Protestations post-électorales iraniennes de 2009

Texte anglais à traduire :
The election of the president of Iran in 2009 was preceded by many Iranian surveys and a survey by the US-based Terror Free Tomorrow organization.^[13] The Terror Free Tomorrow opinion poll, conducted from 11 May to 20 May 2009 predicted the high participation and showed similar ratios for the candidates to the later official result, with over a quarter yet undecided.^[14][15] The many Iranian surveys show a wide range of differing results. An opinion in the New York Times claims that this is due to the high fluctuation among voters during the campaign season.^[16]

The election for presidency took place on 12 June 2009. Unlike the election in 2005, there was a high participation. The official results were rejected by all three opposition candidates, who claimed that the votes were manipulated and the election was rigged. The last presidential election had already been controversial, but this time it escalated. Candidates Mohsen Rezaee and Mousavi have lodged official complaints. Mousavi announced that he "won't surrender to this manipulation" before lodging an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June.^[2]

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared the unprecedented voter turnout and coinciding religious holidays as a "divine assessment", and urged the nation to unite,^[17] and later ordered an investigation into the claims of vote fraud.^[18] Referring to Mousavi's appeal letter about the irregularities, Khamenei said that "the Guardian Council has been emphasized to carry out investigation into this letter carefully," and probe allegations of electoral fraud.^[18] Mousavi is not optimistic about his appeal, saying that many of the group's members "during the election were not impartial".^[19] Ahmadinejad called the election "completely free" and the outcome "a great victory" for Iran, dismissing the protests as little more than "passions after a soccer match".^[8]

According to an analysis by Professor Walter R. Mebane, Jr. from the Department of Statistics of the University of Michigan, considering data from the first stage of the 2005 presidential election produces results that "give moderately strong support for a diagnosis that the 2009 election was affected by significant fraud".^[20] This notion is also supported by the NGO UK-based thinktank Chatham House for a number of reasons:^[21]

• More than 100% : In two Conservative provinces, Mazandaran and Yazd, a turnout of more than 100% was recorded. However, it is noted that Iranian citizens are not required to vote within their home region, and can vote within whichever district they happen to be present. This could, theoretically, result in a voter turnout of over 100% in a given district, although it would require a significant turnout of voters already living within a district.
• No swing : At a provincial level, there is no correlation between the increased turnout, and the swing to Ahmadinejad. This challenges the notion that his victory was due to the massive participation of a previously silent Conservative majority.
• Reformist votes: In a third of all provinces, the official results would require that Ahmadinejad took not only all former conservative voters, and all former centrist voters, and all new voters, but also took up to 44% of former Reformist voters, despite a decade of conflict between these two groups.
• Rural votes: In 2005, as in 2001 and 1997, conservative candidates, and Ahmadinejad in particular, were markedly unpopular in rural areas. The claim that this year Ahmadinejad swept the board in more rural provinces in 2009 flies in the face of these trends.

Texte anglais à traduire :

On Saturday June 13, after election results announced that Ahmadinejad had won, supporters of Mousavi took to the streets to protest. The next day, protests grew, as did violence. On the night of June 14, the pro-Ahmadinejad Basij paramilitary group raided Tehran University, injuring many. On June 15, Mousavi made his first post-election appearance.

On June 16, protests continued, and the Guardian Council announced a partial recount would be conducted; however, the vote was not annulled. On Wednesday June 17, another large protest occurred; some members of the Iranian national football team wore green wristbands in support of Mousavi during their game against South Korea. On Thursday, June 18, more than 100,000 protesters held a candle-light vigil in Tehran following Mousavi's call for a day of mourning for those killed in protests. The Guardian Council invited the three major challengers to meet to discuss their grievances.

On Friday, June 19, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini spoke during religious services, saying the election was legitimate and protests would no longer be tolerated. Protests occurred on a smaller scale. The next day, June 20, fewer protesters took to streets. At the protests that did occur, said to number in the tens of thousands of people, much violence occurred, causing many would-be protesters to stay in their homes the next day, Sunday, June 21. On June 20 a young Iranian woman, identified as Neda Agha-Soltan,^[22] was shot by the Basij and died in front of cameras on Kargar Avenue in Tehran.^[23] Highly graphic amateur videos of the killing rapidly spread virally across the internet after being posted to Facebook and YouTube.^[24] On June 22, riot police broke up the main rally in Tehran with tear gas and live fire into the air.

