[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 627 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 627
Condemning the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the
massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and the uprisings of recent
years, including the 2018, 2019, and 2022 uprisings, and calling for
justice for its victims.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 27, 2023
Mr. Gooden of Texas (for himself, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Ruiz, Ms.
Mace, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Webster of Florida, Ms. Garcia of
Texas, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. Swalwell, Mr. Grothman, Mr. Davis of
Illinois, Mr. LaMalfa, Ms. Crockett, Mrs. Chavez-DeRemer, Mr. Carson,
Mr. Sessions, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Ellzey, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Fitzpatrick,
Mr. Duarte, Mr. Nehls, Mr. McClintock, Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. Wenstrup, Mr.
Mooney, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Babin, Ms. Malliotakis, Mr.
DesJarlais, Mr. Gimenez, Mr. Mike Garcia of California, Mr. Santos, Mr.
Loudermilk, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia,
and Ms. Spanberger) submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Condemning the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the
massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and the uprisings of recent
years, including the 2018, 2019, and 2022 uprisings, and calling for
justice for its victims.
Whereas, in the 115th Congress, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4744
calling on the United States to ``condemn Iranian human rights abuses
against dissidents, including the massacre in 1988 and the suppression
of political demonstrations in 1999, 2009, and 2017, and pressure the
Government of Iran to provide family members detailed information that
they were denied about the final resting places of any missing victims
of such abuses'';
Whereas H. Res. 188, ``Condemning the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran
for the 1988 massacre of political prisoners and calling for justice for
the victims'', was first introduced in the 115th Congress, cosponsored
by four former and current chairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of
the House of Representatives;
Whereas the massacre was carried out pursuant to a fatwa, or religious decree,
issued by then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that targeted
the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), also known as the Mujahedeen-e-
Khalq (MEK);
Whereas the killings of as many as 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 were
carried out based on the fatwa to execute all political prisoners who
remained loyal to the Iranian Resistance, and subsequent death
commissions were formed on July 19, 1988, whose members included the
current Iranian regime's President, Ebrahim Raisi, an official from the
Ministry of Intelligence, and a state prosecutor, to implement the
fatwa;
Whereas prisoners were reportedly brought before the commissions and briefly
questioned about their political affiliation, and any prisoner who
refused to renounce his or her affiliation with groups perceived as
enemies by the regime was then taken away for execution;
Whereas, according to Amnesty International, ``the majority of those killed were
supporters of the MEK/PMOI'';
Whereas the 1988 massacre victims, many of them women, had been imprisoned
merely for participating in peaceful street protests and for possessing
political reading material, many of whom had already served or were
currently serving prison sentences;
Whereas, according to Amnesty International, ``hundreds of members and
supporters of other political groups . . . were also among the execution
victims'';
Whereas later waves of executions targeted religious minorities, such as members
of the Baha'i faith, many of whom were often subjected to brutal torture
before they were killed;
Whereas, in a disclosed audiotape, the late Hussein Ali Montazeri, a grand
ayatollah who served as Khomeini's chief deputy, noted the regime's
efforts to target the MEK and said that the 1988 mass killings were
``the greatest crime committed during the Islamic Republic, for which
history will condemn us'';
Whereas the families of the executed were denied information about their loved
ones and were prohibited from mourning them in public;
Whereas the November 2, 2007, report from Amnesty International concluded that
``there should be no impunity for human rights violations, no matter
where or when they took place. The 1988 executions should be subject to
an independent, impartial investigation, and all those responsible
should be brought to justice and receive appropriate penalties'';
Whereas, beginning in 2017 and continuing for several months after protests
erupted in more than 100 cities, the Iranian regime suppressed such
protests with repressive forces that resulted in at least 25 deaths and
4,000 arrests, including decorated wrestling champion Navid Afkari, who
was later executed in September 2020 amidst international outrage;
Whereas, on November 15, 2019, popular protests against the Iranian regime began
and rapidly spread to at least 100 cities throughout the country, and
