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From Our Own Correspondent

Iran Protests: Stories of a massacre

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kate Adie introduces stories from Iran, Myanmar, China, South Africa and Lithuania.

The number of Iranian people killed by government forces in the crackdown on recent protests is now estimated to be at least 6000, with thousands more deaths being investigated by human rights groups. BBC Persian’s Parham Ghobadi has been speaking to people in Tehran about their experience of the protests.

The final round of elections took place in Myanmar last weekend, five years after a coup returned the military junta to power - though many observers regard the whole affair as a sham. Jonathan Head was given rare permission to report from within Myanmar - though found fear and surveillance at every turn.

Sir Keir Starmer’s trip to Beijing was the first by a UK Prime Minister since 2018 and has been seen as a critical moment in the British government’s attempt to reboot its relationship with China. Laura Bicker reflects on what's in it for President Xi - and how he is looking to take advantage of Donald Trump's rocky relationship with the world.

Over the last decade South Africa has made steady progress on bringing down the infection and mortality rates of Tuberculosis. However, that progress is now under threat as foreign aid cuts begin to bite. Sandra Kanthal reports from Cape Town.

Lithuania's Jewish community numbers just a few thousand, though prior to World War Two the population was around 200,000 - the majority of whom were murdered in the Holocaust. Today Lithuania is home to several memorial sites remembering those who died and Max Eastermann recently visited to trace the homes - and graves - of his recently discovered ancestors.

Producer: Serena Tarling Production coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello. Today, as Western leaders look to bolster their relationship with China, we ask what's in it for Beijing.

0:14.0

In Myanmar, our correspondent tries his best to report on elections, but finds fear and surveillance at every turn. In South Africa,

0:23.5

we hear how aid cuts are affecting the treatment of tuberculosis and the stigma surrounding the

0:29.4

disease. And finally, we're in Lithuania, on the trail of a forgotten family tree. But first,

0:36.9

to Tehran, where reports of thousands of people killed

0:40.6

during the crackdown there, have drawn international outcry. Protests over worsening

0:46.5

economic conditions erupted in the capital at the end of December and evolved into one of

0:51.7

the deadliest periods of anti-government unrest in the history of the Islamic Republic.

0:57.0

The BBC has rarely granted permission to report from within Iran,

1:02.0

but BBC Persians Param Gibadi has been in contact with people on the ground, in spite of the internet shutdown.

1:10.0

Muhammad first texted me at 4 a.m. local time from Tehran.

1:14.5

It was just after midnight here in London.

1:17.7

Back in 2022, during the protests of woman life freedom movement, he was on death row,

1:23.8

charged with enmity with God for an act of protest.

1:27.4

His sentence was later commuted to a prison term,

1:30.5

to be served more than several hundred miles away from his home in Tehran. He had been given

1:35.8

medical leave when this latest round of protests began. My cousin was killed in the protest param.

1:42.2

His message read, his cousin had been killed on January 9th.

1:45.9

The nights of the 8th and 9th were among the most intense of protests.

1:50.5

After Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last Shah, now living in exile in the U.S.,

1:55.7

had called them people to take to the streets.

1:58.9

Muhammad told me that he and his father searched for his cousin's body for three days,

...

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