To: Mrs. Louise Arbour,   United Nation’s  High Conmmissioner for Human Rights

Re: Repression of Peaceful Gatherings of Residents of Kurdish Regions of Iran

Date: August 7, 2005

Her Excellency;

IHRAG (Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America), is a non-profit nework of independent Iranian human rights organizations in Europe and North America,   formed in Fall of 2001, and it’s activities are merely based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other United Nation Human Rights Conventions.

According to published reports desiminated from Iran, from official and unofficial sources, following the torture, and subsequent murder of 25 year old Kamal Esfaram (kwnon as Shoane Ghaderi ), in the city of Mahabad, on July 11^th,  2005, residents of the city gathered in front of the Governor’s office to demand  the  arrest and trial of culprits in Mr. Esfaram’s torture and murder. Unfortunately, their peaceful gathering was attacked by the police and the security forces and many people were beaten and several of them were arrested and put to jail.

In support of the demands of their compatriots in Mahabad, residents of some other cities in this region, such as Bookan, Rabt, Oshnavieh, Piranshahr, Sardasht, Baneh, Divandareh, Sanandaj, and Saghez, staged similar peaceful gatherings in the pat three weeks. Instead of attending to their just demands, authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in accordance with their widespread, planned, and systematic violations of the human rights of Iranian people, resorted to more violence and even used helicopter gunships to suppress these gatherings. As a result many people have been injured, arrested and killed in the past 25 days.

Based on reliable information obtained todate, following is the names of 25 people killed:

1-Abas Ramezanzadeh 2-Naser Nilofari 3-Behzad Rahimi 4-Aibid kamali 5-Kave Vakili 6-Kave Hejazi 7-Mohamed Shariati 8-Farzad Mohamedi 9-Afshin Moravati 10-Shadman Mohamedi 11-Rahman 12-Omar Amini 13-Heydar Abdullahzadeh 14-Jamile Khezry 15-Bayazid Ali Hassan 16-Loghman Nasrollahi 17-Hakim Soor 18-Hossein Balani 19-Kamal Esfram 20-Hassan Ahmedi.

More than one thousand people have been jailed, and following is a partial list we could obtain:

1-Roya Toloui 2-Madeh Ahmedi 3-Jalal Aghvami 4-Azad Zamani 5-Keyvan Mollamirzai 6- Farhad Saberi 7-Omid Asadi 8-Shahoo Abdullahi 9-Hassan Tari Moradi 10-Veria Zamani 11-Alireza Nostati 12-Fayegh Moradi 13-Vaham Mohamed Rezai 14-Arsalan Sadeghinia 15- Amirali Veysi 16-Raouf Heydarian 17-Milad Mahbobi 18-Sirvan keshavarz 19-Kamal Mohamdi 20-Sasan Aghjari 21-Farzad Salavati 22-Shahoo Amjadi 23-Habibollah Saaitkhani 24-Javad Rahimi 25-Salah Feysi 26-Hiresh Rahimi 27-Tofigh Seyfi 28-Farhad Alikhani 29-Teymor Ghobadi 30-Kaled Amjadi 31-Hyva Hosseini 32-Nima Falahi 33-Saman Bahmanzade 34-Jamal Ali Mohamed 35-Farid Sobhani 36-Iraj Kanan 37-Arman Amini 38-Daryosh Armand 39-Saleh Zamani 40-Afshin Habibi 41-Hamid Nafsi 42-Afshin Garibi 43-Vahab Alikhani 44-Hamid Tasaini 45-Saman Bahmanzade 46-Shahoo Salimi 47-Sirvan Feysinejad 48-Arfan Soleymani 49-Ramin Amini 50-Khaled Amini 51-Omid Moeini 52-Omar Moradian 53-Omid Asadi 54-Loghman Golami 55-Mahmud Salehi 56-Jahanbaksh Feysinejad 57-Puja

Based on published reports, hundreds more have been injured, and two regional journals, “Asou” and “Ashti”, have been closed.

Her Excellency,

We, the Iranian Human Rights Activists in EU and North America, ask you and  the Secretary General Kofi Annan, to use your good offices to:

1-      free all those who have been jailed. ( we should inform you that they have been denied of any access to defence council, and the authorities refuse to inform their families where they are being held);

2-      stop prosecuting the injured ones so they can receive prompt and proper medical treatment;

3-      deliver the bodies of those who have been killed to their families and allow them to hald proper and dignified funerals for their loved ones; and

4-      appoint  a UN committee to conduct an investigation in the region as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAG)

E-mail: IHRNENA@gmail.com

Phone: 1 - 514 – 365 9212 (Canada) or 46 -704-124-500 (Sweden)

Address: BOX 5047, 165 10 Hässelby, Sweden

Human Rights News from Iran: http://ihrgint.blogspot.com

Iranian Human Rights Activists Association, Canada - Human Rights defense committee of Iran, Sweden - Vereinigung zur Verteidigung der Menschenrechte im Iran, Deutschland - Stichting voor  de Verdediging van Democratie in Iran, Nederland   – Iranian – Canadian community Association of western Canada, Vancouver - Committee to Defend Human Rights in Iran, California, U.S.A. - - noran (supporting committee for human rights in iran ), Norway – Activist of Human Rights- Irantestimony -  Committee for defense of  Liberty and Democracy in Iran – Austria , Aliance for Human Rights defense in Iran – Washangton, U.S.A – Iranische Menschenrechtsaktivisten-Schweiz - Center of activists for  the  defense  of  Human Rigts  in Iran, Belgium - Menschenrechtgruppe IRAN – Deutschland - Verein zur Unterstützung der Politischen Gefangene im Iran, Berlin, Deutschland, - Unione Per La Democrazia In Iran, Italia