Letter sent to BAZR student leaflet!

Photo from Archive

• Horrible news are slipping out of official, secret, and temporary prisons, detaining people arrested in recent unrests, which calls for a new and public movement towards revelation of the crimes occurring at the moment and immediate release – without – condition of all political prisoners.

On one hand, families of activists imprisoned recently and even before can very well provide incentive for that purpose inside the country. On the other hand, the significant role of activists off border must not be neglected. Anniversary of 1988 large-scale executions of Iranian political prisoners may be supported by this movement as well.

Shocking news confirm that people arrested in recent rallies, especially youths, are being tortured to death. Generally recognized individuals, i.e. journalists and activists from Mousavi and Karroubi HQs, are also being violently forced to plead guilty and repeat prearranged notes in front of the media. Most importantly, the IR government is following a Latin-American-style forced disappearance (Desaparecidos) strategy. A conscript, serving at Evin Prison as a guard, declares that a special place inside the prison is dedicated to Basij and IRGC Intelligence agents, where no one is permitted. “So horrendously do they torture people than even hearing the voices from outside has caused mental disorder in us. Transferring ten corpses, dead under torture, every everyday with ambulances from Evin Prison to anonymous graves has become business as usual for the prison”, said the soldier.

The main objective of these large-scale arrests and beatings has proved to be intimidation. In other words, many were arrested and then bludgeoned for several hours, in that they were wearing in a particular fashion or were in a certain age for intimidating people passing by the scene and further for detainee’s describing what happened to them in public after they were released. The story, however, does not finish here. They are using images captured using trap cameras installed in places where main clashes occurred, i.e. Basij HQs and Governmental Buildings, to identify youths chanting slogans there, according to which they select their subsequent victims amongst the detainees. More disturbing is robbing youths identified during their nightly chanting slogans on the roof of their houses. They are apparently trying to remove at least a few hundred from students, teachers, and university lecturers, whom they consider a threat by the end of summer, when schools will be open again. Besides, it seems that we are going to experience a de facto unofficially-closed semester with the beginning of autumn, as three hundred thousands of the candidates have not participated in university entrance exams, according to ministry of science. The ministry has also announced that they are reducing forty percent Basij university quotas into half, while apparently Basij quotas have become redundant for several years now, which most probably suggests that they are trying to fill universities with Basijis in the form of paramilitary forces in order to suppress the potential unrests in universities in future.

Hence, it is crucial for all of us outside the country to spread the news regarding recent disappearances. Moreover, we should anticipate similar strategies towards student movements as happened in Latin America.

It is also necessary to be aware of the standpoints of the dictator government. It seems that they do not even show mercy to parties linked to the regime. As a case in point, one of very politically significant, ex-intelligence agents, supporting Rafsanjani or Mousavi at the moment, wrote a letter to Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of IRIB, objecting about IRIB’s recent policies. A few hours later, Ministry of Intelligence arrested him, and only released him after a few hours of brutal torture. They do not show compassion to their own elements, let alone students protesting against them.

Urgent! Do not waste any time.