Iran’s Basij militia turns strong arm against dissent

They have become the face of repression since Iran’s disputed June 12 elections, but the auxiliary security force known as the Basij once played a heroic role.

During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, volunteers as young as 13 in the Basij-e Mostazafan, or “Mobilization of the Oppressed,” walked through minefields to defend their country against the invading forces of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

With plastic keys around their necks promising immediate entry to heaven if they died, they formed a human wave that shielded more experienced soldiers.

In the years that followed, however, the Basij have become the enforcers of the Islamic republic, charged with putting down protests and policing behavior and dress.

Since anti-government demonstrations erupted after allegations of massive fraud in Iranian presidential elections, “the Basij are everywhere. In the streets, in the newspapers, on television,” said Mohsen Javani, a high school student in Tehran.

Protests have dwindled in the past few days since the deaths of more than 200 demonstrators and the arrests of several hundred opposition figures, said spokesmen for opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Eyewitness reports and videos sent by Iranians through social network sites have shown Basij members on motorcycles beating protesters.

In an apparent effort to save lives, Mr. Mousavi on Friday said he would seek permits for demonstrations in the future. But on Saturday, he repeated his demand that the entire ballot be annulled, saying a proposed partial recount “will not remove ambiguities,” according to a statement posted on his Web site, Reuters news agency reported.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose purported landslide re-election is in dispute, criticized President Obama for condemning the violent crackdown on demonstrators.

“You should know that if you continue, the response of the Iranian nation will be strong,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said in a speech to members of Iran’s judiciary, the Associated Press reported. “The response of the Iranian nation will be crushing. The response will cause remorse.”

Many Iranians suspect that a member of the Basij fatally shot Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman whose death on the street in Tehran on June 20 has become the iconic image of Iran’s pro-democracy movement.

Arash Hejazi, an Iranian doctor who said he tried to save Miss Agha-Soltan, told the British Broadcasting Corp. last week that he was at the scene and protesters saw a member of the Basij on a motorcycle nearby who was shouting, “I didn’t want to kill her.”

Dr. Hejazi said the protesters took the shooter’s photo and identity cards but let him go, wire agencies reported.

Iranian authorities have offered a variety of theories about who was responsible, from the CIA to the demonstrators themselves. Iranian state media first said the bullet that hit the young woman was of “foreign” origin. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a pro-regime cleric, said Friday at noon prayers that the protesters themselves killed Miss Agha-Soltan.

Mir Ali Mohammadi, press secretary at the Iranian mission to the United Nations, earlier told The Washington Times that Iranian police “have captured all people engaged in killing Ms. Agha-Soltan.”

He said that she was the apparent victim of a coordinated scenario in a propaganda war against Iran and that “a serious investigation into this unfortunate event is continuing.”

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