© the eyeranian

Aghast

I am thoroughly disgusted at this. One of the less formal and most feared detention centers during the reign of Pahlavi dynasty in Iran, was a small facility in central Tehran. It was known mostly as "Committee Jail" named after the "Anti-Subversion Committee", a component of Shah's intelligence formation that operated the facility. The place has been cleaned up now, rebuilt to resemble the pre-revolution set-up, includes wax figures of some prisoners and interrogators and is going to be open to public. Khatami just took a tour.

This part does not disgust me at all. In fact, I wish all such prisons are turned into places where the atrocities committed there are exposed, displayed and discussed. Unfortunately, Tehran's Qasr prison has already been turned over to a private entity and there is talk of turning the infamous Evin grounds to a university or other learning facility. What I find repulsive though is the way the most recent history of the place is not only ignored, but is deliberately concealed as if it never existed.

You see, "Committee Jail" was revamped and renamed to "Tohid Prison" once before, around 1981. It actually served as one of the most terrifying secret prisons of the new regime for well over a decade. Tohid was known as the place where unspeakable crimes were routine, and as it was not an "official" facility, it housed many of the regimes foes that were considered missing and disappeared, freeing the regime to do as they wish with zero accountability. It was so secret, when U.N.'s Special Representative inquired about it in 1992, he was told the building was demolished after being torched during the revolution, and it no longer existed (see UN Doc. E/CN.4/1992/34).

That was obviously a lie as I personally know about a dozen people who have spent time there. As for it being destroyed during the 1979 uprising, many Iranians remember it being open to visitors after the revolution, so it couldn't have been destroyed (when my uncle took me to see it, I remember there was a "guide" telling us the prominent "S's" in the circular hallways around the courtyard, were a reminder of the building's Nazi connection as it was originally built by some sympathizers within the Iranian government to house the German headquarters in anticipation of an invasion during WWII and that design was incorporated to honor the Nazi SS force. I have no idea if there's any truth to that story.) So the fact that even back then they'd try to deny its existence, is a clue to what kind of facility it must have been.

Now the "reformer" President, who is well aware how only a few short years ago people were held there, tortured and murdered, tours the facility to witness the atrocities of the previous regime, with not a single word about anything recent. This is just disgusting to me.

Link via Another Irani Online

Posted by Pedram at February 1, 2004 11:23 PM