LONDON: Amnesty International has urged leaders at the UN General Assembly to call for an independent probe into violence in Iran in the wake of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
The appeal follows waves of violence across the country, with security forces using lethal force to break up peaceful protests in support of Amini, who died in custody on Sept. 16 after allegedly suffering torture and physical abuse for three days.
“The global outpouring of rage and empathy over Mahsa Amini’s death must be followed by concrete steps by the international community to tackle the crisis of systemic impunity that has allowed widespread torture, extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings by Iranian authorities to continue unabated both behind prison walls and during protests,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“The Iranian authorities’ latest brutal crackdown on protests coincides with Ebrahim Raisi’s speech at the UN. He has been given a platform on the world stage, despite credible evidence of his involvement in crimes against humanity, in a stark reminder of the devastating impact of the repeated failure of UN member states to tackle impunity for grave crimes in Iran.
“Iran’s security forces will continue to feel emboldened to kill or injure protesters and prisoners, including women arrested for defying abusive compulsory veiling laws, if they are not held accountable. With all avenues for accountability closed at the domestic level, the UN Human Rights Council has a duty to send a strong message to the Iranian authorities that those responsible for crimes under international law will not go unpunished.”
Amnesty gathered eyewitness accounts and analyzed protest videos. Its findings show that security forces used birdshot and other shells against peaceful protesters in a dramatic escalation of violence.
One source told Amnesty that during the first rounds of protests on Sept. 16, security forces in Saqqez fired birdshot at 18-year-old Nachirvan Maroufi, who lost sight in his right eye. Another man, Parsa Sehat, 22, lost sight in both eyes following a similar incident.
“Riot police were repeatedly firing towards people from about 100 meters away,” said a source from the city of Kamyaran. “I myself witnessed at least 10 to 20 people who were shot with metal pellets … Most of them were injured in their backs as they were running away.”
A source based in the city of Mahabad said: “In response to people chanting ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ and ‘Death to the Dictator,’ security forces fired weapons loaded with metal pellets, often from a distance of about 20 to 30 meters … They particularly targeted people in their head.”
Many protesters injured in the violence are believed to be avoiding hospital treatment as a result of fears of retribution by state authorities, Amnesty warned.
During later rounds of protests on Sept. 19, security forces violently arrested hundreds of demonstrators in cities across western Iran.
Dozens of arrested protesters in Kamyaran were seen with fractured heads, limbs and bloodied bodies, one source said.
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UN must launch urgent probe into Iran violence: Amnesty
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UN must launch urgent probe into Iran violence: Amnesty
- Peaceful protesters targeted by birdshot in wake of Mahsa Amini’s death in custody
- ‘Systemic impunity has allowed widespread torture, extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings’
Landmine explosion in Sudan kills 9, including 3 children
KHARTOUM: A land mine explosion killed nine people in Sudan on Sunday, including three children, as they were riding in an auto-rickshaw along a road in the frontline region of Kordofan, a medical source told AFP.
The war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has left Sudan strewn with mines and unexploded ordnance, though the explosive that caused Sunday’s deaths could also have dated back to previous rebellions that have shaken South Kordofan state since 2011.
“Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said.
The vehicle was reduced to “a metal carcass,” witness Abdelbagi Issa told AFP by phone.
“We were walking behind the tuk-tuk along the road to the market when we heard the sound of an explosion,” he said. “People fell to the ground and the tuk-tuk was destroyed.”
Kordofan has become the center of fighting in the nearly three-year war ever since the RSF forced the army out of its last foothold in the neighboring Darfur region late last year.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
The war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has left Sudan strewn with mines and unexploded ordnance, though the explosive that caused Sunday’s deaths could also have dated back to previous rebellions that have shaken South Kordofan state since 2011.
“Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said.
The vehicle was reduced to “a metal carcass,” witness Abdelbagi Issa told AFP by phone.
“We were walking behind the tuk-tuk along the road to the market when we heard the sound of an explosion,” he said. “People fell to the ground and the tuk-tuk was destroyed.”
Kordofan has become the center of fighting in the nearly three-year war ever since the RSF forced the army out of its last foothold in the neighboring Darfur region late last year.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
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