“At 1:00 pm, a group of the Pasdars(the Iranian Revolutionary Guard) arrived to the village Qarna. At first look, they found nobody as everybody ran away toward the mountains or tried to be hidden somewhere. Then Guards started to search the houses one after another so they could find the hidden ones. Some of those citizens were killed right in front of their houses. The others were shot or beheaded in the mosque. Then they dragged the dead bodies by their trucks and cars to the Naqadeh and show the bodies to the town of Naqadeh. Most of victims were children, disabled and old people. They were all unarmed and innocent. They beheaded even the only clergy in the village.”
This Happened on Sept 2nd 1980 in a Kurdish village, 12 Kilometer far from Naqadeh in Iran.
Nobody out of Iran ever heard of this massacre. Even inside of Iran rather than the local people, hardly heard of it. Those Pasdars never charged for their crimes or nor got punished for what they did in Qarna. Instead, they got prized and promoted for that genocide.
These kind of crimes kept continue since back then in many ways. Now there are 8 civil rights activists, journalists and teachers are sentenced to death on charge of being Mohareb (fighter against God). Their lives are in danger. According to the recent news, Kurdish political prisoners in Iran, since Monday 25 August 2008, began an indefinite hunger strike to protest those sentences and huge human rights violation in Iranian Kurdistan.

The following eight Kurdish journalists and civil rights activists have been condemned to death in Iran:

1. Adnan Hassanpour, journalist, also the award-winning journalist who has been condemned to death. Adnan was awarded a media award in Italy by the Information, Safety & Freedom Association, death penalty
2. Hiva Botimar, civil rights activist and journalist, death penalty
3. Farzad Kamangar, civil rights and human rights activist, death penalty
4. Anvar Hossein Panahi, teacher and civil rights activist, death penalty
5. Farhad Vakili, civil rights activist, death penalty
6. Ali Hardarian, civil rights activist, death penalty
7. Arsalan Olyaei, civil rights activist, death penalty
8. Habib Latifi, student, civil rights activist, death penalty
   

While another seven have been sentenced to penalties up to 11 years for their alleged Civil Rights activists. Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand, Human Rights activist- 11 years- Hana Abdi, Women Rights activist- 5 years- Zainab Bayazidi, Women Rights activist- 4 years- Fatemeh Goftari, Women Rights activist- 19 months- Amir Reza Ardalan, Student - 1 year - Ali Shakeri, Student, 2 and half years - Sohrab Jalali, Civil Rights activist, in spending his charge and deportation to Kashmar.
The prisoner’s hunger strike is to "sensitize Iranian and international public opinion" to "protest against the death sentences given to Kurdish representatives and to denounce continuing human rights violations in prison and outside prison”. If the world was unaware of what happened to Qarna, now with the tools of media there is no excuse for not being informed of what is going on in Iran. We shouldn’t be silent anymore. We should do anything we can to keep their lives safe. This is our responsibility to notify this to all international communities.
We are asking you to help them to stop these executions.
We will get together at 13:00 h, on Aug 29th in front of international crime court in The Hague in order to protest against the death penalty of these 8 journalists and asking the ICC to prosecute the Iranian crime against Kurds victims.

Day and time:
Friday 29 August 2008
1:00 pm
Place :
International criminal court(ICC) http://www.icc-cpi.int
Maanweg, 174
2516 AB, The Hague
The Netherlands
Organizers KDPI, KOMALA, CHAK, PAK, KMCN, ICHRN, KJB, IVZO, RASTAN
Campaign: Stop Kurd Execution in Iran
Kurds Human Rights Network
info@kurdsnetwork.com
alimahmud2001@yahoo.com

AKI - Adnkronos international Iran: Jailed Kurds begin hunger strike

Tehran, 25 August (AKI) - Kurdish prisoners, all jailed for political motives in Iran, on Monday began an indefinite hunger strike to promote human rights.

The news, released by the Kurdish agency, Mokrian, was confirmed by the sister of Adnan Hassanpour, the award-winning journalist who has been condemned to death.

Hassanpour was awarded

a media award in Italy by the Information, Safety & Freedom Association.

The prisoners' hunger strike is to "sensitise Iranian and international public opinion" to "protest against the death sentences given to

Kurdish representatives" and to "denounce continuing human rights violations in prison and outside prison".

Eight Kurdish intellectuals and activists have been condemned to death in Iran, while another six have been sentenced to penalties of up to 11 years for their alleged political and militant activities.

IRAN: Journalist held for two weeks without charge

New York, August 12, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iranian authorities to make public any charges against a Kurdish journalist and human rights activist who they have held for more than two weeks, or release him immediately.

On July 27, security forces arrested Saman Rasoulpour, 23, a Kurdish journalist and a member of Organization for the Defense of Human Rights in Kurdistan, in his home in Mahabad, a Kurdish city in northwest Iran, according to local journalists and international news and human rights agencies. He was picked up by three casually dressed men at 9 a.m. and has been detained in Mahabad’s security office since then, local journalists told CPJ.

Rasoulpour is a regular contributor to Rooz Online, a Farsi and English reformist news Web site. Rasoulpour has written about the lack of human rights for Iran’s minority Kurds. In his last article published on Rooz Online in January 28, Rasoulpour reported on a statement by human rights organizations on the death of a detainee—university student Ibrahim Lutfullahi—in Sanandaj, capital of Kordestan Province. The authorities had claimed that the detainee had committed suicide, but the organizations and activists were suspicious of the claim and asked for investigation.

“Saman Rasoulpour’s arrest has been shrouded in secrecy. We fear that he is being held for his critical reporting on human rights in Iran,” said CPJ Senior Program Coordinator Joel Campagna. “We call on the Iranian authorities to state why they are holding him and either charge him with a recognizable offense or release him immediately.”

Local journalists told CPJ that Rasoulpour is not legally entitled to a lawyer until he is formally charged.

They also said that they believe his detention is because of his journalism and activism, but one colleague added that “he was always careful about what he was publishing” in terms of not crossing legal lines. Two who have been following the case said Rasoulpour has not been charged yet.

The arrest came two days after a peaceful demonstration in Mahabad to show solidarity with journalists and activists Adnan Hassanpour, 26, and Abdolvahed (Hiwa) Boutimar, 31, who have been on death row since an Islamic tribunal sentenced them in July 2007. They have been convicted of Moharebeh (fighting with God), which, in the Iranian Islamic penal code, is a charge used against persons who allegedly take up arms to violently overthrow the regime.

Local sources told CPJ that Rasoulpour had not participated in the demonstration. His family has been allowed to contact him only once since his detention, journalists told CPJ.

Rasoulpour had been detained for six months without charge in 2006, local journalists told CPJ.

Iran: Kurdish student sentenced to death

Iran: Kurdish student sentenced to death

Tehran, 13 August (AKI) - An Iranian court has sentenced to death a Kurdish student, Habibollah Latifi, his lawyer Nemat Ahmadi announced late on Tuesday.

Latifi is the third Iranian Kurd to receive a death sentence in less than a month in hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ongoing campaign against ethnic minorities.

In late July, two teachers, Anwar Hossein Panahi and Arsalan Oliaii were also handed death sentences.

Six Iranian Kurds are now on death row, including award-winning journalist Adnan Hassanpour.

All have been convicted of 'endangering state security' and 'relations with illegal political organisations'.

Prominent Arab journalist Yousef Bani Azizi on Monday was sentenced to five years in prison and last week a young Baloch journalist, Yaghoub Mehrnad was hanged.

Four female Kurdish activists are currently in prison.