Iran executed all adult men in one village for drug offences, official reveals
Source: The Guardian
UN anti-drug agency urged to stop funding Iran’s war on narcotics until Tehran ends use of death penalty for drug offences
The entire adult male population of a village in southern Iran has been executed for drug offences, according to Iran’s vice-president for women and family affairs.
The matter came to light earlier this week after Shahindokht Molaverdi revealed it during an interview with the semi-official Mehr news agency in rare comments from a senior government official highlighting the country’s high rate of executions of drug traffickers.
“We have a village in Sistan and Baluchestan province where every single man has been executed,” she said, without naming the place or clarifying whether the executions took place at the same time or over a longer period. “Their children are potential drug traffickers as they would want to seek revenge and provide money for their families. There is no support for these people.”
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/26/all-adult-males-in-one-iranian-village-executed-for-drug-offences-official-says
= new reply since forum marked as read
Page last updated at 02:17 GMT, Thursday, 12 June 2008 03:17 UK
Peruvians seek relatives in mass grave
By Dan Collyns
BBC News, Ayacucho, Peru
~ snip ~
According to the findings of Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2003, those victims - exactly 123 men, women and children - were buried in the remote hamlet of Putis.
~ snip ~
Despite its remoteness, the testimony of relatives made the main grave easy to find.
It was shallow and, on excavation, revealed a twisted mass of skulls, bones and the remains of the clothing people were wearing on the day they were killed.
~ snip ~
"We have already found evidence that people may have been shot while in the grave, we have found bullets under the bodies embedded in the dirt."
The victims - all peasant farmers from the area - had been tricked by the military, who had set up a base in Putis, into digging their own grave.
In 1983 the region, Huanta, was controlled by the Shining Path - a brutal Maoist guerrilla group who had declared war on the state. They had killed all the local officials and the people had fled to the mountain peaks.
In November 1984, the army set up its base in Putis and invited the local population to live there under their protection. They asked them to dig a fish pond; then on 13 December they killed everyone and buried them there.
After the massacre, the soldiers sold off the villagers' livestock, according the 2003 commission report.
~ snip ~
Aurelio Condoray says he lost about 80 members of his family in the violence of that period. He, like many, stayed away for years.
He settled in the jungle, returning only to find the area abandoned.
Only now, he says, his gentle eyes widening with excitement, may he return.
"I want to bury my mother and brothers, to give them a Christian burial so they can finally have peace," he says.
More than 20 years may have passed, but the grief is still raw. The relatives gather at the graveside and begin to weep. Some point as if they recognise a scrap of clothing amid the skeletal remains.
As they sob, they mutter to themselves and their dead. Finally, heads bowed and hats off, they join in a communal prayer which lasts for several minutes.
More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7449079.stm
