This summer marks thirty years since the massacre in Iran. In 1988, the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime issued a fatwa ordering the execution of political prisoners. Over the course of a single summer, 30,000 people, most of them MEK members, were summarily executed by the regime.

 

The mullahs see the MEK as a threat and have targeted the organization for decades. The Iranian regime has spent untold time, effort, and money demonizing the MEK and plotting attacks against the organization, all the while proclaiming that the MEK has no power or influence. It is clear that the regime sees the MEK as a threat to its very existence. In 1988 the regime attempted to erase this threat with a mass execution.

Western #Iran'ian Communities to Mark 30th Anniversary of Political Prisoner Massacre
Iranian communities in 20 major cities and capitals throughout Europe and North America will be marking the 30th anniversary of the #1988Massacre of political prisoner…https://t.co/2OISZNCb4N pic.twitter.com/zlOa9H3VoD

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 23, 2018

The 1988 Massacre was a tragedy and a crime against humanity. The perpetrators of this crime have never been brought to justice. Instead, they have risen through the ranks of the Iranian regime and remained unpunished for their horrific crime. The perpetrators have not gone unnamed, but they have not answered for their actions. Alireza Avaei, one of the men responsible for the mass execution of Iranian citizens has held the position of Justice Minister, an irony that would be laughable if it weren’t so disgusting.

Shekar, a passionate nurse in #Tehran. She was executed at the age of 32 after enduring 7 years of imprisonment from her 15 years sentence. She has become one of the symbols of resistance under torture and innocent lives lost in the #1988massacre.
Read her story. pic.twitter.com/mWLM6gynpo

— Alliance 4 Public Awareness (@APA_ICE) August 21, 2018

The families of those who were executed continue to suffer to this day. These victims of the 1988 Massacre lost family members, were never given the chance to properly bury them, and must live with the knowledge that their killers walk free. Family members have had to listen helplessly as members of the regime bragged about their crime.

The Facts About the #1988Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran
The appalling #HumanRights situation in Iran continues because the officials responsible have never condemned#Iran #IranRegimeChange #MEK@LindaFrum@TarekFatah@TheHeraldReporthttps://t.co/AZJsL3QzzK pic.twitter.com/jHpgxJwINB

— Iran Freedom-En (@4freedominiran2) August 23, 2018

The regime has not yet repeated an act as daring as the execution of tens of thousands of dissidents in a single summer, but it still routinely conducts mass executions. Human rights abuses take place under the mullahs’ regime on a daily basis. The regime targets MEK members at home and abroad as a matter of policy.

In Iran, those who take to the streets to protest the clerical regime do so at grave personal risk, whether they are part of an organized resistance group or not. The consequences for speaking out against the regime are severe. Protesters may be arrested, fined, tortured, mistreated, or even executed. Even so, the Iran protests are now entering their ninth continuous month. An uprising that cannot be suppressed is a powerful weapon against tyranny.

 

The MEK has issued a call for an international investigation into the 1988 Massacre. On Saturday, August 25th, the Iranian communities are holding a simultaneous international conference in 20 capitals and major cities in Europe and North America to discuss this call to action. Survivors of the massacre and family members of the victims will speak live to audiences around the world. The event will be broadcast on social media and on the Internet.

It is imperative for anyone who values human rights to take action to seek justice for the victims of this atrocity by calling on our governments to first condemn the executions and then bring the perpetrators to justice.

 

The United States is currently increasing its focus on Iran and has announced the formation of an “Iran Action Group.” This is an opportunity to draw attention to human rights issues in Iran that can no longer be ignored.

Staff Writer

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“They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.”

Call to Action

The Iranian Resistance calls on the International community to:

• support the protests and goals of the Iranian people for regime change and the establishment of democracy;
• condemn the regime’s human rights violations and terrorist actions;
• prosecute the perpetrators of the 1988 Massacre; and
• adopt a firm policy toward the theocratic regime currently ruling Iran.

