Cleric Calls for Inquiry as Protesters Defy Ban in Iran

June 15, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

The Iranian opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, appeared publicly for the first time in more than two days on Monday.

TEHRAN — Hundreds of thousands of people marched in silence through central Tehran on Monday to protest Iran’s disputed presidential election in an extraordinary show of defiance that appeared to be the largest demonstration in Iran since the 1979 revolution.

The march began hours after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for a inquiry into opposition claims that the election was rigged in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The ayatollah’s call — announced every 15 minutes on Iranian state radio throughout the day — was the first sign that Iran’s top leadership might be rethinking its position on the election. Mr. Khamenei announced Saturday that the election results showing a landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad were fair, but on Sunday he met with Mir Hussein Moussavi, the former prime minister and moderate who was the main opposition candidate, to listen to his concerns.

As evening fell, Iranian state television reported that shots had been fired at the rally, and an Associated Press photographer reported that one person had died. It was impossible to independently confirm these reports, which came after hours during which government security forces stood by at the edges of the avenues, allowing demonstrators to stream past in a deliberate and striking contrast with the chaos of the past few days.

Starting Saturday, after Mr. Ahmadinejad was declared the winner, riot police sprayed tear gas and wielded clubs to disperse scattered bands of angry and frightened young people. Mr. Ahmadinejad dismissed the protesters as soccer hooligans who had lost a match in remarks on Sunday, and called them “dust,” and many at Monday’s demonstration said they could not let the insult pass.

Gathering in the early hours of Monday afternoon in defiance of a government ban on demonstrations, the broad river of people — young and old, dressed in traditional Islamic gowns and the latest Western fashions — marched slowly from Revolution Square to Freedom Square for more than three hours, many of them wearing the signature bright green ribbons of Mr. Moussavi’s campaign, and holding up their hands in victory signs. When the occasional shout or chant went up, the crowd quickly hushed them, and some held up signs bearing the word “silence.”

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