06.11.1997

Prison massacre

Iran

In Iran, hunger strikes by political prisoners are a continual feature of life. In most of the major cities there are a number of prisoners close to death - others have already died.  Four political prisoners died in the city of Tabriz this July. They were Hamid Reza Dadashi and Mehrdad-e-Vosoghie - both supporters of the Organisation of Fedaian (Minority) - and Jafar e Abbassie and Abdulreza Hamedi, supporters of the Mojahedin organisation. Another prisoner, Kumrun e Yazdanie, died in the Esfahun prison.

Typically, the Islamic Republic has forbidden the families of the dead prisoners to hold memorials, as well as refusing point blank the demands of the political prisoners. It does everything in its power to break their resistance.

Sometimes the regime reverts to massacres in order to quell resistance in the prisons. The most infamous killings occurred in the summer of 1988, when the Khomeini regime was compelled to accept a ceasefire with Iraq. Furious at having to drink from a “poisoned chalice”, as Khomeini put it, the regime took revenge on the prisoners. A few days after the ceasefire, Iranian prisons were turned into abattoirs. Thousands of political prisoners, some of whom had spent years in the medieval dungeons of the regime - a few had even finished their sentences - were handed to execution squads. Afterwards, the victims were buried in special mass graves in Khavarun.

Why such a massacre? The Islamic Republic was terrified that following the defeat and acceptance of the ceasefire - for which hundreds of thousands had been sacrificed as a “gift to the creator” - it would be confronted with a storm of revolutionary anger. Therefore, by suppression and slaughter of political prisoners it tried to create an atmosphere of terror and fear in society and prevent the growth of a mass movement. For these reasons, it committed that atrocity in the summer of 1988.

The following nine years have proved the regime’s expectations to be false. This massacre did not cow the masses - or prevent political prisoners from resisting. Scores of open mass protests have taken place - strikes, street demonstrations, erection of barricades, uprisings, etc.

Once again, the prisons are full of political prisoners. This time the prisoners are mainly workers who have been arrested during strikes and demonstrations. These very prisons have once again become bastions of struggle and resistance.

We should remember and honour those prisoners butchered in the summer or 1988, and those killed since. By standing shoulder to shoulder with the workers, the political prisoners and their families, the Iranian regime can be toppled.

Frank Vincent