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How History will judge us. Let justice be served!

During the summer of 1988, thousands of Iranian political prisoners were taken from their cells and were executed. All over Iran, men and women, and even juveniles were blindfolded and shot, or hanged in prison yards and prayer halls.  None were given a chance to a fair trial. Instead, they were asked a few questions by those who later became to be better known as the “Commissioners of Death”, and depending on what the prisoners responded to the Commissioners of death’s questions, they were sentenced to death; either by firing squad or by hanging. These prisoners had survived the earlier mass executions of the 80s and were serving their long sentences. Many had even already completed their sentence but would not be released unless they repented!

Because of the harsh media censorship imposed by the state and the oppressive political climate in Iran, there are no exact figures of the number of victims. But so far, there are around 5,000 known names which have been documented by their families, political parties and other human rights organizations.

The bodies of the executed were buried in undisclosed mass graves. To this day, many families still do not know where their loved ones are buried. The Islamic Republic of Iran refuses to give any information about the locations of these graves, but a number of them have been discovered by the victims’ families. “Khavaran” cemetery in the south-western suburbs of Tehran is the most well-known of such mass graveyards. This is an abandoned and derelict cemetery which belongs to the Bahai faith.

The mass genocide of the political prisoners during the 1980, and in particular in the summer of 1988, was the climax of a massive drive in order to physically eliminate any opposition to the rule of the Islamic Republic in Iran. During this period, around 20,000 dissidents were vanquished by the state. They either lost their lives under torture or were executed by firing squads or hanged. According to those who survived the killings, young female detainees were repeatedly and savagely raped by their executioners, in accordance to the Islamic “Sharia” Laws, before they faced their fate. Raping a female prisoner before her execution is a common practice in Islamic Republic’s jails as the Islamic “Sharia” Laws forbid the execution of virgin girls. This barbaric act of crime is committed in order to prevent the dissenting females to go to “Heaven”!   

This has been documented by the former political prisoners, the victims’ families, the Iranian opposition groups and human rights organisations such as “Amnesty International” and “Human Rights Watch”.

Over the years, the families of the victims, former political prisoners, the opposition political parties and human rights organizations and individuals have made continuous and tireless efforts in their campaigns to expose the mass genocide and crimes perpetrated by the Islamic Republic to the world.
Despite all the efforts made, the world at large is not yet fully aware of the scale of these human tragedies.

Family members, especially the children, whose parents were executed, have had one main aspiration in life over all these years; and that is to bring to justice the murderers of their loved ones. All those who lost their loved ones are still suffering to date and have been deeply and profoundly affected by the inflicted pain.

However, for obvious reasons, they cannot seek justice in Iran. Investigating the killings and holding the perpetrators of these murders to account is practically impossible in Iran, as many of those directly or indirectly responsible, continue to occupy seats of power.
In Islamic Republic of Iran, independent judicial institutions are non-existent; the judiciary itself has been directly and indirectly an accomplice in these crimes and itself is seen as one of the instigators of suppression. 

Investigating people’s grievances against their government is not within the jurisdiction of international courts of law because they operate within their governmental frameworks and as such, they would not be able to preside over such cases.  Courts of law in Western countries operate within well-defined framework of their own laws and, with the exception of a few individual cases, they do not deal with petitions raised against governments. Cases of genocide and crimes against humanity committed by governments do not fall within the arbitration of these courts either.

According to the international penal laws, the mass executions of the early 1980s and the massacre of the political prisoners in the summer of 1988 in Iran constitute crimes against humanity.

According to the international penal laws, “Crime Against Humanity” is defined as part of a systematic or widespread aggression against civilians. Widespread means encroachment is a “massive”, frequent, and large scale action carried out collectively with considerable violence and directed against a multitude of people.  A systematic incursion is also a qualitative term, pointing to the organised nature of the act of violence and the improbability of its random occurrence.

