© the eyeranian

Summer of 1988

There are certain topics I find extremely difficult to write about. Perhaps part of the reason for starting this blog (although subconsciously) was to force myself to write about them and through it, work on some of these emotions and sensitivities.

I wrestled all weekend with this one, for example (thus no posts for 2 days). The struggle actually started about a months ago, but I kept putting it off for as long as possible. Just another way of escaping the urge to deal with it I suppose. I re-wrote it several times and deleted it entirely even more. Wasn't sure how best to approach it; make some general comments or the more personal way it has touched me. I think it came out somewhere in between.

I have more to say about this, but there will be other occasions, anniversaries and opportunities to expand further. For now, this is all I can manage:

Spring and summer of 1988 is a period of great significance for those interested in Iran's modern history. Three sequential and important events took place during this time, starting with a cease-fire after an 8 year war with Iraq.

Saddam Hussein had started a war with Iran in 1980, with full support of the West and with fantasies of an easy victory over a non-existent army battered by dismissals, executions and escape of most of its upper decision-makers following the Iranian revolution of 1979. His dream and the dream of his backers were quickly shattered when untrained and often unarmed grassroots resistance forces of largely ordinary Iranians stopped the invasion headed by his advanced and well-armed army. The first two years of the war is full of heroic and incredible stories of battles that eventually led to pushing the Iraqi army all the way behind the international borders.

However, Khomeini, Rafsanjani and others at the top, refused to stop the war at this point, despite several offers by Saddam and his supporting neighbors to pay restitution, accepting culpability for the war and advice of top military experts. They announced that the war shall continue until the fall of Saddam and thus pulled the country into an additional 6 years of unnecessary and disastrous war costing billions with over a million dead and injured. The war was now an ideological and religious campaign and not a nationalistic and defensive effort of Iranian people. Finally in 1988, Khomeini accepted that his pursuit of “regime change” was unrealistic and as he put it; he drank the “goblet of poison” by accepting the ceasefire.

This prompted the second event of that period. Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) who had spent the last few years under the protection of Saddam’s regime, saw the end of the war as either their opportunity to deliver a knockout blow to the battered Iranian regime, or felt their existence may now be in jeopardy without the cover of the war. For whatever reason, they started a massive campaign by gathering their full force at the Iranian border and in a military strike that lasted several days, tried to advance towards Tehran. MKO’s forces only managed to seize a small parcel of Iranian land and were severely beaten, suffering heavy casualties and major embarrassment for their foolish plan.

However, what came next was the event I have such a difficult time writing about. Whether the MKO offensive was the catalyst for a long overdue revenge, the fear of political prisoners still in custody becoming a resistance force in the future, or an excuse had been created to implement a previous plan, the regime decided to clean up its prisons after quashing the MKO offensive.

The number of political prisoners in Iranian prisons had exploded right after the MKO and other left organizations became targets of the regime in 1981. As the number of prisoners decreased, mostly due to nightly mass executions, regime found new enemies to supply a fresh crop all the time. Prisoners were tortured regularly and would at one point be granted a “trial” at which no lawyer defended them, prosecutor was also the judge and juries were never invited. Those who had proven connections to now outlawed groups were almost definitely sent to the firing squads. Others were given long sentences, usually between 10 to 30 years and often for no evidence but having a banned book, being related to “an infidel” or just being accused by a trusted friend of the system.

In the last two months of the summer of 1988, these “convicted” prisoners became the new targets again. A committee of three clergy was selected by a direct order of Khomeini to review all cases and decide once and for all as to the fate of each prisoner. There was no due process, no appeals and no defense council. All decisions would be final and carried out immediately.

The “judges” had three standard questions for each group or organization the prisoner was accused of helping. Basic questions like “are you Muslim?”, “do you practice your religious chores regularly?” and “do you accept the rule of the Supreme Leader?”. Answering negatively to any of the 3 questions asked would result in an automatic death sentence. Even positive answers caused a “judgment call” as to see if the clergy present believe the accused and even if they did what should the new sentence be.

There are no definitive numbers, but all evidence point to thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of executions within those two short months. The volume became so heavy, new executioners had to be recruited and then instructed to not use bullets, as the costs associated with buying ammunition through black market was too high. Places like the large prayer hall in dreaded Evin Prison were transformed into hanging galleries.

Mass executions were not new to this government, but two factors sets this particular set aside: 1) For the first time, the injustice evident to most opponents was clearly displayed to the world by executing prisoners already convicted and while serving their sentences where no new “crime” could have been committed and none presented a threat to the regime. 2) The executions went across all opinion and ideological barriers and included almost all groups present at the recent political landscape of Iran.

I lost many friends that summer. In fact of the group of about 30-something student activists functioning within my high school, I only know of 2 others who have survived past the summer of 1988.

Buried in unmarked spots and unknown mass graves, the victims of 1988 massacres won’t be forgotten and will always serve as a reminder of how low we humans can sink and how hate and fundamentalist view of the world based on ideologies and religions can divide people and portray us as anything but similar creatures only separated by ideas, cultures and geography.

Posted by Pedram at September 8, 2003 06:14 PM