Tuesday June 16, 2009
Cops fire tear gas to disperse Iranian protesters
By LAI PEI YEE, NG MIN XI and YAZREEN HARON
KUALA LUMPUR: Police fired tear gas at a group of about 700 Iranians, mostly students, who had gathered outside Wisma UN in Jalan Semantan after they refused to budge despite several warnings.
The Iranians had gathered to hand over a memorandum protesting developments in their homeland.
According to police, they were forced to use teargas to disperse the crowd, fearing that they would turn unruly.
Crowd control: Federal Reserve Unit personnel firing tear gas at the protesters in Kuala Lumpur Monday. The incident happened after the group, who had permission to gather outside the UN building at 2pm, handed over the memorandum to a UN representative voicing their grievances and dissatisfaction over the recently concluded elections in their country.
However, only a small group dispersed while most decided to hold a sit-in and created a ruckus outside the building. They refused to budge even after the police had issued them with warnings to disperse.
Their sit-in also caused a massive traffic jam along busy Jalan Semantan.
Brickfields OCPD Asst Comm of Police Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Talib said the group was to leave immediately after handing over the memorandum.
Show of anger: The Iranians voicing their dissatisfaction over the election results in their homeland in Kuala Lumpur Monday. “Despite our warnings, they refused to budge as they had wanted to give a speech for half an hour but we refused because they did not have a permit.”
“They continued shouting slogans against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and singing the Iranian national anthem,” he said, adding that the police had no choice but to fire the tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Immediately after the tear gas was fired, he said, the group went into a nearby building carpark before dispersing peacefully.
ACP Wan Abdul Bari said no one was injured or arrested during the incident.
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