Video Footage of Gathering in Khavaran Cemetery in 2007

HRANA News Agency – This short video shows gathering and singing by a group of civil and political activists and relatives of political prisoners executed in the 1980s at Khavaran cemetery in September 2007.

Khavaran Cemetery is a narrator of one of the greatest violations of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Officials of the Islamic Republic in the summer of 1981 decided to bury executed leftist prisoners in a piece of land adjacent to the cemetery of Armenians and Hindus at southeast of Tehran. In 1981, a number of those executed Baha’is, as well as some of those who were killed in the armed conflict were buried in this cemetery, due to the decision made by the authorities of the Islamic Republic.

The discovery of the mass graves in the summer of 1988 indicates that all or part of the victims of political prisoners’ massacre in the summer of 1988, were buried in mass graves at the Khavaran cemetery.

The exact name and number of executed people in that year is not yet known. UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights has announced that 1,879 of political prisoners were executed collectively, although Ayatollah Montazeri has written in his memoirs that this number is between 2800 or 3800 and has confirmed that he did not remember the exact figure. Political groups opposed to the Islamic Republic, also have published a list of 4481 names who have been executed and buried collectively.

Until a few years nobody was aware of theses graves, and those who were aware, were not allowed to be present in this area, but from the late 90s, families and friends of those executed, and some political activists, students and labor activists, gather in Khavaran every year in September, and give speeches and sing, although these gatherings are not tolerated by the judicial and security authorities, and a lot of filing and prosecution of civil activists just for attending such events, have been reported.

HRANA once more again invites all the citizens to participate in the reporting of human rights violations. Interested people can provide their reports and documents; including video reports through Facebook pages, website or sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *