AFP, Washington, Oct 18, 2011 – The United States seized Tuesday on a UN report detailing fresh rights abuses in Iran to call for increased global condemnation of Tehran and to continue to demand change in the country.
’Officials continue to stifle all forms of dissent, persecute religious and ethnic minorities, harass and intimidate human rights defenders and engage in the torture of detainees,’ said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
The new UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, said in a report due to be presented to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that the authoritarian regime had secretly executed hundreds of prisoners, among a raft of other abuses.
Washington ’stands by the Iranian people who wish nothing more than to make their voices heard and hold their government accountable for its actions,’ Toner said.
’We call upon the international community to use the occasion of this report to redouble its condemnation of Iran’s disgraceful abuse of human rights of all its citizens and demand a change.’
Human Rights Watch counted 388 executions in Iran in 2010, while Amnesty International put the figure at 252, ranking the Islamic republic second only to China in the number of people put to death last year.
Toner’s comments came amid rising US-Iran tensions after Washington last week accused Tehran of being behind an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador on US soil.
Iran has denied any involvement.