Iranian Authorities Are Accused of Secret Burials
NY Times / Michael Slackman
23-Aug-2009 (4 comments)

As Iranians celebrated the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, they were confronted Saturday with new charges of reform movement supporters being tortured in prison and of bodies being secretly buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of Tehran.

The accusations, filed on Web sites affiliated with the reform movement, added to the push and pull between an opposition movement struggling to keep itself from being silenced and a government that has tried to move past the crisis over the country’s disputed presidential elections in June.

Iran’s political crisis smolders on at least two levels, political analysts said: in the hostility nursed by the millions of people who feel that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory was fraudulent, and in the behind-the-scenes fighting within the institutions of power among political and clerical insiders.

On Saturday the internal battle appeared to be on display again when Mr. Ahmadinejad broke with tradition and skipped a meeting of the Expediency Council, according to the Web site Parleman News, which is affiliated with a parliamentary faction that has opposed the president. The council, an influential government body, is run by a rival of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s, the former vice president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

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FG

Exposure!

by FG on Sun Aug 23, 2009 03:39 AM PDT

I first read about the mass burial at the Enduring Freedom site and sent copies to the NY Times and other papers along with links to two sources.  Apparently they checked it out which is understandable.  It took about a day for something to appear on the Times.   

Maybe signs with "302" on it should join the photos of Neda and others in demonstrations.    Shout it from the rooftops.   Let the number join politival graffiti everywhere.   Maybe it will undermine Basilj morale when they ask what 302 means.  EnduringFreedom also has an interest article about a possible compromise alliance with Khamenei which admits and denounces the crimes and belittles nonsense about a "velvet revolution inspired by foreigners.



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vildemose

Good job FG. Thank you. I

by vildemose on Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:37 AM PDT

Good job FG. Thank you. I think you should have also mentioned that this mass dumping of bodies in unknown places is nothing new in the Islamic Republic.

There is Khavaran precedent:

 

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_executions_of_Iranian_prisoners

 

//azarmehr.blogspot.com/2009/01/khavaran-cemetery-must-be-preserved.html

 

Silencing the dead: Trying to remove evidence by buldozing the site:

 //iranian.com/main/blog/paymaneh-amiri/khavaran-silencing-dead

 

Please send these links to the newspapers too. It provides context and historical perspective to the recent news of mass secret burial.

Thanks again and keep up the good work.

 


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Majid Zahrai

Dear FG

by Majid Zahrai on Sat Aug 22, 2009 06:05 PM PDT

Welcome to the news section. Please leave your contributed news article's title intact, as it is not a part of the contribution you can change. You can write your personal opinions in your comment or in the supertitle, but the title needs to stay the same as it appears on the article. In this case the title should be "Iranian Authorities Are Accused of Secret Burials" and not "NY Times has picked up story of secret burials." 

Thank you in advance for changing it.


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FG

Secret Burials

by FG on Sat Aug 22, 2009 04:05 PM PDT

I notice here the LA Times (I also sent them material previously) is also carrying the story and even lists the number of bodies at 44.  

If no one has taken photos, the opposition should get a few hundred people stationed around the grave.  If they scatter or arrest that many demonstrators, remove the evidence and deny everything it will be very difficult to explain why they would remove/arrest so many people whose presence could have backed up their story. 

The two questions Iranians should ask are: !) How is it possible so many died in government hands after being picked up intact? and 2) Why did the government hide these bodies instead of returning them to their families?  


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