In the gathering, traditionally held on the last Friday of the Iranian year, the families delivered speeches, read poems and laid wreath to the unmarked graves of these martyrs.
In the gathering, traditionally held on the last Friday of the Iranian year, the families delivered speeches, read poems and laid wreath to the unmarked graves of these martyrs.
This ceremony took place while the State Security Force (SSF) and plain clothes agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) had surrounded the area and threatened to arrest the families.
The 1988 Iran Massacre
In 1988, in the span of several months, thousands of political prisoners in what is now known as 'the 1988 Iran massacre”' were brutally murdered.
The roots of the 1988 massacre go back to the early years of the mullahs' rule when the newly established theocracy began to crackdown on the democratic opposition forces. Soon after the 1979 revolution, the paramilitary Bassij Forces and memebers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked political rallies and the offices and publishing houses of opposition groups.
On June 20 1981, in a major public display of peaceful dissent, nationwide demonstrations organized by the vast network of Iran's main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) also known as Mujahedeen-e-Khlaq (MEK), brought several million people to streets of Iran's main cities. In Tehran alone, half a million people converged in the capital's main thoroughfares, chanting slogans against the regime and demanding political freedoms.
Under direct orders of the Khomeini, the regime's forces moved to crush the march. By day fall thousands were arrested.
Amnesty International: The 1988 Massacre was a crime against humanity
In a statement issued on November 2, 2007, concerning the arrest of several families of the victims of the 1988 massacre, Amnesty International wrote, "The executions were authorized at the highest level of the Iranian leadership… Amnesty International believes these executions amount to a crime against humanity. Under international law, valid in 1988, crimes against humanity consist of widespread or systematic attacks against civilians on discriminatory, including political, grounds. Amnesty International believes that there should be no impunity for human rights violations, no matter where or when they took place. The 1988 executions should be subject to an independent impartial investigation, and all those responsible should be brought to justice, and receive appropriate penalties."
Khomieni’s fatwa for murder
Later, in a shocking fatwa in summer of 1988, Khomeini ordered the following:
"Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain committed to their support for the [PMOI / MEK], are waging war on God and are condemned to execution…. Destroy the enemies of Islam immediately. As regards the cases, use whichever criterion that speeds up the implementation of the [execution] verdict."
Khomeini’s designated successor complains
The scale of massacre was so horrifying that Khomeini's designated successor, Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, complained to his mentor in a July 1988 letter:
"… Executions of individuals who have already been sentenced by courts to a lesser sentence, without any precedent and without any new activities [by them], disregard all judicial standards and verdicts… As you presumably will insist on your decree, at least order that women not be executed, especially pregnant women. Ultimately, the execution of several thousand people in several days will not have positive repercussions and is not without mistakes."
“Death Commision”
A special body, known to political prisoners as the 'Death Commission,' headed by Pourmohammad, the Interior Minister carried out the fatwa. During hearings, prisoners were asked about their ideological and political allegiances. If there were even shred of doubt of sympathy with the opposition, particularly the PMOI, the prisoner would be sent to a firing squad.
Referring to the massacre, the state-run daily Iran News wrote on April 9, 2000, "Officials were astonished to see that these prisoners were still insisting on resisting the regime and supporting the PMOI."
Within several months, tens of thousands of political prisoners, some having completed their prison terms, were executed.
30,000 massacred
The exact number of the victims is not known, given the swiftness and secrecy with which the inhuman fatwa was carried out. Estimates are up to 30,000 executed. Khomeini’s sacked successor reference to the execution of “several thousand people in several days” confirms the figure.
By any measure, the massacre of 1988 amounts to crime against humanity.
Present officials were actively involved in 1988 massacre
Many officials presently holding senior posts in the government of Iran were actively involved in conducting this hideous crime, and they must be brought to justice.
Ali Khamenei, then the mullahs' president and currently the supreme leader, tops the list. Khamenei was present in the meeting of regime's most-trusted top officials where Khomeini ordered the massacre. As the highest ranking executive authority in 1988, Khamenei authorized unlimited governmental resources to be used in implementing Khomeini's edict.
Khamenei defends the 1988 massacre
In 1988, in a radio interview, he defended the massacre and said:
“Do you think we should give sweets to a prisoner who has connections with the activities of the Mojahedin? If his connection with that group is revealed, what should we do to him? He is condemned to execution and we will execute him”
Rafsanjani oversaw the implementation of 1988 massacre
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then Speaker of Parliament, and Acting Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, also is on the list. He was present in the infamous meeting with Khomeini. As Acting Commander in Chief and the regime's de facto Number Two after Khomeini, Rafsanjani oversaw the enforcement of Khomeini's edict and reported to him on the progress of the massacre.
Several years earlier he had said:
“God's law prescribes four punishments for them (the Mujahedeen). 1-Kill them. 2-Hang them, 3- Cut off their hands and feet 4-Banish them. If we had killed two hundred of them right after the Revolution, their numbers would not have grown this big. I repeat that according to the Quran, we are determined to destroy all [Mujahedeen] who display enmity against Islam.”
Khatami defended Khomeini’s fatwa
Mohammed Khatami, the mullahs' former president also participated in the meeting during which Khomeini discussed his decision for the massacre. As state—run daily Ressalat has reported:
'This verdict was issued and enforced when Mr. Khatami was Director of Cultural Affairs at the Armed Forces General Command and he resolutely defended His Holiness the Imam's decision.'