During Friday prayers broadcast live on television on June 26 Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami is reported to have said that "Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction". and called for the execution of leading demonstrators as they are "people who wage war against God".^[25]

On Monday, June 29, 2009, the Guardian Council certified the results of the controversial election.^[26] This set off a wave of protests, disregarding the Iranian governments ban on street marches.^[26] The Iranian intelligence chief alleged that western and "Zionist" forces were responsible for inciting the protests. Four British officials remain in custody under those charges. These four are what is left of the nine arrested on June 28, 2009.^[26]

Texte anglais à traduire :
===Arrests=== Modèle:See also

On the weekend of 13/14 June, in a series of raids across Tehran, the government arrested over 170 people, according to police officials.^[27] Among them were prominent reformist politicians, including MIRO founder Behzad Nabavi, IIPF leader Mohsen Mirdamadi, and former president Mohammad Khatami's brother Mohammad-Reza Khatami, who was later released.^[28][29][30] Also arrested were Mostafa Tajzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, whom the IRNA said were involved in orchestrating protests on 13 June.^[29] Unidentified sources said that the police stormed the headquarters of the IIPF and arrested a number of people.^[17][31] Iranian journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin claimed that presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi was put under house arrest, although officials denied this.^[32] An estimated 200 people were detained after clashes with students at the University of Tehran, although many were later released.^[33]

Acting Police Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan stated via the state press service on 14 June that "in the interrogation of related rebels, we intend to find the link between the plotters and foreign media".^[35] A judiciary spokesman said they had not been arrested but that they were summoned, "warned not to increase tension", and later released.^[36] Intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei linked some arrests to terrorism supported from outside Iran, stating that "more than 20 explosive consignments were discovered".^[37] Others, he said, were "counter-revolutionary groups [who had] penetrated election headquarters" of the election candidates.^[37]

Relatives of several detained protesters have confirmed that the interrogation of prisoners is now being headed by Saeed Mortazavi, a figure known in Iran as “the butcher of the press”. He gained notoriety for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped during her detention in 2003.^[38]

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Ayatolla Khamenei, has emerged as one of the driving forces behind the ­government's crackdown, diplomats and observers said. He is reported to have a strong influence over his father and is talked about as his possible successor. Mojtaba is affiliated with current Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.^[39]

On 16 June, Reuters reported that former vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi and former presidential advisor Saeed Hajjarian had been arrested.^[34] Human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, who had been demanding a recount of all votes, was also arrested on the the Tuesday according to Shirin Ebadi, who said that security officials had posed as clients.^[40] Over 100 students were arrested after security forces fired tear gas at protesters at Shiraz University on the same day.^[33] Reporters Without Borders reported that 5 of 11 arrested journalists were still in detention as of 16 June, and that a further 10 journalists were unaccounted for and may have been arrested.^[33]

On 17 June, former foreign minister and Secretary-General of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Ebrahim Yazdi, was arrested while undergoing tests at the Tehran hospital.^[33] In Tabriz, other Freedom Movement activists and eight members of the IIPF were arrested, with reports of at least 100 civic figures' arrests.^[33] The total number of arrests across Iran since the election was reported as 500.^[33]

Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for the international campaign for human rights in Iran, stated that "Iranian intelligence and security forces are using the public protests to engage in what appears to be a major purge of reform-oriented individuals whose situations in detention could be life-threatening".^[33]

In Esfahan Province, prosecutor-general Mohammadreza Habibi warned that dissidents could face the death penalty under Islamic law.^[41] He also accused the protesters of being a "few elements controlled by foreigners [who were] disrupting security by inciting individuals to destroy and to commit arson" and urged them to stop their "criminal activities". It was not clear if his warning applied only to Isfahan or to the country as a whole. ^[42]

On June 21, Iranian officials detained Iranian-born, Canadian citizen and Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari. ^[43]. He has not been heard from since his arrest.

On June 22, The Guardian's live blog reported that at approximately 1:30 pm, General Ali Fazli, the newly appointed commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran province, has been arrested for refusing to carry Khamenei's order to use force against demonstrators.^[44]

Militia violence

Several Basij members have been filmed breaking into houses and shooting into crowds.^{[45][46][47][48][49]} A number of hospital staff protested after people have been transported to the hospitals dead or in critical condition because of gunshots. One person has been brought to the hospital after he was killed by a sniper shot to the head.Modèle:Fact^[50] The IRG and the Basij also attacked Universities and students' dorms at night,^[51] destroying property^[52][53] and killing students.Modèle:Fact

The Los Angeles Times reported that militiamen from the hard-line Iran-based Ansar-e Hezbollah group "warned that they would be patrolling the streets to maintain law and order".^[54]

