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Defiant Mousavi urges more protests
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-22 15:40
GUNFIRE AND CHANTS In pro-Mousavi districts of northern Tehran, supporters took to the rooftops after dusk to chant their defiance, witnesses said, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 revolution. "I heard repeated shootings while people were chanting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) in Niavaran area," said a witness, who asked not to be named. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the shooting appeared an attempt to break up unsanctioned protests. State radio said on Monday morning: "Tehran last night witnessed the first night of calm and peace since the election." Government restrictions prevent correspondents working for foreign media from attending protests to report. Iran ordered BBC correspondent, Jon Leyne, out of the country. Pro-reform clerics meanwhile increased pressure on Iran's conservative leadership. Mohammad Khatami, a Mousavi ally and a moderate former president, warned of "dangerous consequences" if the people were prevented from expressing their demands in peaceful ways. His comments, carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency, were implicit criticism of Khamenei, who has backed a ban on protests and defended the outcome of the election.
An analysis of official statistics from Iran's Interior Ministry by Britain's Chatham House think-tank suggested that in the conservative Mazandaran and Yazd provinces, turnout was more than 100 percent. It said that in a third of all provinces, official results would have required Ahmadinejad to take all former conservative, centrist and all new voters, and up to 44 percent of reformist voters, "despite a decade of conflict between these two groups." The authorities reject charges of election fraud. But the highest legislative body has said it is ready to recount a random 10 percent of votes cast.
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