States and the governments that run them commit all manner of abuses and sins. Genocide and similar “crimes against humanity” stand out as the most awful practices, policies that remain the preserve of only a few of the more terrible regimes of today. Governments that commit these atrocities rightly face exclusion from the international community.
A policy of imprisoning, torturing and especially executing peaceful political dissidents should likewise cast a government outside the pale of civilization. There can be no justification for executing those who hold a different political vision for their country. We can argue about whether or not states engaged in war made sufficient efforts to minimize civilian casualties, whether or not a nation’s resources are divided equitably amongst its populace, whether or not a given political system is “just,” whose land belongs to whom, what constitutes just cause for war and so forth. A situation wherein a state’s rulers round up political dissidents and execute them for their views, in contrast, should see no tolerance from the international community.
Iran executes more political prisoners per capita than any other state in the world. Hasty trials for these prisoners are conducted in secrecy by unaccountable “judges,” and the accused lack representation or recourse to all the rights of a normal judicial process. Families typically learn of their loved one’s execution after the fact, when (if they are lucky) the body is delivered to them. Last year, Amnesty International published a report with the following title: “Iran’s ‘staggering’ execution spree: nearly 700 put to death in just over six months.”
Kurds also appear to be the favorite in Iran when it comes to political executions. Since the beginning of this month, according to The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Iranian authorities summarily executed at least twenty-four Kurdish political prisoners. Of the 915 political prisoners incarcerated in Iran at the moment, 390 are Kurdish (while Kurds only account for some seven percent of the country’s total population).
No matter what the ethnicity of those executed for their beliefs, the world should demand a stop to this. European businesses should not be running to Iran for new deals following the nuclear agreement of last year. Diplomats and political leaders of all the countries that claim to hold human rights dear need to unify around one simple request: Stop executing political prisoners. The rest can be talked about and sorted out later. Executions, in contrast, cannot be undone later.
Iran’s execution fetish also seems to highlight an all too common problem of theocracies. The mullahs who run the country claim to know God’s will so well that they can sentence people to death. They declare their dissidents “moharabeh” – “enemies against God.” Yet mullahs and other religious leaders remain far from infallible, of course, and exercising such power corrupts both their political system and the religion they claim to represent. Humility demands that we refrain from casting down the ultimate punishment on our fellows, lest we made a mistake.
Unfortunately, humility seems to be in short supply in these parts. Just next door in Turkey, another “religiously devout” government now talks of bringing back the death sentence after the failed coup of July 16. Perhaps the leaders there too think they enjoy a perfect line of communication with God. For the truly religious, such thinking should be viewed as blasphemy. For an international community wanting to pay more than lip service to human rights, such executions should likewise be treated as blasphemy.
David Romano has been a Rudaw columnist since 2010. He holds the Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous publications on the Kurds and the Middle East.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
