Taking stock of Iran’s crimes against humanity 30 years after 1988 massacre
On July 26, Amnesty International renewed its warning of many years that the theocratic regime in Iran is destroying all the evidence of 1988 massacre of political prisoners. Since the massacre the only visible proof of it are mass graves where bodies of the prisoners were piled up.
There is also a constant reminder for the rest of us that such heinous crime has not been thoroughly investigated by an independent international commission.
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Iran Regime Destroy Mass Graves as Part of Cover-Up
The Iranian Regime has already begun destroying the mass graves of political prisoners secretly executed by the mullahs’ security forces in the 1980s, despite a plea from Amnesty International to halt the desecration and allow an investigation to take place.
On July 20, some of the relatives of those killed during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, mainly members of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), visited one of the secret gravesites, located behind Behesht-Abad Cemetery in District 5 of the Padadshahr Padad area in the city of Ahvaz, only to find that the graves of their loved ones had been destroyed. The Ahvaz site served as the burial site for those killed during the 1988 massacre and for dissidents killed by the Regime between 1981 and 1984.
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In 1988, under the order of Iranian regime supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian regime executed more than 30,000 political prisoners, the majority being members and supporters of PMOI/MEK.
At the time, the regime needed to eliminate the opposition to consolidate its power at one of its most critical moments. The victims were executed in the span of mere months and their bodies were tossed into mass graves scattered across Iran.
The regime thought it could keep the 1988 massacre silent. Since then, the MEK has tried to bring the world attention to this heinous crime, which the regime has constantly denied. But three decades later, its crimes are catching up with it. Since 2016, an international movement led by the MEK has been documenting and publishing details of the 1988 massacre and exposing the authorities who were involved in the crimes.
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Maryam Rajavi calls for urgent action to prevent destruction of the graves of victims and removing the traces of the 1988 massacre in Iran
Maryam Rajavi, urged the UN Secretary General, the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and international human rights organizations to immediately take action to prevent the Iranian regime’s systematic destruction of the graves of victims of the 1988 massacre in Iran and removal of the traces of this massacre throughout the country, particularly in Ahvaz.
As the clerical regime’s efforts to prevent the growth of the Call-for-Justice movement has failed and it has not managed to send the massacre of Iranian political prisoners into oblivion, the ruling mullahs are desperately trying to remove the traces for this massacre in a bid to evade the consequences of this genocide and great crime against humanity, Maryam Rajavi added.
ROAD TO BE BUILT OVER INDIVIDUAL AND MASS GRAVES
The families of political dissidents who were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially killed in Ahvaz, southern Iran, in the 1980s are suffering untold mental anguish and distress as the authorities are destroying the individual and mass graves of their loved ones. They are afraid of facing further persecution if they speak out.
Amnesty International says Iranian Officials Eliminating Evidence of Massacre
The 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran has been referred to as a crime against humanity by various members of the international community. Members of the Iranian resistance have continued efforts to keep this tragedy in front of the international leadership, along with their calls for justice. The Iranian government has denied the massacre on multiple occasions, despite recordings where key officials admit to participating in the events of the summer of 1988.
Many of the victims, according to witnesses and family members, were buried in mass graves. The locations of these graves are now under attack by the Iranian authorities, as they attempt to wipe out any traces of the massacre within Iran.
CRIMINAL COVER-UP: IRAN DESTROYING MASS GRAVES OF VICTIMS OF 1988 KILLINGS
New evidence, including satellite imagery, shows that the Iranian authorities are deliberately destroying suspected or confirmed mass grave sites associated with the 1988 massacre in which thousands were forcibly disappeared and extra judicially executed
Amnesty international 30 April 2018, For nearly three decades, the Iranian authorities have systematically concealed the whereabouts of thousands of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, who were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in 1988. Amnesty International and Justice for Iran have documented how the authorities have destroyed or damaged mass grave sites across Iran that are believed to contain the remains of the victims. Amnesty International and Justice for Iran call on the authorities to stop the destruction of mass grave sites and ensure that they are preserved until proper, independent investigations can be carried out.