The 1988 killings in Iran were certainly widespread and part of a comprehensive organized illegal assault that began in June 1981 with the mass executions and lasted until September 1988; when the massacre took place. The executions were geographically spread across the whole of the country and the number of victims is estimated to be some 20,000, although the exact figure has to be yet confirmed. They were also systematic by definition.
The charges made against the prisoners which led to their execution mainly consisted of the victims expressing their non-violent political beliefs via selling their organisations’ publications, or by attending meetings or taking part in peaceful demonstrations.

The trial of the political prisoners In either the early years of 1980s or in the summer of 1988, did not even remotely resemble an official trial, let alone a fair one. They were arrested on the grounds of vague and ambiguous charges, then tortured, and then taken to a room where their charges and sentences were read out to them. The entire so called ”Court Hearing” lasted less than two minutes in each case. No legal process was followed. No defence was allowed. No appeals could be made!

Family members, children in particular, who were able to either leave or flee Iran and re-settle in western countries, have, on different occasions, pleaded for justice. But no government or justice department has been willing to respond positively or to take up their cause.

For this reason, until a practical process is made possible to seek justice in Iran, a group of individuals composed of the families of the victims, former political prisoners, the survivors of this human tragedy, political, labour and human rights activists including women’s and children’s rights activists, lawyers, students, writers and journalists have been holding regular meetings since October 2007 to assess the feasibility of setting up a symbolic international tribunal, where the Islamic Republic of Iran would stand trial for its crimes against humanity. 

This symbolic inquest will have the authority to bring this human tragedy, which has been concealed and unacknowledged for so long, onto the world stage, where the brutality and the cruelty of the Islamic regime could at long last be fully exposed, examined and judged upon.

The world should know unequivocally, what crimes took place in Iran during the 1980s; particularly during the summer of 1988 which we are commemorating its 21st anniversary today.  The horror and the brutality was at such epic levels that when fully exposed, and we believe that there are more than sufficient and credible grounds and testimonials to achieve this, that the Islamic Republic of Iran will be convicted and held to account.

Only recently, the evidence of Islamic republic’s degree of barbarism was witnessed around the globe during the recent uprising of the Iranian people following the fraudulent presidential elections of 12 June 2009, which led to the re-selection of Islamic Republic’s infamous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad!

People took to the streets in their millions and protested the elections’ results, but the Islamic Republic’s response to people’s non violent protests was the bloodiest crackdown on peaceful mass demonstrations since the 1979 revolution.

Hundreds were killed either on the streets or behind closed doors after they were arrested and tortured to death. Several thousand were reported to have been arrested, detained, tortured, and raped; Male or female! Few female protestors were raped and tortured to death whose bodies were later found to have been set on fire or immersed in acid containers.

The official death toll released by the Islamic Republic’s media only mentions a small fraction of the actual figures, and yet, live witnesses have been reporting via their mobile phones and through social networking media such as “Twitter”, “FaceBook” and “YouTube” the horrific scales of crimes committed by the Islamic Republic’s security forces. I am sure you have all witnessed the perishing moments of “Neda” captured by a mobile phone camera; a female protestor who was shot in the chest by the security forces. Since her death, viewed by millions of people around the globe, she has become a symbolic icon for the Iranian peoples’ movement in their quest for freedom. 

Hundreds of video clips and pictures beamed around the globe via the social networks show the brutality and the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic’s Anti-Riot police, “The Basijis” and plain clothed security forces.

The victims’ families have been persecuted and suppressed to the levels that they haven’t even been allowed to hold a proper funeral for their loved ones.

The countless evidences readily available against Islamic Republic’s mass genocide of the political prisoners during the 1980s, including the recent photographic evidences of its criminal and oppressive rule against its own people during its 31 years of contemptible rule are compelling and beyond any reasonable doubt and will be used in order to convict the Islamic Republic for its crimes against humanity.

May justice be served!

The Association of Iranian Political Prisoners (In Exile).

19 September 2009

 

 
   
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