There’s a lot video content coming out of Iran and, like Twitter, it can be overwhelming. Here Crikey selects the ones worth watching.
Background. YouTube montages might be lame and often poorly produced, but once in a while, they’re really useful. This one, called the Green Wave video gives great context to Mousavi’s popularity and progressive cred, both in Iran and abroad: Part 1.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxG551jAins[/youtube]
To keep watching, see also Part 2.
June 18. Things start getting heated. Peaceful protest turns to students being shot on camera. This is around the time when comparisons with Tiannemen started popping up.
June 19. Nighttime in Tehran. In the distance, a rooftop of people shouting of “Allah-o Akbar” while a woman watches, records and speaks openly and poignantly about the state of her nation.
June 20. Basij Militia — a paramilitary organisation that receives orders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards — shoot at peacful crowds (via BBC/Persia), fires in the background.
June 21. More protestors, more violence. A pitched battle between the crowds and the riot police (via BBC Farsi) that’s gained popularity for the plot twist at the end. The crowd wins!
June 21. The teenage girl allegedly shot by Basij militia, Neda, is set to become this conflict’s version of the Vietnam War’s napalm “Girl in the Picture” — a symbol of oppression. And for some, a symbol of rebellion. This video captures the last seconds of her life. WARNING: it is extremely graphic and distressing.
Does anyone care to remember that Mr. Hussein Mousavi was the leader of the Islamic Revolution, which outsed the Shah and turned Iran into Islamic Republic?. He ws also the chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
That is why he became the president of Iran. But people soon became disappointed with his heavy handed ultraorthodox approach and he was voted out. He has never been elected again. In comparison to Mousavi, Ahmadinejad was a real reformer. That is why he has been re-elected.
Even all those fabricated photos show that demonstrations have not been peaceful; buses, cars and shops have been torched. I am sure it was not the supporters of the current president who terrorised the streets of Tehran.
The Vietnam War’s napalm girl was the product of the (foreign) US army invasion and the tactics has nothing to do with Iranians. Something to do with Gaza, perhaps.
The totally innocent ‘Napalm girl’ cannot be a symbol of rebellion, for God’s sake !!!
By the way, in the USA demonstrators are treated as terrorists. (According to Department of Defense training manuals, protest is considered ‘low level terrorism’.)
An FBI memo also labels peace protesters as ‘terrorists’. Call the kettle…