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More than 30 years ago, the Iranian regime carried out a systematic massacre of political prisoners<\/a>, which was aimed at stamping out the main opposition group, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK<\/a>). At the time, expatriate activists and dissidents made a concerted effort to bring the killings to the attention of Western policymakers, with only limited success. No one has ever been held accountable for the massacre, and there has been no formal inquiry into the incident by the United Nations or any other relevant body.<\/p>\n Last December, this situation was highlighted globally by an open letter from seven UN human rights experts<\/a>, including the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. The letter\u2019s publication came roughly three months after it was shared directly with leaders of the Iranian regime, who reinforced their commitment to impunity in this matter by declining to respond. The human rights experts acknowledged that the UN and its leading member states bore some responsibility for that impunity, having failed to follow up on the massacre in its immediate aftermath.<\/p>\n The letter noted that in December 1988, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that expressed \u201cgrave concern\u201d over \u201ca renewed wave of executions\u201d during the previous summer, which targeted prisoners \u201cbecause of their political convictions.\u201d The letter went on to say that despite this, \u201cthe situation was not referred to the Security Council, the UN General Assembly did not follow up on the resolution and the UN Commission on Human Rights did not take any action.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe failure of these bodies to act had a devastating impact on the survivors and families as well as on the general situation of human rights in Iran and emboldened Iran to continue to conceal the fate of the victims and to maintain a strategy of deflection and denial that continue to date,\u201d the letter observed.<\/p>\n This strategy has received so little challenge on the international stage that Amnesty International was compelled to describe the UN experts\u2019 letter as a \u201cmomentous breakthrough\u201d in addressing what has been called \u201cthe worst crime of the Islamic Republic\u201d and one of the single worst crimes against humanity in the decades following World War II. However, that breakthrough has proven to be less thorough than some might have hoped. With more than five months have passed, there is little sign of material progress toward the follow-up that was missing in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.<\/p>\n Consequently, that massacre\u2019s survivors and the families of its victims are still hard at work bringing international attention to the case and highlighting the urgency that accompanies Tehran\u2019s systematic efforts to destroy vital evidence related to it. Last month, a group of these individuals wrote a letter<\/a> directly to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urging him and all relevant bodies to initiate action that might lead to the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre being prosecuted at the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n The letter noted that the legacy of that massacre still has ramifications for people throughout Iran and the Iranian expatriate community, and therefore constitutes an ongoing crime against humanity. It was referring in particular to the criminalization of memorial gatherings and the destruction of mass graves in which it is believed that as many as 30,000 victims were buried in the summer and fall of 1988.<\/p>\n At the time of the letter\u2019s composition in April, Iranian authorities had allegedly just tried to destroy one such gravesite at Khavaran Cemetery in Tehran. Previously, the letter added, those authorities \u201cdestroyed or damaged the mass graves of the 1988 victims in Ahvaz, Tabriz, Mashhad, and elsewhere.\u201d Such activities constitute key tactics in the \u201cstrategy of deflection and denial\u201d that the UN experts referred to last year. Their expression of concern implies substantial awareness of this ongoing effort to destroy vital evidence of the killings, yet the latest follow-up from victims\u2019 families seems to indicate that that awareness has not yet sparked serious action.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the survivors and victims of the 1988 massacre do have supporters among policymakers and legal experts from throughout the world. More than 150 of them joined in the campaign for justice in recent days by signing their names to yet another statement urging action from the United Nations<\/a>. This latest effort was spearheaded by an organization known as Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran, and it specifically targeted the UN Human Rights Council and High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet.<\/p>\n The document reiterated the UN experts\u2019 warning about how Tehran has developed a sense that its officials need not worry about accountability for the massacre or for any other human rights abuses. \u201cThere is a systemic impunity enjoyed by those who ordered and carried out the extrajudicial executions,\u201d it said. \u201cMany of the officials involved continue to hold positions of power including in key judicial, prosecutorial and government bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n Those crackdowns have been exacerbated by the entire regime\u2019s concern over a growing movement for comprehensive political change. That growth has been readily apparent at least since the beginning of 2018 when Iranian society was in the midst of a nearly unprecedented upheaval that encompassed over 100 localities and featured stark, anti-government chants like \u201cdeath to the dictator.\u201d That nationwide protest sparked a period that the Resistance leader Mrs. Maryam Rajavi<\/a> described as a \u201cyear full of uprisings,\u201d and it helped to set the stage for another, even larger uprising in November 2019.<\/p>\n As the clerical regime is destroying the graves of the victims of #1988Massacre<\/a> in #Khavaran<\/a> to erase the traces of its crime, I urge the UNSC & all UN member states to formally condemn Khomeini\u2019s decree on the massacre of political prisoners as genocide & crime against humanity<\/p>\n \u2014 Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) May 13, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n More recently, the twin uprisings have been linked to an emerging boycott of the regime\u2019s presidential election<\/a>, which many activists have presented as a means of \u201cvoting for regime change.\u201d Each of these coordinated outpourings of dissent has reportedly been led by the MEK \u2013 the very same group that was the main target of the 1988 massacre. This fact makes it clear that the 1988 massacre did not succeed in stamping out organized opposition, but it also raises concern about the potential for extraordinary bloodshed if Tehran\u2019s sense of impunity remains intact in the face of the current challenges.<\/p>\n![\"Families](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Families-and-survivors-of-the-1988-massacre-hold-an-exhibition-in-front-of-the-United-Nations-headquarters-in-Geneva-on-September-15-2017..jpg\" "\\"Families-and-survivors-of-the-1988-massacre-hold-an-exhibition-in-front-of-the-United-Nations-headquarters-in-Geneva-on-September-15-2017.\\"")
![\"massacre1988\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/massacre1988.jpg\" "\\"massacre1988\\"")
Among the most notable such figures are Justice Minister Alireza Avaei and Ebrahim Raisi, the head of Iran\u2019s federal judiciary. Both men played a role on the \u201cdeath commissions\u201d that interrogated political prisoners over their views and affiliations in 1988, then ordered the hanging of all those who failed to demonstrate absolute fealty to the theocratic system and the supreme leader. Today, Avaei and Raisi collectively wield virtually unchecked power over law enforcement in Iran and have unsurprisingly overseen some of the worst crackdowns on dissent in recent years.<\/p>\n\n
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