Casualties

Currently, little is known about the identity of the killed protesters. The government does not release any information at all on this issue (except Neda Agha-Soltan, whose video circulated quickly on the internet and left nothing to hide). Even the hospitals were not allowed to register the dead bodies or injured people as a medical student at Rasoul-Akram hospital witnessed on the night of June 15: "Nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds... They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information... No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them" ^[55] (the day after the hospital staff protested due to this situation ^[56]). Hiding such information makes it hard to determine the true number of people who got killed by the government. The government admitted to at least 27 fatalities in Tehran, however the total death toll may be much higher. CNN reported 150 unconfirmed casualties from June 20 protests.^[57] International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran counted 31 of them. ^[58] This motivated Human Right Activists in Iran to issue a call for independently collecting information about the killed, injured and arrested people. ^[59]

The families who lost their loved ones were allegedly put through troubles and penalties. They were asked to sign a paperwork that they do not have any complaint from the government in order to get the dead bodies. When the death was due to shooting, they were asked to pay about $3,000 as the fee for the bullet used by security forces.^[60] They also faced restrictions on burial place. ^{[61] [60]} Government did not permit a memorial service for Neda Agha-Soltan. ^[61]

The following is a partial list of the victims extracted from various sources:

• Naser Amirnejad and Mostafa Ghanian, students killed during night attack on Tehran University dormitories on June 14. ^[58]
• Mehdi Karami, killed on Jonat Abad Street, on June 15. ^[58]
• Mrs. Rajabpour and her daughter, both shot and died immediately, Azadi St. of Tehran, June 15. ^[62]
• Kianoosh Asa, kidnapped on June 15 in Tehran from the Majidieh dormitory of Iran University of Science & Technology. His body was found in a morgue 10 days later, bearing signs of torture. ^[63]
• Hossein Tahmasbi, beaten to death by armed militia on June 15, on No-bahar st. in Kermanshah. ^[64] Video of his memorial ceremony is available. ^[65]
• Neda Agha-Soltan, shot at demonstration on June 20. ^[58]
• Kaveh Alipour, shot at downtown Tehran, June 20. ^[60]
• Saeed Abbasi, killed in Tehran, June 20. ^[66]
• Ashkan Sohrabi, 18 years old, shot by 3 bullets in his chest in Tehran (intersection of Saadi st. and Roudaki st.) on June 20. ^{[67] [68]}
• Bahman Jenabi, 19 years old, killed in downtown Tehran, both on June 20. ^[67]
• Shelir Khezri, shot on June 23 at Baharestan Sqr. of Tehran during a demonstration. She was a student. ^[69]

Media reports on foreign involvement in activity

According to June 19 CNN report, “online chatter” and a number of media reports state that the Basij are assisted by non-Persian, possibly Arabic-speaking members who are suspected of being Lebanese Hezbollah militiamen.^[70] On June 16, Der Spiegel cited Voice of America as reporting that the Iranian government had recruited as many as 5,000 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters to clash with protesters.^[71]

On June 17, the Jerusalem Post quoted two Iranian protesters who stated that "Palestinian forces" (which the article states are members of Hamas) were working with the Basij in helping crush the protests.^[72] A Jerusalem-based reporter for WorldNet Daily asked multiple Hamas officials to comment on this accusation, including spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, parliamentarian Mushir-al-Masri, and top Gaza political advisor Ahmed Yousef. All contacted Hamas officials strongly denied any Hamas involvement in responding to the Iranian election protests and called the accusations "completely untrue" and questioned why the Iranian Revolutionary Guards forces would require help from Hamas.^[73]

The Iranian Government accused the U.S. of involvement in the protests and with interfering in Iranian internal matters, particularly with the CIA's $400 million covert operations to destabilize the country. The conclusion of a article in the U.S. Foreign Policy Journal was that on that the question of whether there was U.S. involvement in fermenting unrest during the election was, "given the record of U.S. interference in the state affairs of Iran and clear policy of regime change, it certainly seems possible, even likely, that the U.S. had a significant role to play in helping to bring about the recent turmoil in an effort to undermine the government of the Islamic Republic." The U.S. article also quoted evidence concerning interference by U.S. based Twitter that “in terms of involving the huge Iranian diaspora and everyone else with a grudge against Ahmadinejad, it has been very successful.”^[74]

