Modus Operandi

Benno Ohnesorg was a German student,participating in a demonstration in Berlin, protesting the visit of the ex-Shah of Iran in June 2,1967, according to all his friends, that was his first ever demo he took part in. Due to the overreactions of some fanatic protesters, provoked by pro Shah agents,havoc and confusion took over and a shot was fired by a police officer that killed Benno Ohnesorg on the spot. The name of the officer who shot Benno was K.H.Kurras.The killing of Benno Ohnesorg caused a chain reaction in radicalizing left-wing student movements and subsequently led to the creation of a terrorist group called the R.A.F. (Red Army Fraction).This group was responsible for many kidnappings,assassinations and Bombings in the 70's and the 80's.Notibaly,the most important fact, is the recent(after almost 40 years)discovery and confession of K.H.Kurras (the officer who shot Benno)that he was an agent of the East German secret service "Stasi" and the shooting was no accident, that the radicalization and division of the German society was the main objective.

Nedda Agha-Soltan, was a 27 year old Iranian woman, taking part in probably her first ever demonstration, protesting allegations of fraud in the Iranian presidential election. She had not yet reached the demonstrations, where she parked her car and while analyzing the situation ahead, was suddenly shot by an unknown assailant in the chest, Neda died on the spot as Benno did 40 years prior, without even being politically oriented to one or the other candidate in that particular election. Her death was filmed and distributed across the world(as was Benno's death photo), and ironically, radicalized quite a few of Iran's youth.The assailant has not been found yet, but fact is the bullet was of a small caliber, meaning a lot but experience shows, masses and mobs, believe what they want to believe.The press, depending whose side they are on, irresponsibly use and abuse her last seconds in life by spooling back and forth her heartbreaking death, making direct accusations, thus radicalizing unexperienced young minds into arson and other civil unrest. (Just as the "Stasi" was doing with West-German youths in the 70's).

The fates of Benno and Nedda could not be more similar,so tragic and unnecessary, yet judging from history, one should expect far reaching implications. I suspect both were victims of random targeted assassinations to achieve a politically unifying symbolic status. As the East-German Plot caused years of terrorism in the West-German society and beyond, the Nedda killing is supposed to have been the "First Blood" syndrome, hoping to create a chain reaction amongst the Iranian youth into an avenging mob, which (they hope)should cause more deaths and yet more radicalizations. Let us hope in the new decade, we all become a little bit more civil, thoughtful and patient, and a little less reactionary . Iranians ought to remember, Nedda is dead because those wanting chaos in Iran, consider Iranians stupid reactionaries. Lets save future Nedda's by understanding who really was and is the beneficiary of Nedda's death.