Iran has deployed a nationwide militarized crackdown to scotch dissent and obscure the scale of its mass killings of protestors earlier this month, rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report on Friday.
Security forces, Amnesty said, moved quickly after the killings to impose sweeping controls aimed at silencing survivors, intimidating families of victims and preventing documentation of what it described as unlawful mass killings carried out to crush what it called a popular uprising.
The measures included arbitrary mass arrests, enforced disappearances, bans on gatherings, night-time curfews, and a near-total internet blackout, alongside the deployment of heavily armed patrols across cities and inter-city roads, Amnesty International said.
“While people in Iran are still reeling from the grief and shock of the unprecedented massacres during protest dispersals, the Iranian authorities are waging a coordinated attack on the rights of people in Iran to life, dignity and fundamental freedoms in a criminal bid to terrorize the population into silence,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Through the ongoing internet shutdown, the authorities are deliberately isolating over 90 million people from the rest of the world to conceal their crimes and evade accountability.”
“The international community must not allow another chapter of mass atrocities in Iran to be buried without consequence. Urgent international action, including steps towards accountability through independent international justice mechanisms, is long overdue to break the cycle of bloodshed and impunity.”
Conflicting death tolls
The clampdown followed the killings of protesters during demonstrations on January 8 and 9, which Amnesty described as unprecedented in scale.
On January 21, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council put the total number of people killed during the uprising at 3,117.
Days earlier, Mai Sato, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said estimates suggested at least 5,000 civilians had been killed, adding that figures based on reports from doctors inside Iran could be significantly higher.
The information blackout since January 8, Amnesty said, has made independent verification difficult and led to the loss of crucial evidence after security forces confiscated mobile phones from those killed or detained.
Mass arrests and enforced disappearances
Tens of thousands of people, including children, have been arbitrarily detained, according to Amnesty. Arrests were reported during night-time home raids, at checkpoints, in workplaces, and in hospitals.
The organization said security forces removed wounded protesters from hospitals in several provinces and threatened medical staff with prosecution for treating injured demonstrators without notifying authorities.
Families and lawyers have frequently been denied information about detainees’ whereabouts, amounting to enforced disappearance under international law.
Amnesty documented cases of torture and ill-treatment, including beatings, sexual violence, threats of execution and denial of water, food and medical care.
Intimidation of families
Families of those killed have faced sustained pressure, Amnesty said, including being forced to bury victims by night, demands for money in exchange for bodies, and coercion to issue false statements blaming protesters or labeling victims as members of pro-government forces.
State media has broadcast forced “confessions” and statements from grieving relatives, a practice Amnesty said mirrors past efforts to justify repression and pave the way for harsh sentences, including executions.
Militarized control
Amnesty said security forces have established dense networks of checkpoints, enforced curfews, and warned residents through loudspeakers to remain indoors.
Videos reviewed by the group showed armored vehicles, heavy weapons and water-cannon trucks deployed in multiple cities.
The organization called on Iranian authorities to restore internet access, release arbitrarily detained individuals, disclose the fate of the disappeared, end harassment of victims’ families and allow independent investigations into the killings.
