U.N. Says Human Rights Abuses Are Continuing Throughout Iran

THE NEW YORK TIMES

By PAUL LEWIS

November 3, 1988

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 2 - A United Nations report said today that serious human rights violations were continuing in Iran. It said the violations included a wave of executions of political prisoners in July, August and September after Teheran accepted a cease-fire in the war with Iraq.

The author of the report, Reynaldo Galindo Pohl of El Salvador, the Special Representative for Iran of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, said his findings ''justify international concern'' about the rights situation in that country. He called on the Iranian authorities ''to redress abuses and prevent their recurrence.''

The United Nations Human Rights Commission has been examining the human rights situation in Iran since 1985, issuing a series of annual reports, all of which have found evidence of widespread absues.

The report today drew attention to a ''wave of executions'' that it said occurred in Iran over the summer and were carried out mainly against ''members of various opposition groups'' including the Mujahedeen National Liberation Army fighting the Teheran Government from bases in Iraq and other dissident groups.

Telegrams Sent to Iran

The report said such executions ''justify international concern'' that the Iranian authorities are in breach of their obligations under the United Nations Human Rights Covenants. It noted that another United Nations human rights official investigating summary and arbitrary executions sent telegrams to the Iranian Foreign Minister in July and August expressing concern about the executions.

Officials at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said that they had not yet received a copy of the report and that they would have no comment at this time.

The new report will be debated this month by the third committee of the United Nations General Assembly, which deals with social, cultural and humanitarian questions.

The report said 200 Mujahedeen supporters were believed to have been killed in Evin Prison in Teheran on July 28. The bodies of 860 more ''executed political prisoners'' were reported to have been taken from the same prison to the Behesht Zahra cemetery from Aug. 14 to 16. The report lists numerous other executions of Government opponents in the summer.

The wave of executions described in the report today came after a series of military sucesses by the Iraqi Army and the Mujahedeen forces that analysts say swung the tide of the gulf war in Baghdad's favor, prompting Iran to accept the cease-fire urged on both sides by the United Nations.

But Iran's military setback and its decision to accept a cease-fire also appears to have unleashed a backlash of revenge inside the country against anyone suspected of disloyalty to the Government, diplomats say.

The report expressed concern about widespread reports of beatings and torture in Iranian prisons as well as trials at which the prisoner is prevented from offering a defense. It spoke of ''poor and insufficent food,'' lack of medical treatment and ''extremely poor sanitary prison conditions.''

The report also expressed concern at reports that all family visits to political prisoners in Evin Prison and other detention centres have been suspended since August.