Message de Téhéran 1

L'excellent Ph!l (clic) me fait suivre le message que voici. B**** l'a rédigé dimanche soir et lundi matin. C'est un témoignage direct, sans fioritures ni faux-semblants journalistiques. Les messages de soutien, de solidarité, et d'affection sont les bienvenus, à l'adresse andymoor(at)wittereus.net. Je vous le donne tel quel, en trois ou quatre fragments. La suite, nous l'espérons, demain ou après-demain.

Dear friends,
first of all, thanks so much for your messages ! We share them with friends here, and it gives us strength and morale to know we are not alone !

I know these dispatches are long, but please circulate wherever you think helpful, even if you don't have time to read.  It was too dangerous to take photos or video today, but i'm sure there are plenty of images being spread over the net. I don't do Facebook, and it has been officially blocked here, but some are able to access it through proxies.  It is a good minute to minute update, and somewhere we have been sending our images.

hugs
b
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DISPATCH 7

Tehran - June 14, midnight.

The streets of Tehran are under siege.  After this coup d'etat, people are remaining in the streets, although today there was severe repression and riot police everywhere.  The word revolution is in everyone's mouths, and people are refusing to stay indoors, as the regime and police are asking them to. The fascist apparatus is coming on full force.  Riot police are accompanied by Bassiji militants, huge men with beards, dressed in emblematic khaki pants and white button up shirts, with one-meter long wooden batons in hand, and colt pistols.  These men, usually hidden on a «normal» day in the streets to monitor behavior and the dress code, are now working at full force with the police, especially at night.

Today we mostly stayed indoors, although there were some gatherings further into the city.  Because Ahmadinejad was holding an official victory rally, where thousands had gathered (although as usual, many were probably brought in by bus from the outskirts of the city), people in opposition were encouraged to stay away.  This is mostly because meeting face to face with these people would lead to violent clashes, and more deaths.  Although there are no official figures, there have been some deaths.  We have heard that 11 were killed yesterday, but there is no way to know.

This is not an explosion or a spontaneous riot.  This is not a show of anger or rage.  Something bigger is happening, and we can feel that people are preparing for it.  Although there is severe repression and fear, people are maintaining their presence in the streets.  This is not just an angry reaction to election fraud, but a real movement that is bubbling. The slogans on the street now are mainly Death to Dictatorship, and people are not afraid to cry this out.

Again, through some accessible weblogs (or others we get through to with filters), and phone calls to others around the city, we gather information. Internet has been virtually cut, although a slow dialup service allows us to send a few emails or read feeds every few hours.