On August 25, 2018, the Iranian Resistance movement will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the mass execution of 30,000 political prisoners, most of them MEK members, by the Iranian regime in the summer of 1988. Iranian communities in more than twenty capitals and major cities across Europe and North America will meet together in a joint interactive conference to commemorate and seek justice for the victims of the 1988 Massacre.

The conference comes at a time of upheaval in Iran. The people of Iran are entering their ninth month of protests against the clerical regime. This continuous uprising is unprecedented in the history of the mullahs’ regime and has persisted in the face of brutal efforts by the regime to suppress it. Calls for freedom and regime change are echoing throughout Iran.

 

The current widespread uprisings are a continuation of the path to freedom in Iran that was laid by those who sacrificed their lives in 1988 by standing up to the regime and its henchmen. The Iran protests are deeply rooted in sacrifices such as these, and these roots have taken hold with a nationwide call for regime change. The origins of the Iran protests and prospects for the future of the uprising will be among the topics of the international conference.

 

The conference is part of an international campaign to seek justice for the victims of the 1988 Massacre, which was launched two years ago by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The campaign demands an independent investigation by the United Nations into the massacre, which has been described human rights NGOs, experts, and defenders as one of the worst crimes against humanity since World War II. The perpetrators of this crime have never been brought to justice and are now among the highest-ranked officials in the Iranian regime. These criminals are directly involved in suppressing the ongoing uprising.

 

Conference Details

 

The conference will bring together thousands of Iranians in Europe and North America simultaneously and will include people from across the Iranian diaspora, representatives of Iranian Associations, as well as prominent international social and political personalities. Survivors of the massacre and relatives of victims will also share their experiences and observations with the participants.

 

Attendees will gather in Paris, London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Rome, Oslo, Brussels, Bern, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Bucharest, Helsinki, Gothenburg, Aarhus, and Stuttgart. United States Congressman Patrick Kennedy and a number of European lawmakers will be among the participants at the Paris conference.

This international gathering of the Iranian community will begin at 5 PM CEST/11 AM EST and will be broadcast live in Persian, English, French, and Arabic on social media and the Internet. You can tune in live on the following networks:

On the 30th Anniversary of the Massacre of 30,000 Political Prisoners, #Iranian Communities call on international community:
End Impunity, Prosecute the perpetrators of the #1988Massacre@APA_ICE
August 25,2018 -1700 CESThttps://t.co/2uECjaevwk https://t.co/yQ3fBf66Zh pic.twitter.com/tf56MUyTrm

— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) August 22, 2018

Facebook: /4freedominIran

Twitter: @4freedominIran

www.iranfreedom.org

Please help us spread the word about this event!

What you can do:

• inform friends, family, and activists who are interested in human rights and Iran protests of the event;
• share the live broadcast on social media to help echo the call for justice and democracy in Iran;
• join the online social media campaign, using the hashtag #1988Massacre
• ask your local media and news outlets to cover the conference and report on the goals of the Iranian community.

 

Background information

In 1988, Khomeini issued a fatwa sentencing 30,000 political prisoners to execution. These prisoners were mostly MEK members. In order to expedite the executions, Khomeini set up three-member death committees throughout the country so that prisoners could be sentenced to death within a few minutes. The victims were buried in mass graves.

 

To date, no independent international investigation has been conducted into this massacre, and the perpetrators of this crime have never been brought to justice.

 

An audio tape was revealed in 2016 of a conversation that took place during the summer of 1988. In the tape, Hossein Ali Montazeri, Khomeini’s successor at the time, can be heard telling the Death Commission in Tehran that what is being carried out is the most heinous crime of the Islamic Republic in Iran’s history. Khomeini dismissed Montazeri in April of 1989 because of his opposition to the massacre, writing, “After me, you would give the country to the liberals and through them to the PMOI/MEK.” Khomeini died in June of that year, leaving Ali Khamenei to replace him as Iran’s Supreme Leader.

 

Over the past few months, a number of human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have called for investigations on the 1988 Massacre and presented their own reports on the mass executions. The recent attention by human rights organizations has largely been due to large-scale efforts by the mullahs to destroy mass graves in an effort to conceal evidence of their crimes.

Staff Writer