By Azita Carlson
The British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF) has released a statement declaring that it “strongly condemns” the Iranian regime’s crackdown on the nationwide uprising that began on November 15, after the mullahs tripled the price of fuel.
In that same statement, the BCFIF also condemned the near-total internet shutdown that the Iranian authorities instituted for over a week in order to prevent information about the protests and the crackdown from reaching the outside world, which led to an increased crackdown by the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other security organs.
The BCFIF wrote: “Despite the attempted censorship, credible reports mention anti-regime demonstrations in at least 165 cities across the country during a week of protests and place the number of protesters killed by security organs to over 400 while over 10,000 have been arrested and 4000 wounded in 173 cities. In an alarming move, the protesters are now threatened with execution by hanging by the state media, senior regime officials and Judiciary.”
The international community’s silence and inaction is unacceptable. The UN Security Council must declare that the religious fascism ruling #Iran is engaged in crimes against humanity. #IranProtests
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) November 18, 2019
The group also took the time to send its condolences to the victims’ families and praise the brave Iranians who are taking to the streets for their rights, highlighting that those chanting “Down with Dictator” are demanding regime change.
The BCFIF wrote: “Today, the regime in Iran is using the country’s entire resources, power and privileges to attack the defenseless citizens who take part in the popular protests and violently suppress their legitimate demands for change. The international community must not be silent and paralyzed in the face of the widespread and state-sanctioned crackdown. The United Nations must put political expediency aside and impose sanctions on those Iranian regime’s officials and leaders responsible for the recent bloody crackdown and internet shutdown, who do not regret their unacceptable actions but publicly defend them as necessary to preserve ‘national security’.”
They then urged the British Government to condemn the regime’s crackdown and to stand with the Iranian people, as well as work with the United Nations and European Union to end the mullahs’ impunity. The immediate reaction must be to pressure the regime to restore full internet access and help the Iranian people counter the internet shutdown.
The BCFIF also supported the call made by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), for the UN to “immediately dispatch investigative missions to Iran to evaluate the number of those killed, injured and imprisoned” and to convene “an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the crackdown in Iran and appropriate measures to hold those officials responsible to account”.
This is our collective commitment and our collective pledge to the Iranian nation to place everything at the service of the uprisings, giving it all we have and making sacrifices in all fronts in order to advance the uprising. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/z8a9mQEKWQ
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) 27 november 2019
