The UN shines a light on Iran’s 1988 crimes of humanity
The US sanctions for the assassination of Ambassador Rajavi are an opportunity to break a rampant silence: the UN must launch an independent investigation into one of the most horrific crimes of humanity since the Second World War, writes Ambassador Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata.
The American decision to strike, albeit symbolically, the perpetrators of the assassination in Geneva in 1990, of Ambassador Kazem Rajavi, a figure of great prestige in the Iranian Resistance, has a strong political as well as moral significance. Despite the fact that the killers and their principals had been perfectly known for thirty years, until yesterday, nothing was really done by the international community to secure the criminals of the Iranian regime to justice. Nor has any serious step, such as the launch of an international commission of investigation, invoked for years by many NGOs, including in search of justice and amnesty — was taken to justice to the 30,000 victims of the massive massacre ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the summer of 1988. A very serious crime against humanity was perpetrated by the Iranian regime, with the direct participation of important personalities of the current government of Hassan Rouhani. A crime that falls within the definition of “genocide” sanctioned by the United Nations and many national legislations.
The US State Department has stressed that the sanctions against the 13 killers of Ambassador Rajavi, and another of the 14 Iranians responsible for “massive violations of human rights”, are intended to be a precise warning to Iran’s “leading state sponsor of terror”, and “a message of support to victims around the world of the Islamic Republic of Iran, that the United States will actively pursue those who are responsible for spreading terror and violence”.
The events of 1990 in Geneva, for which the Swiss legal action is still pending, are one with the events of that terrible summer two years earlier — the 1988 massacre — on which Ambassador Rajavi was engaged to turn on every possible spotlight of the United Nations and the international community. How was it decided, and what evidence do we have today of that horrendous genocidal crime?
Although the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre were never indicted, there are many direct testimonies from even the highest officials of the Iranian regime. At the origin of it all was a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, in these terms: “Anyone, at whatever level, continues to belong to the Monafeqin (the derogatory term used by the regime to define the Mujahedin-e Khalq), must be executed. Wipe out the enemies of Islam immediately “. And he went on to say: “Those who are in prisons all over the country and continue to remain determined to want to support the MEK Iran, are declaring war on God and are condemned to execution. It is naive to show mercy to those who declare war on God ”.
On August 9, 2016, an audio recording was released for the first time, in which Hossein Ali Montazeri, Khomeini’s former designated heir, admits that the massacre has taken place and has been ordered at the highest levels. Montazeri accuses the members of the “Death Commission” (August 15, 1988) of committing a crime against humanity. Montazeri’s recording revealed new information about the scale of the massacre of political prisoners of that time. It provoked a wave of indignation and revolt in Iran, particularly among the members of the regime who for more than two decades have tried to impose absolute silence on the massacre.
