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Iranian Basij Militia Member Describes Election Abuse

(Channel 4-UK) Lindsey Hilsum - Now seeking refuge in the UK, a defecting member of Iran's infamous Basij militia spoke about the orders he was given to ensure President Ahmadinejad won the election. "The orders for all that you witnessed came before the election....For three or four months before the election we attended classes on ideological and political thought and crowd control." "We had received orders a matter of months before that there is the jurisprudence of the Imam Zaman (the 12th Imam, who is expected to return like a Messiah), whose incarnation is Ayatollah Khamenei, and that he had announced that for the advancement and development of Islam and the development of the revolution, no one could be more effective than Ahmadinejad. Therefore the order came that Khamenei has Ahmadinejad in mind for the presidency and so he must be announced as the winner." "For us who were responsible for the ballot boxes the order was this: that Khamenei's wish is for Ahmadinejad to win. For illiterate people and those not able to complete their ballots, you must do so for them and complete them accordingly (for Ahmadinejad), no matter who their vote was intended for. Same with blank votes....After the voting was over it was only us who were there. We were honest in that the command was followed." After the elections, "any hint of protest was to be firmly suppressed....I had witnessed attacks before but never at this level. People wouldn't stay back, they couldn't be suppressed and we were really in trouble....They would be dispersed, then gather again and come back. They were standing up to us....We had permission to shoot." "I saw everything you can imagine, from the beating of an old man who could barely walk to the beating of a small child who couldn't reach for his mother's hand." "The command was to arrest as many 12-18-year-olds as possible and bring them back. They said this group caused the most trouble so the idea was not to give them any opportunity to congregate....Several locations had been prepared to take them and keep them there. They had some containers ready....Over 18s went into one container and the under 18s into the several other containers....Then we heard noise from the yard....The sound came from the containers. The sound of screams and pleading and crying....I couldn't believe that they would want to do such a thing: to rape."
2009-12-18 08:24:54
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