POETRY

Originally written on

Originally written on Tuesday,
September 4, 2001

* Will justice ever be served?

"Those prisoners who still insist on their opposition to the nezaam (establishment), are mohareb (enemy of God), and therefore are sentenced to death. In Tehran, with majority vote, Mr. Hojatoleslam Nayeri, Mr. Eshraghi and a representative of the Intelligence Ministry are responsible to decide who is mohareb (enemy of God).

For the record, the above was a segment of Ayatollah Khomeini's instruction for mass execution of political prisoners in Iranian prisons in summer of 1988, 13 years ago. This cost at least 4,000 lives in Tehran and Karaj's prisons. Some people believe that the figures are much higher than 4000.

Will justice ever be served? Can the Islamic government of Iran just keep ignoring this horrific and ghoulish act and wait till it is forgotten? Can we as the people do something about it? Can the international tribunal get involved?

For me, It will never be forgotten. I lost a friend, a dear friend to this incident. Every year around this time, I get restless. It is like it is happening again. I remember the face of my friend, his family, his old mother, and his son. I replay his last hours and minutes, the way I believe it might have happened, in my mind, over and over, and tears roll down on my face.

Sometimes my daughter notices my tears, turns around and walks away. She seems concerned and uncomfortable. That's why she just walks away. She knows something is not quite right. She is only eight. She has never seen Iran. She does not know who Ayatollah Khomeini was. She is affected by something that has happened, thousands of miles away, five years before she was born.

Did Ayatollah Khomeini ever realize that? I wonder. Did he know the value and sanctity of life? Did he realize that so many people would forever be heart broken? Did he have a heart? Did he ever love someone?

Every year around this time, I die with my friend. I feel every bullet his body received. I feel the pain of many thousand deaths. I feel the feeling of that dreadful moment he realized that he would never see his son again. He was supposed to have been released that summer.

Khavaran

Of all the heinous crimes committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran after its inception, this one is the one which can never be denied, justified, or hidden.

Even Islamic ideology has fallen short of justifying this crime against humanity, hence the silence, hence the denial, hence attempts to  erase Khavaran from the pages of history.

It won't be erased.  It won't be denied.  It won't be forgetten.

Time will show.

Forever Alive

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Piles of dirt
Crooked plants
Dried up flowers
Memorial notes
Wails of mothers
Sleeping residents
Weighing memories
Unrelenting conscinece
Remembering nation

Khavaran,
The cemetery of the alive.

Remembered

Indeed this heinous crime will never be forgotten.