reports indicate that Iranian security forces used lethal force and
about 1,500 people were killed during less than 2 weeks of unrest, and
thousands more were detained during these protests;
Whereas, beginning in September 2022, antigovernment protests ignited in
response to the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian
woman who was arrested by the morality police that enforces Iran's
mandatory dress code laws;
Whereas, in several months of continuing protests in hundreds of cities
throughout Iran, the regime's security forces have killed hundreds and
arrested tens of thousands of protesters;
Whereas, according to a December 9, 2022, Amnesty International report, ``Iran's
security forces have killed with absolute impunity more than 40 children
and injured many more in a bid to crush the spirit of resistance among
the country's youth and retain their iron grip on power at any cost'';
Whereas these protests are rooted in the more than four decades of organized
resistance against the Iranian dictatorship, which have been led by
women who have endured torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and
death;
Whereas the Iranian people have been deprived of their fundamental freedoms for
which reason they are rejecting monarchic dictatorship and religious
tyranny, as evident in their protest slogans;
Whereas, on November 24, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council
established a fact-finding commission to conduct an independent
investigation into the ongoing deadly violence related to the protests
in Iran;
Whereas the Iranian regime has arbitrarily and brutally suppressed ethnic and
religious minorities, including Iranian Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs,
Christians, Jews, Baha'is, Zoroastrians, and even Sunni Muslims, and
deprived them of their basic human rights, and has in many cases
executed them;
Whereas senior Iranian Government, military, judicial, and security officials
have for decades ordered or committed egregious human rights violations
and acts of terror;
Whereas the United States should be involved in any establishment of an
international investigation into the 1988 extrajudicial killings of
Iranian dissidents as well as the murder of protesters;
Whereas over 900 women and men of Ashraf 3 are former political prisoners who
witnessed prison crimes of the Iranian regime, and many of them are
witnesses of the 1988 massacre and other political killings in Iran,
among them eyewitnesses of crimes committed by Ebrahim Raisi, who must
be fully protected for potential testimonies before any international
courts investigating the killings in Iran;
Whereas, in November 2021, the Swedish Judiciary moved the whole court in
Stockholm to Albania for two weeks to facilitate hearing testimonies of
seven former Iranian political prisoners now residing in Ashraf 3, who
were considered key witnesses for a trial related to the 1988 massacre;
Whereas, in an April 19, 2016, letter to a European Parliament Vice-President,
the Prime Minister of Albania wrote, ``Albania is fully engaged and
committed to ensure for the Iranian refugees all rights stipulated in
the Geneva Convention 1951, in the European Human Rights Convention and
in the whole international legislation''; and
Whereas, according to the statement issued by Secretary of State Antony J.
Blinken on April 24, 2023, ``The United States condemns Iran's continued
human rights abuses and remains committed to supporting the people of
Iran as they face the brutality of the Iranian regime'': Now, therefore,
be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran
for the 1988 massacre and for denying the evidence of this
manifest set of crimes against humanity;
(2) urges the Administration and the United States allies
to publicly condemn the massacre and pressure the Government of
Iran to provide detailed information to the families of the
victims about their loved ones and their final resting places;
(3) urges the Administration and the United States and its
allies to put on their agenda to help the families of the
victims of the Iranian regime to identify and prosecute the
perpetrators of the 1988 massacres and the massacres of
protesters against this regime in the recent uprisings;
(4) stands with the people of Iran, who are legitimately
defending their rights for freedom against repression and
condemns the brutal killing of Iranian protesters by the
Iranian regime;
(5) calls on the United States Government, in cooperation
with our ally Albania, to ensure the full protection of the
Iranian political refugees in Ashraf 3 in Albania and for them
to benefit from all rights stipulated in the Geneva Convention
1951 and the European Convention on Human Rights, including the
right to life, liberty, and security, and protection of
property, as well as freedom of expression and assembly;
(6) calls on the United Nations Human Rights Council to
include the massacre of thousands of political prisoners in
1988 in the agenda of the fact-finding commission for an
independent investigation launched on November 24, 2022, to
investigate the ongoing deadly violence against protesters; and
(7) recognizes the rights of the Iranian people and their
struggle to establish a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear
Republic of Iran.
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