Trump's controversial revelation: "More than 32,000 people have been killed and we know the perpetrators"
Trump says the perpetrators of the killing of more than 32,000 Iranian citizens have been identified; people who, he says, shot protesters in the streets and should be brought to justice.
In controversial statements, US President Donald Trump once again accused the Islamic Republic of Iran of bloody repression of the Iranian people, saying that the forces shooting at protesters have been identified and that the United States has their information.
In a media interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, Trump referred to the suppression of protests in Iran and said that the forces he said were shooting people in the streets were being monitored by intelligence agencies.
He spoke harshly of these forces, saying, "These are thugs walking down the streets and shooting people." Trump added that the United States has pictures and videos of these people and knows who they are.
According to him, these individuals must lay down their weapons and be held accountable for their actions. Trump also claimed that forces affiliated with the Iranian government had committed widespread killings even before the recent conflicts and crises.
He said that these forces have killed more than 32,000 people so far and emphasized that if they are arrested, they will be tried and executed.
Trump's remarks come at a time when the Islamic Republic has been accused of violently suppressing popular protests over the past decades. From student and public protests in previous years to more recent waves of discontent, there have been numerous reports of direct shootings of protesters, mass arrests, and violent confrontations.
Reports from human rights organizations also show that many of the victims of these repressions were citizens who had taken to the streets simply to express their protest. However, in many cases, not only have the perpetrators of these violence not been prosecuted, but the power structure in Iran has supported them.
Critics of the Islamic Republic say the problem is not limited to the behavior of a few agents or armed forces, but rather to a structure that has turned repression into a means of maintaining power. In such a system, security forces and paramilitaries enjoy virtual immunity, and victims' families often have no way to seek justice.
This is despite the fact that many families of the victims have been demanding for years that the truth be revealed and that the perpetrators of the murder of their loved ones be brought to justice; a demand that, according to human rights activists, has so far been met with silence or repression by the government.
Trump's remarks about "identifying the perpetrators of the massacre" have once again brought the issue of accountability and justice for the victims of repression in Iran into the spotlight. For many Iranians, the central question remains: Will those who opened fire on their own people ever face justice?
While the Islamic Republic government continues to deny any responsibility for the killing of protesters, international pressure and the accounts of survivors of these repressions present a different picture; a picture of a government that has repeatedly silenced the voices of its people with bullets in order to maintain power.
