Nine persons were hanged in public last week at three different locations in the city of Zahedan, southeastern Iran. A 22-year-old man was also hanged in public by crane in the city of Ilam (western Iran).
 

Stoning!, The Voice (Vancouver), February 98

Hearing about torture is one thing and watching it is another. The abstract notions of pain, blood and gore are one thing, yet, witnessing the warm blood gushing out of a crushed skull is another. The difference is just like watching a kill in an action movie and then seeing the guy next to you pierced with a bullet in real life.

The video I saw was taped in the courtyard of a prison in Tehran….

A man in what looks like pajamas or prison attire is brought handcuffed to the courtyard. His crime and punishment are read by a clergyman who is backed by bearded men in army overcoat. The crime is adultery. The punishment? To be lashed 100 times, then stoned to death.

The man is tied up to a board, facing it. One of the bearded soldiers stands beside him with a whip in his hand. The beating begins. The arm goes up and comes down savagely breaking through the fibre, cutting the skin….

After the lashing is complete, they cover him in a white sheet, a shroud, a sort of winding-sheet that is used to wrap the corpse before depositing it into the ground. But this man is still alive.

There are two holes dug in the middle of the courtyard. This man and another victim, also wrapped in a white sheet, are placed in the holes and held straight. Men in overcoats shovel the earth back into the holes until they are filled. Now two human figures are buried in the ground up to their waists. Bearded men in overcoats shouting "God is great" circle around them. At their feet there are fist-sized, jagged rocks.

The stoning begins.

As the sharp missiles find their entrapped victims, the white sheets becomes spotted with red. Soon they are soaked with blood.

Shortly after, the shrouds are ripped away and two body halves covered in blood are exposed. Their faces are not recognizable. There is nothing left but ripped skin, crushed bones and…blood…everywhere….

If you see a man shouting at —let alone beating— his dog here on the street, chances are that you will raise your voice in protest. I can only hope that you will extend the same courtesy on behalf of your fellow man….

 
Workers' Strikes Continue All Across Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, February 19

The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement regarding the plight of Iranian workers and shop owners and reported on a series of strikes and protests as follows:

• Half of the workers at Tehran's Steel Industry are presently on strike for having not received their salaries and postponed loans,.

• On Monday, February 16, Tehran's bus drivers stopped work and assembled in the main headquarters of Tehran's public transport company. The strike is in protest to non-payment of the workers' salaries.

• Workers are also on strike at Tehran's Ala'eddin Company. The strike by workers at Melli shoe factory in west Tehran has been continuing for more than one month.

• In Saravan, in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, Macaroni Factory workers staged a strike to protest the non-payment of their salaries.

• On Sunday, government agents roughed up and arrested a retailer at Isfahan's bazaar. The action prompted shop owners to close their shops in protest; major parts of the bazaar were closed down.

The NCR's Labor Committee draws the attention of international human rights organizations to the precarious plight of Iranian workers and urges them to intervene to improve this situation and save the lives of those arrested in these strikes.

 
Large Group of Candidates for Majlis Interim Elections Disqualified, Iran Zamin News Agency, February 19

The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement regarding the mullahs' sham elections and indicated that the Council of Guardians disqualified a large group of candidates, including those nominated by the regime's allies and internal factions, for the interim elections of the mullahs' Majlis.

Among those eliminated were Ibrahim Yazdi and Hashem Sabbaghian, candidates of the "Freedom Movement", and the candidates nominated by the "Union of the Associations of intellectuals and professors." Last Fall, this union called for restricting the powers of the vali-e faqih (the supreme leader) to the terms stated in the regime's constitution.

The NCR added that this development indicates again that expecting reform in the mullahs' illegitimate dictatorship is but a mirage.
 

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