We are All of Them

By Maryam Namazie

September 16, 1999

The Islamic Republic of Iran has declared the execution orders for four individuals who were involved in the July protests. We do not know who the four are, how many others have been tried in sham courts, how many have already been executed, and how many have been given long-term prison sentences, to be executed at later dates. Many of those who have fled after the repression following the July protests have contacted the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR). They say many more have disappeared, many more tortured, many more killed, and many more former political prisoners re-arrested than imaginable. The extent of this regime’s brutality and Islamic justice will only become clear to the world with its demise.

Iranian refugees, scarred psychologically and physically from two decades of terror, are the Islamic Republic’s biggest export. They are now in Turkey, Iraq, Greece, Cyprus, Pakistan, in detention centers in the United States and in holding centers in Europe.

While the persecuted grapple to gain protection in countries which have effectively deemed Iran safe, Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi travels the globe to secure international investments in an attempt to delay the regime’s downfall. On September 20, Kharrazi will be in New York City for a UN General Assembly meeting and on the 25th, he has invited some Iranians to the UN to dine with him. There will be some who will toast the regime of mass murder for their own self-interests – to further their investments, businesses, research, or seminars and panels. There will be many innumerable more, however, with other interests – a better life, who will be waiting for another opportunity to pull this regime under.

What is the responsibility of those of us living abroad? We must unite against one of the most criminal regimes of this century. We must side with the four and all other prisoners who are threatened with execution. We must, with all our might, defend those who are sentenced to die.

We are all of them.