1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners

17th anniversary of the massacre at Khavaran cemetery, one of the burial places used for the mass graves.

1988 executions of Iranian prisoners (Persian: ۱۳۶۷ اعدام زندانیان سیاسی در تابستان) refers to the systematic slaughter of hundreds of political prisoners across Iran by the government of Iran. The main target were members of the MKO.^[1]^[2]^[3] The incident occurred after MKO led by Massoud Rajavi attacked the western borders of Iran. ^{[citation needed]} The estimates for number of executions vary from around 1,400 ^[4] to 30,000^[5]^[6]^[7].

Backgrounds

Soon after the Iranian revolution in 1979 many new political organizations grew out of the vacuum, hammered and sealed before the revolution by Shah (king) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during his reign of 37 years. The amorphous mob who gained the political power, started organizing itself around Shi'a Islam fundamentalism and suppression of independent political movements. The start of the Iran-Iraq War in August 1979 by Saddam Hussein and the wave of nationalist-religious fever that followed in Iran, helped the new rulers very well.

The biggest of these new political organizations was People's Mujahedin of Iran. They started as a political movement, turned to armed resistance after a few years of suppression and had to move their headquarters and most of their operations to Iraq later. In 1986, while still in war with Iran, Saddam Hussein recognized People's Mujahedin of Iran as the legitimate representative of Iran, signed a peace treaty with them and started arming them with heavy weaponry.

United Nations issued resolutions 582 (February 1986) and 598 (July 1987) prompting both Iran and Iraq to observe immediate cease-fire. Iraq accepted the resolutions because it had already understood that they couldn't win. It took 2 more years for the Iranian government to realize the impossibility of winning the war. In June 17 1988 they too officially accepted the UN resolution 598. The following day People's Mujahedin of Iran launched a full scale attack from Iraqi soil into Iran. They managed some success as long as they had Iraqi close-air support but when Saddam Hussein had to draw back his air force due to international pressure they had to back up after a counter-attack called Operation Mersad by the Iranian government forces.

This development was followed by the massacre of political prisoners in Iran which is the main subject of this article.

Revelation

Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri has written in his memoirs that this massacre^[1], deemed a crime against humanity, was ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and carried out by several high-ranking members of Iran's current government. Ahmad Khomeini, whom Montazeri accused of collaboration in the killings, died mysteriously during the Chain Murders of Iran.

In addition to members of People's Mujahedin of Iran, others executed included members belonging to the Tudeh Party of Iran^[8].

According to official orders, the detained teenage girls later executed for crimes against the Islamic Republic were first raped, thus denying them the 'automatic entry to heaven granted to virgins'.^[9] The poet Shamlou refers to a young revolutionary guard who refused to rape a young girl by the verse of:

A butcher stood weeping,
He had lost his heart to a little canary...^[10]

Aftermath

This massacre is the worst crime against humanity performed by the Islamic Republic of Iran; up to year 2006 of course. The dimensions of the crime were so big that Iranians could not believe it in the beginning. Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl was UN’s Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights. He had visited jails in Iran a few times before 1988. He was very much amused by seeing them being less crowded in his visit during the height of the massacre. He later dismissed his early hopes and reflected his doubts in his later report of January 1989. The dimensions of the massacre was later well known and confirmed by official international bodies.

The number of prisoners massacred might never be known. Some 5000 names of the well-known prisoners murdered during the period between June 1988 and February 1989 are listed on web-sites of different organizations struggling for the rights of political prisoners in Iran. Claims of 30,000,000 have also been made.

References and notes

^ ^a ^b http://www.mehr.org/massacre_1988.htm
^ http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/09/the_1988_iran_massacre_crimes.html
^ http://www.shahrzadnews.org/en/article.php?id=62
^ Massacre 1988 (Pdf)
^ Memories of a slaughter in Iran
^ Nasrin Alavi (2005), We Are Iran.
^ Khomeini fatwa 'led to killing of 30,000 in Iran'
^ Iranian party demands end to repression
^ Nasrin Alavi (2005), We Are Iran.
^ Nasrin Alavi (2005), We Are Iran.

External links

Report by Amnesty International
Marked for death Some of Assassinations 1979-96
Hossein Mokhtar’s Testimony
http://www.wfafi.org/wfafistatement7.htm
It must not happen again! September 2003
http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2002/January/Watch/index.html
http://www.iranian.com/Features/2002/January/Interogation/index.html
Association of Iranian Political Prisoners (in exile) has a home page in English, Swedish and Persian at http://www.kanoon-zendanian.org/ . Under the title “Documents” there are many references to the 1988 massacre.

[a-1] ttp://www.mehr.org/massacre_1988.htm

[2] ttp://www.americanthinker.com/2004/09/the_1988_iran_massacre_crimes.html

[3] ttp://www.shahrzadnews.org/en/article.php?id=62

[4] Massacre 1988 (Pdf)

[5] Memories of a slaughter in Iran

[6] Nasrin Alavi (2005), We Are Iran.

[7] Khomeini fatwa 'led to killing of 30,000 in Iran'

[8] Iranian party demands end to repression

[9] Nasrin Alavi (2005), We Are Iran.

[10] Nasrin Alavi (2005), We Are Iran.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]