Supporters, opponents of Iran govt clash at funeral

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Supporters, opponents of Iran govt clash at funeral

TEHRAN | Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:10pm EST

(Reuters) - Supporters and opponents of the Iranian government clashed on

Wednesday at a funeral for a student shot dead during an opposition rally, with

both sides claiming him as one of their own.

State television showed thousands of government supporters at Tehran University

for the funeral of Sanee Zhaleh, one of two people shot dead on Monday during

the first opposition rally for more than a year. Each side blames the other for

the killings.

Monday's rally, in support of the people of Egypt and Tunisia, was the first

major unrest since a wave of arrests, trials and at least two executions in

response to huge protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 2009

re-election.

" Students and the people attending the funeral ceremony of the martyred student

Sanee Zhaleh have clashed with a limited number of people, apparently linked to

the sedition movement, and forced them out by chanting slogans of death to

hypocrites, " said the website of the state broadcaster IRIB.

The semi-official Fars news agency said Zhaleh had been a member of the Basij,

the volunteer militia connected to the elite Revolutionary Guards which put down

the 2009 protests.

Opposition websites did not deny Zhaleh was a member of the Basij, which has

millions of members throughout Iran, but said he attended Monday's rally as an

active opposition supporter.

" University occupied by the military -- martyr's body carried on the shoulders

of murderers, " read a headline on opposition website Kaleme after Zhaleh's

coffin, draped in the Iranian flag, was carried through the streets by Basijis

and government supporters.

Kaleme said the university's arts faculty, where the 26-year-old was a student,

was " occupied " from early morning by pro-government militants. It said several

people were attacked and a large number arrested.

" The martyr's fellow students were standing against the walls watching a large

crowd of strangers who had entered the university, " Kaleme quoted Sajjad Rezaie,

head of the faculty's Islamic Association, as saying.

The fight to claim Zhaleh as a martyr mirrors the struggle to take credit for

the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Iran's government says they follow Iran's

own 1979 Islamic Revolution which toppled the Western-backed shah, but the

opposition says the revolts were inspired by its own 2009 protests.

President Barack Obama said he hoped the Iranian people would continue to have

the courage to demand greater freedom.

" I find it ironic that you've got the Iranian regime pretending to celebrate

what happened in Egypt, when in fact they have acted in direct contrast to what

happened in Egypt by gunning down and beating people who were trying to express

themselves peacefully, " Obama told a White House news conference on Tuesday.

SECOND MARTYR

Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi hailed Monday's rally as a " glorious " event

by a " magnificent movement. " Reformist websites said an estimated 1,500 people

had been arrested.

Mehdi Karroubi, the other main opposition leader, said Monday's rally had been

turned violent by " individuals whose role and affiliation with specific

institutions is evident to all. "

Tehran's deputy police chief Ahmadreza Radan said only about 150 people turned

up. A second person died of gunshot wounds on Tuesday and a further eight people

who had been shot were being treated in hospital, he was quoted as saying by

Fars.

By Wednesday there were tributes to Zhaleh and the other victim, 22-year-old

Mohammad Mokhtari, on the social media website Facebook, hailing both as victims

of state brutality.

Authorities have blamed " terrorist " elements for the violence at Monday's

unauthorized rally. A large majority in parliament signed a motion for the

opposition leaders, who both say they are living under virtual house arrest, to

be tried, calling them " corrupts on earth. "

Being " corrupt on earth " is a charge which has been leveled at political

dissidents in the past. It is a capital offence.

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)