The New York Times – TEHRAN — The first anniversary of Iran’s disputed presidential election passed largely without violence on Saturday, as protesters generally stayed off the streets amid a heavy presence of the riot police.
There were reports of sporadic clashes between the police and protesters around the city, including a large group of students at Tehran University. Demonstrators also showed up along many parts of Enghelab, or Revolution, Street, one of Tehran’s longest thoroughfares, and a small group of protesters gathered on Jomhouri Avenue near the Hafez Bridge.
Reports of arrests varied. Deputy Police Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said “only a small number” of people were taken into custody in Tehran. But the Human Rights Activist News Agency said that at least 200 people were arrested, with many loaded into vans and taken away.
Police and security officials made clear in the days leading up to the anniversary of the disputed election that they would not tolerate any protests. The warnings prompted Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the opposition Green Movement, to cancel plans for a demonstration on Saturday.
But on Friday, Mr. Moussavi made clear that the desire to press for more political and social freedoms was not extinguished.
“We need to spread awareness; this is what they fear,” Mr. Moussavi said in what he called a cyber-news conference.
One year ago Saturday, Iranians took to the streets by the tens of thousands when the government announced that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election in a landslide, defeating Mr. Moussavi, the main reform candidate. The government relied on a severe crackdown to quell the unrest, a campaign that continued this year, with reports that activists at Tabriz University had been arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.
In Tehran, witnesses reported a heavy police presence, according to Iranian Web sites.
One confrontation between police and protesters occurred under the Hafez Bridge about 2:30 p.m. when riot police tried to arrest an older woman who had started shouting antigovernment slogans. The reports on Iranian Web sites said that several hundred people rushed to the scene and forced the police to retreat without taking the woman away.
There were also reports that the government had cut off text messaging on cellphones, undermining the opposition’s primary method of organizing, and slowed the internet to limit the ability to communicate with the outside world.
But some opposition supporters said they had a duty to at least try to go out. “We are a wave for which our complacency is our nonexistence,” a schoolteacher said to a friend as he headed to the street.
After dark, rooftop chants of “God is great” echoed across the city, mimicking what had been a symbol of defiance to the shah. On Saturday, it was a direct, yet safely anonymous challenge to Iran’s current leadership.
