THE 1988 MASSACRE IN IRAN NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED
It has
been 30 years since the 1988 Iranian massacre of 30,000 political prisoners,
but still no one has been held responsible, so it is high time for an
independent investigation into this crime against humanity, according to Reza Shafiee, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of
the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
In a
piece about the massacre, Shafiee wrote: “The 1988 massacre in Iran deserves an
independent international investigation. It has been kept in the dark for too long.”
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What was the 1988 Massacre?
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| A site of a mass grave for some of the victims of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran |
What was the 1988 Massacre?
It was
the mass murder of 30,000 political prisoners, mainly members of the People’s
Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), on the orders of then-Supreme
Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. He wanted to see the MEK, which was the main
opposition, exterminated, so he issued a fatwa ordering that every MEK member
or supporter in prison be put on trial again for the support of the MEK, but
this time they were facing the death penalty.
Some
people, including teenagers and the elderly, had been placed in the overcrowded
prisons for “crimes” like reading the MEK’s newspaper or attending a rally and
now they were going to be executed for it.
The trial
lacked any kind of fairness, even by Iran’s standards, and inmates were
blindfolded and brought before a “Death Commission” to answer one simple
question: do you still support the MEK? If they answered yes, then they
went
straight to the gallows.
If they
answered no, then they were asked if they would publically denounce the MEK,
help to kill MEK members, and work to remove landmines on Iran’s border with
Iraq. If they answered no to any of these, then they were also sent to the
gallows.
We know
all of this from those who miraculously survived the massacre, mostly by being
sent to the infirmary before their trial, who still suffer from survivors’
guilt.
Who was
on the Death Commissions?
Many of
the people that currently hold high-ranking positions in Iranian society served
on the Death Commissions in various cities across Iran, including:
• Ebrahim
Raisi – a close friend of current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, custodian of the
wealthiest foundation in Iran, 2017 Presidential Candidate
• Mostafa
Pour-Mohammadi - Justice Minister in Hassan Rouhani’s first cabinet
• Seyyed
Alireza Avayi – Current Justice Minister
During
the height of the massacre, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri called on the
Tehran Death Commission to stop the killings and warned them that they were responsible
for the single greatest crime in the history of Iran. He was sacked and put
under house arrest for the rest of his life for his objections.
He said:
“The greatest crime committed during the reign of the Islamic Republic, for
which history will condemn us, has been committed by you. Your names will in
the future be etched in the annals of history as criminals.”
These
criticisms can be heard via an audio tape that was released by his son in
August 2016, but still no one in the government has been held to account.
Instead, those who tried to reveal the crimes had been punished and Montazeri’s
son was sent to jail.
What
happened after the massacre?
The
Regime covered up their crimes, to avoid international outrage and domestic
revolt, by burying the dead in mass graves, destroying records, and denying the
families of the dead visitation for months afterwards. Recently, they’ve even
been caught destroying the grave sites in an attempt to hide evidence amid
mounting calls for an investigation into the massacre and for those responsible
to be put on trial at the International Criminal Court.
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