Two days ago, Mojahedin's Command Headquarters inside Iran issued a statement, enumerating Sayyad Shirazi's crimes and declaring that he was a war criminal. The statement said that in 1979, Khomeini appointed Sayyad Shirazi as the Òcommander for special operations in Iranian Kurdistan". In that position, he played an active role in the suppression of the people in that region. He was responsible for repeated, indiscriminate shelling of many villages and cities in Iranian Kurdistan in 1979 and 1980.
Sayyad Shirazi was appointed as the commander of the regime's ground forces in 1981. In that post, he purged the regular armed forces of its patriotic personnel, ordering the arrest, execution and dismissal of many of them. He was also among key officials responsible for sending thousands of young Iranians to run over mine fields during the Iran-Iraq war. He was also responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Mojahedin in western Iran.
Now, the clerical regime's officials and media refer to these crimes and praise Sayyad Shirazi for perpetrating them:
1. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, April 10: "His name and face recalled resistance against internal counterrevolutionaries. For many years, the hot land of Khuzistan province and the tall passes of Iranian Kurdistan were witness to the readiness of this decent, determined and brave human being."
2. Firouzabadi, the Armed Forces' General Command Staff Commander, State television, April 12: "We must speak of him as the first triumphant commander in uprooting the counterrevolutionaries in our holy Islamic land. Indeed, it must be said that uprooting counterrevolutionaries in Sardasht, Sanandaj, Divan Darreh, and other regions of Kurdistan was carried out under his command, and he became commander of operations in the country's western region.
3. Ali Shahbazi, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, April 10: "Immediately after the victory of the Revolution, Sayyad Shirazi brought together the Hezbollahi members of the military in all turbulent areas and took effective command of the operations."
4. Rahim Safavi, Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, state television, April 12: "With the start of the war in Kurdistan, I and 300 Revolutionary Guards went to the area. He and a number of our dear colleagues in the regular armed forces came to join the war in Kurdistan voluntarily. He accepted responsibility in Kurdistan and together, the Guards Corps and the Army took part in the clean up operations of counterrevolutionaries and liberating the cities, roads and villages in Kurdistan.
5. Defense Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani, state television, April 10: "For some time, Sayyad Shirazi was responsible for the northern front in the struggle against secessionists."
6. State television, April 10: "Since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, Sayyad Shirazi had a transparent and honorable conduct in the war and in the struggle against the counterrevolutionaries. Indeed, his name and face were synonymous with resistance against the counterrevolutionaries. With the start of attacks by the counterrevolutionaries against the country's western borders, he went to the region and actively endeavored in defending the Islamic nation. For this reason, he was appointed as the commander of operations in western Iran."
7. State television, April 10: "After the victory of the Revolution, with a Bassiji-like morale, Sayyad Shirazi played a key role in the transformation of the armed forces."
Sayyad Shirazi's "key role" in the "transformation of the armed forces," is a reference to the purging and executions of thousands of patriotic personnel of the Armed Forces who opposed Khomeini's repressive and belligerent policies.
8. State radio, April 10: Sayyad Shirazi was "a Bassiji officer and one of the effective official to fend off the aggressive enemy and operatives of dependent domestic grouplets who wanted to cause chaos in the country." The reference to "dependent grouplets" means all dissident organizations and forces.
9. Salaam daily, April 11: "Since the early days of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, at a time when turmoil and war were raging across the country, Sayyad Shirazi played a major role in the reconstruction of the armed forces. By joining the struggle against the counterrevolutionaries in Kurdistan, he played a key role in thwarting the enemy's conspiracies in this region."
10. Official news agency IRNA, April 10: "Among his most important tasks was to prepare operational plans for Kurdistan which resulted in breaking the encirclement of the cities of Sanandaj, the Marivan Garrison, the towns of Baneh and Saqez."
The reference by IRNA is to the large-scale attacks by the forces under Sayyad Shirazi's command and the indiscriminate shelling and bombing of cities and villages in Iranian Kurdistan as a result of which thousands of defenseless people, including women and children were ruthlessly killed. After the regime's forces took control of the Kurdish region, upon Sayyad Shirazi's direct orders, hundreds of people were executed without any trials.
11. Sayyad Shirazi, interview with the state-television, July 28, 1998 (rebroadcast April 10, 1999): "The most sinister of our enemies, the Mojahedin, who were also our filthiest enemies were in possession of modern equipment. They were advancing toward Kermanshah through Sar-e pol-e Zahab, the Pataq Pass, Kerend and Islamabad. I was present on the scene from the time they came in until their annihilation between the Chahar-zebar and Hassan-abad passes, named Mersad pass. It became a scene where three days after the end of the [Iran-Iraq] war, we suddenly saw the sinister Mojahedin whom we were pursuing one by one to punish, were now being killed in group after group by us."
12. Sayyad Shirazi, state television, September 22, 1992: "Our Eminent Imam accepted the cease-fire. We followed his orders. But that action had a good ending, Mersad [ambush] operation. In that great epic, our most ruthless enemies, or better said, our filthiest enemies, the Mojahedin, were slaughtered."
No doubts remain, therefore, that on the basis of international conventions, including the 1948 Geneva Convention, Maj. Gen. Ali Sayyad Shirazi, had committed genocide, was a war criminal and perpetrated crimes against humanity.
Khatami's remarks praising this criminal as "the selfless soldier of Islam and the honorable son of Iran" and his appeal that Western countries prevent the "freedom of activities" for Iranian refugees and supporters of the Iranian Resistance in those countries, reflect the clerics' utter impudence and their taking advantage of the placating policies of Western countries toward this medieval regime. In this way, the Khatami is seeking to expand its suppression against its opponents to the streets of Europe and the United States.
As the Iranian Resistance has repeatedly stated, all of its operations are undertaken in the framework of the Geneva Conventions and only directed at military targets and the regime's armed forces who are directly involved in the massacre and suppression of the Iranian people. Consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights rebellion Òas a last recourse" against the religious fascism ruling Iran, is the legitimate right of the Iranian people.
People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
April 12, 1999
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