NCRI – On Friday, the mullahs' regime dispatched thousands of the State Security Forces (SSF)—mullahs' suppressive police — to stop the memorial service held by the families of the victims of the 1988 massacre in Khavaran cemetery in suburban Tehran. A number of the participants were arrested.
Friends and families of the slain prisoners affiliated with the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) and other political groups held a memorial service for their loved ones. The mourners walked toward the cemetery in groups of 100 to 150 people.
However, they were confronted with thousands of the ruling clerical regime's repressive forces such as the SSF, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the paramilitary Bassij force as well as other security agents.
Tow days prior to the ceremony, the Khavaran district, in south eastern Tehran was cordoned off by the security agents for a two kilometer radius.
They prevented the participants from entering the roads leading to Khavaran. In addition to such suppressive measures, the agents arrested a number of participants and seized driving licenses of people trying to enter the roads leading to cemetery and were ordered to collect their permits at the police precinct in Sepah Square.
Khavaran is the site where a part of some 30,000 members and supporters of the PMOI and other groups are buried in mass graves. They were savagely massacred during the summer of 1988.
Despite repressive measures, the friends and families of the slain prisoners mark the event every year.
The Iranian Resistance once again calls on all international human rights organizations and international tribunals to follow the leaders of the mullahs' regime for the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners and bring them to justice.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 29, 2008