More than 150 personalities, including Nobel laureates, former heads of state or government and former UN officials, are calling for an international investigation into the summary execution of thousands of dissidents in prisons in Iran in 1988.
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In an open letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, made public on Wednesday, the signatories ask the international community to investigate "
including through an international investigation
". Human rights NGOs have campaigned for years for justice over what they consider to be the extrajudicial execution of thousands of Iranians, mostly young people, across Iran as it unfolds. ended the war with Iraq (1980-88). Those killed were mostly supporters of the Iranian People's Mojahedin Organization, an opposition group banned in Iran that had supported Baghdad during the conflict.
Last September, seven UN special rapporteurs wrote a letter to the Iranian government, saying they were "
seriously concerned about (Tehran's) continued refusal to disclose the fate (of those killed) and the location
" of them. buried. "
We are concerned that the situation could amount to crimes against humanity,
" said UN experts, calling for a "
full
" and "
independent
"
investigation
as well as the establishment of "
death certificates precise
”for families. They warned that if the country continued to "
refuse to meet its obligations
», An international investigation should be set up to shed light on these events.
"
Put an end to the culture of impunity
"
The open letter made public on Wednesday refers to this letter and supports the call for the launch of an international investigation.
"
We call on the UN Human Rights Council to put an end to the culture of impunity that exists in Iran by establishing a commission of inquiry into the extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances of 1988,
" said the letter.
"
We urge High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to support the establishment of such a commission
."
The signatories of the open letter include six Nobel laureates, former Irish President Mary Robinson - who predated Michelle Bachelet as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - as well as the heads of previous international commissions of inquiry established by the UN to investigate North Korea and Eritrea. Twenty-eight former UN human rights experts, the former prosecutor for the international tribunals on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, former heads of state or government also signed .
The UN human rights office confirmed to AFP that it had received the letter by email and “
confirmed receipt to one of the main signatories
”. Asked for a reaction to this call, the spokesperson of the High Commission, Marta Hurtado, underlined in an email that "
the establishment of an international commission of inquiry is a decision which rests with the member states
". She added that, however, the Office of the High Commissioner and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran had already "reported
continuing impunity for serious human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of
Iran.
'Iran
'.
According to human rights activists, thousands of people were killed in prisons in Iran without trial on the orders of then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini. The National Council of Iranian Resistance (NCRI, opposition in exile) of which the People's Mojahedin are the main component, mentions 30,000 dead, but this figure has not been confirmed. The case is very sensitive in the country, activists accusing officials today in the government of being involved.