Around 200 Arrested in Anniversary Protests

Iranians marked the one-year anniversary of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial reelection with little violence, as large numbers of riot police and security officials roamed the streets. There were only scattered reports of clashes between protesters and police forces around Tehran, the capital—the deputy police chief estimated the number of arrests to be "only a small number," while the Human Rights Activist News Agency cited the number as closer to 200. The mostly quiet public response came after Iranian officials made very clear that no protests would be tolerated. Opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, last year's election candidate against Ahmadinejad and leader of the Green Movement, held an online news conference reiterating the need for a freer public dialogue: "We need to spread awareness; this is what they fear," he said. Reports indicated that the government had cut off text messaging on cellphones and slowed Internet speed, curtailing the opposition movement's ability to communicate.