How Iranian security forces use ambulances to put down protests

In early October, about a month after the Iranian anti-government protests began, a Tehran resident reported seeing at least three protesters being herded into an ambulance during a student-led demonstration. But the resident said the protesters didn’t appear to be injured.

Around the same time, Niki, a university student from Tehran, reported seeing security forces use ambulances to stop protesters at an intersection.

“They grabbed people,” she said. “They loaded them into the ambulance, turned off the lights. There were a lot of people behind it.”. The ambulance then drove down the street, he added. “I didn’t see where they put people, but there were normal people inside, like girls.”

Protests calling for widespread social and political change that erupted in September led to a brutal crackdown by Iranian security forces, cwith more than 14,000 people arrestedaccording to the United Nations.

The repression

At least 326 people were killed, according to Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based NGO. The demonstrations started after the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, under the custody of the “moral police” from Iran and were mostly led by women.

Part of that crackdown, according to witnesses and dozens of videos and images reviewed by The New York Times, involved the use of ambulances by security forces to infiltrate protests and detain protesters. Nearly all of the witnesses interviewed by the Times spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

This use of ambulances, which according to experts violates international standards of medical impartiality, proves it How far has the government come? to try to crack down on demonstrations across the country.

“People will be afraid to seek medical care, which means more people will die,” said Rohini Haar, an adjunct associate professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “Healthcare has credibility because of the idea of ​​impartiality. It’s the basic idea of ​​’do no harm’ and the misuse of ambulances clearly violates that.”

In an interview via an encrypted messaging app, a 37-year-old restaurateur he described seeing ambulances entering college campuses during the protests almost every day and uniformed security forces coming out.

He works near three major universities in Tehran, where he sees daily protests. He has also attended other protests and said he also saw security forces use ambulances there.

Witnesses who witnessed the protests in Tehran spoke of how plainclothes policemen, known as Basjion October 2, during a demonstration at Sharif University, students were forced into the back of an ambulance.

One of the witnesses reported seeing the Basiji beat one of the students, who was on the ground and covered in bruises, with a truncheon before pushing him and another protester into an ambulance and walking away.

plainclothes police

A video, the whereabouts of which was mentioned by a Twitter user and independently verified by The Times, which appears to have been shot from inside a car, shows an ambulance on fire, apparently after being attacked by protesters. Someone in the car yells: “They’re saving the girls! Out!” when the car approaches the ambulance.

The video shows a man dressed in what appears to be the Iranian National Police uniform getting out of the ambulance and fleeing the vehicle. He is briefly chased by a group of people before escaping.

The Times showed the video to Afshon Ostovar, an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, who focuses on Iranian national security. “He definitely looks like a NAJA officer,” Ostovar said in an interview, using the acronym for Iran’s national police force.

“He’s not a paramedic. The uniform and the firearm They are unsuspected objects”. The firearm Ostovar refers to may be in the holster strapped to the man’s back as he runs from the ambulance in the video.

While the video does not show who set the ambulance on fire, another video from a different angle shows the same ambulance being pushed by a crowd of people.

The Times has analyzed and geolocated the projection of videos and photos ambulances entering or leaving police stationsor located right outside of them, in at least six locations across the country.

Two of the places have nearby hospitals according to Google Maps, but the video of one of these places clearly shows the ambulance heading to the police station.

Though the videos and photos don’t show who is being transported, a former emergency room doctor said there is no legitimate medical reason so that the ambulances are in the police stations.

“I can say with almost 100% accuracy that this never happens,” said Dr. Amir Alishahi Tabriz, who previously worked at Loghman-e Hakim and Torfeh hospitals in Tehran in 2013. He now resides in the US and works with doctors in Iran to help their patients get treatment after they are injured in a protest.

The use of ambulances

“People don’t feel safe going to emergency rooms or hospitals. They know the forces are waiting for them to catch them,” she said. “When patients need help, we send them to health centers in the middle of the night.”

The use of ambulances to detain people has sparked outrage in the Iranian medical community. A video posted to Twitter on Oct. 4 and verified by the Times shows health workers demonstrating in front of Razi University Hospital in Rasht, holding placards reading: “The Basijis are not students” and “Ambulances should be used to transport patients.”

Another video posted to Twitter on October 21, intentionally obfuscated to protect the identity of the subjects, shows a demonstration that appears to be at the Mashhad Medical Society building.

At the rally, a speaker read out a statement condemning the use of ambulances and medical symbols by the security forces: “We would like it to stop to gain social trust.”

The Times verified that the room seen in the blurred images matched archival footage of the amphitheater in the Mashhad Medical Society building.

Dr Haar, of the Berkeley School of Public Health, said the work of the medical community during protests and civil unrest is protected by international law of human rights.

“The principles of impartiality and independence, the care of the wounded and the non-abuse of the medical emblem for political purposes are universally accepted foundations on which the entire medical system rests,” he said. “Medical workers They have an obligation to care for the wounded and sick.. And the government has an obligation to help us do that.”

Aside from the protests in Rasht and Mashhad, other members of the medical community have expressed concerns about the misuse of ambulances. On October 22, the Islamic Republic of Iran Medical Council, the licensing and regulatory body for health care workers, expressed concern over the use of ambulances for non-medical transport.

For many in Iran, the use of ambulances to put down protests increases their distrust in the country’s health system. There have been several reports of Iranians injured during the protests and detained after receiving medical treatment in hospitals.

In an interview, a Tehran protester said that many people are treating their wounds at home instead of going to the hospital due to a climate of fear.

“We felt more insecure when we saw the police. But we have unlocked a new level of fear. Now we feel the greatest pain when we see ambulances,” said a protester from Tehran. “And whenever we are stuck in traffic, now the dilemma is, what if there is a real patient there? Or if they want to kill us?”.

The New York Times

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