Iran International
The Basij militia of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) began extensive urban exercises in various areas of the restive southwestern Khuzestan Province Thursday.
An IRGC official in Khuzestan, Colonel Mohammadreza Leilizadeh, said Thursday evening that 65 battalions of male and 28 battalions of female members of the Basij will be participating in the exercises.
A large gathering was also held at the Imam Khomeini tomb complex in Tehran by the IRGC's Sarallah force in Tehran, which is tasked to deal with protests and defend centers of government power in the capital.
Basij is one of the IRGC’s five forces, which partly consists of volunteers who receive military training under IRGC command. Armed Basij militia are often deployed to suppress protesters and have been accused of brutalizing protesters. In the past two weeks protesters have attacked at least two Basij headquarters in three small towns -- Hafshajan, Jouneghan, and Baba Heydar – in in Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari Province.
The militia’s urban exercises come amid a tense security atmosphere and massive internet disruptions in most cities and towns of the oil-rich province where protesters took to the streets two weeks ago over the announcement of a massive hike in food prices. In the past two weeks at least two more protesters have been killed in Khuzestan.
Security forces usually respond to protests with tear gas and excessive force, including lethal force, and arrest protesters even when they are demonstrating peacefully. Social media reports indicate that at least five protesters have been shot dead by security forces in western provinces since May 6.
Leilizadeh said the aim of the exercises is to improve the preparedness of the militia “to carry out real operations in social arenas throughout the region” and “psychological operations commensurate to the current circumstances” as well as “practicing individual combat technics.”
Protests in Khuzestan over water shortage last July lasted for several weeks and spread to other provinces. More than a dozen protesters were shot dead by security forces in these protests.
The recent protests in Khuzestan have also spread to mainly provinces, including Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari where so far three protesters have been shot dead by security forces. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an independent human rights monitoring agency, reported on May 15 that protests had taken place in at least 19 cities and towns since May 6.
Leilizadeh also pointed out that similar exercises are being held throughout the country.
On Thursday the official news agency (IRNA) reported the commencement of similar exercises in the northwestern Ardabil province. The capital of the province, the city of Ardabil, was also the scene of anti-government protests last week.
Basij militia also held exercises in Golpayegan in the central Esfahan Province where people have also taken to the streets in the past few days to protest.
Security forces have arrested tens of political, civil, and labor activists in the past two weeks including some members of teachers’ unions on alleged charges of having “ties with terrorist groups’ and foreign spies.
“The arrests of prominent members of civil society in Iran on baseless accusations of malicious foreign interference is another desperate attempt to silence support for growing popular social movements in the country,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of looking to civil society for help in understanding and responding to social problems, Iran’s government treats them as an inherent threat.”
“There is reliable information that some members of the said illegal groups had connection with known terrorist groups and certain spies who reside abroad and have been identified,” Esmail Khatib told a national gathering of prosecutors in reference to the arrest of some members of the Teachers Association.
The association has organized regular nationwide protests and strikes for better wages and working conditions as well as freedom for their colleagues arrested during the past year. The association recently said in a statement that the teachers' movement would not be subdued by security and judicial crackdowns on union activists.
Last week Iran's Intelligence Ministry announced the detention of two European nationals who have now been identified as French citizens Cécile Kohler, the head of the biggest federations of teachers' unions in France, and her partner Jacques Paris. The couple travelled to Iran as tourists and were arrested a few days later on their way to the airport.
Kohler is the head of the National Federation of Education, Culture and Vocational Training (FNEC FP-FO), a trade union representing education and related staff in France. Her partner Paris is also a member of the same union.
The French couple’s trip to Iran coincided with intensification of Iran’s crackdown on teachers’ protests and union activists over their latest round of widespread rallies which were held on May 1, the international Labor Day. The couple met with some members of the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Unions (CCITTU) during their stay.
Iran's state television on Tuesday showed a 3-minute report on the recent arrest of the French couple, saying they were “spies” who "intended to foment unrest in Iran by organizing trade union protests".
Khatib said the two French nationals had come to Iran to create organizational connections between “illegal agitator groups (unions) … to fulfil the goals of [outlawed political] groups and [foreign] intelligence services under the guise of unions.”
In a statement Thursday, Defenders of Human Rights Center led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, condemned the French couple’s arrest and what it called Iran’s security forces “script” to suppress the teachers’ and workers’ protest movement by creating an atmosphere of fear. It underlined that contact with foreign nationals or labor unions is not a crime in any of the country’s current laws. “Depriving the nation from its fundamental freedoms with such unfounded and illegal accusations is clear proof of abuse of power,” the statement said.
Teachers’ Trade Association in a statement published Thursday said the CCITTU has been an official member of the FNEC FP-FO since it was formed and criticized the “script-writing” of security forces to use the meeting between the French teachers and their Iranian colleagues to crack down on their movement.
“The film [shown on the state television] intends to ascribe teachers’ protests to plots by western intelligence services to silence the justice-seeking voice of teachers,” the statement said while declaring that such scripts will only “result in the disgrace of those who write them.”
In the past few months people from different walks of life, including teachers, nurses, firefighters, and pensioners have held protestto demand better wages and pensions. On Monday bus drivers in the capital Tehran went on strike and Truck Owners and Drivers Union has also said they are planning a strike in the coming days.