Washington Post: Iran Prepared Mass Graves in Qom

The Washington Post reports that it has obtained evidence showing that burial pits as large as a football field have been dug and prepared for clandestine burial of coronavirus victims in cemeteries near Qom. Qom has not yet been quarantined.

What the Washington Post has written is more than a tragedy. According to the newspaper, Iranian authorities, who have so far avoided clearly announcing the death toll in three cities—Tehran, Qom, and Rasht—are now preparing burial pits for mass graves of coronavirus victims in the city of Qom.

The Washington Post website reported in its Thursday, March 12 article on observing “unusual activity” in cemeteries near Qom, and citing satellite imagery and expert analysis, wrote that this unusual activity involves digging pits for mass burial of coronavirus victims in Qom.

According to the newspaper, satellite images show that between February 21 and the end of that month, two large burial pits were dug in new sections of the “Behesht-e Masoumeh” cemetery in Qom. The length of each of these pits is close to 92 meters, making them fully visible from above.

The latest official statistics from Iran’s Ministry of Health on Thursday, March 12, show that so far 10,075 people in the country have contracted coronavirus, 429 people have died from this virus, and 3,276 people have recovered.

Since two weeks ago and with the spread of coronavirus in Iran, health ministry authorities have declared the contamination situation in Tehran, Qom, and Rasht to be critical. Unofficial statistics suggest a high death toll in these three infected cities, but health ministry authorities have not yet announced the death statistics for these three cities. The health ministry’s reluctance to do so is widely seen by people and media as a tacit confirmation of unofficial statistics.

Qom Cemetery in the Eyes of Satellites

The Washington Post, citing Iranian authorities, reported the number of infected people in Qom to be more than 846 and wrote that the Iranian government has yet to publish the official death toll in Qom, “the spiritual center of the ruling clergy in Iran.”

Based on “expert reviews, video reception and analysis, as well as official accounts,” the newspaper believes the pits dug are for burying coronavirus victims in Qom, and their numbers are increasing.

Videos, satellite imagery, and other information received by the Washington Post show that in another section of this cemetery, a vast complex in the north of central Qom, a large number of coronavirus victims have been buried, whose numbers are “far greater” than the official figures announced by the Ministry of Health.

A senior image analysis expert at Maxar Technologies in Colorado, USA, said about this: “The size of the graves and the speed at which they were dug simultaneously indicate a procedure different from the past, when a person was buried in his own private or family plot.”

Dug Graves and Traces of Lime

The Washington Post’s investigation of Behesht-e Masoumeh cemetery in Qom includes short videos shared from this cemetery on social media. In these videos, long rows of graves at Behesht-e Masoumeh are shown, which according to the narrator or narrators, are intended for coronavirus victims.

A senior image analysis expert at Maxar Technologies, who requested anonymity, pointed to an image that appears to be “a very large container containing white limestone material” that could be used to prevent the spread of foul odor from mass graves.

Iranian health authorities in recent weeks have confirmed the use of lime in burying coronavirus victims.

Videos Speak

In another section of its report, the Washington Post refers to a video that the BBC Persian service shared on March 3. The narrator in the video describes a scene at Behesht-e Masoumeh cemetery in Qom where several men are carrying coffins toward a pit.

The narrator continues by saying “this section is dedicated to coronavirus victims,” and based on official casualty figures on February 28, says: “More than 80 people have been buried here so far, but they have only announced 34 dead.”

Fabian Hinds, from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, while reviewing the videos, confirmed that the geographical coordinates of these graves match the Behesht-e Masoumeh cemetery in Qom.

The Tragedy of Graves

In another video, a narrator says that on March 3, about two weeks after the first reports of deaths in Iran, he came to Behesht-e Masoumeh cemetery. The number of Iranians who had died from coronavirus at that date was announced as at least 77, and the number of infected was more than 2,000, but the Washington Post says it reviewed Tehran hospitals’ data and found that at that time, “the spread of the disease was far greater than Iran’s official figures.”

In this same video, which has Persian subtitles, the narrator says: “A worker told me that they have so far buried more than 250 coronavirus victims.” The narrator walks through the cemetery grounds and points the camera down to show what he is describing. He says: “All of these are new graves.” Then the narrator shows a wide aerial view of the cemetery in his video and says: “All these graves are from just these past few days, and as you can see, the graves continue like this all the way to the end.”

Source: DW