Cinema Rex fire

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Cinema rex fire headlines

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Cinema Rex building after the fire

On 19 August 1978 in the Cinema Rex fire, the Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran, was set ablaze, killing at least 470 individuals. The vent started when men barred the doors and doused the place with gasoline before setting it alight.

The ruling government of Iran reported that Islamic militants set the fire, while the anti-Shah protesters blamed the intelligence service of the nation, SAVAK for setting the fire. Later it was disclosed that Islamic militants set the Cinema Rex fire.

The fire

On 19 August 1978 at the Rex Cinema in Abadan, Iran, hundreds of people were watching a movie called The Deers when, at 20:21, four men barred the doors of the cinema and doused it with gasoline from a can. The fire started outside three entrance doors to the mail hall, after the attackers allegedly dropped a match into the gasoline. The attackers then fled and blocked the doors from the outside. Some people attempted to escape by the roof. None of the three tankers sent by the fire department had water and the police department, only 100 meters away, did not respond in a timely manner.

Death toll

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Family members of a victim overlook a cemetery dotted with unmarked graves. Many of the dead were simply unidentifiable due to the extent of their burns

There is speculation over the actual number of casualties incurred during the fire. Various sources draw their own conclusions concerning the death toll. Some of the numbers considered include: 377, 400, 410, 430, and (over) 800. The National Fire Protection Association, a reputable source on fire-related issues lists the number of dead at 422.

A 1980 Amnesty-International report states that there were 438 victims, including individuals who were tried and wrongfully executed after the fire itself.

Daniel L. Bynam in the Washington Post, incorrectly stated, in 2007, the fire was "the second-deadliest terrorist attack in modern history," after only the September 11th, 2001 attacks; it has since also been surpassed by the 2007 Kahtaniya bombings in Iraq, which killed 796.

Motives and responsibility

There have been numerous allegations in the past regarding the circumstances which led to the Cinema Rex fire, however it is certain that it was a key event that triggered the Iranian revolution in 1978.

Initially, the revolutionaries alleged that intelligence SAVAK agents were in pursuit of individuals who ran into the movie theatre and used it as an opportunity to hide in a large crowd at the cinema. Later, either the fugitives, or the SAVAK agents chasing them decided to lock the doors of the cinema. Unable to escape from the building, everyone inside the cinema died as a result of the conflagration.

The Iranian newspaper Sobhe Emruz pointed fingers to the radical Islamists in an editorial, "Don't make us disclose who were really behind the Cinema Rex fire" they said. This caused the newspaper to be shut down shortly after.

Post-Islamic revolution follow up of the case

According to the Washington-based IranRights.org, the families of the victims followed up the case and the newly established Iranian Government arrested Captain Monir Taheri. The Revolutionary Tribunal of Rudsar showed that Captain Taheri had received guerrilla training in the United States, while the defense maintained that Taheri had never visited Abadan, stressing that he was in Ahvaz at the time of the blaze. The revolutionary tribunal found Taheri "guilty" and executed him shortly thereafter on February 23, 1979.

According to Washington-based IranRights.org:

The day after Captain Taheri’s execution, his family asserted his innocence in an open letter published in the press and called on his fellow officers to come forward and testify. The letter also refuted the allegation regarding the defendant's guerrlla training in the US and referred to the fact that he had never traveled outside Iran. The letter refuted the charge related to the Cinema Rex fire noting that Captain Taheri had never been in Abadan and that there are documents proving that at that time he was on vacation elsewhere. The Medal of Honor, it stressed, was given to him prior to the Rex Cinema fire.

After an effective public campaign headed by families of Cinema Rex victims, that included a four-and-a-half month sit-in at a government office, a representative of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Zia Rohani, presided over a public trial that would reopen the Cinema Rex case for the final time.

Lasting from August 25 to September 4, 1980, the Revolutionary Tribunal would oversee seventeen court sessions that involved the trial of twenty six individuals, including the only survivor of the four-man arson team. After much deliberation, Hossein Takbalizadeh, the lone surviving arsonist, and five others were put to death in public.

