By Hassan Mahmoudi
In
the wake of the 30th anniversary of the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners
in summer of 1988 in Iran, the people of Iran and especially families of the
victims are still waiting for justice and an international tribune.
In
the summer of 1988, the political prisoners were systematically executed in
almost two months. In a barbaric two-month purge, prisoners, including
teenagers as young as 14, were loaded onto trucks in groups and hanged
from cranes.
During
the past three decades, the regime blocked all attempts to investigate the
extent of the massacre. They even went farther to cover up the crimes by
toppling and damaging cemeteries and headstones of martyrdom graves
with bulldozers.
In
Iran, there is no criminal justice system or government
institutions deterring crime or sanctioning those who
violate laws with criminal penalties. The supreme leader, Ali
Khamenei, controls everything. He sets the tone and direction of Iran's
domestic and foreign policies. Many of those in the "Death
Commission" responsible for the 1988 massacre are still in power,
including Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, who is now Iran's justice minister in
President Hassan Rouhani's Cabinet, and cleric Ebrahim Raisi, favored
candidate of the supreme leader for the 2017 presidential election.
Both, defended the massacre of 1988.
"[A]
dictatorship that appoints as its justice minister someone who killed 30,000people is telling you everything you need to know about the core nature of the
dictatorship," said Newt Gingrich, 50th speaker of the United States House
of Representatives, at the Free Iran Rally in Paris on July 1, 2017.
"[D]ictatorships like the one in Iran threaten freedom
anywhere," according to Gingrich, who called Iran the largest supporter of
state terrorism in the world.
The
massacre was ordered by the Khomeini decree, called a fatwa, that reads:
"[P]olitical prisoners throughout the country who remain steadfast in
their backing for the Mojahedin (MEK) are condemned to execution."
The
massacre happened 30 years ago to eliminate the main opposition group, the MEK.
Despite the continuation of execution, torture, and crackdown during the
past three decades, miraculously, the regime has failed. "You will
someday be proud to say you were a part of what freed Iran," Gingrich
said.
"I
want to salute you today for your courage and for your perseverance of the MEK
and the NCRI," Said Linda Chavez, chairman of the Center for Equal
Opportunity and former director of the Office of Public Liaison, at the Paris
gathering. "You are the ones who remain committed to freedom and to
democracy for Iran and to eradicate the suppression, the terrorism, and the
regime's demonizing campaign that has been directed at you. Your
perseverance gives up hope that we shall, in the end, defeat the phenomenon of
Islamic fundamentalism, whose heart beats in the clerical regime in Iran.
I wish you a good meeting, and I wish that your message will be carried
throughout the world."
"They
have on their hands the blood of so many of your people," said former New
York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, "but they have on their hands the blood of my
people, too, who they helped to kill in Iraq and who they've helped to kill for
years and who they've held hostage. If they're not a terrorist organization,
there is no such thing as a terrorist organization. And we should declare
them a terrorist organization so we can cut them off of support around the
world." Giuliani wants the Revolutionary Guards to be classed as at
terrorist organization.
Despite
the dark legacy of Iran's dictator, the "light of liberty can overcome and
replace the darkness of the tyrannical Iranian regime," Tom Ridge, the
former United States secretary of homeland security, said at the rally.
"The light of freedom is kept going by all those who have lost their
lives for the cause."
As
the Greek philosopher Xenophon put it, "the true test of a movement is
whether its followers will adhere to his cause from their own volition,
enduring the most arduous hardships without being forced to do so, and
remaining steadfast in the moments of greatest peril."
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