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AuthorAuthorChicago Tribune
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Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini went to his grave Tuesday amid scenes of emotional frenzy unmatched since the dramatic mass demonstrations that brought his Islamic republic to power 10 years ago.

At one point, crowds of mourners brought Khomeini`s funeral procession to a halt and, in a moment of hysteria, ripped his white shroud to pieces, causing the body to fall to the ground. It was swiftly recovered and carried by helicopter to the vast Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery on the southern outskirts of Tehran.

Some mourners jumped into the ayatollah`s open grave before the helicopter arrived. But security forces cleared the area, and finally the 86- year-old spiritual and political leader`s body was removed from its coffin and placed in a plain grave.

An estimated 2.5 million Iranians, many weeping and rhythmically slapping their heads in sign of mourning, filled the streets of Tehran in a vast outpouring of grief for the man who overthrew a 2,000-year-old monarchy and wiped out American influence in this strategic country bordering the Soviet Union.

On Monday, 10 people were crushed to death during crowd scenes of mourning for Khomeini. There were additional casualties during the daylong funeral ceremonies but no immediate reports of more deaths.

Scores of people collapsed in searing 100-degree heat along the procession route. Their limp forms were passed from hand to hand over the heads of mourners jumping up and down while slapping their hands on top of their heads and crying ”Allahu akbar” (God is great).

One man trying to catch up with Khomeini`s funeral cortege drove his truck into a utility pole and was seriously injured. Others fell and were trampled underfoot before being carried away by waiting ambulances.

Khomeini, who toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with his 1979 revolution and then proclaimed the world`s first Islamic republic, died early Sunday of complications from surgery on May 23 to stop internal bleeding.

Iran`s 83-member Council of Experts, composed primarily of leading clergymen, met the same day and named President Ali Khamenei as his successor. But Khamenei, who as a young man was one of Khomeini`s theology students, is not expected to exert the mystical spell that surrounded his mentor.

Most experts on Iran have forecast a power struggle involving other, more influential figures, such as Hashemi Rafsanjani, the parliamentary speaker, and the ayatollah`s son, Ahmad Khomeini.

The government has proclaimed 40 days of mourning for the white-bearded leader who ruled this country of 50 million with a stern, unbending will for a turbulent decade.

Khomeini`s funeral ceremonies began shortly after daybreak with a somber prayer service before hundreds of thousands of black-clad mourners that gradually grew in emotional intensity.

On the dusty Mosaleh prayer ground in north Tehran, not far from Khomeini`s residence, smartly dressed troops carrying rifles with pink and red gladioluses in the barrels formed an honor guard while waves of helicopters brought in the turbaned religious leaders who form the country`s political ruling class.

Then Khomeini`s shrouded coffin, enclosed in a refrigerated glass case, emerged from a refrigerated black truck, and troops had difficulty maintaining order as the crowd surged forward.

A sobbing cleric recited prayers over a loudspeaker. The body was removed from the glass case and placed on an open bier.

When the hourlong ceremony ended, people in the crowd ran forward, snatched an Iranian flag atop the coffin and a green cloth-the color of Islam –that lay beneath the body.

The coffin tilted as it was carried back to the truck, threatening to spill the body onto the ground, but then it was righted and the truck sped away.

Scores of thousands ran after the truck, following it on foot as it began the 15-mile procession to the cemetery.

One paralyzed war veteran was nearly bowled over by the running crowd, but a man lifted him from his wheelchair and ran with him to safety.

Thousands more joined the crowd from adjacent streets, and Tehran was brought virtually to a halt for the rest of the day.

During the revolution, crowds of up to 1 million routinely turned out for the pro-Khomeini demonstrations that eventually toppled the Shah. But Tuesday`s crowds, swelled by Iranians pouring in from outlying towns and by one large group from neighboring Pakistan, dwarfed those of a decade ago.

Firefighters trained powerful jets of water from hoses on the crowd all along the route to try to relieve the heat and thirst of the mourners. But the heat did not appear to affect the energy or enthusiasm of the vast majority who continued their frenzied, arm-waving jumping.

Some men smeared their hair with dirt as a sign of mourning. The swirling crowds engulfed the funeral cortege and finally brought it to a halt. Authorities announced that the burial plans had been suspended because the crowds had become uncontrollable.

But then a military helicopter flew in to take the body the last stretch to the cemetery, where Khomeini had given his first speech upon his triumphal return to Iran from exile in France in 1979. As the body was removed from the black truck, people in the crowd rushed forward, grabbed the white shroud and ripped it to pieces.

The body fell but was retrieved, and the helicopter swept away.

Touching the funeral shroud of a loved one, or holding a piece of it, is considered a blessing in Moslem Iran.

There was more bedlam when the helicopter landed just outside the cemetery, but army troops and members of the revolutionary guard had managed to clear the vast, dusty field in which a simple grave had been dug. The body was removed from its coffin and, wrapped in a new shroud, placed in the shallow grave.

Khomeini`s head was covered by the black turban he habitually wore, with black signifying descent from the Prophet Mohammed. The crowds continued milling about the cemetery, demonstrating their devotion to the ayatollah, long after the ceremony was ended.