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Indicting Rafsanjani

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N. The right to leave one's country and to return

 

261. Subsequent to his interim report to the General Assembly, the Special Representative transmitted to the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office at Geneva, by letter dated 23 December 1992, the following allegations.

262. It has been reported that on 16 October 1992, Mullah Ahmad Jannati, delivering the Tehran Friday prayer sermon, criticized the return of "foreign educated Iranians as well as Iranian businessmen whose behaviour and indifference to revolutionary values could not be tolerated".

263. On 28 August 1992, Mr. Saeid Shafizadeh went back to Iran to visit his grandparents. Before he left the airport, he was reportedly stopped by Iranian authorities and asked to sign a paper renouncing his Baha'i faith. It was said that he refused to do this and was detained at the airport for several hours. Later, he was released in the custody of his uncle, who is a Muslim.

 

O. The situation of children

264. In the same memorandum dated 23 December 1992, the Special Representative also transmitted to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the following allegations.

 

265. On 26 October 1992, Kayhan reported that 12 to 13-year-old children are working in factories near Tehran. Salam of 8 September 1992 reported that "A huge number of youngsters and children work the night shifts in various production units in the Plasco Building in Tehran for 2,000 toumans a week".

 

266. On 14 December 1992, the Secretary-General of the Imam Khomeini's Relief Committee stated that "Due to extreme poverty and the absence of the basic needs for marriage, the deprived people living in Khorassan's northern areas sell their young daughters for up to 10,000 toumans. The buyers of these young girls mostly come from the Gonbad area, and take them there to work in the farms and workshops after being bought".

 

267. Kayhan of 21 October 1992 reported that 40 girls and boys were arrested by officers of the Department to Combat Social Corruption of the North Tehran Security District.

 

P. Situation of refugees

 

268. The Special Representative has received reports that there are at present 2.1 million refugees in the Islamic Republic of Iran; of these at least 2 million are of Afghan nationality and about 100,000 are Kurds and Shi'ites of Iraqi nationality. Most of the Afghan refugees have integrated within the civil and economic life of the country, although about 300,000 are living in small settlements in rural areas which have sprung up along the frontier with Afghanistan. In August 1992, between 1,500 and 2,000 Afghan refugees were returning to their country every day, under the supervision of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It is estimated that a further million will return in the course of 1993.

 

269. The Islamic Republic of Iran has also received Iraqi refugees of Kurdish origin, who entered the country mainly in 1988 and 1991. According to reports received, the refugees of Kurdish origin, are also returning to Iraqi Kurdistan, although their return is hampered by the fact that the roads are blocked by snow during most of the winter. At present there are still about 60,000 Iraqi Kurds, who are mostly living in refugee camps in the north-west of the country.

 

270. The refugee population also includes some 40,000 Iraqi nationals of the Shi'ite Muslim religion who fled the disturbances in the south of Iraq following the Gulf war and are settled mainly in the south-west of the country.

 

271. According to reports received, the Afghan refugees have been authorized to undertake a small number of jobs, mainly in the construction sector; they enjoy a number of social benefits in the areas of health and hygiene, water supply, education and occupational training, provided by the Government of Iran and UNHCR. The World Food Programme (WFP) has also assisted the 300,000 Afghan refugees living in small settlements in rural areas; their situation presents no major problems, although there are incipient signs of rejection by the local population similar to that suffered by groups of foreigners living in other countries, and some refugees are having difficulty in enroling their children in schools.

 

272. The efforts of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to care for the refugees of Iraqi nationality, both Kurds and Shi'ite Muslims, have also been supplemented by assistance from UNHCR and WFP.

 

Q. Victims of chemical-weapon attacks

273. The Special Representative continued to receive general information about the state of the victims of chemical-weapon attacks during the Iran-Iraq war, many of whom are receiving medical treatment in the Islamic Republic of Iran and abroad. According to the reports received, the chemical-weapon attacks occurred on 17 October 1981 and 25 June 1990, and were systematic in 1985; they mainly affected Iranian towns near the frontier with Iraq, especially Halabche, Abadan, Marivan, Bane, Sumar and Jofeir. The main weapons used were nerve gas, mustard gas, phosphoric gas, cyanide, nausea-producing gas and poison gas; they were fired from aeroplanes, helicopters and mortars. The attacks are reported to have resulted in the death of 7,065 persons and the wounding of a further 46,552, about half of whom are suffering from various degrees of disability.

