Iranian Protests. Interesting developments.

Following Friday's speech in which Iran's Supreme Leader promised that the police would act to prevent any further illegal protests Saturday's demonstrations were hyped up to be a massacre of a large number of protesters. In the end it turned out to be a bit of a let down. Only around 30,000 people turned up and the police were out early and in force to prevent people assembling in Tehran's Enghelab square. This sort of reverse kettle worked and small groups of protesters fought running battles with police armed with batons, shields, tear gas and water cannon The BBC and protesters have been circulating these two videos in order to demonstrate the ferocity of the police's crackdown;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToOVCcG6tYA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq9OGScMMxA

I'll agree that to the untrained eye the police's response seems shocking but I can't help but compare it to this video of the 2001 G8 Protests in Italy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_YhmB0OJZM&feature=related and this video of a steelworkers strike in Spain last month http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAIYHkbnpaQ As the person who has frequently been on the recieving end of the police batons I obviously think that this level of police violence is unacceptable and bust stop. HoweverI can't see much difference between the conduct of the Iranian police and what is considered an acceptable way to deal with protest in western democracies.

On a sadder note the Iranian media are reporting that 13 people were killed in Saturday's protests. Although no further details have been released it is believed the deaths occurred during two incidents in which protesters set fire to petrol stations and a third incident in which they tried to set fire to a military barracks. The BBC are covering this story by reporting that Iranian media is reporting that 10 people have been killed. This is a blatant lie because I got the figure of 13 dead from an Iranian news agency but it is interesting because if any Iranian's were only relying on the BBC's Persian and Twitter rumours for their news they would get the false impression that the Iranian media is trying to cover up the truth.

The other interesting thing to come out of yesterday's protest was the Commonwealth embassies in Tehran starting with the British and swiftly followed by the Australian and Canadian threw open their doors to the protesters. The embassies then used their diplomatic status to protect the demonstrators as the recovered between clashes with the police. That looks very much like the British Crown providing direct, material support to the rioters.

On a related note the Zimbabwean Prime Minister will visit the UK in an attempt to secure financial aid for his country. It will be interesting to see if Britain's support for the Zimbabwean people only extends as far as deposing Robert Mugabe from power.