Iran: The 20th anniversary of 1988 "prison massacre"

international | crime and justice | other press

Monday August 25, 2008 10:17

by pat c

Amnesty International documents the 20th anniversary of the massacre of prisoners in Iran. It notes that no one has been held accountable for this atrocity. Full text at link.

Twenty years after the then Iranian authorities began a wave of largely secret, summary and mass executions in September 1988, Amnesty International renews its call for those responsible for the “prison massacre” to be held accountable. There should be no impunity for such gross human rights violations, regardless of when they were committed.

Amnesty is also calling on the present Iranian government not to prevent relatives of the dead from visiting Khavaran Cemetary in south Tehran, on or about 29 August to mark the anniversary and demand justice for their loved ones. Hundreds of those summarily executed are buried in unmarked mass graves.

In all between 4,500 and 5,000 prisoners are believed to have been killed, including women. Those responsible for the killings should be prosecuted and tried before a regularly and legally constituted court and with all necessary procedural guarantees, in accordance with international fair trial standards.

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Iran: When Youth Become Conscious & Brave – A Survivor Speaks

by Drew - WPRM

Tue Oct 28, 2008 17:40

Extracts from a speech by Anahita Rahmani. Rahmani was a political prisoner in Iran from 1983 to 1991. The complete text of the speech is at the link.

Hail to the thousands of political prisoners who gave their precious lives for the goal of a world without oppression and exploitation and the emancipation of humanity! Salute those who gave their lives and did not give their secrets to the enemy! It was an honour that from 1983 to 1991 I was one among the thousands of women political prisoners held by the Islamic regime of Iran.

The IRI arose by attacking women. At its foundation, it gave the force of law to the most basic Islamic principles calling for the suppression of women. And in this way, a bloody struggle between women as a whole and the Islamic reactionaries started and has been going on ever since. The women political prisoners ranged from 12 to 70 years of age. Their rebellion against the old ideas, traditions and social relations became a mirror of the resistance and struggle against a vicious system.

The question of political prisoners in Iran and the massacre of ‘88 cannot be separated from the issue of political prisoners in other parts of the world. Ending torture and allowing prisoners the right to a lawyer and a public trial are universal rights and should be fought for, from Evin (the infamous prison in Tehran for political prisoners built during the rule of the Shah and kept in use by the IRI) to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

On the 20th Anniversary of the Massacre of Iran’s Political Prisoners

Tue Oct 28, 2008 17:45

An article by the Communist Party of Iran (MLM). EXtracts here. Full text at link.

In its brutality and breadth, the 1988 massacre in the Islamic regime’s prisons was one of the most horrible crimes against revolutionaries that the Iranian ruling class has ever committed in its entire history. Even the Pahlavi and Qajar dynasties did not commit crimes of such magnitude.

The imprisonment, execution and murder of revolutionaries and other opposition activists are integral parts of imposing a dictatorship against working class and all the masses of people by the state of the reactionary classes. The purpose of the suppression of revolutionary communists and non-communists is not only to annihilate them but also to suppress the political activities and protests of the masses and smash their dreams of emancipation and their attempts to achieve a world different than this world of exploitation and oppression. That is why we should strive to make the issue of the massacre of political prisoners into one of the central questions for all social movements and in particular those of workers, women and students.