But the visitors come nonetheless to pay their respects to Agha-Soltan, who was fatally shot by an unknown assailant during the protests Saturday over Iran's disputed presidential election. Her dying moments were captured in a video that made its way onto the Internet and the international airwaves.
"I read the news on the Web, and I saw the picture of the grave," said one man, hovering near the burial site. "I figured out the location of the grave and came.
"We are here for Neda and our deceased relatives too," he said. "We are here to utter our respect for them."
The man said that he too was in the street that day.
Another man who came to pay tribute said he found it amazing that the government was fighting against ordinary people.
"Not even the politicians, or some students, but normal people in the streets," he said in disgust.
"All of us are in danger, like Neda," said a third man at the grave site.
"Now the military has taken the power and prevents us from paying our respects. It's not a big request! We want respect to Neda."
@LATimes
Authorities Rule Iran Election ‘Healthy’
"We naturally express our most serious concern about the use of force and the death of civilians," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on the sidelines of a meeting of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Italy.
"We count on all questions which have arisen in the context of the elections being resolved in accordance with democratic procedures," Lavrov said.
Russia and China earlier this month congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his controversial re-election as he attended a summit in Russia.
Group of Eight powers deplored the post-election violence in Iran on Friday and called on Tehran to resolve the crisis soon through democratic dialogue.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Conor Sweeney; editing by Robert Woodward)
Security was tight around the bare grave of Neda Agha-Soltan on Thursday. Militiamen and police stood nearby, witnesses said, and it was difficult for visitors to hold a conversation within sight and hearing of the glaring officers.
But the visitors come nonetheless to pay their respects to Agha-Soltan, who was fatally shot by an unknown assailant during the protests Saturday over Iran’s disputed presidential election.@LATIMES
Is the dream already over?
'S - p - i - damn'!
In the latest sign that the regime is not bending, Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, a senior cleric, said during nationally broadcast Muslim sermon on Friday that the government should punish "leaders of the riots, who were supported by Israel and the U.S., strongly and with cruelty."
In his sermon at Tehran University, Khatami also accused foreign journalists of false reporting on post-election Iran.
He alleged that an icon of the protests, Neda Agha Soltan, was killed by protesters, not Iranian security forces quelling unrest. "Forces of the government do not shoot at a lady standing in a side street," he said of Soltan, who was shot to death a week ago.
