Iran Focus
London, 26 October – On October 24, in an article about a conference set up by the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF), which highlighted the on-going human rights violations in Iran and also commemorated of the victims of the 1988 executions, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) writes that Matthew Offord, MP for Hendon is leading calls for the UK to condemn human rights violations in Iran.
His call followed an exhibition at the Attlee Suite in the House of Commons on October 20, which showcased the past as well as the ongoing atrocities targeting all sectors of the Iranian society, including activists and dissidents.
The exhibition was part of a conference which will focus on the 1988 massacre in Iran, when some 30,000 people, including pregnant women and children, were executed by religious decree from the government regime.
Offord chaired the conference and pushed for an end to exemptions for the people who committed these crimes. He said, “The people of Iran want an end to the impunity for those who committed this crime and other authorities of the regime,” and added, “I urge the British government to recognize and condemn this massacre as a crime against humanity and act in the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council in order to bring the known perpetrators to justice in an international tribunal.”
Other members of both Houses agreed that such steps would be important to to stop the continuing executions ordered by the regime in Tehran.
The conference is supported by the Association of Anglo-Iranian Woman, many of whom are residents of the London Borough of Barnet, and are of Iranian origin.
Laila Jazayeri, director of the association, said, “Almost every Iranian living in the borough lost a member of family, extended family, or friend in the 1988 massacre.” She continued, “Some of the families of the victims and in particular a member of Anglo Iranian Youth in Barnet who lost several aunts and uncles. Our MPs, Matthew Offord and Mike Freer, have always supported their constituents’ goals and aspirations for a free Iran where they could to go back to one day.”
Several former political prisoners told of their ordeals, survivors gave eyewitness accounts, and family members of the victims shared their experience of the brutality with which the authorities carried out the executions.
