Amnesty International Organization has criticized the international community for ignoring the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iranian prisons.

In a statement for the International Day of Enforced Disappearance, Amnesty International stated: “The Iranian authorities’ continued failure to disclose the fate and whereabouts of thousands of political dissidents who were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in secret during Iran’s 1988 prison massacres has sparked a crisis that for decades has been largely overlooked by the international community.”

Thousands of political dissidents of the Islamic Republic in Iran, largely members of Mujahedin Khalgh Organization, were massacred in the Summer of 1988 while serving their time in prison.

31 years after the massacre, Amnesty writes: “Thousands of the victims’ deaths remain unregistered and, across the country, there are thousands of missing bodies buried in unidentified mass graves.”

Philip Luther, the Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director at Amnesty International says: “The families of those secretly killed in the 1988 prison massacres are still living through a nightmare. They and many others in Iran are haunted by the thousands of missing bodies, which have cast a specter over the country’s justice system to this day.”

“It is misguided to view the 1988 mass killings as historical events. The enforced disappearances are ongoing and, 30 years later, victims’ families continue to be tormented by anguish and uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones,” the statement continues.

The statement also suggests that the Islamic Republic is committing an ongoing “crime against humanity” by “continuing to systematically conceal the fate and whereabouts of victims of the secret extrajudicial killings of 1988 in Iran.”

Amnesty International has called for the UN to set up an independent investigation into the extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances to establish the truth, enable prosecutions of those suspected of responsibility and ensure that survivors and families of victims receive reparations.

Recently, Mostafa PourMohammadi, former deputy Intelligence Minister and a member of the “death squad” in charge of the massacre of 1988, defended the mass executions.