DUBAI, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Female students in Tehran chanted “get lost” as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited their college campus on Saturday and condemned protesters enraged by the dying of a younger lady in custody, activists mentioned.

Raisi addressed professors and students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated “rioters” with flies, as nationwide demonstrations entered a fourth week.

“They imagine they can achieve their evil goals in universities,” state TV reported. “Unbeknownst to them, our students and professors are alert and will not allow the enemy to realise their evil goals.”

A video posted on Twitter by the activist 1500tasvir web site confirmed what it mentioned had been ladies students chanting “Raisi get lost” and “Mullahs get lost” as the president visited their campus.

An Iranian state coroner’s report denied that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini had died due to blows to the top and limbs whereas in morality police custody and linked her dying to pre-existing medical situations, state media mentioned on Friday.

Amini, an Iranian Kurd, was arrested in Tehran on Sept. 13 for sporting “inappropriate attire”, and died three days later.

Her dying has ignited nationwide demonstrations, marking the most important problem to Iran’s clerical leaders in years.

Women have eliminated their veils in defiance of the clerical institution whereas livid crowds known as for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The authorities has described the protests as a plot by Iran’s enemies together with the United States, accusing armed dissidents – amongst others – of violence during which no less than 20 members of the safety forces have been reported killed.

Rights teams say greater than 185 individuals have been killed, a whole bunch injured and 1000’s arrested by safety forces confronting protests.

After a name for mass demonstrations on Saturday, safety forces shot at protesters and used tear gasoline within the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Saqez, in accordance to the Iranian human rights group Hengaw.

In Sanandaj, capital of the northwestern Kurdistan province, one man lay useless in his automobile whereas a lady screamed “shameless”, in accordance to Hengaw, which mentioned he had been shot by safety forces after he honked his horn as an indication of protest.

But a senior police official repeated the declare by safety forces that they didn’t use reside bullets and that the person had been killed by “counter-revolutionaries” (armed dissidents), the state information company IRNA reported.

A video shared on social media confirmed a younger lady mendacity unconscious on the bottom after she was apparently shot within the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad. Protesters gathered round her to assist.

The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights mentioned on its web site that no less than 185 individuals, together with no less than 19 kids, had been killed within the protests. The highest variety of killings occurred within the restive Sistan-Baluchistan province with half the recorded deaths, it mentioned.

CALL FOR UNITY

After a weekly assembly, President Raisi and Iran’s head of judiciary and parliament speaker known as for unity.

“Currently, the Iranian society needs the unity of all its strata regardless of language, religion and ethnicity to overcome the hostility and division spread by anti-Iranians,” they mentioned in a press release carried by state media.

A social media video confirmed protesters marching within the northern metropolis of Babol and a number of other posts mentioned safety forces had surrounded students demonstrating on a college campus.

Hengaw additionally carried a video of emergency personnel making an attempt to resuscitate an individual and mentioned one protester had died after being shot within the stomach by safety forces in Sanandaj. Reuters couldn’t confirm the video.

One of the faculties in Saqez metropolis’s sq. was stuffed with ladies chanting “woman, life, freedom”, Hengaw reported.

The broadly adopted 1500tasvir Twitter account additionally reported shootings at protesters within the two northwestern Kurdish cities.

A college pupil who was on his method to be part of protests in Tehran mentioned he was not afraid of being arrested and even killed.

“They can kill us, arrest us however we won’t stay silent anymore. Our classmates are in jail. How can we stay silent?” the scholar, who requested to stay nameless, instructed Reuters.

Iran’s semi-official information companies performed down the protests throughout the capital Tehran. The ISNA company reported “restricted” demonstrations in about 10 areas of town and mentioned many Bazaar merchants had shut their retailers for worry of harm brought on by the unrest, denying there was a strike.

Internet watchdog NetBlocks mentioned that the web had been reduce in Sanadaj once more amid protests in Kurdish areas within the northwest. The group mentioned on Friday that “web stays regionally disrupted throughout #Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, #Iran, seven days after an escalation of violence and civilian killings by safety forces”.

Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Writing by Michael Georgy
Editing by Ros Russell and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

DUBAI, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Four folks had been killed in Iran’s Kurdish area on Monday when safety forces opened fireplace during protests over the death of a girl in police custody, a Kurdish rights group stated, on a 3rd day of turmoil over an occasion that has ignited nationwide anger.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-yr-outdated from Iran’s Kurdistan province, fell right into a coma and died following her arrest in Tehran final week by the morality police, sparking demonstrations in quite a few areas together with the capital. learn extra

Two of the folks had been killed as safety forces opened fireplace on protesters in the Kurdish metropolis of Saqez, Amini’s hometown, the Hengaw Human Rights Organisation stated on Twitter.

It stated two extra had been killed in the city of Divandarreh “by direct fire” from safety forces.

There was no official affirmation of the deaths.

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the reviews.

State TV stated plenty of protesters had been arrested however rejected “some claims of deaths on social media” by displaying two injured youths who denied reviews that they had been killed. Their names had been completely different to these in Hengaw’s report.

In the nationwide condemnations of Amini’s death, the Persian hashtag #MahsaAmini reached practically 2 million Twitter mentions.

The police have stated Amini fell in poor health as she waited with different girls being held by the morality police, who implement strict guidelines in the Islamic republic requiring girls to cowl their hair and put on free becoming garments in public.

But her father has repeatedly stated his daughter had no well being issues, including that she had suffered bruises to her legs. He held the police answerable for her death.

The protests have been most intense in the Kurdish area, the place the authorities have beforehand put down unrest by the Kurdish minority.

