UN urges restraint over reports of multiple deaths in Iran protests

The United Nations has urged Iran to end its shutdown of the internet and ensure its security services show restraint after the “clearly very serious” extent of casualties in protests that have swept the country in response to steep rises in petrol prices.

The office of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of live ammunition being used against demonstrators.

It remains unclear how many people have been arrested, injured or killed in the protests that began on Friday and quickly spread across at least 100 cities and towns in Iran. Authorities shut down internet access to the outside world on Saturday, an outage that persisted on Monday and Tuesday across the nation of 80 million people.

“We are especially alarmed that the use of live ammunition has allegedly caused a significant number of deaths across the country,” UN spokesman Rupert Colville said in a statement. Colville added that it has been “extremely difficult” to verify the overall death toll.

Iranian officials say 12 protesters and members of Iran’s security forces have died and that more than 600 people have been arrested. But the UN put the figure for deaths in the dozens, and called on the government to “immediately to re-establish Iranians’ access to the internet, as well as other forms of communication, which allow for freedom of expression and access to information”.

Amnesty International said on Monday it believed at least 106 people to have been killed, citing what it called “credible reports”.

Iranian journalists have alleged in reports that the number of shootings by the security forces numbers well over 100, and that families have been refused the chance to see their loved one’s body.

The fuel price rises represent yet another burden on Iranians, who have suffered through a painful currency collapse, following President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and the re-imposition of crippling US sanctions.

Reports out of Iran confirm widespread and diffuse protests but the shutdown of the internet combined with tight state controls on the media make the scale of the protests difficult to assess.

The whole of the Islamic republic has been largely offline since the internet restrictions were imposed the day after the nationwide demonstrations broke out on Friday.

“Many professions and banks... have faced problems, and we have been trying to solve this,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei told the semi-official news agency ISNA on Tuesday “The internet will come back gradually in some provinces where there are assurances the internet will not be abused”.

The Judiciary issued sharp warnings about those known to be sending videos of protests abroad. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaeili said on Tuesday that people who had been videotaping recent protests in Iran and were being sent to “alien and enemy networks” were being identified.

Esmaeili said in a news conference that the Islamic Republic’s judiciary would adopt a “punitive” policy against those who “loot or destroy” public property

He said that “everybody is responsible for their actions” and called on the people to separate their actions from “rioters” and instead to refer them to “security and law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.”

Iranian government newspapers also reported in copious detail pictures and videos of “spontaneous” counter-riot demonstrations that were being organised across the country not to show support for the price rise, but to oppose the violence and agitators.

Cheap petrol is practically considered a birthright in Iran, home to the world’s fourth-largest crude oil reserves despite decades of economic woes since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Petrol in the country remains among the cheapest in the world, with the new prices jumping 50% to a minimum of 15,000 rials per litre.

Government officials continued to justify the surprise measure not as a revenue-raising effort, but instead a means to cut distorting subsidies, lower domestic energy consumption and boost oil exports. The vast bulk of the revenue raised will be transferred into direct payments to the population, especially to the poor. Elaborate calculations appeared in the official press to show that the price increases will not go back into the government coffers.

But there was an acknowledgement by Reformists and Conservatives alike that the announcement had been badly handled, with little advance warning. Concern was also expressed that the direct subsidies will reach the poorest that do not have bank accounts. The corruption at the highest level openly admitted by leading government figures also creates an environment of distrust in which any major government economic policy shift leads to anger.

Iran has also tried to rally domestic support by claiming foreign interference was behind the protests.