 

274. The victims of the chemical-weapon attacks were both civilian and military. Most of the deaths were due to the effects of the poison gas and many others to the effects of mustard gas. Some survivors are currently receiving medical treatment for lymphomas, tumors, leukaemia and anaemia, in various degrees. The genetic consequences have not yet been clearly determined.

 

III. CONSIDERATIONS AND OBSERVATIONS

A. General considerations

275. As stated in the introduction to this report, the Commission on Human Rights, through its resolution 1992/67 of 4 March 1992, extended for a further year the mandate of the Special Representative on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Islamic Republic of Iran, reiterating the terms of its resolution 1984/54 of 14 March 1984, the first relating to this country. The Commission requested the Special Representative to submit an interim report to the General Assembly and a final report to the Commission at its forty-ninth session. The Special Representative submitted to the General Assembly his report (A/47/617), which is an integral and fundamental part of the present final report. On 18 December 1992, the General Assembly adopted resolution 47/146, in which, inter alia, it expressed its deep concern at the continuing reports of human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran, urged the Government of that country to resume its cooperation with the Special Representative and decided to continue consideration of the question at its forty-eighth session.

 

276. The interim report summarized the information received in 1992 up to the time of writing, i.e. late September. During the last few months of 1992 and the first three weeks of January 1993, further information has been obtained and this is set out in chapter II of the present report containing developments and allegations. The new data have been classified in the customary manner.

 

277. On 25 September and 23 December 1992, the Special Representative sent to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran a summary of the allegations received and requested it to send him detailed replies. The Iranian Government replied to the first memorandum on 24 November 1992 and announced that it would reply to the second in late January 1993. The second reply was in fact received on 29 January 1993.

 

278. Included in the note containing the Iranian Government's reply is the following passage:

 

"You will concur that preparation of replies and comments to issues raised in the memorandum annexed to your letter dated 25 September 1992 requires correspondence with various branches of our departments in the Government and thus will require more than four weeks. Nevertheless, in continuation of our cooperation, I am enclosing a compilation of replies to your questions and comments to your statements. Responses to the remaining questions will be presented in a more appropriate time" (see para. 12).

 

279. The replies to the first memorandum have been incorporated in chapter II of the present report, and have been inserted according to subject and case, so that they appear immediately after the allegations made. The replies to the second memorandum did not arrive in time to be incorporated in the main body of the report, but they do appear in an addendum to this document.

 

280. Outlined below are some of the most significant developments for an evaluation of the effective existence of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Islamic Republic of Iran, followed by a few comments. The fact that a few developments have been highlighted does not detract from the importance of other developments mentioned in the preceding chapter, since all the developments together constitute the direct background to the observations and conclusions set out in the final report. The present chapter should be read and analysed in relation to chapter IV of the interim report (A/47/617), since they complement one another and constitute a single whole.

 

B. The right to life

281. By the end of 1992, 301 judicial executions had been recorded. Of these, 164 may be attributed to political causes. Among the persons executed are members of the following organizations: People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran; Kurdistan Democratic Party; Komala; Fedahin, and various groups from Baluchistan.

 

282. Shortly after the demonstrations of April and May 1992 in Mashhad, Shiraz and other cities, no less than 8 participants were executed and a further 10 sentenced to death; they are awaiting execution of the sentences. On 18 March 1992, Mr. Bahman Samandari, a member of a prominent Baha'i family, was executed. In September, two members of the same community, who had been interviewed by the Special Representative during his third visit to the country, were sentenced to death. It is reported that other persons have been sentenced to death and are awaiting execution on as yet unspecified dates. Mr. Bahman Qahramani is still missing after being arrested for political reasons (see para. 101). In 1993, the death sentence against Salman Rushdie was confirmed and the reward for his killing was increased, with consequent international tension and controversy, which has on occasion taken violent forms.

 

283. On 1 November 1992 a woman was stoned to death in Isfahan. This form of execution also constitutes torture and is inadmissible under the international standards and the resolutions and declarations of competent organs of the United Nations. This and other similar cases which have been recorded earlier form part of the list of complaints by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

 

284. Many of these executions were reported in Iranian media, but news of others has been collected from various non-governmental sources. It is stated that the Iranian press has departed from the practice it followed during 1991 and does not now report all executions, especially when they take place in provincial cities.

