UPRISING ANNIVERSARY: Anti-Regime US Students Group Holds Presentations and Rallies in Washington

In a presentation at the US Senate on the anniversary of the July 1999 uprising, two pro-democracy Iranian student groups informed US lawmakers, their staff and Washington journalists about the history and promise of Iran’s student movement. July 9, 2004- In commemoration of the July 9, 1999 student uprising, the Washington-based anti-regime student group National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates in Iran held several meetings, including a presentation on Iranian student movement at the US Congress building last Wednesday, Nasser Rashidi, the Coalition’s executive director, tells Radio Farda’s Washington correspondent Parichehr Farzam. The presentation, titled “Voices of Democracy in Iran” was hosted in association with the Committee in Support of Referendum in Iran, and was sponsored by US Senators Mary Laudreio (D-Louisiana) and Wayne Allard (R-Colorado), he adds. “In the Senate presentation, several Iranian students in American universities were present and voiced their support for the Iranian student movement,” director of the Committee in Support of Referendum in Iran Hedayat Mostoufi says. We had invited all the human rights groups and organizations working on Iran and several American Middle East experts gave speeches about the impact of the student movement, he adds. Nasser Rashidi says he has information that in Isfahan, Tehran and several other cities, students held rallies and gatherings on the fifth anniversary of the student uprising, but these rallies were not covered by domestic media. Since March 2004, there has been 240 student strikes, sit-ins, demonstrations in Iran; and teachers have held more than 100 protests, rallies and strikes, he says.