Meeting of “Justice for Victims of the 1988 Massacre” in Geneva: Stop the Killing of Detainees
The organization “Justice for Victims of the 1988 Massacre” held a meeting on Thursday in Geneva with the support of four non-governmental organizations, during which it called on the United Nations to prevent further killings of opponents of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s system by investigating the mass killing of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.
This organization, based in London, is an association of families of political prisoners who were killed by the Iranian regime in 1988 and buried in mass graves.
At the meeting of “Justice for Victims of the 1988 Massacre” in Geneva, some eyewitnesses displayed photos of their family members who were executed despite having prison sentences.
In this session, experts called on the international community to investigate the conduct of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s government toward those who dare to speak out against the system.
One of the eyewitnesses to Iran’s 1988 massacre, in this meeting while pointing to the similarities between the 1988 massacre and recent crackdowns, said: Do you think it is a coincidence that after the January 2018 protests, we cannot find the bodies of 10 of those protesters? Officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran say they either committed suicide in prison or were drug addicts and lost their lives for this reason… or they openly announced that one of these individuals was so remorseful about his participation in the protests that he committed suicide in prison.
Among the speakers at this event was Ms. “Christy Brimlow,” chair of the Human Rights Committee of England and Wales.
Ms. Brimlow warned that those still in prison are in danger.
The organizers of the meeting had invited a number of UN judges, senior officials, and human rights experts to review the documents that the organization possesses.
“Taher Boumedra,” a former advisor to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, was another speaker at this meeting.
Mr. Boumedra said: If investigations into the 1988 massacre and recent massacres are not conducted, civil society has no other option but to undertake this task itself, and we hope that our experts today will review the documents and evidence showing what happened in the summer of 1988.
At the end of the meeting, all participants believed that the 1988 massacre constitutes a crime against humanity.
Ms. Brimlow said the evidence shows that the number of victims is at least 30,000. A significant number of those killed from political prisons were members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq.
Source: Voice of America
