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The body of a man lies face up near a wall in Tehran, a victim of the bloody crackdown against protesters in Iran.
Using the website Twitter to get round a media blackout, students sent this and other shocking pictures to the Evening Standard today with the message: “We just want the world to know the truth.”
The man is one of at least 20 unarmed people believed to have been killed and scores wounded in five days of mass demonstrations following claims that president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rigged Friday's election.
There are reports that soldiers have been given orders to fire on protesters as the regime tries to control the biggest uprising since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago that swept the ayatollahs to power.
In an attempt to suppress images of the unrest, the Iranian government yesterday barred foreign media from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations.
The Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force answering to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Iranian websites and bloggers to remove any materials that “create tension”.
Iranians were barred from accessing sites through telecommunications networks and firewalls were put up blocking sites, but many have been able to get round the blocks using networking site Twitter which has become a vital method of communication with the outside world.
One user blogging under the name “Girlintehran” wrote: “The revolution guard wants us to stop posting messages. We just want the world to know.”
She then sent a message to the Standard linking to an image of a computer screen that had been smashed, pleading with us to “publish what is really going on”.
On Monday there were reports that four students had been killed in a raid on a dormitory at Tehran university amid claims that some were “thrown from windows” by secret police.
Many of the protests are being organised by students at universities across Iran.
They are leading the campaign to back defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi and want the election result to be annulled. Iranian students in Britain and the US are also playing a key role.
Twitter has become so crucial in providing a communication outlet for Iranians that the US state department yesterday persuaded bosses at the site to delay an upgrade that would have halted daytime service in Iran.
Twitter then moved its maintenance blackout so it would take place in the middle of the night in Iran.
Another user “IranRiggedElect” revealed in a post today: “France ambassador in Iran was summoned by the Iranian gov. after Sarkozy calling the results a fraud.”
Some used the site to make claims about the extent of the violence perpetrated by the Revolutionary Guard and their paramilitary group the Basiji.
User “2Hamed”, a student in Tehran, wrote: “Dead students bodies who were killed by Gov. were buried secretly.”
The user urged supporters to “wear green to show support for Mousavi” or “black to mourn martyrs”.
Another Twitter user reported that access to some sites was being blocked.
“Iranelections” wrote: “finally back on Twitter, severe problems in access to most services, including GMail, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Facebook.”
One student, Sara Ahmadi, from the Sharif university in Tehran, sent a message to the Standard with photographs of rooftop protests.
The activist for the Socialist Islamist group the People's Mujahideen of Iran, wrote today: “In most of the cities the revolutionary guards attacked people and shot them with guns.
“The protests are not being decreased, they are being repressed. The revolutionary guards have announced that they have the okay to shoot people, and more than 20 so far have been killed.”
Other sites including YouTube were used to post videos of the violence, including demonstrators being treated for gunshot wounds.
Today Mr Mousavi used his Facebook page to communicate with nearly 60,000 supporters, saying: “I ask the people to express their solidarity with the families .... by coming together in mosques or taking part in peaceful demonstrations.”
Internet analysts and bloggers were today describing this as “Twitter's finest hour”.
While the Iranian government has been able to block access to Facebook and YouTube intermittently, Iranians have managed to post messages and links on Twitter, which allows users to blog in 140-character bursts.
Bloodshed, mass protests, arrests and a media crackdown have focused world attention on Iran, the fifth-biggest oil exporter, which is locked in a nuclear row with the West.
The political earthquake set off by Friday's vote prompted President Obama, who had urged the Iranian leadership to “unclench its fist”, to say the upheaval showed that “Iranian people are not convinced with the legitimacy of the election”.
Major Western nations have questioned the fairness of the result which gave Mr Ahmadinejad a landslide victory. Discord within Iran's ruling system has never been so public.
The Mousavi camp is backed by traditional establishment figures, such as former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, concerned about how Mr Ahmadinejad's aggressive foreign policy and populist economics are shaping Iran's future.
Reader views (8)
jeremy e,home counties. you are so right!lets get brown out now!
- Russ, luton, 18/06/2009 09:08
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The presidential election campaign in Iran was "absolutely democratic," a Russian analyst Pavel Zarifullin, editor-in-chief of the Russian information and analytical website Geopolitikawho observed the disputed June 12 polls has said.
"I have been an observer at many elections, including Belarus and Moldova, but I have never seen such democratic elections as those in Iran," Zarifullin said at a press conference in Moscow.
Zarifullin said however that the riots had taken place in only two regions of Tehran and that the remainder of the capital was quiet. He also said it was calm in other regions in Iran because the rest of the country had largely supported the president.
- Kelly, Marsden UK, 18/06/2009 03:39
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My heart goes out to all of you protesting against this sham of an election. Why would the Govt. demand a media 'block out' if it were anything else? They don't seem to understand the meaning of Democracy - or they do but pay lip service to appease the West. Will be thinking of you and thanking my lucky stars that I am a product of the West and have the freedom to speak my mind here in Australia as I did in England and the US and even France 
- Adj, Tasmania, Australia., 18/06/2009 01:28
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every day my heart beats 4 the courageous iranians who are showing the whole world ""we dont want war ,nuke power , isolations and above all this stupid 4th century regim of total ignorance and foolish attitude of just wipe out the oppogition , its time now 4 all iranians 2 get out of silence and declare "democracy " against appaling religious totallirizm
long live iran and its great courageous nation
- Sam, tehran, 17/06/2009 21:43
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these are the desperate images of the pain and sacrifice untold millions have suffered to try and gain true democracy, not just today, but all our yesterdays.
it is a shameful insult to humanity and to this day is still true in places like burma, korea, sri lanka and many more too numerous to name.
even the 'democracy' in the u.k. is a pale imitation of what the spirit and nature of what TRUE DEMOCRACY should be.
we are the fortunate ones, relative to what is heaped upon too many on our planet.
we should weep and feel tremendous pain for so many others that inhabit our fragile spinning ball in the cosmos.
- M.O'Brien, london.uk, 17/06/2009 19:08
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Time for a change - lets hope its for the better.
- Jeremy E, Home Counties, 17/06/2009 17:45
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Any Nation or Government that stops the truth being known,; is a Nation or Government that cannot face the truth or face honesty; and will fall sooner or later.
If you have nothing to hide; you do not stop the World seeing, that you have nothing to hide.
Iran is showing the World it has much to hide; and in hiding it, it is to their eternal shame.
I wrote yesterday I was impressed with the ordinary Iranian people; they have great courage facing the armed forces of the State; whilst they are unarmed and have little fire power etc.
Governments and dictators are just the people in power that use force and threats to maintain power for them-selves; and you can beat them; because they are just ordinary people at the end of the day that bleed the same coloured blood as the rest of the masses.
If there is a God in Iran; then God Bless all Iranians; he will aid your fight for freedom and liberty.
But you will have to fight; to surrender is to forever be slaves of the State; the State fears people with courage; it only loves lambs that lay down in silence and obeys.
My roots are Irish; so I know what it takes to get freedom; and it took Ireland 700 years to get freedom, with much bloodshed along the way.
Good Luck to all you Iranians, remember you are not alone; the World has many dictators.
- Mickyinlondon, london, 17/06/2009 17:07
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How tragic that people have their lives taken away from them simply for wanting to be free from oppression. Let us hope that the will of the majority is recognised in Iran without further bloodshed.
- Adam, London, UK, 17/06/2009 16:45
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