"The highly unusual government move, announced on Thursday, is designed to head off claims that crimes against humanity have been committed and that as many as 30,000 Iranians have been killed. Iran's official death toll released by the Martyr's Foundation is 3,117, including members of the security services. Iranian reformists said the planned government identification process was not sufficiently transparent and unlikely to end the dispute about how many people had been killed."
"Mohsen Borhani, a law professor at Tehran University and a critic of the Iranian government who has served time in Evin prison, said the government proposal to identify the dead publicly was a positive development because in previous major protests, Iranians faced an absolute lack of information regarding the deceased and injured. Borhani said the best way to achieve transparency was to create a website and announce the names of the deceased so that the information is not one-sided."
The government announced it would oversee publication of the names of those killed during recent protests to head off claims of crimes against humanity and a much higher death toll. The Martyr's Foundation reported an official death toll of 3,117, including members of the security services. Reformists criticized the planned identification process as insufficiently transparent and unlikely to resolve disputes over the total killed. Mohsen Borhani called public identification a positive step and proposed a website allowing citizens to upload names anonymously with subsequent verification. Families risk retribution if they attribute deaths to security forces. The Tehran teachers union demanded detainee releases and described severe repression.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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