 

285. According to the data received, at least 117 of these executions concerned drug traffickers. When drug traffickers are involved, the names of the persons executed are generally published. In the case of political offences, the executions are sometimes reported, without names.

 

286. Although the death penalty has been imposed on drug traffickers for several years, the problem continues to be as acute as when this repressive policy was adopted. The negative result clearly indicates that the death penalty is not the appropriate means of combating this type of crime. Until such time as alternative policies excluding the death penalty are adopted and the necessary international cooperation is forthcoming in the south Asia region, violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights will probably continue to accumulate, and it will not be possible to eradicate the evil targeted, through means which, historically, have proved very ineffective.

 

C. Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

287. Indications have been received of cases of cruel treatment of prisoners who refuse to submit to the demands of prison authorities or do not confess what public officials consider to be the truth.

 

288. Attention should be drawn to what has been happening in prison to Mr. Armir Entezam, Deputy Prime Minister and spokesman of the First Provisional Government which replaced the monarchy. Mr. Entezam's situation remains dramatic, not to say tragic. Apart from the long years he has spent in prison, his solitary confinement, the ill-treatment he has received and his inability to communicate with his family, he is seriously ill. It has been possible to document this case and to receive recent reports describing his suffering and state of despair (see annex II).

 

289. The Special Representative has learnt of a recent case of torture consisting of a beating for refusing to obey the orders of the prison authority. The prisoner in question was tortured several times, taken to hospital, brought back to prison and finally given a beating in September 1992 after he had refused to sign a letter in which he accepted the charges that had been levelled against him for several years. In addition, the sending of information on human rights violations to international organizations has been regarded as espionage.

 

290. Amputation and flogging are punishments prohibited under the international standards, because they constitute torture. Very recently, five thieves had fingers amputated. This penalty was carried out in public, in Sari (province of Mazandaran), in the presence of judges, administrative officials and hundreds of onlookers (see para. 121).

 

291. The penalty of flogging has frequently been imposed in 1992. Among a number of cases attention should be drawn to the flogging of about 248 people in the province of Kirmanshah on charges of the unlawful relations, drunkenness and other misdemeanours. As part of a recent campaign to ensure strict compliance with the rules of dress for women, flogging has again been imposed in several cases.

 

D. The guarantees of due process of law

292. The trials which have led to imposition of the death penalty have been held without complying with the guarantees of due process of law as established by the relevant international instruments. The trials held by the Islamic revolutionary courts are of a summary nature and take place in camera, generally inside prisons, to which relatives, reporters and the public do not have free access. A trial in camera should be the exception, when certain moral or private interests have to be protected; the general rule should be public and open trials. Despite the numerous statements made and repeated promises, the trend is in the other direction: the exception has become the general rule. There are continuing reports that defendants do not enjoy the right of presumption of innocence, to submit evidence and summon witnesses in their favour, to exercise remedies in the course of the trial, and to lodge appeals and applications for reconsideration.

 

293. The adverse effects of the lack of a genuinely independent bar association continue to be felt; such an association would supervise the professional conduct of its members, serve as a bulwark against any attempt to impede professional activity, and provide support of all kinds in overcoming the intimidatory practices of certain authorities and their officials.

 

294. An Act of Parliament, confirmed by the Council for the Determination of Exigencies, introduced the obligatory assistance of an attorney (Vakil), but not necessarily that of an attorney at law (Vakil-e-Dadgostari). The defence is a very technical task which cannot and must not simply be left to persons of good will who are not professionally qualified. The Special Representative's criticisms on this point have given rise to local controversy and public rebuttals by officials; however, he cannot omit to repeat that criminal trials relating to drug trafficking, espionage and political offences are held without the assistance of a qualified lawyer and without the guarantees of due process of law as established by the relevant international instruments.

E. The right to security

295. Previous reports have indicated that independent citizens feel concerned because they are unable to foresee the reactions of the authorities to situations of tension or public disturbance. The recent case of the demonstrations in Mashhad, Shiraz and other cities has been eloquent in this respect. What began as a demonstration over municipal matters blew up into a major event because the authorities were not prepared to restore order through the use of non-lethal instruments. As a result, there were fatalities, other casualties, hundreds of arrests, death sentences, prison sentences and sentences to flogging. According to the official news agency IRNA, the orders of the higher authority were categorical: "Seek out the troublemakers and destroy them like weeds".