Monday, 16 November 2009
Grave of Neda Soltan desecrated by supporters of Iranian regime
From The
Times
Supporters of Iran’s regime have desecrated the grave of Neda
Soltan, the student who became a symbol of the opposition after
she was shot dead during an anti-goverment demonstration on June
20.
The incident was confirmed by Ms Soltan’s fiancé, Caspian Makan,
who fled from Iran after being released on bail following 65 days
in prison. A recording of Ms Soltan’s mother weeping and cursing
those responsible has been posted on the internet.
Mr Makan, 38, also disclosed that the regime tried to force him
and Ms Soltan’s parents to say that she was killed by the
opposition, not by a government militiaman on a motorbike as
eyewitnesses have claimed. A documentary to be shown on BBC Two
next week contains an unseen clip of demonstrators catching the
militiaman seconds after the shooting.
On the internet recording Hajar Rostami, Ms Soltan’s mother,
weeps over her daughter’s grave and wails: “Woe on me! Where’s my
child’s tombstone? . . . My child has no gravestone . . . You
bastards! Why don’t you leave my child alone?”
On November 4 Ms Soltan’s parents were attacked and detained when
they joined a protest in Iran. One source told The Times
that members of the security forces taunted them, saying that
they could meet the same fate as their daughter.
Officials had been pressurising Ms Soltan’s parents to say that
their daughter was shot not by a government militiaman — a
basij — but by enemies of Iran seeking to embarrass the
regime. They were told that if they did so she would be declared
a martyr and they would receive a pension.
In October Ms Soltan’s mother said: “Neda died for her country,
not so that I could get a monthly income from the Martyr
Foundation. If these officials say Neda was a martyr, why do they
keep wiping off the word ‘martyr’ in red which people write on
her gravestone? . . . Even if they give the world to me I will
never accept the offer.”
Arash Hejazi, the doctor who tried to save Ms Soltan’s life and
who now lives in exile in Oxford, told The Times: “The
beating and arrest of Neda’s parents, the shattering of her
tombstone, and the torturing and imprisonment of her boyfriend
only shows how far this government is ready to go.”
