With protests continuing in Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for more investigations into the shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger plane, saying it was “unforgivable,” and that people need to be held accountable for it.
The Iranian judiciary has reported that an undisclosed number of people have already been arrested for involvement in the shootdown. None of them have been identified yet, nor is it revealed what role they played.
The plane was hit by missiles being fired by the Iranian military. Officials say that there was substantial radar traffic at the time, amid concern of US attacks. Anger over the incident sparked protests at universities over the weekend, and those have grown as Iranian police tried to crack down on them.
The Iranian government almost certainly wants to make a show of quickly holding people accountable, which is likely why arrests are already being reported. At the same time, full investigations into the matter are likely to take some time, and Rouhani’s comments suggest some higher-ranked officials may be punished over it.
So far the Iranian regime is setting a good example for handling war crimes committed by a country’s own military. The downing of flight 752 was inadvertent. But it amounted to criminal manslaughter. A cop shooting into a crowd is responsible for unintentional civilian casualties. So is a military operating an ABM battery near a civilian airport. International law requires combatants to distinguish between enemy combatants and civilians. Those of us who oppose the US empire should welcome the example Iran has been setting by holding its own military accountable. It remains to be seen how far up the chain of command the prosecutions will go and whether civilian officials will be held accountable. But I am impressed to see a government admitting that negligent killing of civilians by its own military is a war crime.
Is it also a “war crime” when the US shoots down an Iran Air A300 in broad daylight, killing 290 civilians? Please remind me of the last time any US military faced juctice at the ICC.
The civil war has begun. Just matter of time.