorramabad, painted a picture of official collusion that went well beyond the actions of the security forces.

It said Friday prayers in Khorramabad and nearby Boroujerd were used to whip up public sentiment against the pro-Khatami students, while conservative clerics and intelligence and judiciary officials turned a blind eye to the mounting violence.

"The real cause was political violence-mongering and unlawful uses of levers of pressure by one faction in order to attain its own goals and to stop the other faction from carrying out its programmes," it said.

BACKLASH AGAINST REFORM

Such violence has plagued Khatami's camp since his election in 1997. The July 1999 "Days of Rage" that shook Tehran were put down by the same combination of Revolutionary Guards and Basij.

After a period of relative calm, recent months have seen a backlash by hardliners in which dozens of newspapers have been shut, editors jailed and reformists muzzled by vigilante squads.

"The presence of uniformed (Guards) personnel and the Basij made things more complicated. They acted openly as one party to the conflict, and therefore it was difficult for police to counteract or control them," parliament found.

"The local commander, Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleymani, not only failed to stop such actions but his position can be construed as indirectly supporting them."

The report said the Guards commander in nearby Boroujerd stood by as troops under his command halted buses carrying students back home, dragged them from their seats and beat them.

Parliament said it doubted the judiciary's ability to act impartially in future investigations.

The trouble began on August 24, the second day of the congress, when Guards and Basij in plain clothes blockaded Khorramabad airport to prevent two reformists addressing the students.

Pavilion windows were smashed and the runway was invaded as Guards units that provide airport security did nothing to halt the protests, the report found.

The next day the Friday prayer leader in Khorramabad called on worshippers to drive the meeting from the city. In Boroujerd, the sermon included a letter from the Guards intelligence unit threatening physical attacks on the students.

By Saturday, Iran's national police chief had stepped in to order a suspension of the congress. That move touched off a fresh round of protests, this time by townspeople supporting the students.

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