generalspeaking

Iran In Turmoil

"It is decreed that those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin (hypocrites - Iran's description of members of the opposition People's Mujahedin Organization) are waging war on God and are condemned to execution."

In a six-week period in the summer of 1988 a widespread, systematic series of executions succeeded in depriving thousands of people of their lives. These were political prisoners in Iran. People who had already spent years of their lives imprisoned for crimes such as demonstrating against the leadership of the country, distributing leaflets and newspapers critical of the Islamist regime, or those collecting charitable funds in support of prisoners' families. They were hauled out of their cells and brought before tribunals sitting in judgement.

And then they were executed without interruption until eight thousand people, within the space of two weeks, were killed. Between August and December prison guards read out ten names and those people were taken from their cells and never again seen, according to one eyewitness. Prisoners' families suddenly found themselves unable to visit, guards would not accept bribes or gifts for prisoners as they had formerly. And then bodies began to be seen in shallow unmarked graves in a Tehran cemetery meant for executed political prisoners.

The total number of those executed is unknown, but it is thought to be up to 30,000. It remains a 'state secret'. Those within the country who defied revolutionary Islamic values paid dearly. This is a country in which executions are a usual form of punishment. Criminal offences or moral offences considered a blot on Islamic principles and values are rewarded by public floggings, amputations, stonings and beheadings. It is only those with a political component that are discreetly undertaken, out of the public eye.

During the purge and destruction of political prisoners, children as young as thirteen years of age were hung in groups of six. It was a brutally orderly affair, where prisoners were loaded on forklift trucks and hanged from cranes and beams in half-an-hour intervals, while others met their fate by firing squads. The macabre wave of state executions were directed at the order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian Revolution who returned from exile in Paris as a popular religious figure, to dethrone Shah Reza Pahlevi.

Recently-deceased Grand Ayatollah Hussain Ali Montazeri who was once recognized as Ayatollah Khomeini's successor, but later imprisoned for his criticism of the immorality and illegality of the Khomeini regime, wrote in damning detail of the prison massacres. His book described also his attempts to object to the killings, but he was ignored. Now, on his death, the opponents of the regime honour him as their spiritual leader. Now, on his death, the regime's opponents have been inspired to further protests.

The fury of the protesters currently raging against the brutal regime of the current Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has seen them out in full force in Tehran and other cities, out-numbering and on occasion out-powering the Republican Guard and the Basiji, throwing stones and setting motorcycles on fire.

Labels: Middle East, Traditions, World News

posted by Pieface @ Monday, December 28, 2009