“In his defense statement, the principal defendant admitted to having started the fire along with three other arsonists and denied having had connections with the Shah's security apparatus.” Many families believed that the main group that was leading the arsonists involved in the tragedy escaped justice.

Books and references

Dillip Hiro, author of Iran Under the Ayatollahs, said that anti-Shah groups were not likely to have caused the fire, since the Cinema Rex was located in a working-class neighborhood and showed the film Gavaznha ("The Deer"); Hiro added that Gavaznha "passed the censors with considerable difficulty." Hiro also said that the deliberate closure of the cinema doors and the local fire station's efforts, which Hiro described as "tepid," strengthened the public belief that the Shah had the cinema burned.

According to Roy Mottahedeh, author of The Mantle of the Prophet, "thousands of Iranians who had felt neutral and had until now thought that the struggle was only between the shah and supporters of religiously conservative mullahs felt that the government might put their own lives on the block to save itself. Suddenly, for hundreds of thousands, the movement was their own business."

According to Daniel L. Byman, "The movies were an affront to God, encouraging vice and Western-style decadence. So in August 1978, four Shiite revolutionaries locked the doors of the Cinema Rex in the Iranian city of Abadan and set the theater on fire…" (see Byman).

As the event took place during the revolutionary period, it was quite difficult to make out who the perpetrator(s) was (were), making ill-conceived accusations rather prevalent. Many elements of the revolutionary bloc laid blame on Mohammad Reza Shah, the now deposed monarch of Iran, and SAVAK (Sazeman-e Ettelaat va Amniyat-e Keshvar), the country’s domestic security and intelligence service. Although sufficient evidence was never brought forth to facilitate such claims, the labeling would have far-reaching implications on the subsequent direction of the revolutionary movement. The circumstances in which the fire was set did not aid in the shah’s pleas of innocence either. The timing and the location of the incident (an impoverished district of Abadan) did not coincide with preceding patterns of protestation, which raised the level of suspicion. It was also believed that the shah specifically targeted Cinema Rex for the sole purpose of killing political dissidents who had gathered to watch a controversial anti-government film called Gavaznha (The Deer) starring well-known actor Behrouz Vossoughi.

Captain Monir Taheri’s trial and execution

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Captain Monir Taheri after his execution

After the success of the revolutionary forces, Islamic tribunals were established. Members of the shah's regime who were unable or chose not to leave the country were often subject to the judgment of the newly instated judicial process. This was for the purpose of quelling the population’s thirst for revolutionary justice. The Cinema Rex fire was an event that continued to loom over the minds of many Iranians, and closure, no matter how vulgar the result, was vital not only for legitimizing the newborn government’s capacity to fulfill public demands, but also to crush any form of royal revivalism.

Before his execution by firing squad on February 23, 1979, the court fulfilled four of Taheri’s requests, including: not to be blindfolded, to avoid being photographed during the execution, to personally give the firing squad the order to fire, and to return his body to his family.

Public trial

After Captain Taheri’s family protested against the charges that eventually led to the officer’s execution, the public had quickly become restless over the secretive posture assumed by Abadan authorities. After an effective public campaign headed by the families of Cinema Rex victims that included a four-and-a-half month sit-in at a government office, a representative of Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Zia Rohani, presided over a public trial that would reopen the Cinema Rex case for the final time.

Lasting from August 25 to September 4, 1980, the Revolutionary Tribunal would oversee seventeen court sessions that involved the trial of twenty six individuals, including the only survivor of the four-man arson team. After much deliberation, Hossein Takbalizadeh, the lone surviving arsonist, and five others were put to death in public.

“In his defense statement, the principal defendant admitted to having started the fire along with three other arsonists and denied having had connections with the former regime’s security apparatus.”

Bibliography

• Mottahedeh, Roy P. - The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran, Oxford, Oneworld, 2000.
• Byman, Daniel L. The Rise of Low-Tech Terrorism, Washington Post, 6 May 2007: B03.

External links

• After the Abadan Fire TIME