Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), sent a video message on Friday, urging the Iranian people to rise up against the Iranian regime’s inaction and cover-up of the Coronavirus outbreak in Iran, which has resulted in over 1800 deaths.
The Iranian regime’s inaction and its criminal cover-up of this disease has expedited the spread of the COVID-19 to over 74 Iranian cities and has turned Iran into the epicenter of this deadly virus. Reports obtained and published by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK) say that over 1800 people have lost their lives in a matter of weeks across Iran. The MEK has published footage from Iran showing people falling on the ground on the streets due to the Coronavirus.
Below is the full text of Mrs. Rajavi’s message:
Dear compatriots,
Selfless physicians and nurses,
In these bitter days, when due to the mullahs’ criminal cover-up and deferral, the outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19) has imperiled the lives of our people, I urge your national solidarity to prevent further spread of the infection, to protect the lives of our compatriots, and to protest and confront the ruling regime.
My condolences to the bereaved families, and I pray for the quick recovery of all the compatriots who have contracted this virus.
We pay homage to the selfless physicians and nurses who lost their lives to provide care to the Corona patients. These nurses risk their own lives while their most basic rights have been trampled for years under the mullahs’ rule of suppression and plunder. All of us feel indebted to these selfless women and men.
We also salute the supporters of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran and members of Resistance Units who contracted the disease and lost their lives while working to provide assistance to the victims of Coronavirus.
On Khamenei’s order, the regime kept the people in dark about the outbreak of the Coronavirus and refrained from taking any preventive measures, to minimize its impact on the turnout of the 1979 revolution anniversary and the election masquerade.
An executioner who has ruled since the outset by relying on torture, executions, warmongering and thievery, is now playing with the lives of 83 million Iranians. In brazen remarks, he ruthlessly said (the enemy) made an excuse of this disease to disrupt the elections. He further claimed that the virus is “nothing that big” and that his regime had informed the public transparently since the first day.
Today, after losing at least 1,800 of our compatriots, the mullahs are still not saying from where and how did the virus get transmitted to Qom. They are not saying why they have not stopped the flights to China by IRGC’s Mahan Airline. And they have continued to hide the truth up to this date. Khamenei has tasked the Revolutionary Guards, the Intelligence Ministry and other suppressive agencies to prevent disclosure of the actual death toll and the number of people who have contracted the virus.
This disease kills the poor, workers, and other toilers more than anyone else. It targets those in villages who suffer from poverty and hunger. It targets the at least 20 million people who live in the contaminated environment of slums and shanty towns. The true dimensions of the clerical regime’s ruthlessness and crimes could be best seen in abandoning hundreds of thousands of prisoners defenseless vis-à-vis this virus.
On the other hand, the mullahs have not only jeopardized the lives of the people of Iran in all the 31 provinces, but they have turned the country into an epicenter for transmission of the virus to vast parts of the world. This is the flip side of the mullahs’ belligerence and export of terrorism to preserve their disgraceful rule.
My fellow compatriots,
What has made our country seriously vulnerable vis-a-vis diseases and natural disasters, is a ravenous, brutal dictatorship that does not hesitate in committing any crime to preserve its treacherous rule. A regime which has destroyed all economic, social, medical, and health care infrastructures and the environment.
Indeed, when at least 12 million people are starving in the country, and nearly 60 million people are living under the absolute poverty line, how could they fight the spread of this disease, particularly in circumstances that the lion’s share of our country’s wealth is spent by Khamenei’s ruthless IRGC on wars and bloodshed in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
The mullahs’ criminal conduct in the Coronavirus incident is the other side of its massacre of protesters during the uprising in November. When their rule is in danger, they have no mercy on anyone. The images of children who were killed by Revolutionary Guards have wounded the conscience of humanity.
A recent report by Amnesty International on the Iran uprising in November 2019 states: At least 23 minors were killed by security forces using live ammunition during November protests. Officials wrapped the bodies of victims in shrouds and handed them to their families just minutes before the scheduled burial, on the condition that they remain silent.
The religious fascism ruling Iran is struggling with all its power to prevent the disclosure of the number of those killed during the uprising in November. In the weeks and months following the uprising, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran announced the names of 755 of the martyrs, including the names of martyred children, to thwart the mullahs’ conspiracy of concealing and deception.
At this point, I would like to urge my compatriots, all the bereaved mothers, all relatives, friends and comrades of the martyrs of the uprising in November, to announce the names of these martyrs through any means possible and inform the international human rights organizations.
Dear compatriots, gallant youth, enlightened and combatant students,
As the Leader of the Iranian Resistance, Massoud Rajavi, said: The Iranian people’s fight against the Coronavirus is part of their fate making war with Khamenei and the inhuman clerical regime.
The ruling mullahs have nothing to do with humanity, Iran and Islam. They neither want, nor can protect Iran’s national interests.
Today, not only the freedom of the people of Iran but their life and health, and protection of the country’s economy and existence depend on the overthrow of the clerical regime. Likewise, global and regional peace and security and encountering natural disasters depend on regime change in Iran.
Therefore, in this sensitive juncture of our country’s history, I would like to point out the following:
- Direct and vent your anger at the regime. Young people and especially university students must use their creativity and improvise to break through the obstacles and open the way. We are the ones torise upto protect our country and society, and ensure its health, security and future. We must encourage everyone to show their outrage, and to stage protests and strikes to any extent possible.
- Medical and health care resources must be removed from the monopoly of the IRGC and the agencies affiliated withKhamenei, andplaced at the disposal of the public to be used under the supervision of honorable and freedom-loving physicians and nurses.
- Supporters of the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance, Resistance Units, resistance councils, and popular councils, must aid and assist those who have contracted the virus and help save the lives of our compatriots, while taking all the necessary protective measures for themselves and using full medical equipment.
- I urge all my compatriots to inform the public through every possible means of the news of the Coronavirus, and the names and number of those who have lost their lives, to foil the regime’s conspiracy of maintaining silence in this regard.
- The UN Security Council, the UN Secretary General, the UN Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and other relevant international organizations must condemn the clerical regime for its continued criminal cover-up of the spread of Coronavirus in Iran, thus jeopardizing the lives of the people in Iran and other countries. I also urge them to prevent a major humanitarian catastrophe by taking immediate action to save the lives and health of prisoners, particularly the political prisoners who are under torture and double pressure and denials.
May God protect and safeguard the people of Iran from illness and from the virus of the mullahs’ regime.
God bless the people of Iran
The true dimensions of the clerical regime’s cruelty and crimes could be best seen in abandoning hundreds of thousands of prisoners defenseless vis-à-vis the #Coronavirus. #Iranhttps://t.co/IVChMVq9Ay pic.twitter.com/4WDJ7SEp6B
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 6, 2020