In his blog, Arash Kamangir writes that there are local reports indicating that attempts have been made to demolish the Khavaran cemetery in South East Tehran. Khavaran cemetery is believed to be the burial site of the victims of the mass political executions of 1988, and families frequently gather at the cemetery to commemorate their loved ones.

But prior to that, Kharavan was mainly used as a graveyard for religious minorities, including Baha’is.

Since the revolution, tens of Baha’i graveyards have been desecrated under numerous pretexts; even the dead are not spared from persecution.

A call to action has been organized to demand Navanethem Pillay, the High Commissioner of Human Rights at the UN, to prevent Iran from destroying the cemetery

To: InfoDesk@ohchr.org

Your Excellency Ms. Navanethem Pillay High Commissioner of Human Rights at the UN

With deep disbelief and disdain we have become aware that the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran have undertaken the destruction of Khavaran Cemetery, the only known site of mass and individual graves of the victims of the Great Massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 and other non- Moslem dissidents executed in Iran through out the Seventies.

I beg your honor to urgently take action demanding the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately stop this barbaric operation.

The destruction of Khavaran is tantamount to the eradication of an important material evidence of a historic crime.

Respectfully,