Hengaw stated 15 folks had been injured in Divandarreh.

A video posted on Twitter earlier by Hengaw confirmed protesters throwing rocks whereas a person might be heard saying “there is a war in Divandarreh” and accusing the police of attacking.

Reuters couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the video.

Internet blockage observatory NetBlocks reported “near-total disruption to internet connectivity in Sanandaj” – the provincial capital of the Kurdish area – on Monday, linking it to the protests, in response to its Twitter account.

In Washington, the White House demanded accountability for Amini’s death. learn extra

“Mahsa Amini’s death after injuries sustained while in police custody for wearing an ‘improper’ hijab is an appalling and egregious affront to human rights,” a White House spokesperson stated.

‘UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT’

Tehran Police commander Hossein Rahimi stated “cowardly accusations” had been made in opposition to police, that Amini suffered no bodily hurt, and the police had “done everything” to maintain her alive.

“This incident was unfortunate for us and we wish to never witness such incidents,” Rahimi stated.

A police video confirmed a girl recognized as Amini strolling right into a room and sitting down alongside others, earlier than quick-forwarding to indicate her on her toes speaking to somebody who was inspecting a part of her clothes.

The girl then raised her arms to her head and collapsed.

Offenders in opposition to Iran’s sharia, or Islamic legislation, face public rebuke, fines or arrest. But activists have just lately urged girls to take away veils regardless of the hardline rulers’ crackdown on “immoral behaviour”. learn extra

Masoud Barzani, former president of Iraq’s Kurdish area, despatched condolences to Amini’s household on Sunday, a press release stated.

In Tehran, a extensively-adopted Iranian protest Twitter account posted footage displaying what it stated was a protest at a college in opposition to the paramilitary Basij, a militia.

Other movies confirmed police utilizing a water cannon to disperse protesters in Tehran, and demonstrations spreading to cities similar to Rasht, Mashhad and Isfahan.

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the movies.

Vali Nasr of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies stated the protests mirrored pent up frustrations over issues together with “the ethnic issue, the hijab issue, as well as … unhappiness with the way in which authorities react and brutally handle the population”.

An official organisation that promotes Islamic morals urged reform to the best way Iran implements guidelines on hijab carrying, calling for much less policing and extra encouragement for ladies to abide by the foundations.

Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Ed Osmond, Leslie Adler and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

KINGSTON/NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) – The accession of King Charles to the British throne has stirred renewed calls from politicians and activists for former colonies within the Caribbean to take away the monarch as their head of state and for Britain to pay slavery reparations.

Charles succeeds his mom, Queen Elizabeth, who ruled for 70 years and died on Thursday afternoon.

The prime minister of Jamaica mentioned his nation would mourn Elizabeth, and his counterpart in Antigua and Barbuda ordered flags to half-staff till the day of her burial.

But in some quarters there are doubts in regards to the function a distant monarch ought to play within the twenty first century. Earlier this 12 months, some Commonwealth leaders expressed unease at a summit in Kigali, Rwanda, in regards to the passage of management of the 54-nation membership from Elizabeth to Charles.

And an eight-day tour in March by now heir-to-the-throne Prince William and his spouse, Kate, to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas was marked by calls for reparation funds and an apology for slavery.

“As the role of the monarchy changes, we expect this can be an opportunity to advance discussions of reparations for our region,” Niambi Hall-Campbell, a 44-year-old tutorial who chairs the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, mentioned Thursday.

Hall-Campbell despatched condolences to the Queen’s household and famous Charles’ acknowledgment of the “appalling atrocity of slavery” at a ceremony final 12 months marking the tip of British rule as Barbados turned a republic.

She mentioned she hopes Charles would lead in a manner reflecting the “justice required of the times. And that justice is reparatory justice.”

More than 10 million Africans have been shackled into the Atlantic slave commerce by European nations between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Those who survived the brutal voyage have been pressured to labor on plantations within the Caribbean and the Americas.

Jamaican reparations advocate Rosalea Hamilton mentioned Charles’ feedback on the Kigali convention about his private sorrow over slavery supplied “some degree of hope that he will learn from the history, understand the painful impact that many nations have endured ’til today” and tackle the necessity for reparations.

The new king didn’t point out reparations within the Kigali speech.

The Advocates Network, which Hamilton coordinates, printed an open letter calling for “apologies and reparations” throughout William and Kate’s go to.

The Queen’s grandchildren have the prospect to guide the reparations dialog, Hamilton added.

Jamaica’s authorities final 12 months introduced plans to ask Britain for compensation for forcibly transporting an estimated 600,000 Africans to work on sugar cane and banana plantations that created fortunes for British slave holders.

“Whoever will take over the position should be asked to allow the royal family to pay African people reparations,” mentioned David Denny, basic secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, from Barbados.

“We should all work towards removing the royal family as head of state of our nations,” he mentioned.

Jamaica has signaled it might quickly observe Barbados in ditching royal rule. Both stay members of the Commonwealth.

An August survey confirmed 56% of Jamaicans favor eradicating the British monarch as the head of state.

Mikael Phillips, an opposition member of Jamaica’s parliament, in 2020 filed a movement backing the removal.

“I am hoping as the prime minister had said in one of his expressions, that he would move faster when there is a new monarch in place,” Phillips mentioned on Thursday.

Allen Chastanet, a former St. Lucia prime minister and now chief of the opposition, advised Reuters he backed what he mentioned was a “general” motion towards republicanism in his nation.

“I certainly at this point would support becoming a republic,” he mentioned.

Reporting by Kate Chappell in Kingston; further reporting by Robertson Henry in St. Vincent and Michela Moscufo in New York
Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb
Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.