Khavaran 2007

Gathering at Khavaran cemetery in Tehran commemorating the 19th anniversary of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. Includes speeches and revolutionary song. From //www.avayedigar.com

01-Sep-2007
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jigsaw

Crimes Against Humanity

by jigsaw on

Nineteen years ago, during the months of August to September, a hideous crime was taking place in Iran. As Ayatollah Khomeini drank the "posion chalice" and signed the peace treaty with Saddam Hossein, he feared the release of the Iranian political prisoners would result in organising the mass discontent of how the war was handled, into a serious political challenge to the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Thus personally, in his own handwriting, Khomeini gave the go ahead for the massacre. He wanted absolute fear to reign over the population in the aftermath of the war.

Iran's political prisoners were called in to face kangaroo courts of three clerics. The prisoners were asked two questions each, "Do you believe in Allah?", "Are you prepared to renounce your organisation?". The prisoners had no idea about the consequences of their replies. In fact a 'No' to any of the above questions meant immediate execution. Many of the prisoners had already finished their prison sentences but were still not released, some were even brought back after they had been released.

The victims included teenagers, whole families, men and women. During the months of August and September, all prison visits were cancelled, families were told not to bring any medicine or food for their loved ones. All this time the killing inside Iran's prisons continued.

Those executed were buried in unmarked mass graves on the outskirts of the towns. In Tehran, one mass burial was accidentally discovered by an Armenian priest who had become curious as to why stray dogs kept digging there for bones.

Even the successor to the position of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Montazeri, could not stay silent about the crime and protested to Ayatollah Khomeini. His protests resulted in his removal from the position of successor to Khomeini and his house arrest for the last 19 years. Yet while an Ayatollah protested at this massacre, the rest of the world remained silent and offered no sympathy.

Watch the documentary,

The Tree That Remembers, to learn more about the 1988 massacre of Iranian political prisoners. Partial list of their names: //asre-nou.net/1386/shahrivar/6/koshtar/m-lis...

 


Jahanshah Javid

Will never forget

by Jahanshah Javid on

The cold-blooded execution of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 is the worst crime against humanity committed after the 1979 revolution in Iran. Khomeini, who ordered the death squads into action, is dead. But all others involved in this horrible tragedy must be exposed and brought to justice in a fair, internationally-observed, trial. The loss of so many young innocents purely for their political views in a matter of days was breathtaking in its level of cruelty and disregard for the sanctity of life. Keep their memory alive, along with the thousands of others who perished under the Islamic Republic of Intolerance.