Censorship

Modèle:See also

News media

According to the Telegraph, on 14 June "Iran's regime was doing its utmost to choke off the flow of news from its capital".^[75] Al Jazeera English has leveled allegations of direct media censorship by the Iranian government, stating that "some of the newspapers have been given notices to change their editorials or their main headlines".^[76] The Al Arabiya's offices in Tehran were closed on 14 June for a week by Iranian authorities, who gave no explanation for the decision.^[77] NBC News offices in Tehran were raided, with cameras and other equipment confiscated. Meanwhile, the director of BBC World Service accused the Iranian Government of jamming its broadcasts to the country. Peter Horrocks said audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe had been affected by an electronic block on satellites used to broadcast the BBC Persian Television signal to Iran, adding: "It seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election".^[30][78] A BBC corporate official has referred to the network's conflict with the regime as 'electronic warfare'.^[79]

On 15 June, Belgian national television reporter Jef Lambrecht from the Flemish public television broadcaster VRT and his sound technician, were arrested in Tehran. They had been doing a story on the riots, and had gotten caught in the middle of the violence. While Lambrechts had taken a punch, Vandervorst was arrested by riot police. When Lambrecht went to check where Vandervorst was being taken, he was promptly arrested as well. Both were taken to the Ministry of Information and detained in the basement. They were both released after two hours with strict instructions not to make any photos or film recordings of the protests. At the same time, two Dutch reporters from Nova were also arrested and deported.^[80]

On 16 June, the Ministry of Culture issued a directive banning all foreign media from leaving their offices.^[81] This directive stipulated that international news outlets could still talk about rallies in their live reports, however they were not allowed to leave their hotel rooms and offices to witness the protests. Iranian government-run television was not affected by the restrictions.^[82] On 20 June, the Ministry of Culture intensified the restrictions by banning international media from reporting on the demonstrations altogether unless they received permission from Iranian authorities.^[83]

BBC correspondent John Simpson was arrested, his material confiscated, and then released.^[84] Reporters from the Italian public television broadcaster RAI stated that one of its interpreters was beaten with clubs by riot police and the officers then confiscated the cameraman's tapes.^[17] ABC News reporter Jim Sciutto has also had material taken. People from the German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD have been harassed as well, with men carrying batons and knives reportedly storming the ARD's Tehran office and taking the technician for further questioning (who was released the day after).Modèle:Fact

Ahmadinejad responded to civil liberties concerns by stating Iranians enjoyed "absolute freedom" of speech. "Don't worry about freedom in Iran ... Newspapers come and go and reappear. Don't worry about it."^[85]

Internet

On Saturday following the elections, Mir-Hossein Mousavi's supporters started DDoS attacks against president^[86] Ahmadinejad's site and exchanged attack tools through sites such as Facebook and Twitter.^[87] After the attacks, the government stopped internet access.^[87] On 13 June as the election results were being announced, Iran shut down all Internet access for about 45 minutes, then restarted it apparently with lower bandwidth; this may have been in order to set up filters to block sites like YouTube that could be used for political purposes.^[88] When thousands of opposition supporters clashed with the police on 13 June, Facebook was filtered again. Some news websites were also blocked by the Iranian authorities. Mobile phone services including text messaging also stopped or became very difficult to use.^[89] Specifically, all websites affiliated with the BBC were shut off,^[90] as well as those affiliated with The Guardian.Modèle:Fact Associated Press labeled the actions as "ominous measures apparently seeking to undercut liberal voices".^[17]

Iran was known to operate one of the world’s most sophisticated Web filtering systems, with widespread blockades on specific Web sites. During the protests, this has been intensified dramatically. Some of the monitoring technology was provided by Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture of Nokia, the Finnish cellphone maker, and Siemens, the German technology giant.^[91]

Texte anglais à traduire :
Erreur : La version française de {{Main}} est {{Article principal}}.BBC News has described the overall reaction by the international community to the 2009 Iranian presidential election as "muted".^[2] Mir-Hossein Mousavi has not asked for any kind of foreign assistance or called on other leaders to comment.^[79] His spokesperson, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, has criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for maintaining that the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi "may not be as great as has been advertised."^[93] Makhmalbaf retorted, "Does he like it himself [when someone is] saying that there is no difference between Obama and [George W.] Bush?" He also said that other nations must "not recognize the government of Ahmadinejad as a legitimate government" and that "it's not only an internal matter- it's an international problem".^[94]

Texte anglais à traduire :
The Economist reported that supporters of Mousavi have enlisted religious symbolism on their side. This directly appeals to the notion of injustice and redemption at the heart of Shia Islam.^[95]

Protestors have deliberately dressed modestly. The marches in Tehran saw women in chadors and turbanned clerics,^[95] some of whom were seen thronging Mousavi's car during the June 15 rally at Revolution Square.^[96] According to Anna Johnson of Associated Press, conservative women in black chadors have joined the liberal, rich youth for the common goal of trying to get their voices heard.^[97] The Time reported that some protestors believed they had a religious duty to protest.^[98]

