Iranian protesters call off rally

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Iran's defeated moderate candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has cancelled a big rally, amid growing unrest over last week's presidential poll.

The government had declared planned protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad illegal.

Mr Mousavi called off the rally after being warned militias would be equiped with live rounds, the BBC understands.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8099952.stm

[Arrowhead2k1]

1. I wonder if it's true, or if it'll make any difference.

I'm betting many will be taking to the streets at this point regardless. Plus there are conflicting reports about Mousavi calling it off.

---
AP Top News at 4:31 a.m. EDT
12 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —

Iranian authorities banned anti-government protesters from staging a planned rally on Monday, but a top aide to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed his followers would heed his call for a march through Tehran. Mousavi and his supporters have shown no sign of backing down against an expanding security clampdown — bringing their rage to the streets for two straight days over claims that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole last week's election with vote rigging and fraud.
---

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD98R0DI00

[EFerrari]

2. Mousavi has filed an objection with the Guardians or whatever their name is.

I wish there was someway to resolve this without bodies getting hurt. :(

[aquart]

3. They must have showed him these pictures.

<http://zamaaneh.com/news/2009/06/post_9351.html>
<http://entesabat88.persianblog.ir/post/2/#>
<http://25khordad.wordpress.com/>

If what they have been using are NOT "live rounds," then I've just become real nervous about blanks and rubber bullets.

[Soylent Brice]

4. you sure those aren't rubber coated steel bullets:

http://www.btselem.org/English/Firearms/Rubber_Coated_Bullets.asp

?

[Odin2005]

5. Mousavi probably had a gun pointing at him when he "cancelled" it.

[DCBob]

6. Wrong! Rally is on right now...

Hundreds of thousands in the streets:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/15/iran.elections.protests/index.html

[Omar4Dems]

7. And the headline is "Moussavi appears at Iran protest rally"

Kind of hard for the event to be canceled when he's actually part of it!

[dipsydoodle]

8. It was correct when posted

Exactly the same BBC link had subsequently been updated.

[DCBob]

9. Yeah, I know. There were conflicting reports all evening and morning.

Still alot of confusion over there and hard to know what is true and what is not at this point.

[Javaman]

11. Could have also been disinformation put out by the government or

the opposition.

all sorts of info right and wrong is swirling out there right now.

[dipsydoodle]

14. What differs today

is that its estimated that the crowd has got 50% women .....yesterday was on about only 1 or 2%.

The day had started with the march being declared illegal and hence the associated risk of the police using live ammunition. Once it became clear it would go ahead anyway Mousavi told his supporters to avoid violence and keep the hollering down. The crowd is apparently 10 km long and it estimated there are anything up to 1m people. The crowd are behaving and the police are simply staying on the side lines watching. Both Sky and BBC stated the foregoing more or less the same and showed live footage 10 minutes ago ....... both emphasising the women aspect.

[Posteritatis]

16. Could be an official cancellation with people going out anyway

Good on them if that's the case; I hate the idea of needing the government's permission to protest the government. It's bad enough in benign countries like Canada or the US, never mind places like Iran.

[Javaman]

10. Oddly, if those morons actually fire into a crowd...

the resulting effect will dwarf any protests we are seeing now.

If they follow through with that threat, I see it lighting the fuse to yet another revolution.

[DavidDvorkin]

12. There were Twitter posts saying they were doing just that yesterday

So if those tweets were true, then they're likely to do so again.

[Javaman]

13. That shots had been fired? nt

[DavidDvorkin]

15. Yes, fired into the crowd

Also that the police were keeping wounded demonstrators from being taken to hospitals.

[Posteritatis]

17. The BBC confirms they're doing it today on their front page right now (nt)