28/08/2008

At 1:00 pm, a group of the Pasdars (the Iranian Revolutionary Guard) arrived at the village of Qarna. At first it looks as if they found that the village was evacuated and everybody flee to toward the mountains or went hidding. Then Guards started to search the houses one by one. Some of the villagers who were found were killed right in front of their houses. The others were shot or beheaded in the mosque. Then they dragged the dead bodies by their trucks and vehicles to the town of Naqadeh to exhibit them to the population. Some of victims were children, disabled and old people, who did not constitute any immediate threat to the army and they were not armed. They beheaded even the only clergy in the village. This Happened on Sept 2nd 1980 in a Kurdish village, 12 Kilometer far from Naqadeh in Iran.

This massacre has not heard outside Iran and hardly known inside Iran, only known by the local people. These Islamic Guards have never been charged for their crimes in Qarna. On the contrary, they received a prize for serving the country and were promoted. These kind of crimes continue since back then in different ways.

Now there are 8 civil rights activists, journalists and teachers who are on the death row for crimes of being Mohareb (fighters against God). Their lives are in danger. According to the recent news, Kurdish political prisoners in Iran, since Monday 25 August 2008, began an indefinite hunger strike to protest those sentences and grave human rights violation in Iranian Kurdistan.

The fallowing eight Kurdish journalists and civil rights activists have been condemned to death in Iran:

1. AdnanHassanpour, journalist, also the award-winning journalist who has been condemned to death. Adnan was awarded a media award in Italy by the Information, Safety & Freedom Association, death penalty

2. Hiva Botimar, civil rights activist and journalist, death penalty

3. FarzadKamangar, civil rights and human rights activist, death penalty

4. Anvar Hossein Panahi, teacher and civil rights activist, death penalty

5. FarhadVakili,civil rights activist, death penalty

6. AliHardarian,civil rights activist, death penalty

7. Arsalan Olyaei,civil rights activist, death penalty

8. Habib Latifi, student, civil rights activist, death penalty

While another seven have been sentenced to up to 11 years for their civil rights activities. Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand, human rights activist is sentenced to 11 years. Hana Abdi, women rights activist is sentenced to 5 years. Zainab Bayazidi, women rights activist is sentenced to 4 years. Fatemeh Goftari, women rights activist is sentenced to 19 months. Amir Reza Ardalan, student is sentenced to 1 year. Ali Shakeri, student, is sentenced to two and half years. Sohrab Jalali, civil rights activist, in spending his charge and deportation to Kashmar.

The prisoners’ hunger strikers aim to increase the awareness of the Iranian and international public opinion to "protest against the death sentences given to Kurdish representatives and to denounce continuing human rights violations in prisons and outside prisons.

If the world was not unaware of what happened to Qarna; now with the help of media there is no excuse for not being informed of what is going on in Iran. We shouldn’t be silent anymore. We need to save lives in Iran. This is our responsibility to notify the international community.

We urge you to help them and to stop these executions.

We will get-together at 13:00 h, on Aug 29th in front of international criminal court in The Hague in order to protest against the death penalty of these 8 journalists and asking the ICC to prosecute the Iranian crime against Kurds victims.

When: Day and time: Friday 29 August 2008 -1:00 pm

Where: International criminal court (ICC)http://www.icc-cpi.int- Maanweg, 174- 2516 AB, The Hague the Netherlands

Organizers: KDPI, KOMALA, CHAK, PAK, KMCN, ICHRN, KJB, IVZO, RASTAN,

Campaign: Stop Kurd Execution in Iran, Kurds Human Rights Network

info@kurdsnetwork.comalimahmud2001@yahoo.com