UN Criticizes Iran’s Report on Ukrainian Plane Crash

A United Nations expert says the report that Iran presented about the “unintentional” downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane last year contains numerous ambiguities and contradictions. He has called for a more truthful report from Iran.

A United Nations human rights expert, after investigating the causes and circumstances of the downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752, has concluded that Iran did not provide an accurate and truthful report about this incident.

Ms. Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, has criticized Iran for deliberately obscuring the circumstances and details of the plane crash.

Ms. Callamard said on Tuesday (February 23) in Geneva: “The ambiguities in Iran’s official reports serve to create maximum confusion and minimum clarity.”.

According to this UN expert, Iran, by shooting down the plane and creating confusion afterward, has violated various aspects of human rights.

She released a 45-page letter that was sent with numerous questions last December to officials of the Islamic Republic but has not received any response to date.

Such letters typically remain confidential for up to 60 days.

In Ms. Callamard’s view, the Iranian government’s explanations have been insufficient so far: for example, officials of the Islamic Republic have not clarified why the airport radar system did not work properly?

Why were the aircraft’s dimensions and flight trajectory not reported?

Why did looters gain access to the vicinity of the aircraft and why were the families of the victims unable to retrieve their belongings?

And many other unanswered questions…

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s reports on the downing of Flight 752 have so far neither satisfied the survivors nor pleased the involved countries such as Canada, Ukraine, France, Sweden, and Afghanistan.

These countries, whose citizens were among the victims of the plane crash, have repeatedly asked the Islamic Republic to provide a complete report “on the incident and the decisions that led to this tragedy.”.

Identify those responsible!

On December 9 last year, a passenger aircraft of Ukraine International Airlines was hit by two missiles from the air defense system of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran International Airport. All 176 people on board the aircraft perished.

Among those on board the downed aircraft were 57 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 17 Swedes, 4 Afghans, and 4 British nationals.

Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s President, at a meeting on Wednesday, December 17, called the downing of Flight 752 of Ukraine International Airlines “regrettable” and said: “From the very beginning I told officials to inform the public of everything that happened; and on the same day we said that those responsible for this incident should be tried in a fair court.”.

Islamic Republic officials, despite evidence and reports attributing the cause of the crash to the impact of the Revolutionary Guards’ air defense missiles on the aircraft, strongly denied the reports for three days and provided false information.

Finally, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force, in a television interview took responsibility for the tragedy and said that the operator of the Revolutionary Guards’ air defense system had “mistakenly identified the Ukrainian passenger aircraft as a cruise missile” and fired at it.

One of the criticisms that victims’ families and senior Ukrainian and Canadian officials have repeatedly made over the past year has been the Islamic Republic’s refusal to present a transparent and complete report on this incident and its silence regarding the actors and officials responsible for firing missiles at the passenger aircraft.

Source: DW