Iran will never return to the past
As the Group of Eight (G8) leaders are struggling to reach an agreement for punitive measures against the Iranian regime, widespread arbitrary arrests, especially of youth and university students, and the cruel torture imposed on them are continuing in Iran.
In Tehran, detainees are first taken to detention centers, the police headquarters at Shahpour Street, safe houses belonging to the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), paramilitary Bassij centers, and military bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and later placed under intolerable torture. The severity of the tortures has led to the killing of a number of detainees. According to reports obtained from inside Iran, one of the guards at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, has said, “In a special and restricted area run by the paramilitary Bassij and the IRGC’s intelligence unit, the detainees are placed under horrendous forms of torture, to the extent that we are all sick of hearing the screams and shrieks of those under torture. Early mornings, on average, ambulances take away 10 people killed under torture to be buried at unmarked graves.”
By avoiding publicizing the names of the detainees, the regime plans to carry out murders, while hiding the real number of those it kills.
Also, according to the website of Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international radio broadcaster, on July 5, a number of former Iranian political prisoners wrote an open letter to international institutions, and warned that the lives of the large number of people detained in recent weeks in Iran are in danger. “The threat of execution of political prisoners is serious,” they said.
The former political prisoners also wrote, “Since the ‘election coup’ of June 12 until now, thousands of people in Tehran and other Iranian cities have been arrested or disappeared. The number of those detained is so high that in addition to the official prisons and the temporary and secret detention centers, some of the detainees have been taken to the basement of the Ministry of Interior as well as a camp located outside Tehran.”
On July 2, the British daily, Guardian, published a report about the torture, harassment, and rape of those detained during the uprising. The report tells the shocking story of a tortured 18-year-old after his release from prison. The Guardian wrote, “His shoulder blades and arms were wounded. There were some slashes on the face. No bone fractures, but he was bruised all over the body. I wanted to take some photos but he did not let me. The doctor said only four of his teeth were intact, the rest were broken. You could hardly understand what he said. Then the doctor told me what had happened. He had suffered rupture of the rectum and the doctor feared colonic bleeding. He suggested we take him to the hospital immediately….… The nurses were crying. Two of them asked what sort of beast had beaten him up like that. He was a broken man.”
As these crimes take place in Iran, the Associated Press reported from the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, that, “Group of Eight leaders said Wednesday that they deplored the violence in the aftermath of Iran's disputed election last month. … But the leaders stopped short of calling for new sanctions or tougher action. … France has said it would like stronger sanctions in response to the crackdown after a disputed presidential election last month. But Russia has rejected the idea and it has been unclear if countries like Germany and Italy, which have significant economic ties to Iran, would be willing to back them.”
Is it not a disgrace for all humanity when G8 leaders close their eyes to the vicious above-mentioned crimes and instead preoccupy themselves with economic relations and other political expediencies?
We call on those who have the opportunity to protest against the G8 decision, to do so by expressing their complaints through email or letters.
http://www.governo.it/Contatti/index.html
Analysis – Iranian uprising: Beginning of the end (other parts)
