by Jubin Katiraie
The Iranian Resistance held a ceremony to commemorate the 30,000 victims on the 1988 massacre of political prisoners on August 19, at the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) headquarters in Tirana, Albania.
This August marks the 29th anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and the first anniversary of the movement calling for justice for the victims.
At the ceremony, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran made a speech vowing to continue fighting for justice for the victims of 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran and for the ideals for which they died.
She said: “We are commemorating the memory of martyrs of the 1988 massacre, along with MEK members who are continuing your path. Generation after generation, people asked about your stories and headed for your glorious destination. Although [Supremem Leader] Khomeini sought to send you into oblivion, you have become eternal; you have turned into the rebellious conscience of the Iranian people. Khomeini was defeated by your perseverance and resorted to the massacre.”
In 1988, Khomeini released a fatwa calling for the extermination of the MEK and called upon high-ranking members of the Iranian Regime to ensure that their main political opposition would be eliminated.
Over the course of just four months, 30,000 mostly MEK members and supporters were executed despite having already been sentenced to jail time for their political beliefs or even having already served their sentence.
The regime has tried time and time again to cover up their massacre by burying the victims in mass graves, destroying those graves, imprisoning those who spoke up about the massacre, and even executing those who demand justice for their dead relatives.
Rajavi concluded: “We vow to turn every drop of your unjustly-shed blood, into a force for struggle and battle for freedom. And we vow to carry on your glorious ideals to final victory.”
The ceremony featured choirs, the release of pigeons, and the lighting of torches in memory of the eternal beacons of freedom, the MEK heroes massacred in 1988.
Other speakers at the event included Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Senator Robert Kennedy and President of Robert Kennedy Human Rights Foundation; Mariano Rabino, member of the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights committees of the Parliament of Italy; Senator Pietro Liuzzi, member of Cultural and EU Policy committees of the Italian Senate; Ingrid Betancourt, former Senator from Columbia, and Tahar Boumedra, former director of the Human Rights Office of UNAMI.
