Iran crackdown a 'human rights disaster,' report says
(CNN) -- A human rights group is calling on Iran
to free protesters detained after the disputed June 12 presidential
election, calling the government's crackdown on its critics a "human
rights disaster."
A report released Sunday by New York-based
Human Rights Watch details alleged abuses by members of Iran's
Revolutionary Guard, Basij militia and police following widespread
demonstrations in the wake of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
re-election over opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi.
About
4,000 people have been arrested in the post-election crackdown. The
government has confirmed the deaths of at least 37 people in the
protests or in detention, seven of those deaths happening in December on
Ashura, a major religious observance, the report said, alleging that
many detainees have been beaten, tortured and in some cases, sexually
abused. The group also says it believes the death toll is much higher.
"The
systematic and brutal targeting of demonstrators and government critics
by security forces shows that the regime's crackdown is nothing but an
attempt to silence voices of dissent," said Joe Stork, the group's
deputy director for the Middle East. "Iran's post-election unrest is now a full-blown human rights crisis."
The Iranian government had no immediate response to the report.
Three
prison officials have been charged with premeditated murder in the
beating deaths of three detainees and a parliamentary investigation
concluded earlier this month that 147 protesters arrested July 9
suffered "harsh corporal punishment, humiliating and insulting
techniques," and other mistreatment. The investigation did not reveal
evidence of rape or other sexual abuse.
Human Rights Watch's
study of Iran's alleged abuses was part of the much larger World Report
released Wednesday. In the Iran chapter, the group calls on the
government to restore rights in Iran by freeing post-election protesters
and investigating alleged abuses of demonstrators and detainees, and prosecuting those responsible.