Protestors have also made use of slogans such as "God is great" from the revolutionary era.^[99] Protestors on Twitter have urged marchers to carry copies of the Qur'an with them, citing its verses bringing about peace.^[100] When mourning the deaths of slain protestors, the marchers chanted "Peace be upon (Prophet) Mohammed and his family."^[101]

A bystander, Neda Agha-Soltan, who was killed by authorities, has been mythologised by the opposition as a martyr. The status of a martyr is revered in Shia Islam. To prevent this from happening, the authorities have tried to call off funeral services for her, which according to Shia Islam, must be held on the third, seventh and 40th day after the martyr's passing. Robert Tait and Matthew Weaver of the Guardian noted that it was funeral processions on the 40th day of mourning of fallen protestors in 1979 that created momentum in toppling the shah's regime.^[102] The idea of martyrdom resonates deeply amongst the Shiite Muslim population of Iran. The Shiite faith was founded on the idea of self-sacrifice in the cause of justice.^[103]

Texte anglais à traduire :
The Internet and, specifically, social networking has been instrumental to organizing many of the protests in Iran.^[104] Online sites have been uploading amateur pictures and video, and Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have been places for protesters to gather and exchange information.^[104] Twitter has also been used to organize protests.^[105][106]

DDoS attacks

Mousavi's supporters, through social networking sites, exchanged scripts for launching distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) against Ahmadinejad's website.^[87][106] British citizens were reported to support the DDoS attacks against president Ahmadinejad by providing software for launching them.^[107] Many anti-Ahmedinejad activists have attacked the websites of Ahmedinejad and the government, rendering them inaccessible. The government's official website (ahmedinejad.ir) has at various times been rendered inaccessible.^[108]

Use of social networking

Twitter in particular has been a key central gathering site during the protests.^[109] Twitter hashtags used most frequently in tweets about the protest included #iran, #iranelection, #neda, and #gr88. #neda refers to Neda Soltani. #gr88 is a contraction of "Green Revolution 1388", 1388 being the Iranian calendar year when the election was held.

The U.S. State Department urged the company to postpone a scheduled network upgrade that would have briefly put the service offline.^[110][111] Twitter delayed the network upgrade from midnight American time/morning Iran time to afternoon American time/midnight Iran time "because events in Iran were tied directly to the growing significance of Twitter as an important communication and information network".^[112][113] Aside from the use of social networking sites by protesters to gather and exchange information, individuals around the world used these sites to gain news and information on the events in Iran. Due to strict foreign media censorship by the Iranian government, social networking sites became the primary source of information, videos, and testimonials of the protests. Major news outlets, such as CNN^[114] and BBC News,^[115] gained much of their information from using and sorting through tweets by Twitter users and videos uploaded to YouTube.^[116]

While the role of Twitter is considered central to the protests by many, several reports disagree.^[117] The Economist magazine stated that the Twitter thread IranElection was so deluged with messages of support from Americans and Britons that it "rendered the site almost useless as a source of information—something that Iran's government had tried and failed to do". The Economist asserted that the most comprehensive sources of information in English by far were created by bloggers who pulled out useful information from the mass of information, of whom it singles out Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post, Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic and Robert Mackey of the New York Times.^[118] A study by social media analytics company Sysomos shows that of 65 million population, there are only 19,235 Twitter users who disclose their location as Iran^[119].

Internet activism

NedaNet

Erreur : La version française de {{Main}} est {{Article principal}}. Following the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, computer activists and hactivists around the world have set up a website called NedaNet to facilitate technical assistance to Iranians at home and abroad who wish to communicate about the protests and their aftermath.Modèle:Fact The site was set up as "jumping-off point" for hackers who want to help Iranian citizens. Eric S. Raymond, the founder of the website,^[120] describes the purpose of the site as follows:

“Our mission is to help the Iranian people by setting up networks of proxy servers, anonymizers and any other appropriate technologies that can enable them to communicate and organize — a network beyond the censorship or control of the Iranian regime.”^[120]

Anonymous Iran

Anonymous, together with the The Pirate Bay, launched an Iranian Green Party Support site Anonymous Iran. The site has drawn over 22,000 supporters world wide and allows for information exchange between the world and Iran, despite attempts by Iran to censor the internet. The site provides resources and support to Iranians who are protesting.^[121][122] Anonymous has published a short video on Iran and has released a message to the Iranian government in which Anonymous declares its reasons for supporting the protests.