D.C. MARCHERS PROTEST WAR OF IRAN, IRAQ

More than 7,500 Iranians marched through downtown Washington yesterday evening to protest the Iran-Iraq war in an almost unprecedented show of unity for the usually fractious Iranian emigre community.

The protesters snarled rush hour traffic as they marched from Dupont Circle to Lafayette Park in an expression of outrage at the bloody seven-year-old war, the cause of thousands of deaths on both sides.

The rally was the biggest in recent memory for the region's Iranians. It was prompted in part by the two nations' missile bombing of each others' cities, which started two months ago and which has caused hundreds of civilian deaths.

"We're appealing to all governments to stop selling weapons to Iran and Iraq, to stop the bloodshed," said Reza Ghanadan, a Georgetown University professor of English and a rally organizer.

Many demonstrators expressed deep anxiety about their families in Iran. Because of the bombing, many people have left Tehran and other major cities for the country. Some Iranians here are unable to locate relatives, and even when they do, they have trouble contacting them. Government phone operators monitor calls, restricting them to a few minutes and forbidding talk on many topics, the demonstrators said.

The demonstration, which emerged from months of intense negotiations by various Iranian factions, produced an unusual unity among the community's many political persuasions. Many said the huge majority dislike the Ayatollah Khomeini, but in their speeches and placards, they carefully avoided condemning him.

Although ralliers were sharply divided over whether the Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, should be the nation's leader, ralliers carried a special flag that put aside their differences. It had the red, white and green stripes of the Iranian flag, but no emblem: neither the eagle found on the Shah's flag nor the sword on Khomeini's.

The great majority of the ralliers, reflecting the prosperity of most Iranians here, were well-to-do professionals, business owners and students. Only a few women wore the traditional black head covering.

Some ralliers wore dark glasses even as dusk approached so they would not be recognizable in photographs. They said they feared government harassment if they returned to Iran.

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