Hundreds may have died in Teheran’s fighting in streets

Press, 4 December 1978, Page 8

Hundreds may have died in Teheran’s fighting in streets

NZPA-Reuter Teheran The religious chants of thousands of antiGovernment demonstrators and the crackle of scattered gunfire faded early yesterday (local time) after the second successive display of mass defiance of a militaryenforced curfew in the Iranian capital, Teheran.

More than 24 hours aftei the street violence erupted, :here was no cleat indication of the scale of tasualties — in the dozens, the hundreds, or even 100 G lead as some street iemonstrators and Opposition sources claimed. Only 14 deaths had been reported by the Government ) r usually reliable eyewitnesses before the second evening of trouble lared. Thousands of antijovernment demonstrators shouted religious and antiSovemment slogans fot ibout three hours on Saturday night. Reports from different teighbourhoods indicated :hat the whole city was > 1 a n k e t e d by the lemonstrations, mast people :hanting their defiance from •ooftops, many in the streets. “There was far more noise ind far less shooting,” a senior Western diplomat said, comparing Saturday’s jwitb Friday night’s violence.

Sketchy reports from some of the trouble zones ’ suggested that troops were . mostly firing into the air. The curfew defiance, wave , of opposition to the Shah’s t rule, was fuelled by Shiite : Muslim fervour as Iran I entered the mourning month of Moharram. The main slogan heard in '■ all parts of Teheran was ' “Allah Akbar” — “Allah is ■ great.” ! But political slogans — “death to the Shah,” “An Islamic Government should be formed,” “Military rule ; should go,” and “Death to this kingdom” — were also 1 heard in some areas. This indicated support for \ the views of the Shah’s ; chief religious opponent, , Ayatollah Ruhollah ‘ Khomeiny, who was called , from exile in Paris for the , Shah to be replaced by an Islamic republic. : The Prime Minister i (General Gholamreza Azhari) : in a broadcast statement on i Saturday, blamed the fresh bout of trouble on enemies

of Iran, including the banned Tudeh (Communist) Party. : Troops were reported at the Khuzestan oil-fields in : southern Iran to guard against Sabotage and to step i in quickly in the event of another general walk-out. The pressure on foreigners working in Iran continued. Some Americans and i Westerners employed in the ; oil industry reported they had received threatening handbills which said their ’ lives were ,in danger if they did not leave Iran immediately. Diplomats said , many of them have sent i their families abroad for December as a precautionary measure while others have ignored the warnings. Speculation continued that the Shah was meeting with [ prominent political figures I to try to put together a 1 coalition to defuse the crisis. 1 But reliable sources said the monarch had been unable to ■ find the right combination, and had apparently put off i further attempts to find a i political solution until after ; Moharram.