MASSACRE The total death toll rises to 416 since the beginning of the protest movement
The majority of victims identified by the NGO Iran Human Rights are children and women. (ILLUSTRATION PHOTO) — SOPA Images/SIPA
The balance sheet increased dramatically. The security forces Iranians killed 72 people, including 56 in the Kurdish regions, during the last week of repression of anti-regime demonstrations, affirmed this Tuesday the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR). The total balance sheet rises to 416 dead since the beginning of the protest movement triggered; on September 16 by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was arrested by morality police for violating the strict dress code requiring women to wear the veil in public.
Among those dead are 51 children and 21 women, according to IHR, based in London. Oslo. Over the past seven days, the majority of the victims was in the Kurdish regions of western Iran, where Tehran has sent armed reinforcements as the protest mounted. Demonstrations took place in several cities – Mahabad, Javanroud or Piranchahr –, often linked to the funeral ceremonies of people killed by the forces of order.
Shooting real ammunition
The Iranian Kurdish rights group Hengaw, also based in in Norway, accused the authorities of having fired to live ammunition on the demonstrators. According to him, five people were killed. killed on Monday at Javanroud, where Several thousand people gathered to pay tribute to the victims of the weekend.
Hengaw clarified; having confirmed the death of 42 people in the Kurdish regions in one week, almost all killed by direct fire from live ammunition. The group posted a video of people trying to remove pellets from the body of a protester with a knife, explaining that they were afraid to go to the hospital for fear of arrest. The NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), based in New York, urged Monday the community international to act to avoid a massacre in the region.
The UN warns of the “critical situation”
In Geneva, UN human rights chief Volker Türk denounced this Tuesday the “ hardening” of the security forces’ response, which “highlights the critical situation in the country” “Volker Türk says the rising death toll from protests in Iran, including those of two children over the weekend, and the toughening of the security forces’ curity underline the critical situation in the country”said its spokesman Jeremy Laurence, during a regular press briefing at the airport. Geneva.
“We urge the authorities to respond to the demands of the population in terms of equality, dignity and and rights, instead of using unnecessary or disproportionate force to suppress protests,” he added. He pointed out that “the lack of accountability for gross human rights abuses in Iran persists and contributes to growing grievances”.