Protesters carry a man shot during protests in Shiraz, Iran, November 17, 2019
The Trump Administration has announced another set of sanctions against Iran’s officials, including Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli.
The Treasury said Rahmani-Fazli gave orders authorizing Iran’s security forces to fire on demonstrators in last November’s protests across the country. The US statement claimed at least 23 juveniles were among the victims.
Treasury sanctions Iran’s Interior Minister and senior law enforcement officials in connection with serious human rights abuses https://t.co/WRgtGi6dTW
— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) May 20, 2020
Four days of demonstrations were sparked on November 15 by the Government’s sudden 50% to 200% rise in petrol prices. Amnesty International concluded, from reports and witnesses inside Iran, that at least 304 protesters were killed and said the total might be far higher. The organization said many of the victims were shot at close range, some in the back as they ran away.
Three Iranian officials told Reuters that at least 1,500 people — demonstrators, security personnel, and bystanders — died.
In December, well-placed sources revealed that the Supreme Leader ordered his officials to quell the gatherings with any necessary means, including force.
See Iran Daily, December 23: Supreme Leader — “Do Whatever It Takes to End The Protests”
Amnesty released further details of the killings on Wednesday in a 152-page report. Philip Luther, Amnesty’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, summarized, “The fact that so many people were shot while posing no threat whatsoever shows the sheer ruthlessness of the security forces.”
The US Treasury’s order also sanctioned seven senior law enforcement officials, including overall commander Hossein Ashtari Fard, and a provincial commander of the Revolutionary Guards.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi rejected Washington’s latest step, “Washington’s fruitless and repetitive sanctions against Iranian officials is a sign of weakness, despair and confusion of the U.S. administration.”
“So 304 *confirmed* deaths of demonstrators, a conservative figure for the actual death toll.”
Sorry, but confirmation of a death (anywhere) requires more than just a name (in 75 cases they weren’t even provided) and a photo. It requires evidence that the person has actually died. In many cases, injured people can be mistakenly reported as having been killed. That is why the death certificates and gravestones are the only reliable source of information.
Also, state media has not announced the deaths of the persons Amnesty mentioned.
A figure of 88 is closer to what Iranwire has reported: https://iranwire.com/en/features/6476
“According to IranWire figures, from Friday, November 15, 2019 to the evening of Tuesday, November 19, 2019, at least 113 people were killed during the crackdown on popular protests in Iran.”
Reza,
Your post is nonsense, since you haven’t read (or are ignoring) the detailed methodology used by Amnesty to confirm the 304 deaths.
We can put a pin in your weak attempt to discredit the fullest report of the killings in November 2019.
(Since IranWire’s article that you cite is from November 20 — and since IranWire has subsequently cited hundreds of deaths of protesters — you might want to rethink using that distortion.)
S.
“Three Iranian officials told Reuters that at least 1,500 people — demonstrators, security personnel, and bystanders — died.”
The Rouhani administration has denied that any of its officials spoke to Reuters: which does not have an office in Tehran:
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13981004000457
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has released a report on the protests/riots. It has admitted that 65 of those allegedly killed cannot be identified, but has named the remaining 239: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1323082020ENGLISH.PDF
Full Amnesty methodlogy for the 304 victims:
In 127 of those cases, Amnesty International spoke directly to primary sources impacted by the deaths, including relatives, neighbours, friends, acquaintances, and eyewitnesses. In 127 other cases, it documented the deaths primarily based on information received from human rights activists and journalists based in or outside Iran. In 34 of them, it did so based on information from medical staff working in facilities to which the dead and injured were brought. It documented the remaining 16 cases primarily based on the examination of videos that were broadcast by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) corporation in relation to the protests of November 2019 and included interviews with the families of those killed. With respect to some of these 16 cases, complementary information concerning the victim’s name, age and circumstances of death were received from independent human rights activists and journalists.
In order to ascertain the credibility of the information received from human rights activists and journalists, Amnesty International interviewed them about their sources of information, which typically included relatives, neighbours, friends, acquaintances and eyewitnesses. Similarly, for cases reported by medical staff, the organization interviewed the source to ascertain their reliability and the degree of their involvement in the system of recording deaths in their particular medical institution or their access to those records.
For each recorded case, Amnesty International conducted internet searches and, where it was able to locate media articles or social media posts on the victim concerned, compared the information available online with the information received directly from primary or secondary sources.
As part of its process of crosschecking and corroboration, Amnesty International also obtained the funeral posters of 116 victims and pictures of the gravestones or grave sites of 82 victims. For 24 of the victims, in addition to obtaining their funeral posters and/or the pictures of their gravestones, Amnesty International was also able to obtain death and/or burial certificates recording the date, place and cause of their death. Death and burial certificates in Iran record the dates of birth and death, as well as the cause of death. The dates of birth and death recorded on the gravestone of the deceased are generally identical to the information recorded in their death and burial certificates.
Families are not authorized to bury their loved ones or erect gravestones until a burial certificate has been issued by the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran, a state forensic institute working under the supervision of the judiciary. Pictures of gravesites obtained generally showed the burial ground before the erection of a gravestone over it. In many cases, a memorial poster containing the name and photograph of the deceased was seen laid on the ground and, in some cases, there was a small board on the grave site recording the name of the deceased and their date of death.
24 confirmed deaths by the burial certificate with another 58 more by their gravestone. = 82 persons.
Amnesty spoke to relatives/friends and eyewitnesses in just 127 of the 304 cases..
72 persons on the list were not fully identified by name (or not at all).
Including 6 security officers killed, we have a total of 88 confirmed deaths (in the dozens, not hundreds)
Rastgoo,
I’m sorry. You have not comprehended the methodology, including Amnesty’s explanation of those whom it identified by name and the confirmation (in some cases by State media) of those who were killed but not identified.
So 304 *confirmed* deaths of demonstrators, a conservative figure for the actual death toll.
Glad to clear this up for you.
S.