TEHRAN - Iranian authorities have freed 200 demonstrators after deadly clashes between security forces and ethnic Arabs in Khuzestan province but 144 others are still being held, state television reported Wednesday.
"About 200 arrested in the recent troubles in Ahvaz have been released," said the town's prosecutor Amir Khani, quoted on the television. "The families of the others can pay bail for their release."
He said the judicial authorities would "deal firmly with the instigators of the troubles, who number 10".
Five people were killed in the clashes which broke out Friday in the Arab-majority Khuzestan province, according to a new toll announced by interior ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mussavi-Lari, quoted by the official news agency IRNA, said "counter-revolutionary groups and (Internet) sites which try to provoke ethnic tensions" were to blame.
The unrest which continued until Monday morning appears to have been sparked by a forged letter, dating back seven years and attributed to former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, calling for modifications to the ethnic composition of Khuzestan.
However the authorities have made clear they have no intention of changing the ethnic balance of the province in favour of non-Arab Iranians.
The Tehran bureau of the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera was temporarily shut by the Iranian authorities on Monday for allegedly inciting the violence with its coverage of events.
Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani said all those arrested in the troubles, which started in the province's main city of Ahvaz before spreading to other towns, would be released.
04/20/2005 17:48 GMT