AJR 12: Condemning the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.

This measure would condemn the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, urge the United States government and its allies to publicly condemn the massacre and pressure the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to provide detailed information to the families of the victims, and urge the United Nations to conduct a full investigation.

WHEREAS, Over a four-month period in 1988, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out the barbaric mass executions of thousands of political prisoners and many unrelated political groups; and

WHEREAS, According to a report by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, the massacre was carried out pursuant to a fatwa, or religious decree, issued by then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that targeted the Peoples Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK); and

WHEREAS, According to a November 2, 2007, report by Amnesty International, between 27 July 1988 and the end of that year, thousands of political prisoners [in Iran], including prisoners of conscience, were executed in prisons nationwide; and

WHEREAS, The killings were carried out on the orders of a judge, an official from the Ministry of Intelligence, and a state prosecutor, known to the prisoners as death commissions, which undertook proceedings in a manner designed to eliminate the regimes opponents; and

WHEREAS, Those personally responsible for these mass executions include senior officials serving in the current government of Iran; and

WHEREAS, Prisoners were reportedly brought before the commissions and briefly questioned about their political affiliation, and any prisoner who refused to renounce his or her affiliation with groups perceived as enemies by the regime was then taken away for execution; and

WHEREAS, The victims included thousands of people, including teenagers and pregnant women, imprisoned merely for participating in peaceful street protests and for possessing political reading material, many of whom had already served or were currently serving prison sentences; and

WHEREAS, Prisoners were executed in groups, some in mass hangings and others by firing squad, with their bodies disposed of in mass graves; and

WHEREAS, According to Amnesty International, the majority of those killed were supporters of the PMOI, but hundreds of members and supporters of other political groups . . . were also among the execution victims; and

WHEREAS, Later waves of executions targeted religious minorities, such as members of the Bahai faith, many of whom were often subjected to brutal torture before they were killed; and

WHEREAS, The families of the executed were denied information about their loved ones and were prohibited from mourning them in public; and

WHEREAS, In a recently disclosed audiotape, the late Hussein Ali Montazeri, a grand ayatollah who served as Khomeinis chief deputy, noted the regimes efforts to target the MEK and said that the 1988 mass killings were the greatest crime committed during the Islamic Republic, for which history will condemn us; and

WHEREAS, The current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was reportedly aware of, and later publicly condoned the massacre; and

WHEREAS, In violation of its international obligations, the government of Iran continues to systematically perpetrate gross violations of the fundamental human rights of the Iranian people; and

WHEREAS, The November 2, 2007, report from Amnesty International concluded, there should be no impunity for human rights violations, no matter where or when they took place. The 1988 executions should be subject to an independent impartial investigation, and all those responsible should be brought to justice, and receive appropriate penalties; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature condemns the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the 1988 massacre and for denying the evidence of this manifest set of crimes against humanity; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature urges the United States government and its allies to publicly condemn the massacre, and pressure the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to provide detailed information to the families of the victims about their loved ones and their final resting places; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature urges the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran and the United Nations Human Rights Council to create a Commission of Inquiry to fully investigate the massacre and to gather evidence and identify the names and roles of specific perpetrators with a view toward bringing them to justice; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.