In the summer of 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran massacred thousands of political prisoners across the country.  Men and women were blindfolded and taken out of their cells and were either shot by a firing squad or were hanged within the prison compounds and prayer rooms.  Not a single one of the prisoners was given a proper trial.  Instead, a group who later became known as the “Death Commission” decided the fate of the prisoners on the basis of their answers to a few questions. There are no exact figures of the number of victims due to the harsh censorship and suppressive political climate in Iran.

However, there are around 5,000 known names of victims to this day which have been documented by their families, political parties and human rights organizations.  The Islamic Republic of Iran refuses to provide any information or details about the massacres or the location of the victims’ graves, although a number of mass graves have been discovered by the families. Khavaran cemetery in the south western suburbs of Tehran, the capital of Iran, is the most well-known place of such mass graves. Families gather here every year on August 31st to honour the memory of their loved ones.

The massacre of political prisoners was the culmination of the Islamic Republic’s policy of repression against its opponents in the 1980s during which around 20,000 dissidents disappeared, died under torture or were executed either by firing squad or by hanging.

During the recent uprising of the Iranian people in their millions, the security and armed forces of the regime yet again demonstrated their callousness towards the freedom seeking people of Iran by their barbaric crackdown on the peaceful demonstrators on the streets of Iran.

We, a group of individuals composed of the families of the victims, former political prisoners, the survivors of this human tragedy, political and labour activists, women’s rights activists, lawyers, students, children’s rights activists, writers, artists and human rights activists, have been holding regular meetings since October 2007 in order to assess the feasibility of setting up a symbolic international tribunal, whereby the Islamic Republic of Iran would be held to account for its crimes against humanity. This symbolic inquest will have the authority to bring this human tragedy, concealed and unacknowledged for almost three decades onto the world stage whereby the brutality and cruelty of the Islamic regime would at long last be examined, exposed and judged.

The world should know what took place in Iran during the 1980s; particularly, in the summer of 1988. The horror and brutality was of such criminal magnitude that when exposed, and we believe that the evidence will be sufficiently convincing, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be condemned and held to account.

We call upon all those who abhor injustice and love freedom; journalists, lawyers, political and labour activists, students, human rights activists and progressive organisations to support our campaign by any possible and available means at their disposal. Through our solidarity and united action, we can succeed in mobilising the freedom loving world opinion toward our humanitarian cause, by means of which the Islamic Republic regime would be held accountable for its crimes against humanity at this essential and long overdue tribunal.