Amnesty International Supports Call to Hold Tehran Responsible for Massacres



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Amnesty International welcomed that, on Wednesday, the United Nations sent a letter to Iran demanding responsibility for the arbitrary execution of thousands of dissidents in prisons in 1988, warning that this could be considered “crimes against humanity”.

Amnesty International welcomed that, on Wednesday, the United Nations sent a letter to Iran demanding responsibility for the arbitrary execution of thousands of dissidents in prisons in 1988, warning that this could be considered “crimes against humanity”.

The United Nations in Geneva confirmed the content of the letter he sent in September and it has not yet been made public.

Human rights NGOs have been campaigning for years for justice in what they see as the extrajudicial execution of thousands of Iranians, most of them young men, across Iran at the end of the Iran-Iraq war that broke out between 1980 and 1988. .

Most of those killed were supporters of the PMOI, the illegal opposition in Iran, which had sided with Baghdad in the war.

Amnesty International accuses Iran of “systematically” concealing the circumstances in which these young people were killed and the fate of their remains.

Seven UN special rapporteurs wrote a letter to the Iranian government in September, confirming that they are “deeply concerned by the continued refusal (by Tehran) to reveal the fate of (the murdered people) and their burial sites.”

They urged Iran to conduct a “full” and “independent” investigation and prepare “accurate death certificates” for their families.

“We are concerned that the situation may constitute crimes against humanity,” UN experts said, warning that if Iran “continues to refuse to respect its obligations,” an international investigation will be opened to discover these facts.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for North Africa and the Middle East, described the message as a “breakthrough”.

In a 2018 report, the London-based NGO described the incidents as “crimes against humanity” and expressed hope that the United Nations Human Rights Council would establish an international investigation mechanism.

Human rights activists confirm that thousands of people were killed on the order of the then Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, without trial in Iran’s jails.

The National Council of Iranian Resistance (the opposition in exile), of which the Mujahideen Popular Movement of Iran is the largest of its components, speaks of thirty thousand deaths.

This issue is very sensitive in Iran, where activists today accuse government officials of being involved in these operations.



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