Part 41 of Behesht-e-Zahra: Broken Graves of Political Opponents
Part 41 of Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery is among the most famous burial places where a large number of critics and opponents of the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially the executed prisoners, have been buried. This place has been subjected to destruction and disrespect throughout the years after the revolution. Recently some news of the possibility of further destruction of this part has been published in the media.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), you would not see any explanations about the people buried in the graves. Perhaps the most eloquent explanation is the “Broken Tombstones” of part 41.
IRAN REGIME DESTROYS THE GRAVES OF THE MARTYRS OF PMOI/MEK KILLED IN THE 1988 MASSACRE
By Jazeh Miller
While hundreds of international figures and lawyers have called for a trial of the regime's leaders and the perpetrators of the massacre of members and sympathizers of PMOI/MEK in 1988, the Iran regime is trying to destroy the graves of MEK martyrs killed in this crime.
According to the reports from various parts of Iran, the regime has been eliminating the signs of this MEK genocide in several cities including Ahvaz (southwestern Iran), Mashhad (northeast), Isfahan (center of Iran), Tabriz and Ardabil (northwestern), etc. They seek to destroy the mass graves of MEK members so that the families could not pay tribute to their loved ones the way they have been doing for years in various ways such as cementing the graves or removing the garbage and so on.
The Iranian regime also destroyed the mass graves of MEK martyrs in Vadi-e Rahmat Cemetery of Tabriz under the pretext of carrying out construction projects. Moreover, the supporters of the MEK distributed the pictures and videos of grave destruction on the internet on June 23 2018. The news of such crime has been also posted in forms of pictures on Vadi-e Rahmat Cemetery Telegram Channel on September 11, 2017.
As the Iran regime admitted, the construction project includes a total area of 4500 square meters. The procedures consist of excavating operations, rolling, leveling and fitting, pouring concrete, building walls, gridding, installing light pylons. Three companies and the Supervision of Tabriz Civil Engineering Department launched this project and the Cemetery Organization of Tabriz Municipality is the employer.
As the satellite TV of the Iranian resistance, ‘Simay Azadi’ Channel released photos and videos on the destruction of graves, the Iranian regime also destroyed a MEK mass grave in Sowme'eh Sara, Gilan Province. One of the supporters of the MEK who visited this location, reports:
"I went to the cemetery in which the MEK martyrs of the massacre of 1988 are buried. I took photos of the graves of townspeople but I could not find the graves of MEK martyrs. Nevertheless, I saw a mechanical excavator behind the cemetery amidst the tall trees where the MEK martyrs are buried. As the people said, this excavator is operating to make roads."
He added," The cemetery of MEK martyrs is exactly located behind these tall trees, as the supporters of the MEK released pictures of this area. They are currently destroying the cemetery." While a Justice Seeking movement is formed to try the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre of MEK and non MEK affiliates, the Iranian regime intends to eliminate the signs of such brutal crime.
Amnesty International: Stop Iran From Destruction of Mass Grave of 1988 Iran Massacre
NCRI - Amnesty International launched a campaign on Monday calling on the authorities of the Iranian regime to “urgently stop the destruction of a mass grave in the southern city of Ahvaz”.
At least “a dozen political prisoners killed during a wave of mass extrajudicial executions in August and September 1988 are buried” in the mass grave.
A footage obtained by Amnesty International “shows the site is gradually being buried beneath piles of construction waste” after a construction near the area began earlier this year.
Mass Graves
The 1988 massacre gave rise to the phenomenon of mass graves. Every day hundreds
of people in Evin and more in Gohardasht and other prisons in Tehran and in prisons
all over Iran were being executed.
The regime’s agents did not have the time to bury them one by one, so the only way was to bury them in mass graves. This method had been used occasionally in Tehran and other cities since 1981, but in 1988 it became a systematic procedure in the major cities.
A witness recalls: “The scale of the massacre was so vast that bodies of the executed were carried away on trucks to mass graves. I was able to see the truck from between metal window shades covered with a canvas sheet in order to hide the mess.”
Iran is bulldozing the mass grave from the mullahs' 1988 massacre
By Hassan Mahmoudi
Since its foundation, by Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, the regime of Iran has succeeded in maintaining its absolute power through the massive use of torture and executions of its citizens. They are now trying to cover up their crimes.
