IRAN: Students, once the backbone of Iran's reformist movement, heckled and harangued President Mohammad Khatami yesterday, accusing him of lacking the courage to deliver promised democratic reforms in the Islamic state.
"Khatami, what happened to your promised freedoms?", "Khatami, shame on you", "Students are wise, they detest Khatami", groups shouted as the moderate cleric attempted to address some 1,500 students at Tehran University.
The speech, held to mark Iran's annual Students Day, marked a nadir for Khatami's relations with students, who were a major force in his stunning electoral victories of 1997 and 2001.
Now nearing the end of his second and final term, which concludes in mid-2005, Khatami has lost the backing of even some of his most ardent supporters, many of whom feel he failed to stand up to hard-liners who have blocked his efforts at reform.
"Unfortunately, what Khatami sees as his tolerance, on the contrary was his extreme weakness towards the opponents of democracy," read part of a statement distributed by one pro-reform student group.
Khatami, shaken by the students' anger, defended his record and criticised powerful hard-liners who have jailed dissidents, closed newspapers and rejected key reform bills.
Analysts say Khatami, once seen by the West as a potential leader of change in the Islamic republic, is serving out his final months as a political lame duck.
Conservatives opposed to any dilution of Islamic values and the clerical grip on power are poised to regain the presidency in elections next year, after taking control of parliament in a vote last February. At times applauded and at others booed by the boisterous crowd jammed into a lecture theatre, Khatami lashed out with uncharacteristic anger when chants interrupted his speech.
"You are unable to tolerate anything, even words," he said.
Later he said that despite restrictions on free speech in Iran, where over 100 publications have been muzzled in the last four years, the situation was better than in many countries.
He said he still believed the path of reform would succeed.
"I really believe in this system and the [1979 Islamic] revolution and that this system can be developed from within." But for most present, Khatami's words merely underlined the impotence of a man whom they now view as part of a system unwilling to accept real change. - (Reuters)