‘No internet, no witness!’ Bloomington rally condemns Iran’s lethal crackdown, communications blackout

On Sunday afternoon (Jan. 18) under sunny skies with temperatures in the low 20s, around 60 Bloomington residents gathered on the northeast corner of the courthouse square to protest recent atrocities in Iran.

They called for an end to the current theocratic government there with chants like “Free Iran!” and “Democracy for Iran!” Signs held by protestors included one that said: “If your activism skips Iran, it’s not activism.”

One protestor described the Bloomington residents in the group as Iranian expatriates and Indiana University students.

Based on several news reports, the Iranian government has in recent weeks killed thousands, after a wave of protests that began around Dec. 28 over the country’s ailing economy. Demonstrations then morphed into a direct challenge to the Islamic Republic, according to Associated Press reporting.

A continuing communications blackout has made it hard to know how many people have been killed or what exactly is happening on the ground, according to AP reporting. AP reported that Iranian authorities cut internet access nationwide and disrupted international calls, a move tracked by outside monitoring groups.

“No internet, no witness!” was one of the slogans chanted by Bloomington protestors. A flyer distributed by local protestors put the number of people killed by the Iranian government in one four-day period at more than 12,000.

According to AP reporting, a senior Iranian cleric has called for the execution of detained demonstrators.

AP has reported the in-country protests to be mostly “leaderless” but one Bloomington demonstrator pointed The B Square to exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as the leader of the current movement. Some local demonstrators held posters of Pahlavi.

U.S. President Donald Trump has thanked Iranian leaders for not carrying out mass executions—an indication, AP says, that he may be stepping back from the prospect of a U.S. military strike. Executions, as well as the killing of peaceful protesters, are two of the red lines laid down by Trump for possible action against Iran, according to the AP.

One local Bloomington protester told The B Square that the Iranian government brings in militia from neighboring countries like Iraq and Yemen, who set up machine guns in the street and “slaughter” demonstrators.

The Bloomington protests against the Iranian government are a weekly event, said one protester. It’s one way to cut through the rest of the noise in the news, he said.

The protest, which collected some honks of support from passing motorists, wrapped up with a clockwise lap around the courthouse square.