---------- From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 08:14:05 +0100 To: "Peoples War" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] Iran: Riot Prompts 150 Arrests - BBC Online http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1519000/1519168.st m Friday, 31 August, 2001, 16:03 GMT 17:03 UK Iran riot prompts 150 arrests =================== The people of Sabzevar want their city to be a capital Iranian police have arrested 154 people after a riot in north-eastern Iran in which a young boy was killed and dozens injured. The boy died of gun shot wounds during a day of trouble in Sabzevar against the government's decision not to put the city on a list of new provincial capitals. "The mental atmosphere is tense, and there is a possibility that the riots will break out again" Sabzevar MP About 800 residents took to the streets for the protests, which started late on Wednesday and had turned into a full-scale riot by Thursday. Iranian security forces, who had responded to the protesters with live rounds and tear gas, arrested 154 people of whom 34 have already been jailed. Fragile peace MP for Sabzevar Morteza Kheirabadi warned the government to heed the people's protest. "Although a relative calm has returned to the city, the mental atmosphere is tense, and there is a possibility that the riots will break out again," he told the official INRA news agency. "For a re-establishment of a durable calm to Sabzevar, it is necessary that the police provide the people with an appropriate response," he said. The government has just approved plans to divide the vast Khorasan province into three, turning Mashhad, Birjand and Bojnued into capitals. Parliament still has to vote on President Khatami's plan Sabzevar, with 500,000 people, is the largest town after Mashhad, and residents fear that its exclusion from the list will also exclude them from government funding. Parliament has yet to vote on the government's plan. First trouble The riot is the first since the reformist President Mohammad Khatami was re-elected in June, after witnessing two spells of major unrest in his first term. Correspondents say the smell of burnt tires engulfed the whole city for several hours after the rioting died down. Protesters had smashed windows and blocked railway lines and major roads during Thursday. They also invaded several public buildings, including the governor's office, state banks, the justice department and a school. Five people were reportedly seriously injured and remained in hospital in Korasan's capital city, Mashhad. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
