A CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR 30000'S MEK VICTIMS
By Arash Nikzad
Thousands of political prisoners who were extra judicially executed in the summer of 1988 are buried in unmarked mass graves including Khavaran, a deserted gravesite in south Tehran.
Most of those executed had already spent years in prison for the peaceful political activities including distributing newspapers and leaflets, taking part in peaceful anti-government demonstrations, and having real or perceived affiliations with various political opposition groups. Some had already completed their sentences but had not been released because they refused to make statements of “repentance”.
Almost after three decades, nobody knows exactly how many prisoners were executed and precisely where the victims were buried in secret. Up to now, no Iranian officials have been investigated and brought to before court.
The massacre of 1988 remains to be one of the darkest stains on the modern history of Iran.
Some human rights experts have described it as the greatest crime against humanity in the 20th Century following World War II that has gone unpunished.
It is the darkest irony of this very dark episode, that of all its human rights violations the Iranian regime has been most successful at keeping the 1988 killings a secret from the international community and even from many Iranians. Despite many pieces of evidence such as the audio tape of Montazeri which was released in August 2016 by his son the tape for the first time revealed the details of the mass extrajudicial executions of 1988. The audio file has revived calls for an inquiry into the killings of several thousand political prisoners in a wave of extrajudicial executions across the country during 1988.
The Iranian regime continues to deny the 1988 elimination of opposition prisoners. None of the perpetrators or masterminds have been brought to justice and none of the regime’s senior officials including the current Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, have been held accountable.
The pervasive silence of the past 28 years should be shattered. The UN should launch an independent investigation into one of the hideous crimes against humanity after the Second World War.
on the memorial of thirty thousands of rose flowers
Thousands of political prisoners who were extra judicially executed in the summer of 1988 are buried in unmarked mass graves including Khavaran, a deserted gravesite in south Tehran.
Most of those executed had already spent years in prison for the peaceful political activities including distributing newspapers and leaflets, taking part in peaceful anti-government demonstrations, and having real or perceived affiliations with various political opposition groups. Some had already completed their sentences but had not been released because they refused to make statements of “repentance”.
Almost after three decades, nobody knows exactly how many prisoners were executed and precisely where the victims were buried in secret. Up to now, no Iranian officials have been investigated and brought to before court.
The massacre of 1988 remains to be one of the darkest stains on the modern history of Iran.
Some human rights experts have described it as the greatest crime against humanity in the 20th Century following World War II that has gone unpunished.
It is the darkest irony of this very dark episode, that of all its human rights violations the Iranian regime has been most successful at keeping the 1988 killings a secret from the international community and even from many Iranians. Despite many pieces of evidence such as the audio tape of Montazeri which was released in August 2016 by his son the tape for the first time revealed the details of the mass extrajudicial executions of 1988. The audio file has revived calls for an inquiry into the killings of several thousand political prisoners in a wave of extrajudicial executions across the country during 1988.
The Iranian regime continues to deny the 1988 elimination of opposition prisoners. None of the perpetrators or masterminds have been brought to justice and none of the regime’s senior officials including the current Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, have been held accountable.
The pervasive silence of the past 28 years should be shattered. The UN should launch an independent investigation into one of the hideous crimes against humanity after the Second World War.
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