{"id":26622,"date":"2019-08-28T09:40:48","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T08:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/issues\/human-rights\/26622-amnesty-international-un-must-investigate-iran-s-1988-massacre"},"modified":"2023-01-20T18:54:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T17:54:50","slug":"amnesty-international-un-must-investigate-iran-s-1988-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/amnesty-international-un-must-investigate-iran-s-1988-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty International: UN Must Investigate Iran\u2019s 1988 Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stop_Executions_in_Iran_1988_Massacre\"<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on 30 August, Amnesty International on Wednesday called on the United Nations to set up an independent investigation into Iran\u2019s 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners.<\/p>\n

The Iranian authorities\u2019 \u201ccontinued failure to disclose the fate and whereabouts of thousands of political dissidents who were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in secret during Iran\u2019s 1988 prison massacres has sparked a crisis that for decades has been largely overlooked by the international community,\u201d Amnesty International said on its website<\/a> on August 28, 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThousands of the victims\u2019 deaths remain unregistered and, across the country, there are thousands of missing bodies buried in unidentified mass graves. For more than 30 years, the Iranian authorities have failed to officially acknowledge the existence of these mass graves and concealed their locations causing\u00a0immeasurable suffering<\/a>\u00a0to families who are still seeking answers about their missing loved ones,\u201d the human rights group wrote.<\/p>\n

Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director at Amnesty International, said: \u201cThe families of those secretly killed in the 1988 prison massacres are still living through a nightmare. They and many others in Iran are haunted by the thousands of missing bodies, which have cast a spectre over the country\u2019s justice system to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is misguided to view the 1988 mass killings as historical events. The enforced disappearances are ongoing and, 30 years later, victims\u2019 families continue to be tormented by anguish and uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Under international law, the crime of enforced disappearance continues until the state reveals the fate or whereabouts of the individual concerned and this requires, when the disappeared person is found to be dead, returning the remains of the victims to their families.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International\u2019s December 2018 report\u00a0Blood-soaked secrets: Why Iran’s 1988 prison massacres are ongoing crimes against humanity<\/em><\/a>\u00a0concluded that by continuing to systematically conceal the fate and whereabouts of victims of the secret extrajudicial killings of 1988 in Iran, Iranian authorities are committing the ongoing crime against humanity of enforced disappearance.<\/p>\n

The Iranian authorities have an obligation under international law to investigate these ongoing crimes and to provide victims with truth, justice and reparations, Amnesty International wrote. They should involve independent experts in exhuming and identifying the remains, including through DNA analysis, return the remains of deceased victims to their families and allow the families to conduct commemorations and dispose of those remains according to their own beliefs, religion or culture.<\/p>\n

In any case of a death, the authorities have a duty to issue a death certificate, setting out accurately the date, location and cause of death. However, for victims of the secret extrajudicial killings of 1988\u00a0this has not happened<\/a>\u00a0in thousands of cases. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCrimes against humanity are exactly what the term suggests: crimes so serious that they concern not only their victims, survivors and the state in question but also humanity as a whole,\u201d said Philip Luther.<\/p>\n

\u201cUN member states must use every opportunity, including the upcoming review of Iran\u2019s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council in November, to press the Iranian government to identify mass graves and reveal the fate and whereabouts of all victims of these tragic events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amnesty International has called for the UN to set up an independent investigation into the extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances to establish the truth, enable prosecutions of those suspected of responsibility and ensure that survivors and families of victims receive reparations.<\/p>\n

The human rights group\u2019s appeal further stated:<\/p>\n

The Iranian authorities did not return the bodies of any of the victims of the extrajudicial killings of 1988 to families. They also refused to tell most families where the bodies were buried, in an apparent effort to eliminate all trace of the victims.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International knows of only five cities \u2013 Ahvaz, Ardabil, Ilam, Mashhad and Rudsar \u2013 where the authorities eventually told some families verbally that their loved ones were buried in mass graves and revealed their locations. However, publicly and officially, the authorities have never acknowledged these or other known or suspected mass grave sites across the country, which have been subjected to\u00a0desecration and destruction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to information obtained by Amnesty International, in several other cities, including Bandar Anzali, Esfahan, Hamedan, Masjed Soleiman, Shiraz, Semnan and Tehran, the authorities gave a few families the location of individual graves and allowed them to install headstones, but many fear that the authorities may have deceived them and that these graves may be empty.<\/p>\n

In the case of Tehran, these concerns are reinforced by Amnesty International\u2019s finding that 99% of the names on 335 gravestones at the Behest Zahra cemetery that the authorities have attributed to victims of the mass killings are not registered in the cemetery\u2019s online burial registers; only three are registered.<\/p>\n

There are reports that many of these individual gravestones were erected suddenly in late 1988 and early 1989 without any sign of prior digging or burial in the area. Some families and survivors suspect that the authorities identified these graves in an attempt to trivialize the number of those killed and show that the location of their remains was known. They fear that in fact these victims may have been buried in unmarked mass graves along with several thousand other victims.<\/p>\n

In one case a family discovered in June 2017 that the ground beneath the headstone where they had believed their loved one was buried for decades was in fact empty and contained no bones or other remains.<\/p>\n

Background on Iran\u2019s 1988 massacre<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime summarily and extra-judicially executed tens of thousands of political prisoners held in jails across Iran.<\/p>\n

The facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n