Dear friends:
This is the forth announcement regarding the massacre of political prisoners, which is submitted to you for your review.
It is for a number of years that various political organizations and human rights groups organize activities and events around the world on the anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988. Since this tragic event occurred during a time span of several months between July and September, the memorials are carried out in different days and weeks.
to inform the world community of this horrific crime, a crime that has been overlooked for so many years, we need to organize remembrance gatherings of this tragedy in a specific date and in a coordinated manner with the collective support of various groups of participants such that it will have a broad and impressive effect around the world. By highlighting the crimes of Islamic Regime and appealing to the freedom loving people of the world we can play an effective role in stopping the help of the interest driven Western Governments to the Islamic Regime that is responsible for these and many other murderous acts. Therefore, it was necessary to first adopt a date, and then collectively execute a specific plan around the world at the same time.
We are glad to announce that based on the opinion polls that we conducted, the 10th of Shahrivar, corresponding to the 1st of September, was agreed upon as the Memorial Day for the victims of the1988 massacre of political prisoners.
We can now focus on the methods of organizing and publicizing these events. There are several suggestions for publicizing this event, and we would like to have your opinion on them:
1. A couple of short and suitable slogans on the subject to be shown by special rental airplanes and balloons in various cities or metropolitan areas around the world. This can attract a lot of attention without too much need for preparation. We used this approach in Los Angeles during Iran-US soccer games, with very good results. Several creditable newspapers and TV stations reported on it. This method can be very effective if there is a large population of people at some outdoors location, on September 1st.
2. Meetings and seminars about this issue to be arranged in different countries in such a way that the addressees of these sessions are largely local non-Iranians population and news media. One of the effective methods in gaining greater publicity is to invite well-known non-Iranian political figures and renowned human-rights activists to address those meetings.
3. Announcements and manifestoes written in different languages be prepared by the organizers of those meetings, and be widely distributed to the media and other related institutions, before and after such meetings.
4. Mass circulation of flyers and news bulletin prior to this event to increase its impact.
5. Contacting Human Rights Organizations and all other progressive parties and groups and urging them to issue statements regarding this massacre and become engaged in seeking justice for its victims.
Please send us your comments on the details of this task and the specific activities that you propose as soon as possible. We will make all comments and suggestions available to everyone. After the decisions are made by various organizing groups as to how this event will be observed, we will try to publicize them in a collective manner.
Please communicate this matter with those interested individuals and groups that you know, and we were not able to directly contact, and ask them to participate in this event.
We would like to propose to our friends, to form committees and task force teams in your areas, to conduct the required activities such as budgeting, obtaining necessary permits, finding a suitable site for the events, contacting media, printing, advertisements, etc.
In reference to addressing the people around the world, we seek your feedback on the following suggested slogans. Please pay more attention to the overall messages in them, and not to details. For example, if you have reservations for using the term “Islamic regime of Iran”, you can substitute it with something that you deem more suitable. Obviously, long slogans can be shortened.
(1) The massacre of thousands of political prisoners in summer of 1988 manifests the anti-human nature of Islamic Regime of Iran.
(2) The mass executions by the Islamic Regime of Iran necessitate the abolishment of capital punishment.
(3) The mass murder of thousands of political prisoners in summer of 1988 must be recognized as crime against humanity.
(4) The international community must recognize the executors of this massacre as criminals and treat them as such.
(5) We condemn the legitimization of any faction of the Islamic regime of Iran.
(6) World Community should help us in our attempt to prosecute the agents of these crimes, the heads of Islamic Regime of Iran, through international avenues.
(7) We urge the freedom loving people of the world to support Iranians pro-democracy movement, by making their governments to stop legitimizing the Islamic Regime of Iran.
(8) Islamic Regime of Iran has denied the basic human rights of the Iranian people since its inception by imprisonment, torture, and capital punishment.
(9) We condemn the European Governments for Establishing Relations with the criminal Islamic Regime of Iran, which is the symbol of human-rights violations.
Dear friends: The Islamic Regime, in spite of all its crimes, has extended the domain of its invasion from inside to outside of Iran and through various types of shows and publicity stunts and with the help of non-Iranian and Iranian greedy opportunists has tried to cover up its anti-human nature. These activities are conducted to gain the financial support of the Western countries. One of the few things that the Iranians living outside Iran can do is to stop enactment of this conspiracy. We do not believe that pleading to the various government officials would result in stopping the help to the Islamic Regime. So, it is our opinion that the proper paths for accomplishing our democratic and humanitarian tasks that are consistent with pro-democracy movement of our people are as follows:
(1) Seeking help from pro-democracy organizations, groups and people of the world, and thus applying pressure on their governments to stand against Islamic Regime, and to refrain from legitimizing that regime.
(2) Formation of a strong block of Iranians who reside in different countries; and their participation in the political process of the country of residence, in order to enable us to materialize our views.
(3) Struggle for the prosecution of Regime’s criminals through international laws and avenues. This not only serves justice, but also is the best way to stop the Islamic Regime to gain legitimacy outside Iran. This is an objective for which MEHR has struggled for many years. In spite of limited resources and cumbersome judicial process in the U.S. we have been able to gain enough support and hope to file our first lawsuit in the US courts very soon. However, we are well aware that desirable progress of this task can only be achieved through your support and participation.
Our joint efforts on the anniversary of political prisoner’s massacre will provide an appropriate basis to attract the attention of the people of the world to Regime’s crimes.
We hope that working towards goals within the above practical tasks and their implementation will unify us further in achieving our objectives.
MEHR Iran
July 9, 2002
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MEHR Iran
P.O. Box 2037
P.V.P., CA 90274
USA