The ugly reality is that thousands of Iranians were sent to the gallows and torture chambers for absurd and preposterous charges of “enmity against God” or “spying for external powers.” In the 1980s, thousands of educated youth of Iran, who had been sympathetic to the opposition groups, were executed by the mullahs. In summer of 1988 alone, based on the decree of Khomeini, 30,000 political prisoners, most of whom were members or supporters of the Mujahedin (PMOI or MeK), were executed.
Four decades of savage suppression by the mullahs has frustrated Iran's people who now look for any opportunity to show their abhorrence for the government. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and other Iranian officials are, more than ever, frightened of another mass uprising. According to the report from the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), Amnesty International has launched a campaign on Monday calling on the authorities of the Iranian regime to “urgently stop the destruction of a mass grave in the southern city of Ahvaz.”
IRAN, 17 July 2017-- In an interview with an Iranian regime funded television station, Ali Fallahian, the former Iranian intelligence minister and one of the perpetrators involved in the AMIA bombing that killed 85 people on July 18, 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, revealed the mindset behind the mass execution of more than 30,000 political prisoners in Iran during the summer of 1988.
Iran Regime's Official "Proud" of Role in 1988 Massacre
Earlier this month, a senior judicial official in the Iranian regime has publicly tried to justify the state’s execution of tens of thousands of political prisoners during the eighties.
In an interview with a state news agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the official - Judge Ali Razini, the head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court – said that the execution of prisoners in 1988 in what has been named the 1988 massacre was “fair” and “lawful”.
Judge Razini is the head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court.
During the 1988 massacre, the so called “Death Committee” ordered the execution of political prisoners, many of whom were members or supporters of the PMOI, the banned opposition group. The prisoners’ fate was decided based on their loyalty to the Islamic Republic.
Photo evince of destruction of 1988 massacre evidence by Iran regime
Aerial photo shows that the graves of martyrs have been vandalized and purred concrete over
PMOI martyrs’ graves vandalized in northwest Iran
During the past few days the mullahs’ regime in the city of Tabriz, northwest Iran, has begun a campaign of vandalizing graves of members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) executed back in the 1980s, especially those massacred during the summer of 1988. These now destroyed graves were in the Rahmat Valley Cemetery. To this point the graves of 75 martyrs, including Akbar Choopani and Soraya Abolfat’hi, who was executed while pregnant, have been vandalized
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Following the disclosure of a plan to desecrate the graves of MEK martyrs massacred by the Iranian regime in Ahwaz and Mashhad, the clerical regime also resorted to the same crime in the city of Tabriz, northwestern Iran.
According to MEK supporters, on June 22, 2017, the clerical regime in Wadi Rahmat in Tabriz, where the martyrs of the unknown MEK slain massacred in 1988 are buried, the regime began to raze and demolish the graves of the martyrs using construction machinery.
MEK reporters say that six people were involved in this heinous crime at the site. They removed the stones on the graves and threw them away and then poured 10 centimeters of concrete onto the graves.
In an attempt to cloak its crimes during the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners across the country, Iranian authorities in Mashhad (northeast Iran) have used heavy machinery to cover the graveyard of these victims in a known cemetery, according to reports from PMOI/MEK supporters sent on June 1st.
reports, the clerical regime has planned to demolish and destroy a mass grave in Southwestern city of Ahvaz, which is the burial place of the martyrs of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. This location, was detected according to people’s reports and martyrs’ families and was revealed by the Iranian Resistance Satellite TV.
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Amnesty International:Iran Desecrating mass grave site would destroy crucial forensic evidence
In other report Amnesty International on 1 June 2017 mentioned:
The desecration of a mass grave site in Ahvaz, southern Iran that contains the remains of at least 44 people who were extrajudicially executed would destroy vital forensic evidence and scupper opportunities for justice for the mass prisoner killings that took place across the country in 1988, said Amnesty International and Justice for Iran.
Photo and video evidence obtained by the NGO Justice for Iran and reviewed by Amnesty International shows bulldozers working on a construction project directly alongside the mass grave site at Ahvaz, as well as piles of dirt and construction debris surrounding the grave. Although the Iranian authorities have made no official announcements about Ahvaz, families learned through a construction worker that the plan is to ultimately raze the concrete block marking the grave site and build over the area.
Related:
Maryam Rajavi’s message to the Berlin gathering Commemorating victims of the 1988 massacreAguest 29, 2015
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