EU: Iranians demonstrate for democracy

EU: Iranians demonstrate for democracy

Protests continued today.  Eight hundred people from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and  France demonstrated in front of the Iranian embassy in Brussels on Saturday.  Various Belgian politicians participated in the protest. (De Stentor)


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"We are a new generation.  We don't want war.  We don't want blood.  We want democracy."
Setareh Fathei, Iranian theater student demonstrating in front of the Iranian embassy in the Hague, the Netherlands (NRC)


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Iranians demonstrated in capitals around Europe on Thursday to protest the disputed Iranian presidential election and the regime's treatment of its critics.


In Paris, Reporters without Borders, the media advocacy group, also held a rally across from the Iranian Embassy to protest a crackdown on Iranian and foreign media by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.


Iranians in Paris, London, Stockholm and The Hague were out on the streets to show their support of opponents of Ahmadinejad and the powerful Islamic clerical elite.


The biggest demonstrations were in Stockholm, where up to 800 mainly expatriate Iranians gathered in the city's main square, and at The Hague, where about 300 people rallied outside the Dutch parliament.


Hundreds of protesters wearing green or holding green placards demonstrated outside the Iranian Embassy in London. Some held candles like the silent protesters in Tehran, while others shouted slogans. Police said there were no reports of arrests or violence.


Several separate protests in Paris drew fewer than 50 people each.


Some 30 Iranian protesters gathered near the National Assembly in central Paris held up banners, including one that said "Mullahs Terrorists." They chanted "Bye, bye dictator."


In The Hague, about 300 protesters sang and chanted outside the Dutch parliament to show support for protesters killed during demonstrations in Iran.


"We want to show our solidarity with all the people who have been killed on the streets of Tehran," said Cyrus Aryamanesh, who left Iran at age 13 in 1987.


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But not all the Iranians in The Hague supported Mousavi.


History student Azadeh Achbari, 29, said Mousavi and hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were both products of the Islamic leaders who run Iran.


"We are against a theocracy. We want a democracy," Achbari said.


(more)


Source: AP (English)

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