April 11, 2004

As we all remember quite well, it was almost seven years ago when on the night of Oct. 19, 1996, seven activists of Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Arshad Reza-ee, Daryoush Islam-Doost, Azeez Ghadderi, Younes Muhammad-poor, Adnan Esma-eeli, Mozaffar Kazemmi, and Ma’aouif Sohrabi, while returning to their residing places from a party mission, were captured in the vicinity of Halabcheh by a gang of armed men of the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan. They were vanished into thin air ever since. Shortly afterwards, it became so known that they had been handed over to the Islamic regime of Iran.

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s secretary general, who at the same time was on a trip abroad, wrote – on Oct. 26- letters to their excellencies Mr. Petros Petros-Ghali, the then General Secretary of the United Nations, Mr. Maurice Capithorne, the Special Representative of the Committee of Human Rights for investigation into the status of human rights in Iran, as well as Mr. Piere Mauroy, the head of Socialist International, informing them of the tragic event in question and asking them to make use of their good offices so as to save the lives of the said activists.

Since then, each and all endeavours taken by the families of the above mentioned prisoners on the one hand, and that of the leadership of our party, on the other, to get some information concerning the fate of those activists have been totally in vain, with only one of them, i.e.,  Daryoush Islam-doost, released when a barbaric conspiracy of the Islamic regime’s  stooges was in a way or another thwarted. Exertions of Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, though, ceaselessly continued before international organizations, and our Secretary General in a letter addressed last year to hic Excellency Mr. Kufi Annan, the General Secretary of UN, asked him for his assistance in this connection, a petition supported by dozens, even hundreds, of international, prestigious individuals.

Eventually, under the pressure of international stance, especially that of the defenders of human rights, the Islamic regime had to throw off part of the disguise and disclose a little portion of their dark crime in which it was declared that six of the seven activists of our party have -  after being handed over – been instantly or after a few weeks of undergoing physical and moral torture were executed by the headsmen of the regime – without a trial, though.

In answering to a letter of his Excellency Mr. Jeremy Corbyn, the head of Human Rights Group in British parliament, the Islamic regime’s ambassador in England informed him on March 29, 2004, that on returning to their residences, the seven party activists had been attacked by armed men of the Islamic Movement, in which “engagement” six men of them where killed and the other one called Daryoush Islam-doost arrested, but through endeavours taken by his family he was freed! In the same letter, it has also been claimed that in an armed engagement with the regime’s forces, on of the guards had been killed.

 While giving our deepest heartfelt gratitude to all those who did their best so that the destiny of the party activists in question –however distressing and deplorable- be clarified, we declare herein that the Islamic regime has in this instance, as ever before, brought before the general opinion across the world a trifling part of reality mingled with a prodigal mountain of fabrication and forgery. The fact is that the activists named didn’t engage in any armed clashes either with the regime’s forces or with the armed men of the Islamic Movement. Having appraised the Islamic Movement not as their enemies, though, they had gone to their base, remaining there until – contrary to all religious, moral and humanitarian norms – were handed over to the Islamic regime of Iran. Besides, Dayoush Islam-doost was never recaptured by the Islamic Movement. Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan will in the following days disclose many other facts in this connection.

It is now up to all political organizations of Iran, Kurdish parties and groups in particular, to apply pressure on the Islamic Movement so that they might bring into open the facts concerning the shameful act they perpetrated. Now that the Islamic regime has in this shameful way forged the facts, it is strictly binding upon the Islamic Movement, unlike their previous denials of their share I the aforesaid crime, to clarify their position in this connection.

Dear compatriots!

This is the final lot of the small group from thousands of freedom-fighters who, after ninety months of well-wishers has been so revealed. On the day when the Islamic regime is destined to have the same fate as that of Saddam Hussein’s, the question which may arise will be who many mass graves could be found across the afflicted country named by the diehard reactionaries as “Islamic Iran”.

On this occasion, it is most earnestly expected of general opinion of Iranians both inside and outside Iran, in general, and all the international bodies and advocates of human rights across the world, in particular, to put pressure on the authorities of the Islamic Republic so that they will have to unveil the facts concerning the execution of the democrat activists and return their corps to their families.

While expressing our utmost mournfulness on the occasion of the execution of the six valiant activists, we strictly condemn the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic, expecting at the same time of all freedom-lovers of Kurdistan and Iran to become coordinated with us in ever more condemning such brutal crimes. At the same time, we do express our most sincere condolences to their families and fellow-fighters of the martyrs, wishing them tolerance and patience.

Praise be to the sacred souls of the Martyrs:  Arshad Reza-ee, Azeez Ghadderi, Younes Muhammad-poor, Adnan Esma-eeli, Mozaffar Kazemmi, and Ma’aouif Sohrabi, as well as to the souls of all those that scarified their lives for the freedom of Kurdistan.

Political Bureau of Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan